Glenora Marina (BOQ)

[BigMac]

First off, I apologize if I offend anyone other than the business that this is aimed at...

I've been debating on sharing my story or not because i'm not usually one to make a big stink about service. I work in retail and get enough people that do that to me every single day. That said my situation is so sickening that I couldn't imagine letting this happen to anyone else, so here goes.

I recently bought a used boat of Kijiji. 2nd time we used it, it developed a small backfire and loud ticking sound when at high RPM. It also lost power and caused an audible alarm to go off. I limped 8 miles in from the Bonnett doing 7mph to not cause any further damage.

I had heard good things about Glenora Marina so a call was made and my boat was in their yard on Saturday July 6th.

I was told they would look at it in a couple days as they only had 2 jobs to finish and I was next in line. After not hearing anything I called on Wednesday to hear they hadn't looked at it yet. I wont get into how many times I had to call them while my boat was there because they only ever called me once...

I agreed to have some maintenance done on it while there as they said an oil change may fix it? I asked them to call me prior to doing any repairs with estimate as I wasn't sure what to expect. After a few more calls the boat was still unrepaired the following week. Now they have done oil change, spark plugs and sea water pump. Still no luck on fixing the issue. However they were having a mechanic come look at it for further help. (ummm a marina that services boats needs to bring an external mechanic in?) Then I finally get news. Its the rockers in the motor and at least 3 of them need to be replaced. This was on July 17th. They will call me once they have final price on replacing them and the rest of the work but rockers are $10 each from their supplier. The guy is coming once more just to confirm that this is the issue they say. So again with no call I called on the 19th. That's when it got good. I find out then from Jay the mechanic that the motor is shot. Its a camshaft issue and that this motor has been put to hell and back and beat up and abused etc and not worth fixing. He also tells me that the starter is not burnt out from testing the motor. They say to replace the starter the entire motor needs to come out and to do that the floor in the boat has to be cut open and they just don't have the facilities to do that job there.

I of course got angry as it went from a $30 part to thousands within 48 hrs after someone had already looked at it. Not to mention that they burnt the starter out and wouldn't do anything about it. Soooo then im told Larry (owner) will call me back that afternoon to discuss price. Never called...

Finally I call and get Larry on Monday morning. He goes on to tell me a song and dance about the motor and how abused it is and the same stuff Jay told me the week prior. So I ask the question how much am I owing you to get my boat back. He presents me with an $850 bill over the phone with no compensation for my starter since it was "old and tired" and it wasn't their fault. Imagine, an $850 bill for a boat that is now more broken than when it was dropped off. After negotiating with Larry he kindly drops the price to $700 (for an oil change, impellar, spark plugs and diagnostic) I then find out from him that they never pulled the valve cover off the motor until that Wednesday afternoon. So the boat sat there for almost 3 weeks without anyone looking at it properly and just nickel and diming me on BS chargers.

I paid, as I had no choice and immediately towed it to a real mechanic. This boat has a 1996 350 chevy in it. Who better to work on it than a mechanic at a garage.

Within 45mins of it being there he has the blown starter in his hand removed from the boat without taking the motor out. The next day he calls me and sends me pics of the camshaft taken out within 2 hours of working on it. Motor still in boat if you can imagine? Its shot. So new one is ordered and will be in this week. I asked him about condition of motor, he says everything looks original and other than cam and lifters, the motor is in great shape.

Glenora Marina told me several times this motor was cooked and that it had to be taken out to do any work on it including the starter they burnt out from over cranking. Take the boat to a non marine mechanic and all is well? Wait what? Shouldn't a marina be able to handle this job or atleast admit they cant and not ripoff a customer. Im a fairly young guy and this is only my 2nd boat.

I tell you one thing, I will never set foot on their property again, they are crooks and don't know a motor from the inside of their Ass. Also over the 3 weeks it was there, myself and friends had been in and out of my boat 3x getting stuff for fishing etc during non business hours and they had no idea. This includes taking my special mate and 3 rods from the cuddy so if your boat is there now better make sure there is nothing valuable in it because it likely will be stolen and they would have no idea and probably not care either.

Looking around their yard and they had at least 10 boats sitting there. All I could think was, those poor bastards, I hope they don't get screwed like I did.

Please don't take your boat there. Its just not worth it.

Signed

One very unhappy former Glenora Marina client

(Sure would have been nice if they would have taken some responsibility for their actions and not ripped me off)

[Xxx]

WOW, sounds like you got the screws turned to you, where do they come up with $850.00 if they didn't even take the  valve cover off, I'm not a certified boat mechanic but as I'm reading your story I was thinking bent push rod or valve or a burned valve, broken valve spring or timing or worst case scenario a wiped lobe on the cam,  the valve covers have to be removed to determine what it might be, who in their right mind would change the oil and spark plugs if the motor is shot. No motor is a throw away anyway even if you go with a new one or a aftermarket such as a Jasper or whoever, you need it for a core, or rebuild the one you have, your totally in the right saying that outfit is a bunch of ass wipes, they totally took advantage of you!!! sorry to hear that, from what the other mech. is saying sounds like he is on the right track. I purchased a complete rebuild kit (gaskets, bearings, rings, cam, and oil pump, from a machine shop that did my heads and cooked my block and bored it 30thos. over and it was about what you paid for a oil change and plugs. I had a set of 30 over piston for a 350 so that saved me a bunch!! I don't remember what I paid for my cam, but I do remember the guy saying that the cam was a little more just because it was a marine cam, but I think it was less than a $125.00. All in all I think you will be happy with your choice of your new mech. GOOD LUCK and keep us posted with the end results. 

[BigMac]

Thanks pap. I tried to post a pic of the bill but the app won't let me. They charged me $13 to charge my battery. Just unreal. Funny thing is my stepdad works at the shop I took it to and when I explained issue to him right after it started acting up he said cam shaft right away.

[BigMac]

Update:

Boat is fixed. Issue was cam shaft. I also had them do a tonne of other things to ensure smooth sailing.

Cam shaft

Lifters

Rods

Timing chain

Timing gear

Gaskets

Starter

Fuel pump

Thermostat

Not a cheap repair and lesson learned on kijiji but still much cheaper than a new motor.

The issue with the audible alarm was temp related and took them 20 mins to fix. Somehow the water intake hose for the seawater pump was kinked. Fixed that and all is well. Oil pressure aces, runs solid and sounds good.

Too bad a marina couldn't figure this out. Especially the over heating problem since there's only a few reasons why the alarm goes off. I gave the manual for the motor to the mechanic last week and it was all he needed.

Thanks to fieldings tire (Firestone) in Kingston and more specifically Steve, olie and Erik.

If only I could turn back time and not take it to Glenora marina. If I couldn't turn it back far enough to not buy it that is lol