The Consumer Complaints Blog

Last October I answered an online ad from them to have my outboard motor fixed at Stevensville Auto Truck Marine. They gave many promises. After a few weeks of them not returning any calls they finally called and admitted they couldn’t fix it. They then went on to sell me a motor that was less power than mine, but apparently was in great working condition.

The first issue was they placed it on my boat, without properly sealing the bolts on the transon so that the first time I took it out the amount of water pouring in was incredible, not to mention dangerous! After advising them they said they would fixthe problems, they didn’t. It still leaked like a sieve. The reason was my transom was apparently rotted and the wood wouldn’t catch the bolts properly. So knowing this, they still let me take it out the first time ! When I returned it to them they convinced me they would do a complete restoration of my boat. I gave them a deposit to start the work over the winter.

In March 2009 they called me saying they needed more money to buy supplies, so I gave them another $500. By the time April rolled around I kept calling emailing to see the progress, but again no return calls or emails. In May they finally reached me with nothing but a ton of excuses why they hadn’t touched it all winter! They then proceeded to tell me its so late in the season, that they had a comparable boat to sell us. When my wife and I went to see this boat, it was 5 feet smaller than mine, and this boat that was apparently good to go had the motor in several parts and him working on it! I said it was unacceptable. He invited us to wander around the property and see if there was anything else we liked. My wife and I found a hull, that he guaranteed was sound. After quite some discussions we decided to buy it because he was going to paint it for us, move my lights, bilge pump, downriggers, and a few other things from my old boat to this new one. That was June 10 2009. He promised us it would be ready on June 20. I called several times before the date to see what was happening, but again no answers. They finally called me back on the evening of Thursday June23, asking what time I wanted to pick it up as it was ready. I made arrangements to drive out the next day at 9 am. I called them at 830 am as she asked me to, but again no answer. My wife and I arrived there at 11 am, and found the boat completely UNTOUCHED! The paint they had put on it, which is all they did and switch the motor over, was the wrong colour we ordered. Without even a word of apology, he promised my wife and I they would take it into the shop that evening and work on through the night and not to worry as it would be ready the next day at noon.

Again we drove out. The boat was sitting exactly where we had left it the previous day. Again, without a word of apology, I was yelled at because ‘other customers are losing time and money from here vacations’! I advised him that since last October when I purchased the other motor, I too was wasting time and money. Again he yelled at me as to how busy he is. My friend who accompanied me asked him then to give us the seats we ordered and we would install it. That was when he started yelling to not touch anything, he would bring it in as soon as he finished the seadoo he was working on and that it would be ready that afternoon by 4. I went home rather upset and waited for the call. It never came.

I finally reached him Monday evening and the excuse was he had to go on an emergency call up north! After making tons of promises, yet again that it would be ready the next day….nothing. Finally on July 9, his wife called saying come get the boat its been ready for a few days. When I arrived there, the boat was still in the exact spot….UNTOUCHED. All the equipment he was going to install, was just thrown haphazardly into the boat. When he showed up, there was no explanation why he made me come out for a third time yet again, knowing nothing had been done. That was when he started yelling how if I keep bad mouthing him, that’s what he calls my calls and emails he doesn’t answer to, he would sue me! He then proceeded to throw these 4 ugly rusted seats into the boat, I asked him where were the seats my wife and I ordered and there was no answer. Instead he just kept giving me junk I didn’t need to make up for it. The stuff given is useless garbage. I was so upset I decided to take the boat with me. That’s when I noticed my marine jack I had just installed on my trailer last October was broken, my spare tire also new missing! We finally found the tire, but there was never anything mentioned about the destroyed jack. His wife made me sign a piece of paper that she wouldn’t give me a copy of saying it just said I took it and it wasn’t stolen.

When I arrived at home I realised they had lost the key to the ignition! So I had to get a locksmith out to fix it! Since I have had it home I’ve had to rewire all the lights, install my fishfinder, my downriggers, carpeting, fixed a large hole in the keel that was the size of a toonie that wasn’t there before! Basically everything he was going to do, I’ve done. My wife emailed him saying those aren’t the seats we ordered and wanted back the $500 he was taking for seats and labour. That’s when he told her, I don’t do refunds, and your husband signed a release that he was satisfied with the work. No I didn’t! As of yesterday he hasn’t returned any calls or emails.

Yesterday I finally took it out only to find out that the motor he sold me won’t go into gear, just stays stuck in neutral. I called him from the water as my friend and I were just drifting on Lake Ontario, he didn’t answer. When my friend called from his cell phone, he answered. My friend explained what was going on, and he just said, I guess the transmission is shot, and hung up! We were towed in by the harbour police.

I called all night, emailed and still haven’t heard a thing. I’m sorry if this was a little long winded but I wanted you to understand exactly the kind of business they operate. There is a lot more I could tell you, but I hope you get the idea of how my wife and I have been treated by Shawn and Stephany, the owners of Stevensville Auto Truck Marine on 13717 Ort Rd, Stevensville.

I have contacted BBB and filed a complaint. Hopefully I will get the results I’m looking for. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I bought in August 2007 a Hyundai Santa Fe. I noticed about two months ago a rust on my driver’s side door (inside of the car), which I took to the dealer to have it inspected. I first of all need to clarify that I have purchased this vehicle at the Hyundai Mississauga dealer, and since I had moved to the city of Oakville right after purchasing the vehicle in August 2007, I decided to start servicing the car at the dealer located in Oakville instead, just for convenience.

The first comment the dealer in Mississauga had to make when I took the car for inspection was that I had not been servicing the car at their dealer reason for why they could not deal with the claim, as it would required too much paperwork for them to justify this claim to the head office. I alluded to the fact that I had bought the car there as well as the rusting protection for the car at the time of purchase, however, they mentioned that this policy only covers for rust damages caused on the outside of the vehicle not on the inside. This for me does not make sense. I followed their recommendation to take the car to the dealer when I usually do service it, the Oakville dealer. The Service manager at the Oakville dealer, Mr. Steve Allum, ask if I had bought the rust proofing, and asked for me to show it to him. When he looked at it, he mentioned that his dealer does not deal with the Diamon protection plan, that they have a completely different plan and that therefore he recommended me to take the car back to the dealer where I have purchased it from. This immediately to me sounded incorrect, as I was felt that no one wanted to take ownership for the claim neither wanted to provide the customer service any client deserves, even more for a car that was at the time only 18 months old.

I took the time again to contact the dealer in Mississauga to update the service manager Mr. Kohli about the conversation that I had with Mr. Allum, of course he said that his statement was completely wrong and that he was going to call him to discuss.

Three weeks after I did not have any response from neither of the two, despite the follow ups. At the end Mr. Kohli mentioned that he had agreed with Mr. Allum that the Oakville dealer would take care of fixing the door. To my surprise, after dropping off the car on 6 Jul 09, I got a call from Mr. Allum on 7 Jul 09 indicating that they had determine that they can not fix the door properly but have decided to put some kind of patch on the rust, as it was felt that I had caused the rust with the scratches caused by my shoes by getting in and out of the car. I have to say that this is the lamest excuse they could have come up with. Since when the cars rust by the contact they have with your shoes for getting in and out of a car. The recommendation that Mr. Allum had given me is that I need to take the car to a body shop for proper fixing, which could cost in the range of the $300 dollars he indicated, and that they were not going to assume responsibility for paying for this repair as it was considered outside of the car warranty.

I decided to follow up directly with Hyundai Canada to seek their advice, and was unfortunately turned down. The customer service department rep at Hyundai Canada told me that they can only go with what the dealer is telling them, and if they say that I had caused the scratches, there is then nothing they can do about it. I told the lady that I can not believe that they would jut wash their hands and not provide the Customer Service that someone’s deserve. I even told her that if that was the case I would return the car to the dealer. The response of their rep was that I can do whatever I wanted to since the car has already been paid by the bank, so basically they did not care what I did with it. As you can understand this is extremely disappointing and frustrating, even more so knowing that I still have a couple of more years to go paying the car. If the car is going to start falling into pieces from the inside out and they are not going to be responsible for responding for this then I do not want this car. This is the reason why I bought a new car, if I wanted to have a car that falls into pieces, I could have easily bought a used car for that matter.

I am writing to you to seek your advice and look at the possibilities that I have for making them pay for the repair. The clean up work the dealer did its very poor, I even noticed that the rust on the door is coming form underneath a plate that is sitting by the door foot step, so how I can my shoes get underneath this plate and also cause this kind of rust? In case needed, I do have pictures that I took to show exactly where the rust it’s actually located and also for anyone to look at the quality of the job the Oakville dealer performed. I am very concern about the lack of service Hyundai Canada and their dealers provide, specifically post-purchasing of a car.

I thank you in advance for your advice and attention to this matter.

Lizbeth Carmona

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

As a travel & food writer, I’ve depended on my Platinum American Express card for 20 years — during which time I paid either on time or early. So you can imagine my surprise when I tried to check out of a hotel in Madrid on Monday to find that my card was declined. I assumed it was an error only to find that AmEx imposed a credit limit (I never had one) so low that I couldn’t pay for the hotel. Once I returned, I googled to find a litany of similar complains: long-time Platinum Card holders who spent ten of thousands of dollars a month (and paid on time) to find that they now had a credit limit that dwindled with each month.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/credit_cards/amex_plat.html

Something is very fishy here, especially given that American Express recently received $3.39 billion from the Treasury to now become a bank holding company.

I know the NY Times did a story in January regarding how AmEx started penalizing customers who frequented certain merchants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/your-money/credit-and-debit-cards/31money.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=american%20express%20credit%20limit&st=cse

It seems this problem is very pervasive. I am at a restaurant now where the francise owner told me AmEx lowered her credit line from $30,000 to $5,000 for no reason.

I hope this situation can be investigated.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.