New 2007 26M Owner-My factory pickup story-A bit long
Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:10 pm
About 2 months ago I decided to take the plunge and buy a 26M. I've been looking at MacGregor boats off and on for about 3 years, which is when we gave away our first sailboat, which was a Hobie 16.
I purchased the boat from Paul at Great Basin sailboats who gave me a great deal on what was originally going to be his personal boat. I decided to pick it up myself to save on the delivery costs. While waiting for my boat to be ready for pick up at the factory, I was searching around on the internet for more information about MacGregor boats. A month or two ago I found this website. Since then I've been lurking on the board and reading up as much as I can.
Last week that day finally came. Below is the story of picking it up, it's a bit long so feel free to ignore the rest of this post.
Excited as a little boy on Christmas Eve, I packed my wife and one year old into the SUV on Thursday afternoon and made the first part of the trip, a six hour drive from Salt Lake to Primm, NV. This was our first major trip with our first child, and well, it was interesting. Had we not stopped in Cedar City and purchased some Sesame Street DVDs and a small magnetic drawing pad, I'm not sure that we would have made it at all. We got to Primm around 9 PM, which wasn't too bad, and stayed at Buffalo Bill's for a whopping $39.99.
We needed to go to bed early because the next day the plan was to get up at 4 AM, drive to the factory at Costa Mesa, get the boat, and then get back to Salt Lake. The problem is, try telling a 1 year old who's been cooped up in a car all day, and who is in a hotel room for his first time, that maybe going to bed before midnight would be a good idea. Needless to say, that didn't go well.
So he's finally asleep, and now I'm in bed picturing in my head how things are going to go the next day. I've got it imagined that we'll walk in and Bill will say, "Hey, you're the folks from Salt Lake right?" It's great to meet some of our customers. Would you like me to find someone to show you around? Do you have any questions about the boat?" I'm thinking how cool it will be to see the factory, and maybe to ask some questions I have. Now this is all despite the fact that my dealer has warned me that they may not be the friendliest people in the world. But I figure that he's just exaggerating.
I finally fall asleep only to wake up about 10 minutes before the 4AM alarm. We pack up and head out. After fighting through a bit of LA's early rush hour I get to the factory at about 8:45, and nothing goes how I had hoped it would.
When we get there, Bill is on the phone clearly talking to a 26x owner who is apparently trying to get some replacement rigging. Bill says "We don't have any, once we stop making a boat that's it, we don't make any more parts." "We're in the boat making business not the parts business." "Especially not with something like rigging, there are plenty of companies that make rigging."
This immediately sets off alarms in my head. While I understand that they would be making spare parts while manufacturing the actual model, and that there would be a stock pile of parts for a while after, it seems to me that most manufacturers continue to make spare parts for at least some period of time to support those people who spent all that money buying their product. I supposed this may never affect me, but it is disturbing to me.
That's not what really bugs me though. After he got off the phone this is how the rest of the time at the factory went.
"Hi, we just got in from Salt Lake City, and we're here to pick up a boat."
"Yeah, from Great Basin right?"
"That's us."
"OK, read this paper and sign it. It says you aren't going to use the boat in California."
He asks us to follow him to go find where the boat is parked. While we are walking he says:
"Did your dealer tell you everything you need to know about towing it off our lot?"
I answered I think so, but I'm not sure about "everything" do you have any tips you could give me?" I'm worried about things like, would it be best to leave the lot the way I came in, is the boat loaded already for the correct tongue weight. And since this is a very experienced man, he would probably be able to give good advice to someone who's never towed something that big before.
This was his response "He's supposed to tell you everything. We don't deal with customers." Then he mumbled something about not wanting to deal with customers that I couldnt make out. We then got to the boat and he said something like I guess you are going to want to look at it. He brought some guys over to pull the boat to the car.
By this point I was no longer excited. I had my new boat in front of me and all I could think was, "What have I done." I've tied myself to a company that "doesn't want to deal with customers." I told Bill that I could tell he was busy and if there was a problem I'd have one of the guys that helped move the boat take care of it. And so he just said ok and left.
After Bill left one of the guys at the yard could tell I was a bit disappointed. He was great. He was exactly what I had hoped to find. But he had to keep telling me not to say anything because he wasn't supposed to be helping me at all. He took me through the boat to show me where everything was stored and helped me hitch it to my car. He then was nice enough to give me directions on how to get out of LA avoiding all the traffic jams, which actually worked.
I guess MacGregor the company just wants my money, let the dealers handle the actual people buying the boats. While I know that all companies exist to make money, most at least pretend that they are also there to make their customers happy. Here's a fun little fact, the 26M brochure doesn't even mention customer satisfaction in it.
Anyway, most of the trip home was not bad at all, except I got home at around 2AM. I did run the tank below the empty mark right before the first refill not realizing just how much worse gas mileage crossing the mountains between California and Nevada would be. There's nothing like turning of the a/c in 105 degree weather and praying to squeeze just a little more gas out of that engine to make it over the last hill and across that final 10 miles or so back to Primm to fill up.
In Primm, some one came over and asked about the boat and how much it was to "get rig like that." He commented on what a nice looking boat it was. I haven't had it for more than 5 hours and am already getting compliments. Things are looking better.
Then when we stopped in St. George a guy pulled up and asked if that was a new MacGregor. He said he'd been dreaming about one and had only seen them on the internet. The problem was his friends, all power boaters, kept talking him out of it, saying he'd never be a sailor. I gave him a full tour, inside and out. Im now exited about the boat again, pointing out the positive and negative points of a hybrid boat. Im even starting to feel like a salesman, which Im really not at all (I work with computers for a living (enough said.) Who knows, maybe he'll buy one someday. Looks like maybe despite my factory experience, I'm turning into a MacGregor Missionary anyway.
We continued on, finally arriving home at 2AM. After a nightmare of getting that surge brake lockout key to actually stay put (it was late I'd been driving like 17hours, and I never thought of taping it in) we had the boat backed into our uphill driveway and got to bed at 3 AM.
So after about 22 hours, some big disappointments, and some really positive experiences, I've got a big beautiful boat parked in my driveway for now. My dealer Paul is coming over tomorrow morning to rig the boat, and do all the normal dealer prep stuff, and to give me some instruction on rigging it. Now that is service. There's nothing like a dealer house call. I'm getting the motor installed later this week. It's a Mercury BigFoot 60.
Then it's on to installing all the goodies. For now that's just a second battery, stereo, a couple of 12v outlets, battery switch, combiner, fuse box, and 2 Hella fans. I'm hoping to document the entire process and to put a website up, but don't know how long that will take to put together.
As for a name, well I haven't come up with one yet. We both snowboard in the winter, and the boat is something to do when the snow is gone. It's a white boat and I was looking for something like Snowmelt, Or Runoff, but neither of those sounds right. So for now, she's nameless.
Anyway, theres my tale. Id also like to thank all the people whove made such informative posts to this board. Theres so much advice that Ive already used and that I plan on using in the future, it is much appreciated.
I purchased the boat from Paul at Great Basin sailboats who gave me a great deal on what was originally going to be his personal boat. I decided to pick it up myself to save on the delivery costs. While waiting for my boat to be ready for pick up at the factory, I was searching around on the internet for more information about MacGregor boats. A month or two ago I found this website. Since then I've been lurking on the board and reading up as much as I can.
Last week that day finally came. Below is the story of picking it up, it's a bit long so feel free to ignore the rest of this post.
Excited as a little boy on Christmas Eve, I packed my wife and one year old into the SUV on Thursday afternoon and made the first part of the trip, a six hour drive from Salt Lake to Primm, NV. This was our first major trip with our first child, and well, it was interesting. Had we not stopped in Cedar City and purchased some Sesame Street DVDs and a small magnetic drawing pad, I'm not sure that we would have made it at all. We got to Primm around 9 PM, which wasn't too bad, and stayed at Buffalo Bill's for a whopping $39.99.
We needed to go to bed early because the next day the plan was to get up at 4 AM, drive to the factory at Costa Mesa, get the boat, and then get back to Salt Lake. The problem is, try telling a 1 year old who's been cooped up in a car all day, and who is in a hotel room for his first time, that maybe going to bed before midnight would be a good idea. Needless to say, that didn't go well.
So he's finally asleep, and now I'm in bed picturing in my head how things are going to go the next day. I've got it imagined that we'll walk in and Bill will say, "Hey, you're the folks from Salt Lake right?" It's great to meet some of our customers. Would you like me to find someone to show you around? Do you have any questions about the boat?" I'm thinking how cool it will be to see the factory, and maybe to ask some questions I have. Now this is all despite the fact that my dealer has warned me that they may not be the friendliest people in the world. But I figure that he's just exaggerating.
I finally fall asleep only to wake up about 10 minutes before the 4AM alarm. We pack up and head out. After fighting through a bit of LA's early rush hour I get to the factory at about 8:45, and nothing goes how I had hoped it would.
When we get there, Bill is on the phone clearly talking to a 26x owner who is apparently trying to get some replacement rigging. Bill says "We don't have any, once we stop making a boat that's it, we don't make any more parts." "We're in the boat making business not the parts business." "Especially not with something like rigging, there are plenty of companies that make rigging."
This immediately sets off alarms in my head. While I understand that they would be making spare parts while manufacturing the actual model, and that there would be a stock pile of parts for a while after, it seems to me that most manufacturers continue to make spare parts for at least some period of time to support those people who spent all that money buying their product. I supposed this may never affect me, but it is disturbing to me.
That's not what really bugs me though. After he got off the phone this is how the rest of the time at the factory went.
"Hi, we just got in from Salt Lake City, and we're here to pick up a boat."
"Yeah, from Great Basin right?"
"That's us."
"OK, read this paper and sign it. It says you aren't going to use the boat in California."
He asks us to follow him to go find where the boat is parked. While we are walking he says:
"Did your dealer tell you everything you need to know about towing it off our lot?"
I answered I think so, but I'm not sure about "everything" do you have any tips you could give me?" I'm worried about things like, would it be best to leave the lot the way I came in, is the boat loaded already for the correct tongue weight. And since this is a very experienced man, he would probably be able to give good advice to someone who's never towed something that big before.
This was his response "He's supposed to tell you everything. We don't deal with customers." Then he mumbled something about not wanting to deal with customers that I couldnt make out. We then got to the boat and he said something like I guess you are going to want to look at it. He brought some guys over to pull the boat to the car.
By this point I was no longer excited. I had my new boat in front of me and all I could think was, "What have I done." I've tied myself to a company that "doesn't want to deal with customers." I told Bill that I could tell he was busy and if there was a problem I'd have one of the guys that helped move the boat take care of it. And so he just said ok and left.
After Bill left one of the guys at the yard could tell I was a bit disappointed. He was great. He was exactly what I had hoped to find. But he had to keep telling me not to say anything because he wasn't supposed to be helping me at all. He took me through the boat to show me where everything was stored and helped me hitch it to my car. He then was nice enough to give me directions on how to get out of LA avoiding all the traffic jams, which actually worked.
I guess MacGregor the company just wants my money, let the dealers handle the actual people buying the boats. While I know that all companies exist to make money, most at least pretend that they are also there to make their customers happy. Here's a fun little fact, the 26M brochure doesn't even mention customer satisfaction in it.
Anyway, most of the trip home was not bad at all, except I got home at around 2AM. I did run the tank below the empty mark right before the first refill not realizing just how much worse gas mileage crossing the mountains between California and Nevada would be. There's nothing like turning of the a/c in 105 degree weather and praying to squeeze just a little more gas out of that engine to make it over the last hill and across that final 10 miles or so back to Primm to fill up.
In Primm, some one came over and asked about the boat and how much it was to "get rig like that." He commented on what a nice looking boat it was. I haven't had it for more than 5 hours and am already getting compliments. Things are looking better.
Then when we stopped in St. George a guy pulled up and asked if that was a new MacGregor. He said he'd been dreaming about one and had only seen them on the internet. The problem was his friends, all power boaters, kept talking him out of it, saying he'd never be a sailor. I gave him a full tour, inside and out. Im now exited about the boat again, pointing out the positive and negative points of a hybrid boat. Im even starting to feel like a salesman, which Im really not at all (I work with computers for a living (enough said.) Who knows, maybe he'll buy one someday. Looks like maybe despite my factory experience, I'm turning into a MacGregor Missionary anyway.
We continued on, finally arriving home at 2AM. After a nightmare of getting that surge brake lockout key to actually stay put (it was late I'd been driving like 17hours, and I never thought of taping it in) we had the boat backed into our uphill driveway and got to bed at 3 AM.
So after about 22 hours, some big disappointments, and some really positive experiences, I've got a big beautiful boat parked in my driveway for now. My dealer Paul is coming over tomorrow morning to rig the boat, and do all the normal dealer prep stuff, and to give me some instruction on rigging it. Now that is service. There's nothing like a dealer house call. I'm getting the motor installed later this week. It's a Mercury BigFoot 60.
Then it's on to installing all the goodies. For now that's just a second battery, stereo, a couple of 12v outlets, battery switch, combiner, fuse box, and 2 Hella fans. I'm hoping to document the entire process and to put a website up, but don't know how long that will take to put together.
As for a name, well I haven't come up with one yet. We both snowboard in the winter, and the boat is something to do when the snow is gone. It's a white boat and I was looking for something like Snowmelt, Or Runoff, but neither of those sounds right. So for now, she's nameless.
Anyway, theres my tale. Id also like to thank all the people whove made such informative posts to this board. Theres so much advice that Ive already used and that I plan on using in the future, it is much appreciated.
60 Horsepower...real nice.