We recently purchased a new Tige Z1 (brand new $75k+ wakeboarding boat) through this dealership. Throughout the sales process, our salesperson made verbal promises and statements to encourage and move the sales process along. Once signing the agreement and taking delivery of the boat several of his statements were not accurate and not upheld.
I have given both the dealer and the boat manufacturer more than enough opportunity to live up to the promises that the sales rep made, but ultimately they are saying sorry about the situation. but he should not have said that or I should have gotten his statements in writing. To that I say, why should I feel a salesperson needs to then be double checked in writing. He was acting as an agent of the company in questions, Eagle Marine in Fort Worth, and was representing a boat brand, Tige Boats from Abilene Texas. He works for them, he sells them, he explained certain features and deal accents that were the reasoning behind signing the contract, some of which statements were NOT honored by the dealer.
The dealer states that is why there are contracts and we should have read through and if we didn't see a line item then it would not be included. I argue that there are 100s of things on this new boat, only of which about 15 are listed on a sales order. The sales order does not state the boat comes with a windshield, BUT it does. It doesn't state it comes with a propeller but it does. So when a sales person says YES they will throw in a board and rope or YES it has equivalent batteries to what we are trading in or YES it will take about $50 to activate the chart plotting feature, NO REASONABLE customer would question the salespersons word and demand every single feature of the boat be listed.
The example I used was that of a vanity mirror in the storage compartment, the sales form does not list yet it was a feature this salesperson pointed out....similar to the Chart Plotting system...a feature the sales person touted and noted should only cost $50 to activate. Reality is once the sale was signed the dealer tried to sell me the board and rope promised for free. Informed me it did not have HIGH performance marine batteries and worse of all, said the chart plotting could be activated for approx. $1000. The dealers response was to offer me a board and rope at half price and they would waive the 2 hours of install for the approx. $1000 system. THey have since provided the board as promised, but the battery and GPS issue still linger.
The last thing I desired to do was to create negative publicity and media attention for the brand and the dealer, but after nearly 2 weeks of failed attempts to recover what was promised from their salesperson, I have decided my best course of action is to assure NOONE else gets ""swindled"" by a dealership saying anything to sell a boat. NOTE - I use the word swindled, its my opinion, I encourage those who read this to form their opinion based on the facts of the story and their own experience. I respect someone out there is saying read the contract next time, and to those people I say, the idea behind a GOOD company is a trusting relationship and when you are spending over $80k signed sealed and delivered for a boat purchase on which no price haggling occurred.
A reasonable customer, would assume the knowledge and facts conveyed by the salesperson would be accurate and truthful. Bottom line, I would NOT have signed the sales contract had I know the additional costs for a couple of these things. I would have let the dealer and boat manufacturer decide pre-signature if they wanted the sale they would have needed to throw these things in.
Overall here is a list of the issues:
1. Broken/loose hinge on the back of the boat - this was pointed out pre-delivery and I was told its supposed to be that way. There are two that are symettrical to one another and the other is NOT anything like this broken one, so if one is right the other MUST be wrong. Even pointing this out they ignored and delivered a boat with a misaligned hinge. Its taken over a month to get a new hinge.
2. I was promised a surfboard and rope of which they then offered to sell it to me at ""cost"" which was $@50 for the board and $30 something for the rope - NOT free as promised by their sales representative. Finally after they saw this escalating they delivered the promised board and rope in hopes to satisfy the entire situation, but even the tone of this offering was that of ""them doing me a favor."" Again that is my opinion of the tone, I am not here to put words or personalities into their actions, I think the events and their resolution say enough about the event for the public to draw its own opinions.
3. I asked about high performance batteries and whether I should pull mine from my trade in of which the sales person responded no need the upgraded stereo would be fine with the batteries. Based on the website of Tige the upgraded stereo page shows the upgraded batteries, making it a logical assumption if I am being told to NOT take mine that the new boat has equivalent.
4. Lastly and most importantly our sales person said to activate the chart plotting feature, it was ""like a $50 map download and plug it in and it working."" This was completely inaccurate as it involves over $1000 in costs for parts activation and installation. This is now the sticking point as Tige and Eagle Marine do not feel they need to live up to the mis-statement their employee made.
So they offered up a board and rope, ordered a hinge, but ultimately feel they have done plenty for me and that I should have contracted these things had I wanted them....SO the lesson in dealing with Eagle Marine and Tige is to NOT believe anything their sales people SAY. If you want something, do NOT believe them on their word, MAKE THEM PUT IT IN WRITING. I would imagine others have have great experiences with Eagle Marine, but this is one customer that wants to make sure eveyrone enters that dealership with at least the facts of my interaction.
What a sad world when we have to mistrust everyone involved in a sales process because the company and the national boat brand will not stand behind its employees. In this customer's opinion, I feel my wife and I were LIED to in order to encourage a signature on a sales contract. It would be like a car dealer saying sorry the sales contract didn't list a radio, so there isn't one installed, all the while the sales person talked about how for $50 you would be jamming to all your favorite hits. Its just not right, and in a luxury good like boats, I feel there are more trustworthy options out there.
Eagle Marine Of Fort Worth Reviews
We recently purchased a new Tige Z1 (brand new $75k+ wakeboarding boat) through this dealership. Throughout the sales process, our salesperson made verbal promises and statements to encourage and move the sales process along. Once signing the agreement and taking delivery of the boat several of his statements were not accurate and not upheld.
I have given both the dealer and the boat manufacturer more than enough opportunity to live up to the promises that the sales rep made, but ultimately they are saying sorry about the situation. but he should not have said that or I should have gotten his statements in writing. To that I say, why should I feel a salesperson needs to then be double checked in writing. He was acting as an agent of the company in questions, Eagle Marine in Fort Worth, and was representing a boat brand, Tige Boats from Abilene Texas. He works for them, he sells them, he explained certain features and deal accents that were the reasoning behind signing the contract, some of which statements were NOT honored by the dealer.
The dealer states that is why there are contracts and we should have read through and if we didn't see a line item then it would not be included. I argue that there are 100s of things on this new boat, only of which about 15 are listed on a sales order. The sales order does not state the boat comes with a windshield, BUT it does. It doesn't state it comes with a propeller but it does. So when a sales person says YES they will throw in a board and rope or YES it has equivalent batteries to what we are trading in or YES it will take about $50 to activate the chart plotting feature, NO REASONABLE customer would question the salespersons word and demand every single feature of the boat be listed.
The example I used was that of a vanity mirror in the storage compartment, the sales form does not list yet it was a feature this salesperson pointed out....similar to the Chart Plotting system...a feature the sales person touted and noted should only cost $50 to activate. Reality is once the sale was signed the dealer tried to sell me the board and rope promised for free. Informed me it did not have HIGH performance marine batteries and worse of all, said the chart plotting could be activated for approx. $1000. The dealers response was to offer me a board and rope at half price and they would waive the 2 hours of install for the approx. $1000 system. THey have since provided the board as promised, but the battery and GPS issue still linger.
The last thing I desired to do was to create negative publicity and media attention for the brand and the dealer, but after nearly 2 weeks of failed attempts to recover what was promised from their salesperson, I have decided my best course of action is to assure NOONE else gets ""swindled"" by a dealership saying anything to sell a boat. NOTE - I use the word swindled, its my opinion, I encourage those who read this to form their opinion based on the facts of the story and their own experience. I respect someone out there is saying read the contract next time, and to those people I say, the idea behind a GOOD company is a trusting relationship and when you are spending over $80k signed sealed and delivered for a boat purchase on which no price haggling occurred.
A reasonable customer, would assume the knowledge and facts conveyed by the salesperson would be accurate and truthful. Bottom line, I would NOT have signed the sales contract had I know the additional costs for a couple of these things. I would have let the dealer and boat manufacturer decide pre-signature if they wanted the sale they would have needed to throw these things in.
Overall here is a list of the issues:
1. Broken/loose hinge on the back of the boat - this was pointed out pre-delivery and I was told its supposed to be that way. There are two that are symettrical to one another and the other is NOT anything like this broken one, so if one is right the other MUST be wrong. Even pointing this out they ignored and delivered a boat with a misaligned hinge. Its taken over a month to get a new hinge.
2. I was promised a surfboard and rope of which they then offered to sell it to me at ""cost"" which was $@50 for the board and $30 something for the rope - NOT free as promised by their sales representative. Finally after they saw this escalating they delivered the promised board and rope in hopes to satisfy the entire situation, but even the tone of this offering was that of ""them doing me a favor."" Again that is my opinion of the tone, I am not here to put words or personalities into their actions, I think the events and their resolution say enough about the event for the public to draw its own opinions.
3. I asked about high performance batteries and whether I should pull mine from my trade in of which the sales person responded no need the upgraded stereo would be fine with the batteries. Based on the website of Tige the upgraded stereo page shows the upgraded batteries, making it a logical assumption if I am being told to NOT take mine that the new boat has equivalent.
4. Lastly and most importantly our sales person said to activate the chart plotting feature, it was ""like a $50 map download and plug it in and it working."" This was completely inaccurate as it involves over $1000 in costs for parts activation and installation. This is now the sticking point as Tige and Eagle Marine do not feel they need to live up to the mis-statement their employee made.
So they offered up a board and rope, ordered a hinge, but ultimately feel they have done plenty for me and that I should have contracted these things had I wanted them....SO the lesson in dealing with Eagle Marine and Tige is to NOT believe anything their sales people SAY. If you want something, do NOT believe them on their word, MAKE THEM PUT IT IN WRITING. I would imagine others have have great experiences with Eagle Marine, but this is one customer that wants to make sure eveyrone enters that dealership with at least the facts of my interaction.
What a sad world when we have to mistrust everyone involved in a sales process because the company and the national boat brand will not stand behind its employees. In this customer's opinion, I feel my wife and I were LIED to in order to encourage a signature on a sales contract. It would be like a car dealer saying sorry the sales contract didn't list a radio, so there isn't one installed, all the while the sales person talked about how for $50 you would be jamming to all your favorite hits. Its just not right, and in a luxury good like boats, I feel there are more trustworthy options out there.