Ski-Masters

[2000epic]

I was just wondering how many people have purchased and/or get thier boats serviced at Ski-Masters in WA?  My personal experience when purchasing my Epic in March of this year was great, however, things have been changing there.  New people are in place, most are great, but the head mechanic sets off my A-hole alarm.  I gather from previous postings that others feel the same way.  I'd like to aproach the owner because I believe it has and will negatively affect their business which provides my warranty work.  Did I mention they still have two brand new epics:  an 02 x22, and an 01 SX.  

I guess I'm just worried I won't get the service I need for the boat I love.

http://www.seattlewatersports.com/smlocal/

[DENNIS]

I bought my s22 from Trident Marine in Portland, they were the only dealership within 700 miles that would discount the boat.  Skimasters wanted MSRP, no less.

I have had Skimasters do some warranty work for me when I couldn' t get Jeff D. to come down to Salem, Or.  I have not had any problems with any of the work they did, although it has been 2 years since I went up there.  With what I've heard on the forum, I don't think I would go back.  First of all it wastes 2 full days getting the boat up there and going back a week later or so to pick it up.  If Skimasters has changed their attitude towards Epic owners, I would not give them the a cent of my hard earned money.  

Does anyone know if there is anybody in Oregon, besides Jeff D., that works on our boats.  Even though mine purrs like a lion, and I hope I never have any problems that I can't get fixed on my own.

Dennis

[cyclone]

We're gonna have everything we need here. There isn't all that much going on with the boats that can't be fixed easily. The ironic thing is that the parts that don't work well are standard ski boat parts that are still being sold to the marine industry. By that I mean all instrumentation. HAH. The other stuff is chicken scratch. The motor is bulletproof and all parts except exhaust manifolds are available from the Lexus dealer. All other marine hardware is off the shelf, absolute top quality in every respect.

I say that meaning that you could take a Lexus 400 motor from 2000 and bolt the parts up and it would work. Probably a 4.7 truck motor. Toyota standardizes that crap, I don't think there is much difference between car and boat motors when you get down to it. More aggressive cams(no emmissions) and high ccmpression, but the car engines are probably the same. Ulnless they are a special casting or alloy etc. It wouldn't surprise me. Time may tell if one of us speaks Japanese!  You could also get your stock motor rebuilt. Not for cheap I would say minimum 5k. Trans and  running gear are off the shelf.

Our crazy friends in OZ do this stuff all the time, we need to engage them in our planning for retrofitting these boats with modern computers for gauges, rebuilding/retrofitting info for engines, etc.

I will be here. I may have more than 1 Toyota but I will have one always.

[phenom_1819]

I'm with ya, Epic.  Pete, while I totally agree -- this site provides us with pretty much we will ever need: dreams (thank you Derek), and technical repairs/retrofits (thank you Pete)!

But it would be nice to know that the shop that originally sold and serviced Toyota boats gave a crap about us.  They are turning down business by treating a few of us (or perhaps most of us, my hunch) like crap.  I don't know Mark Lord (Ski Masters owner) personally, but I've heard that he's a good guy.  Regardless, he makes most of his money on service.  My hunch is he doesn't know, or doesn't know the extent to which people are upset with their new-ish, inexperienced, know-it-all service guy.

I'm going on 4 months now without a call on my warranty parts (Jeff Dorge approved the warranty, too).  I've called three times, and have since called it quits. My boat is now off warranty.  Oh well -- I dislike Ski Masters enough that I will PAY another shop to take care of my bent windshield frame just so I don't have to deal with them again.  

That is... unless they get a service rep that understands what service is.

I'm with ya '00Epic.  Anybody else have Ski Masters problems???

[cyclone]

I think that we should pitch a fit with Toyota. There's enouth of us now. Just to get what we need out of our service agreements. If those two guys  can't fix every damn thing on a 22 ft boat, then they suck. i fixed a lot of crap on a 659 ft boat that didn't belong to my department. If they won't I will.

[2000epic]

Thanks for the replies guys.  Monday I'll be making a call or two.  Mark deserves to know how his customers are being treated if he doesn't know already.  You never know, Yota might bring the boats back someday, and dealers might well be the same...somebody's gotta keep em' in check!

[2000epic]

Upon reviewing this thread, Ski-Masters has let the errant head mechanic go, and is having a look at their customer service practices.  .  Good news for us Pac Northwest guys.  Hopefully good for Ski-Masters too.

[toyotafreak]

That's it we're moving to Seattle. Or maybe Salt Lake. Or Atlanta. All I know is that there's no Epic dealer in SoCal, and that's a bummer.

Good-on-ya's to Ski-Masters.

[krejciman]

Don't forget about Newport Marine

actually, maybe a move would be good!

[toyotafreak]

Newport Marine, or Newport Boats? I spent seven months with the latter as a rigger/QA dude right after separating from the Navy. In fact, I hooked up with them at the Long Beach boat show last week. Been trying to help Jeff D. get a SoCal service center to handle Epics. In a near-perfect world, I'd like to become the SoCal tech - not enough demand for full-time, but it'd be great to build up some skills and go down to the dealer when an Epic came in. Newport Boats is, shall we say, less than excited about the prospect for some reason (with or without me). They're the local Sea Ray dealer and get top dog labor rates, so I can't really fault them for wondering why they need to hook up with Toyota....

[krejciman]

My bad, I meant Newport Boats.  ...  you hit the nail on the head, they are not very excited about taking care of us Epic people.  I'm kinda puzzled though...  they can pretty much do ANY repair necessary without being questioned too much, charge as many hours as 'necessary', and get full-pop on the labor rate.  So what's not to like about that deal?

[toyotafreak]

Especially when Dorge sounded like he would get me trained, I'm never moving or getting rid of my Epic, the NB guys would not have to carry me full time, carry parts, special tools or anything. NB knows me and was very happy with me when I was there.

The biggest thing is ask yourself, "what's in it for them?" They're already busy, and already get top dollar. Their service lot's full, and their gelcoat dudes are busy 100% of the time (all I'd really need from them besides a storefront and on occasional bay).

You should really be going to a towboat dealer anyway when you're looking for service. I hear great things about the Tige dealer, although Malibu might be a slightly closer relative to the Epic. Both are infinitely closer than any Sea Ray ever produced. But if you need gelcoat work....Marciano at NB is the man.

[cyclone]

ATL Marine fired Tony, the service guy that knew Toyotas. So, I'm my own mechanic, again.

[lesman01]

dang man, Cyclone, how are you going to Winterize your boat? I thought about doing it last year, but felt much better with Tony doing it. I'd hate to make a $16k mistake.  Guess I'll read the how-to.s For serious though,  Cyclone, lemme know what you decide to do about winterizing yours.

[toyotafreak]

The Cyclone is way ahead of you.