pondrocket

Just thought this might be of interest to some of you. This post is about my problem with the gas tank in my fountain and how things went .
This past winter I decided to send a letter to fountain telling them of a fuel smell I was having in my cuddy area. I received an email from a Gail Lane which stated........DO NOT USE YOUR BOAT! This problem must be addressed by a dealer or authorized service center! Please call me.
After talking to Gail I set up a date to drop off the boat at Grand Prix Marine in Cincinnati OH to get a tank pressure test. The manager there said it was probably something small they could fix. A few days into the week we got a call from Grand Prix Marine saying the boat had to go back to the factory to have the required work done, they didn't have the facilities to handle tank removal. Ruptured tanks had to be fixed at the factory.
I called and told Gail Lane about the pressure check and she told me they had spoken with Grand Prix Marine and it looked like the boat had to be brought to the factory. This is what Factory Powerboats agreed to do about the fuel tank. We will replace fuel tank at no charge to you, this includes parts and labor. You will have to provide transportation to and from Fountain Powerboats. At this point even being the worst case as far as the tank goes, it was good news that they would not charge me for any of the work or parts. The shipping ended up costing me a little over a $1,000.00 to get the boat there and back. Just prior to me shipping the boat Gale put me in touch with a Steve Haroldson. Up to this point everything seemed to be going smoothly. I talked to Steve one time, he never returned any calls I placed to him after that. All I ever got was his voice mail. No answers ,no nothing. I finally gave up and called Gale again. I told her of my problem and all she said was ....No Comment. You get a lot of..... I don't know I'll have to check, or she is not in I'll get back to you later type of stuff. There is a lot of run around when trying to get answers to questions. Finally they got the boat in to do a tank test. Gale said If they could tell where the tank was leaking they might be able to cut a smaller area out of the flooring and not have to remove the whole tank. Patch the tank rather then remove. Here is the good part. They did one test and it didn't hold air. They did another test after messing with the fuel sensor and it held pressure. This problem should have been caught at Grand Prix Marine.
I'm sure I don't have to mention how I feel about GRAND PRIX MARINE.
This gets better folks. Since the the boat was there I thought I would have them put on a single drive shower and replace the weather stripping on the cuddy hatch leading to the deck. They did a good job on the drive shower. Rather than me tell you about the weather stripping I will post pictures of their HIGH QUALITY WORK at $85.00 dollars an hour. They also made a mistake and replaced the weather seal on the main door, and yes they charged me for it. The boat has been back going on two weeks now and I still have not received the refund Gale said I would be getting because it was her mistake for the extra weather stripping. also, and this is a biggie! I asked them to put it in writing from start to finish about the testing, and work done on the fuel tank . I have received nothing on that. Looks like they don't want this documented.

Ivan

32storm

I've always thought highly of Fountains, and had a deal on one that went south before I bought my Hustler. But, based upon all of the negative feedback regarding the factory, I would have sexcond thoughts I buying a Fountain. What's going on with them? Seems like more and more unhappy 0owners, especially when a problem creeps up. Doesn't sound like the factory has a good handle on the basics of customer service.

candyman35

Way too many of these stories lately!!

Downtown42

What yr and length is your boat Pond? I assume you bought it new from the dealer?

pondrocket

27' 1999 Bought used from private owner.