Crazy times!

[Carter13]

Well said XP.
This thread has become a pissing match mainly brought on by the dealers and people that work for dealers.
JWALK is acting like a kid that is offered a bite of a snickers bar but refuses saying he wants the whole damn thing. I am not sure how long you have been in business but I can tell you that in this economy you had better be happy to at least get some business in your maintenance bay no matter where the boat was bought from.
If I lived near you and was in the market again for another Tige I would stear far away from you for the sale and would really think hard about having you service my boat.
You really need a reality check my man.

[xpjim1]

Thanks for the support Carter13

[ibbrown]

Rise and Shout

I recently purchased an 08 RZ2 from JWALK and received superior service! I checked out all of the boats and dealers in my area before deciding to purchase a Tige. JWALK made me the best offer, was able to get the lowest interest rate and answered all of my questions. He was the only dealer to take me out on the water and let me test drive the Tige's...even had a cooler stocked with drinks! I don't live near the dealership and work late hours. JWALK personally delivered the boat to my home after hours...even signed loan papers in my kitchen!! I have also been VERY impressed with his service department. They are friendly and quickly address all of my concerns. It's true what JWALK says they will pick up and deliver your boat to your home. I not only received the best deal but superior service as well.

I have no problem referring friends and family to Wasatch or to Tige! Great dealer and a great boat! This is the second boat I have purchased from JWALK (the first was another brand) and he and Wasatch have earned my loyalty and continued business!

[LovinPowell]

Glad that you have had a positive experience with Wasatch Marine ibbrown. I would hope that we can all understand that excellent service from one does not come at the expense of another. Excellent service should be and hopefully is delivered by all tige dealers. I bought my boat from Matt at boats of nevada (boat shop) and have no complaints against him. Something still just doesn't sit right with me when I am told that I have to buy a boat from a dealer 4 hours away, when there is another one only 2 hours away. I think that a more equitable method of dividing up territories (instead of by states) is to simply divide the territory midway between the two dealers. So for example, the Salt Lake and Vegas dealers are approximately 500 miles apart along I 15 therefore Vegas' territory could extend 250 miles up I15 while the Salt Lake dealer picks up his territory from there. Maybe its just too simple to work. Just like the college football playoff alternatives.

[xpjim1]

I have no doubt that Jwalk is a good sales person and Wasatch is a good dealership.

I prefer to deal with professionals who can sell me on the features and benefits of the product and dealership without making comments about other brands or dealers. A comparison of features is not what I am talking about.

Jwalk lost being a professional when he made comments about another dealer in my opinion and went from professional to just another salesperson..

[xpjim1]

Glad that you have had a positive experience with Wasatch Marine ibbrown. I would hope that we can all understand that excellent service from one does not come at the expense of another. Excellent service should be and hopefully is delivered by all tige dealers. I bought my boat from Matt at boats of nevada (boat shop) and have no complaints against him. Something still just doesn't sit right with me when I am told that I have to buy a boat from a dealer 4 hours away, when there is another one only 2 hours away. I think that a more equitable method of dividing up territories (instead of by states) is to simply divide the territory midway between the two dealers. So for example, the Salt Lake and Vegas dealers are approximately 500 miles apart along I 15 therefore Vegas' territory could extend 250 miles up I15 while the Salt Lake dealer picks up his territory from there. Maybe its just too simple to work. Just like the college football playoff alternatives.

Well said LovinPowell

A basic business principal is that the customer is always right.(within reason) A customer should be able to do business with who he or she wants especially if they have a prior relationship with a dealer. It should be their choice if they prefer not to deal with their previous dealer

[Dan and Christy]

Thank you and well put Jim. Like your 'signature' states, I can't think of anything else to say that you haven't other than I have only had completely positive meetings and dealings with Matt. Whatever happened to you, Andrew I can only hope you don't hold a permanent grudge.

[chpthril]

Thank you and well put Jim. Like your 'signature' states, I can't think of anything else to say that you haven't other than I have only had completely positive meetings and dealings with Matt. Whatever happened to you, Andrew I can only hope you don't hold a permanent grudge.

I think it should be pointed out here that for the past 3 years, Matt has graciously allowed, and welcomed, Tige owners, and in the case of the event this past Sept, non-Tige owners, to attend the event that ARE NOT his customers. These are Tige owners such as myself, who live way outside his area and this includes SPBFan. This year, SPBfan was also allowed to set up a tent and bring CWB gear and other marine products to sell, great way to show your appreciation to Matt and Ingrid.

[Dan and Christy]

I think it should be pointed out here that for the past 3 years, Matt has graciously allowed, and welcomed, Tige owners, and in the case of the event this past Sept, non-Tige owners, to attend the event that ARE NOT his customers. These are Tige owners such as myself, who live way outside his area and this includes SPBFan. This year, SPBfan was also allowed to set up a tent and bring CWB gear and other marine products to sell, great way to show your appreciation to Matt and Ingrid.

AND Matt did not discriminate when he handed out a TON of raffle prizes

[talltigeguy]

My service at Boats of nevada (the boat shop) has always been first rate. I occasionally called during peak season and asked to be worked in the next day, and was able to get in. My boat was always fixed right the first time. I really can't comment on other people's experiences.

What happened with Matt's transition to The Boat shop from Boats of Nevada is probably only understood by very few people. And I am sure we do not understand the full details of Wasatch's acquisition of Matt's boats. There is without doubt some 'rest of the story' type of situations here. So I would for sure be quiet about that.

I have no doubt that Jwalk will 'walk the talk' (no pun intended) and provide the service he has mentioned. I am very impressed.

As far as territories go, I think any of us can go anywhere and Tige has not disciplined dealers for selling out of territory. So if Lovin Powell wants to stay at Vegas, I would be surprised if he would be turned away...and if Jwalk can sell a boat in Phoenix, he can. If Tige cracks down on it, then I would hope they will let us know. I think the incidence of this is pretty rare.

As far as the Tigeowners.com reunion, The Boat shop has been a critical supporter of it, and it would be less of an event without Matt and corporate Tige's support. At this point, however, I feel it can be open to anyone with a boat, and any vendors (like SBFan) who have something to offer to the attendees. (SBFan brought a full wakeboard setup and an acme prop). The vendors can then decide who participates with their product, just like I was eliminated from the 'pimp my tige' drawing since I am boatless.

[FIC]

Are you saying that the reimbursement to a dealer from Tige for warranty work on a boat sold by say my selling dealer 175 miles away that you will lose money on the warranty service if for some reason?

If the buyer on a new boat does not give you a chance to compete on the sale that is not very good buyers ethics but it happens every day. Wouldn't be nice that the playing field was level where all dealers had same overhead on their facility, service department and other aspects but that is not the case. No haggle stickers in boat business will not exist.

Going back to the issue I am having difficulty with is the warranty service and back of line if boat was bought elsewhere or refusing to do service.
Let's turn my purcahse and concerns around. Because I am at my dads summer house every weekend I saw a new Tige dealer in Syracuse Indianna (near Barts WaterSports)and fell in love with my candy corn colored boat and bought it there. For some reason (a Speedset surging fubar) I needed service but the soonest I could get it worked was 2 months away at the dealer I bought from because they were not equiped to handle the service volume on Tige and two other brands so I decided to get warranty work 47 miles from my house at a dealer in Southern Wisconsin. Let's say Reeds did a bang up job and found 5 other issues and corrected them under warranty.

Does these mean that Reeds could loose money doing the waranty repairs for a Tige bought at another dealer? If so this is insane.

In the service industry soliciting service work any way possible using flyers, ads and other marketing to get Marina/Dealer name on the street to pick up any sercice work you could to build a customer base happy with your work and when the time came they would see if they could work on competetively and get the follow-up sales. While doing service work they build a relationship with the customer hopefully building trust when it came to selling a new boat to the prospective buyer they already have invested in the costly relationshp.. In the mean time by doing service work on a timely quality basis and treating customers the same whether they sold them the boat or not will build a good residual service business that may not cover all of the dealers overhead but will contribute to bottom line so I can't see why a dealer would turn down warranty work or any for that matter. my

In my case I have no Tige dealer defined for my area so IMO it should not matter where I buy or look for service. I have choosen Reeds but in any emergency it would be nice if I could count on any Tige dealer. This post is getting redundant so I will move on.

What I am saying is when you do warranty work you make no money on parts , for they are supplied under said warranty , which only leaves labor, so after your techs are paid and all the paper work , office staff , shipping charges and lots of incidentals ,you make no money , therefore part of the margins made on boat purchase is so we can continue to stay a float no pun intended. Im not complaining about the bussiness for I love this bussiness because my entire family is involved. I love serving my custormers and have a treamendous passion for the sport, the boats and how they bring familys closer, as far as I am concerned my customers are family, and are treated as such. We do not over charge for our boats or are service , we just want do a good bussiness and pass it on to our sons and treat people with the best possible experence and expect the same fair treatment in return. One thing I have enjoyed over the years is this web site ,to which I have spent countless hours on trying to help any family enjoy the Tige boats and the good thing is they rarely have any warranty issues, and believe me if any dealer works on as many other brands as we do they know what Im talking about, but thats another subject and I wont go their.

[MoneyPity]

Well Said xpjim, talltigeguy.

We had protective sales territories in our Small $20 mil business and IMO once that was changed, the staff became more nominal and the top sellers continued to increase sales in the protected market and their own because Joe Sales Reps were complacent just selling add-on and some new product and the were close to quota but the reps who crossed territories and had to share some of the cross territory commissions building new business to help achieve the company growth ambitions and revenue goals not for the individual reps's but for the company. They also earn a slightly larger commission for "new" customers.

Now our reps have territories but they are no longer protected. The assigned rep has first shot at keeping and selling to the base but the reps who are aggressive and see more potential are encouraged. To succeed with this strategy, we needed a strong sales manager to unfortunately arbitrate conflicts and deal with claims of reps who supposedly was working an account that someone else was able to close. It was sad at times when we did work with the customer in implementation of $5000- $250,000 systems how often we heard that the territory rep never called on the un-tapped prospects.

We have some restrictions on across territory selling but it has helped make the under achiever to get off the pot and the aggressive reps to find more opportunities in a small niche software product and be compensated with a higher commission on new customer sales.

So by opening up territories to sell across there became a win-win for the aggressive reps and the company. Even the complacent reps earn money from this business
.

[MoneyPity]

What I am saying is when you do warranty work you make no money on parts , for they are supplied under said warranty , which only leaves labor, so after your techs are paid and all the paper work , office staff , shipping charges and lots of incidentals ,you make no money , therefore part of the margins made on boat purchase is so we can continue to stay a float no pun intended. Im not complaining about the bussiness for I love this business because my entire family is involved. I love serving my customers and have a tremendous passion for the sport, the boats and how they bring family's closer, as far as I am concerned my customers are family, and are treated as such. We do not over charge for our boats or are service , we just want do a good business and pass it on to our sons and treat people with the best possible experience and expect the same fair treatment in return. One thing I have enjoyed over the years is this web site ,to which I have spent countless hours on trying to help any family enjoy the Tige boats and the good thing is they rarely have any warranty issues, and believe me if any dealer works on as many other brands as we do they know what Im talking about, but thats another subject and I wont go their.

I view warranty work depending on how you are compensated by Tige a potential loss to the bottom line or a small Margin. It is during this phase to win over the customer and get them to be a raving fan of your operation.

Unfortunately some warranty work is almost a cost of doing business depending on the mechanics rate and benefits vs. what Tige will pay for the labor part of a Warranty repair.

Our CFO , is an X managing partner of an major Chicago accounting firm. He sold it ) realizes warranty work may not be a money maker but it is the lead in to new customers. If they are extremely pleased and they feel they were serviced well you should realize more profit margin when boats are out of warranty. He has always felt that service work whether it be on a boat or tax preparation should always be a win-win as well as developing a raving fan relationship because customers should feel as if they are number one once they are serviced or helped by you organization.

Your charges for incidentals and other expenses like shipping should be a part of charges to customers. Reeds has a small hourly charge for cleanup and charges for all shop incidentals like rags, grease etc. Mark-up on shipping, parts etc should make service a win-win pat of your operation.

Please I am not trying to tell you on how to run your business I am just trying to share observations from other service operations as well as experience of my companies approach to service. I put many changes in the operation to ensure it made a 50% or more Gross Margin

Sorry if I came across the other way. I did not mean to.


Good luck and Happy Holidays

[xpjim1]

One thing I have enjoyed over the years is this web site ,to which I have spent countless hours on trying to help any family enjoy the Tige boats and the good thing is they rarely have any warranty issues, and believe me if any dealer works on as many other brands as we do they know what Im talking about, but thats another subject and I wont go their.

Dom
Very informative post, I have appreciated the help you have given myself and others on this board over the years. You have been a true professional and have helped with nothing expected in return and without being a salesman. You are a professional and I thank you.

In my opinion it is unprofessional to comment about other dealers (especially your own brand) publicly . Not only is it a bad reflection on your business but also the brand. These things should be handled in house. The way professionals do it.

[chpthril]

So by opening up territories to sell across there became a win-win for the aggressive reps and the company. Even the complacent reps earn money from this business

IMO, this would only benefit the dealer moving the high volume, and would kill the value of the product and create a lot of unhappy customers after the sale, I've seen it in the auto biz. Dealers that move the most units have the lowest CSI scores for both sales and service. Their focus is not the customer, but on moving product at a below-market price in order to make a decent profit. The tend to have the worst service departments and the customers tend to migrate to dealers with better service, and in the end, but their 2nd car from the dealer that treated them right, and not the dealer that gave them the best price on the first car. Also, these high volume dealers tend to not do a "delivery" for the customers, they just get the papers signed and toss them the keys. These customers then start having warranty problems with the vehicle which 9 out of 10 times end up being that they don't know how an option/feature is supposed to work.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but over my 17yr career in the auto biz, I've found that the worst service customers are the ones that beat up the sales staff over price because the feel they deserve to buy the car at a far cheaper price then anyone else, then the demand they get all the service for free cause we were blessed with their sales business They demand top dollar from their company for the job they do, buy are insulted when you, as the dealer, want to make a little profit on sales or service. I will say that customers that bought their cars from us, did take precedence over people that bought their cars from the competition and brought it to us for service.

I wanted to stay clear of this thread because I work part time for my Tige dealer, but I do believe that maintaining dealer territories is the best thing for the product, the dealers, and the customers. It keeps a dealer from blowing product out the door at a lower then market price with no regards to the customer who will never be back for service because they live 2 states away. Over time, these cheap prices will kill the used/trade-in boat values, not only in his territory, but other dealer's.