As asked for Fairness for Marine Max I created a thread for Ron Hoover.
We have had a very bad experience with Ron Hoover. Our first visit was after the boat show. It was rainy the day we went. We saw the boats on wet grass and the ground was muddy. We thought why would someone have boats in the grass when it is raining? But we wanted to look at the boats, then we started talking to a sales person. Jeremy. We looked at a beautiful Everglades 223cc, then the sales person decided to get in the boat, he stepped on the back seat with his muddy feet.
After doing our measurements for the garage and estimations,we decided to go in and talk to him about the boat--complete attitude change a total 180 degree turn. We showed him what was quoted to us at the boat show, he basically flew off the handle and blamed the sales person at the boat show, that they would be taking a loss. In my mind, I was thinking not good. First, the dirty feet in the boat and now this. We left. Mark went back and spoke to the same person about getting a blank boat, the guy was going to charge us $30,000. Well, we did our homework, Mark left. This time we both we back, we spoke with Tim Hart, we got the boat $3,000 cheaper. Mark and I went back numerous times, unfortunately we got the first guy (Jeremy) again--but this time the boat was already ordered and we were talking about the trailor (by the way ladies--the boat has no brakes and pulls just fine Thank You for the advice). I observed Jeremy making a mark on a trailor for where we needed the adjustment to be on our trailor--get this, ok he was talking and he states he is going to get a Corvette--again red flag, wants to make a profit big time.
The boat finally arrives. It goes down to be put on the trailor and the trailor adjust to fit in our garage (if you look at my garage floor--you will see the markings Mark made for this boat--100 times over and over). We noticed a few things wrong with the boat while it was down at SunTech trailors. But Steve the manager said he would have the boat clean for us before we came to get it--which was the end of March and beginning of April.
WE get a call the boat is ready. Being all excited and ready to go. We get there, notice an area that needed to be sanded. Steve got the fiberglass guy to fix it. We get the boat hitched, while all the sales people are standing around laughing and just watching us. We decided that we needed to clean the boat better. We get it home and we notice these brown spots in numerous places and under the ice chest. We call Ron Hoover, there is nothing they can do. They claim since we drove it off the lot, it is our responsibility. When we finally got them to do something but we were told it will be worked on but it will be under the warranty. Oh no, my brand new boat that has not been on the water and does not have a motor on it, will not go to warranty. 3 weeks later and no one helping us, I finally emailed the CEO,President, Vice President all the way down to Human Resources of Everglades. I spoke to Christine, the Purchasing manager and only person that cared enough to call me back. I explained the situation to her, I stated why does my brand new boat that does not have a motor, and has not ever been on the water need to go to warranty? She said that it should not and plus she handles the warranties and it did not come across her desk---HHHMMM, sounds odd to me. I also explained to her that at Ron Hoover, there was no customer service at all, I was hung up on (I was frustrated when I called to begin with), I just kept telling the girl she just needs to leave a message for Steve but she kept on wondering who I talked to before, I kept telling her just take the message--she hung up on me. Just added to the fire. I called back and got a guy, he wanted information about the boat--Mark took the phone--during that call he found out our boat was not inspected when it arrived or before we were called to pick it up.
After Christine got the President of Everglades to call Mark back, he said he would have a Representative come down and supervise the cleaning at 110% or he will send us a new boat. He also told Mark to take the boat back to Ron Hoover. Mark was notified that the material that was supposed to be ordered 3 weeks before never arrived--3 weeks later, Ron Hoover did not put the order in until that morning when I spoke with Christine again. She over nighted it and that Monday following it arrived. We went down that following Saturday to Ron Hoover to look at the boat, we were lied to again,we were told the boat was clean and being worked on--it wasn't. There was leaves and ants in our boat. Steve said it was just moved from under cover a minute ago--no, it doesn't take ants 1 minute to get all over in the boat and leaves to fall in that quickly. We left. Here comes Monday May 8th--yes, that long. I went down to look at the boat. It was moved further away from covering, it was dirty and the epoxy was still in a storage compartment. I called Mark right away. I called and told Steve the epoxy was still in the storage, he said he knew nothing of that area--again another lie--Mark told him were every bit of it was. We have pictures too. We emailed Everglades and Capt. Wayne that night. We needed help and Capt. Wayne is for the working man, so we thought of him. He spoke with B.J. Stampley (which by the way never called us to resolve the situation--he is the manager of the store) and he said a rep was coming down that day and the boat is ready. We were told differently than what Capt Wayne was told. (We thank Capt. Wayne so much for helping us in trying to get this taken care of,we felt he actually is the only person that can help us). Mark calls Everglades, the representative came down Tuesday evening. Wednesday, Mark goes down there to Ron Hoover and they are cleaning the boat. I have no confidence in Ron Hoover. Mark calls me at work asking if I can leave work to go with him to get the boat. I left. I wanted my boat. We get to Ron Hoover, we inspected the boat, and it was clean. It took Everglades people 1 day to get the boat clean and Ron Hoover refused to do it, they had the boat almost 2 weeks. They kept moving our boat out of the way so they can get the other boats out that they sold. They do not care about the customers after they sell the boats.
I spoke with Chris Hoover, son of Ron Hoover. I notified him very quickly, that we are not satisfied and my husband took the money out of his retirement to buy this boat, we have missed tournaments, we have been stressed out because of this, Mark has lost sleep, I was lucky his blood pressure didn't sky rocket, and I had a personal situation I have been dealing with for 7 months now and this issue just made things worse. I asked him why didn't his people catch this when they cleaned the boat the first time, why didn't they clean it in one day like Everglades, I notified him of the bad customer service. I notified him of the boats being disrespected from the sales guys. I notified him that of the Texas Lady Anglers and that we are a new group, there are 190 ladies. I told him these ladies fish and want boats and I do not feel comfortable referring anyone to them due the disrespect that we experienced.
The boat should have been taken care of a long time ago. I told him about our boat being pushed aside so the other customers that paid got their boat and Ron Hoover got their checks.
I refuse to send anyone to Ron Hoover. I refuse to have anyone else go through what we went through. The first boat we looked at, ended up back at Ron Hoover's for maintenance work. Ladies, please if you want a boat. Please be careful who you buy from, expect the boat, make sure it is perfect before you take it off the lot. If you do go to Ron Hoover, make sure they give you the customer service but most of all RESPECT that you deserve. As a woman, when I was there or when I talked to someone there, they acted like I didn't know what I was doing, why was I there getting a boat--I am a woman. Ladies, we are human and we can do what they do but even better.
I know this is a long one and I am frustrated with all this nonsense and I don't want anyone to experience this nonsense from anyone. I do want to Thank Capt Wayne for helping us with the situtaion. I also asked him about the brakes and we took the advice from both Capt. Wayne and TLA. Everyone was helpful on that situation. Also, Chris Hoover started asking questions about TLA while we were getting gas in the boat. He asked if we did tournaments or just seminars, I told him both. I am not telling you not to go there (I love the Everglades), just be very very cautious.
