Customer service story.

[carolina-rig-01]

I always make public complaints when I feel like I received bad customer service from a company. Usually it doesn't amount to much of a loss of business on their end but just the same I try to make sure everyone I know will be aware of what they might be getting into should they deal with the company. To be fair I feel like I should make the same announcement when I receive great customer service from a company. Now I realize that there aren't a ton of members on here from my area so not many of you will deal with either company. But there are getting to be more members from this area so I will post this for all to read and hopefully help some of the guys out who are from my area.

2 years ago I bought a Minn Kota Fortrex. It was a great trolling motor at first but has recently developed a popping noise when I change directions on a fairly high speed. This past Ferbruary I took it to Big Johns Trolling Motor Repair in Monkey Island Oklahoma. I explained to the owner what was going on with the popping noise and I also showed him where the cover over the head was cracked from being over tightened at the factory. Both problems should be covered under warranty. He spent over an hour in his parking lot trying to locate the popping noise. He made it pop several times by pulling on the shaft of the motor but never found where it was coming from. He told me to leave it with him and he would get on it. A week later he calls and said it's done. I ask him if he would be there the next morning and he said that he would, so the next morning I filled up the truck and drove the hour over there to get it. When I got there I was shocked to see that nobody was there, so I called him. He told me that he was on the lake and wouldn't be there until that night. I pretty much told him how I felt about it and that I was leaving for the Classic the next morning so he would have to sit on it until I got back. Then the next week when I went to pick it up I asked him when I walked through the door if it was fixed, to which he said "almost". I asked what the hell "almost meant" and he said well all that was wrong with it was the cracked head cover right? I said well yeah that and the popping sound that you spent an hour and a half hunting for in your parking lot. He replied "oh well I didn't know about that" and wanted me to bring it back later. I told him he would never touch it again and left.

Tournament season got here and I couldn't afford to be without the motor so I used it as it was for a few months, until I finally had a few weeks off this month. Last weekend we took it to Springfield to Marine Repair Center. We dropped it off on Saturday and Wednesday the guy calls my wife and says it's done. He told her that he was going to ship it but rather than ship it UPS he wanted to send it down on a truck so that he could be sure it wouldn't get torn up. We didn't know what he meant by sending it down on a truck but 2 hours later they showed up at Britneys work with the trolling motor in the back of a pickup, and they threw in an extra pull rope that I will keep as a spare. I was floored, I haven't had that good of customer service from anyone in a long time so I thought I would tell everyone I could think of about it.