Lake City Honda - Seattle, Washington - new 1997 SeaDoo (Bombardier) GSx - repairs, poor purchase experience

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on August 12, 2002:

From:

RE: Lake City Honda - Seattle, Washington - new 1997 SeaDoo (Bombardier) GSx - repairs, poor purchase experience

We purchased a brand new 1997 SeaDoo (Bombardier) GSx from Lake City Honda in the year 2000. Since then it has been in the shop every year for something. Our buying experience began when the salesman told us there was a six months same as cash option only to find out it was 90 days (we should have walked away at this point).

Then, within 3 months, the decals began blistering and peeling off and it had to go in to the shop because the power trim stopped working. When it went in for the power trim they said they would order new decals and call when they were in. They never called.

One year went by, I had purchased an extended warrant and the subject of the blistering decals was brought up again, by this time, the gas gauge had stopped working and needed replacing. Again, the decals were brought up and they said that they were in but couldn't find them. Then they said that they would reoder them and call when they arrived. Again no call.

This time, we had brought it in because it was not running properly and were told that the bearings needed to be replaced and the impeller housing needed to be replaced at a cost of $800 plus tax. Our son had called ahead and asked how much a tune-up would be since they would already have it in the shop. He was told $88. This weekend, after them having the SeaDoo for 1 month, we drove the 90 miles from Olympia to North Seattle to pick it up. When we arrived we were given a total of about $1132 including tax and they had charged almost $40 more for the tuneup than quoted. Doing the math, a quote of $800 + $88 + 8.9% sales tax comes to $962.69, $169.31 HIGHER than what they had quoted. They put in a new battery without our authorization which accounts for $69 of the extra charge.

We had just put in a new battery last summer. AND, we had gotten a written quote from them. No phone calls that the cost would be higher than what was quoted. The attitude was such that it was "oh well" we can do whatever we want because you signed the repair order. Even a car dealership/repair shop will call when repairs will be higher than originally thought. We again brought up the decals.......I had them print out everything for the service department from the time we purchased this water craft. They have two separate invoices showing that they ordered these. The owner went out to look at the seadoo before we left and refused to re-order and replace them stating it was now "out of warranty" and even though they had ordered them twice before while it was STILL IN warranty, he claimed that something had been rubbing against it to cause the machine and it's decals to look like they did. Now, the only thing that would even come close to it would be the cover that they sold us with the trailer and the SeaDoo. Am I angry?? YES. Will we purchase anything from Lake City Honda again?? NO. Will we recoommend Lake City Honda to anyone else? NO. I highly recommend that ANYONE who shops at Lake City Honday get a written, computer generated quote SIGNED by the Service Manager or Store Owner. Their final comment was that they would give us a "good deal" on a trade-in. NO WAY. Linda Ryan