I used a yard in SF (Oakland/ on Alameda - Grand Marina) for years for bottom jobs. Many years of being a regular customer... After they charged me triple the amount for a macerator
pump replacement ("It's in plain view, not hard to get to."), I seethed. After a week or so, I went in and gave the proprietor "a chance to correct his invoice." After enduring one of his rants for 20 minutes, including a "...you people think you know it all, well let me tell you...". I just calmly asked him if he'd consider correcting his invoice. I'd already paid the full amount.
He ended up writing me a check for the correction. Actually, it was much more than he thought, 'cuz his secretary/office manager knew my reasons and wrote the check amount, he just signed it, 'cuz he was so out of joint (not me, though).
One of the reasons was that when his boyo put the new
pump in, the discharge handle on the close-by valve wouldn't travel to close or open the valve, 'cuz he'd neglected to utilize three of the four mounting screws for the nearby pump!!! When I showed it to him, he said "It was thast way when we replaced the pump."
Hardly.
and
Lovely.
Anyway, I wrote a scathing Yelp review, it's still there but "hidden" on page 4,598,287!!!
They still do good bottom jobs, but for anything else...?
Blanket condemnations usually aren't helpful, though.
And I fully agree with the supervise/DIY recommendations. How else are you going to know they did it right? Only three times I let anyone else work on my boat in 21 years, I had to fix what they f-k'ed up.
Close supervision is a pain. I've found that the relationship one builds with the yard manager helps a lot. Unfortunately, the yard manager was NOT assigned to this particular pump kurfluffle.
Your boat, your choice.
Good luck and thanks for the heads up. I think folks in that Chesapeake area have been well served by your post. I agree, Active
Captain or its new successor (name escapes me, but they've posted here) would go a long way.
Who knows the name of that new website?