guy with a boat
Guru
We had our Furuno TZT black box replaced in summer of 2019 due to some persistent malfunctions. When we had continuing problems and decided to send it back to Furuno last month for diagnosis and repairs, we got an unexpected surprise.
Furuno ran the serial number to check for any possible warranty coverage and found that the unit that we had been sold as new in 2019 was, in fact, a 5-year-old used unit at the time it was installed. It had originally been sold in 2014 and registered to a buyer in Seattle.
I contacted the vendor that we had bought from to help sort out what I hoped was a mistake. There was no mistake, and they had installed a well-used black box in place of the new box that we had agreed to buy. We were charged full retail price (CAD $7K) for the “new” box and the invoice says new black box.
I eventually met with the owner and manager of the company. They made lame excuses including that I had “waited too long” since the transaction before I complained to them. They made it clear that they had no intention of trying to make it right, and apparently feel no responsibility or guilt for being caught doing this.
In the few weeks since this happened, I have had multiple people share other stories of negative experiences with the same vendor. I was new to the area at the time I hired them to do work, so I didn’t have the benefit of local references.
The moral to the story is do careful research before hiring a vendor or contractor for your boat (or elsewhere). Ask around enough and you will learn who is trustworthy and who is not. There are lots of ways to get ripped off, so don’t take anything for granted. Hire those that deserve your trust, and be careful out there.
Furuno ran the serial number to check for any possible warranty coverage and found that the unit that we had been sold as new in 2019 was, in fact, a 5-year-old used unit at the time it was installed. It had originally been sold in 2014 and registered to a buyer in Seattle.
I contacted the vendor that we had bought from to help sort out what I hoped was a mistake. There was no mistake, and they had installed a well-used black box in place of the new box that we had agreed to buy. We were charged full retail price (CAD $7K) for the “new” box and the invoice says new black box.
I eventually met with the owner and manager of the company. They made lame excuses including that I had “waited too long” since the transaction before I complained to them. They made it clear that they had no intention of trying to make it right, and apparently feel no responsibility or guilt for being caught doing this.
In the few weeks since this happened, I have had multiple people share other stories of negative experiences with the same vendor. I was new to the area at the time I hired them to do work, so I didn’t have the benefit of local references.
The moral to the story is do careful research before hiring a vendor or contractor for your boat (or elsewhere). Ask around enough and you will learn who is trustworthy and who is not. There are lots of ways to get ripped off, so don’t take anything for granted. Hire those that deserve your trust, and be careful out there.
