West Marine warranty scam!

[neelie]

West Marine, for all its many, many faults provides a showroom where you can actually feel and measure the merchandise you are buying. This bricks and mortar venue cost a lot of money to run.

Personally, I get really annoyed by WM, but I give them 90% of my business because they provide a physical store front.

[Coops]

It's so easy to take advantage of in many ways. You have a stuffed bilge pump for instance, go and buy another one, keep the receipt and the packaging and in six months take the old one back in the new packaging with the receipt. Unless they have serial numbers, very few do, then how does the shop prove what they suspect has happened?

Coops.

[zboss]

You guys ARE using your credit cards for purchases right? If I feel I have gotten "scammed" or cheated, I simply call the CC company and challenge the charge. Its even easier now... I have a checkbox that I click on a website. It asks a few details and then, usually within a week, I get reimbursed back on my CC. I never, ever, have had anyone challange the validity of my claim.

I'm sure if the card benefit were "overused" they would nix me from the card roll.

[Tx J]

Originally Posted by smj

I absolutely agree with you, West Marine is a lot stricter with their warranty policy. I think the reason is people were taking advantage of it. Things as ridiculous as purchasing a dinghy, then returning it 4 months later after season had ended. It's a shame that the honest people are taking a hit for this.
As a side note, West Marine is putting much more stress on online sales now rather than sales at their stores.

They seem to be, the San Antonio store (Blanco & 410) closed a while ago, it always seemed to have customers when I went in. There was also a very short-lived small West Marine store that opened in Rockport (across from the old HEB, catty corner from Rockport Harbor/Marina), then folded.
I patronize them when I can (and frequently online), but now I have to go miles away to the Corpus Christi one (which was recently moved from one side of SPID to the other for some reason, lower rent?).
I'm thinking that the Academy's and BassPro's, maybe Cabelas, stores have hammered them. There is a pretty big overlap in product lines, especially the high-dollar, high profit stuff (electronics, safety, etc.) and those bigger retailers have been expanding.
We sailors looking more for a chandler-type store can't carry them, apparently.

[captain58sailin]

I was not addressing WM extended warranty specifically, if I were, I would have specified that. I was addressing an extended warranty policy that I have encountered in my experience. Due to the high saturation of nit pickers, I keep my comments to the general and not specific, unless specifically, specified by the poster (me). Your experiences may differ, that does not make me in error.

[smj]

Originally Posted by captain58sailin

I was not addressing WM extended warranty specifically, if I were, I would have specified that. I was addressing an extended warranty policy that I have encountered in my experience. Due to the high saturation of nit pickers, I keep my comments to the general and not specific, unless specifically, specified by the poster (me). Your experiences may differ, that does not make me in error.

My mistake, I guess. As the thread is titled WEST MARINE warranty scam, I thought that's what we were talking about.

[captain58sailin]

I rest my case.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by Coops

The statement that retailers have to take defective goods back may be correct, but they do not have to automatically replace/refund and instead can send it away to the manufacturer.

The policies at WW's are sent down from head office by people who never meet any customers and treat their staff with contempt and a poor attitude.

People also think that jumping up and down and getting aggressive will get results. I can tell you that if you go in there abusing the staff, who do not make the policy, any inclination to help you will disappear and you will get the policy quoted to you. Go in there with a friendly disposition and the staff member may know of things that he/she can do to help. They are not going to help somebody acting like an idiot, just the same as you wouldn't.

Coops.

This is good advice. The problem is most idiots are not acting..

[robert sailor]

Bought a high end LED rechargeable spot light from Defender and when I first tried to recharge it, it failed to work. Got in touch with Defender and they said that I had to go to the manufacturer for any warranty which I am doing but it doesn't look like any of the bigger dealers are honoring warranties with customers but I would hardly call that a scam. If you want to see a company that really stands behind everything they sell buy something from Costco, they are terrific to deal with.

[GordMay]

West Marine PLUS Product Protection Plan
“... Not only does PLUS add up to 2 more years of coverage beyond the Manufacturer's Warranty, it also ADDS extra coverage from the date of purchase on top of the manufacturer until the end of the extended term...”

➥ Special Deals: PLUS Product_Protection_Plan

The "Fine" Print ➥ http://content.westmarine.com/docume.../PLUSTerms.pdf

[bgallinger]

I had to return a battery to the west marine store in St. Clair Shores. The battery was exchanged for a new one...no questions asked and no hassle at all. Nice friendly folks too.

[avazquez]

Their additional or extended warranty is actually pretty good. Anything under $400.00 is replaced no questions asked if you buy their warranty. If you don't buy their warranty then you are stuck with dealing with the manufacturer. The point is that they are a very very expensive retailer and their warranty policy used to be so good that the extra expense was not a problem since everything could be returned no questions asked. Sometimes it made no sense to buy from a catalog like say Defender because you knew that you could go back to WM and get the no questions asked policy. Now it makes a lot of sense to just buy from the internet at half the WM price and if something goes wrong just deal with the manufacturer anyway. If you dont have one of their Port Supply accounts you are paying outrageous markups.

[avazquez]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Bought a high end LED rechargeable spot light from Defender and when I first tried to recharge it, it failed to work. Got in touch with Defender and they said that I had to go to the manufacturer for any warranty which I am doing but it doesn't look like any of the bigger dealers are honoring warranties with customers but I would hardly call that a scam. If you want to see a company that really stands behind everything they sell buy something from Costco, they are terrific to deal with.

See thats exactly my point why go to WM to pay overpriced items if you will end up dealing with the manufacturer anyway.

[onestepcsy37]

and today i got some more bad news from west marine.

they will be charging you for the paper catalog - $5 i think - unless you're a 'gold' or 'silver' customer (don't know what that is). not that i blame them. must cost a few bucks to print them....

[kthoennes]

Of course West Marine is welcome to charge what they please and apply whatever policies they please, and they'll continue to sell to lots of boaters - but in my opinion their approach is incredibly short sighted. Imagine the huge increase in sales volume - and profit, although maybe on a smaller margin - they'd enjoy if they offered good customer service and product support. Walmart may make two cents on a package of underwear but they own the world because of volume. That's the key to huge profits, massive volume. Nickel and diming - well, dollaring - a relatively small customer base will just drive more customers elsewhere. The best service I ever got was from Go2marine.com. As a result, I always shop them first, WM last.