Back to the main site

New Benny Arrived - 2017 Flooring Installed

C

Cap'n Mel

Well-Known Member
Messages
48
Reaction score
29
Location
Lake Sunapee, NH
We were soooooo very excited to go see our new boat today.


My stomach dropped when I saw that they had installed the wrong flooring. Of all things, the wrong flooring. Pretty hard to fix that without a rebuild, I'd say.


We ordered the full vinyl teak PLATINUM and got the vinyl teak SLATE. Big difference in the look. The platinum flooring was the very first thing I fell in love with when we checked out the floor model boats at the marina. The slate would not even have been my second or third choice. $1086 upgrade. Ouch. Worth it for the flooring I loved, otherwise, not so much.


Our sales person was not there, setting up for the Boston Boat Show so we left without paying for the boat and unsure what the resolution will be.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sorry to hear that about the floor being wrong. Sounds like some issues with the platinum color. There's another post about the platinum color no longer being available in the sea grass  flooring. Please let the forum know the out come. :angry:
 
I can only imagine the let down! Hopefully the dealer works something out for you to make it worth you while. Especially since you ordered exactly what you wanted and no communication you couldn't have it otherwise. Keep us posted!
 
Do you have an invoice of the order with the options listed?
 
I'm sure Bennington will fix it.  


I hope they still make the floor you ordered.  Like Bob, I vaguely remember other posts about that color too.  You might look those up.
 
The conversation with the dealer did not go well.


The flooring we ordered (for which we do have the invoice) was discontinued so they substituted a different one without notifying us.


The general manager of the dealership became EXTREMELY defensive, saying the flooring we got was actually a free upgrade, couldn't seem to see our point that it wasn't what we wanted and it wasn't the alternative we would have chosen had we been notified that our first choice was discontinued. It would have taken two phone calls or emails for this situation to have gone very differently. One from Bennington to the dealer to let them know of the discontinued flooring, and a second from the dealer to us to let us choose an alternative. Instead, we were flat out told that, since our boat was a special order, a rebuild was not an option. No offer was made to compensate us in any other way (I would have expected that, at minimum, they would offer to subtract the cost of the flooring upgrade we ordered). Instead, we ended the call by telling the general manager we would not be paying for the flooring upgrade and he said he'd have to speak to the Benny rep and get back to us. We did emphasis that we want to settle this in a mutually acceptable way and maintain a good working relationship. This is the only dealership around so we have no choice but to continue doing business with them. The reaction we got to our first problem is not promising.


I'll update when we hear back from them.
 
Something sound completely different here. Please check out the topic "2017 Flooring". Vikingstaff had a much different outcome to the flooring issue. This just might be a bad communication problem through the dealership.Either way,stick with it. The outcome will be worth it! Please keep the forum posted.
 
This sucks. I tried to pull them up to compare but I couldn't. The dealer definitely dropped the ball. When ours showed up they missed the livewell.....Good times.
 
I'd have to agree that someone certainly dropped the ball and you shouldn't have to pay the price (literally or figuratively). Hang in there!
 
Cap'n Mel said:
The conversation with the dealer did not go well.


The flooring we ordered (for which we do have the invoice) was discontinued so they substituted a different one without notifying us.


The general manager of the dealership became EXTREMELY defensive, saying the flooring we got was actually a free upgrade, couldn't seem to see our point that it wasn't what we wanted and it wasn't the alternative we would have chosen had we been notified that our first choice was discontinued. It would have taken two phone calls or emails for this situation to have gone very differently. One from Bennington to the dealer to let them know of the discontinued flooring, and a second from the dealer to us to let us choose an alternative. Instead, we were flat out told that, since our boat was a special order, a rebuild was not an option. No offer was made to compensate us in any other way (I would have expected that, at minimum, they would offer to subtract the cost of the flooring upgrade we ordered). Instead, we ended the call by telling the general manager we would not be paying for the flooring upgrade and he said he'd have to speak to the Benny rep and get back to us. We did emphasis that we want to settle this in a mutually acceptable way and maintain a good working relationship. This is the only dealership around so we have no choice but to continue doing business with them. The reaction we got to our first problem is not promising.


I'll update when we hear back from them.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the nonsense I had with my dealer regarding my front bimini issue.  I'd suggest doing what we did and contact Bennington direct.  They bent over backwards for us and were very accommodating taking the dealership completely out of the equation.  The more I read the posts on here the more I've come to the conclusion that's there's either very good dealerships or very poor ones.  Seems lately there's more of the latter.  Bennington very well may have contacted your dealership about the flooring but they (the dealership) failed to communicate with you about it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I saw pictures of my boat being built and told my dealer right away that it had the wrong loungers (no red stripes).  My dealer said it was too late to change the seats, but he would take that boat for his showroom and the factory then started working on a new build for my order.  My dealer told me later that another way he could have handled it was to just take $500 off the price.  We told him it wasn't about the price -- the incorrect loungers would have totally changed the look we wanted. Mistakes do unfortunately happen (although they shouldn't!), and I'm glad my dealer and Bennington made it right.        
 
I wonder what ithe stipulations are to be a Bennington dealer? Think it is something I'd enjoy.
 
Havasu said:
Sounds like the nonsense I had with my dealer regarding my front bimini issue.  I'd suggest doing what we did and contact Bennington direct.  They bent over backwards for us and were very accommodating taking the dealership completely out of the equation.  The more I read the posts on here the more I've come to the conclusion that's there's either very good dealerships or very poor ones.  Seems lately there's more of the latter.  Bennington very well may have contacted your dealership about the flooring but they (the dealership) failed to communicate with you about it.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest if your dealer doesn't want to work with you on this do as Havasu mentioned........contact Bennington direct.  When we had an issue with our carpet coming apart and the dealer kept wanting to just glue it or cover it with a plastic step plate.......something not acceptable on a virtually new 40k boat.  After contacting Bennington direct they pretty much took the dealer out of the picture regarding the warranty work.  Yes Bennington took very very good care of us and did a few upgrades in the process of fixing the carpet issue.  We now have full platinum seagrass instead of half carpet and half seagrass.......basically we have a 2014 boat with all the 2016 goodies.


Hang in there!  If all fails at the dealer Bennington WILL make sure you are happy with your purchase.
 
Rockie69 said:
I wonder what ithe stipulations are to be a Bennington dealer? Think it is something I'd enjoy.
Click to expand...

I don't think I'd want to be a dealer .... maybe a salesperson though. Preferably around Key West ....  :D
 
After contacting his Bennington rep, the GM apologized for his behavior and offered to do a rebuild. We looked at the flooring options and didn't really love any of them more than any other so we decided to keep the boat. They offered no compensation, refused to remove the pricing upgrade we paid for the flooring we did not get (the flooring it came with was the same price). I'd have thought they could at least do that but I guess it is what it is. GM claims he had no room to move on the pricing. Sure, whatever...
 
How would I contact Bennington directly? I'm still not feeling that we were treated fairly by the dealer but they are not doing anything for us. Is there are customer serve number to call?
 
Cap'n Mel said:
They offered no compensation, refused to remove the pricing upgrade we paid for the flooring we did not get (the flooring it came with was the same price).
Click to expand...

That is wrong.  The dealer should at least work out a deal if you decide to keep the boat as is even though you didn't get the flooring you paid for.  Maybe a re-build is in order?  Try it with new colors and interior combo that works out as a second choice to go with the new flooring colors that bennington currently has available.  I don't have any other idea's as we bought what the dealer had in stock just before the boat show.  
 
Your dealer is acting like a child. If you treat him like his behavior is okay, he'll continue to treat others that way too. You tried to treat him as an adult, and that didn't work. Unfortunately, sounds like its time to treat him like a child...  Good luck with this. Keep us posted.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
kaydano said:
Your dealer is acting like a child. If you treat him like his behavior is okay, he'll continue to treat others that way too. You tried to treat him as an adult, and that didn't work. Unfortunately, sounds like its time to treat him like a child...  Good luck with this. Keep us posted.
Click to expand...

I agree. I approach issues with logic and the goal of fair resolution. Once the at fault party gives me attitude I aim for the jugular.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top