Opinions on warranty cover

julians

New Member
Oct 18, 2006
126
on the sea
Boat Info
190 sport
Engines
Alpha
Hi guys, I just wanted to ask your opinions on a warranty issue I am having at the moment.

I'm based in europe, the boat is a 200 select with 5.0 mpi with alpha 1 drive. I bought the boat brand new in the middle of may last year, and have been really happy with it.

It lives in the sea in a marina all year round (apart from when it comes out for a service and repaint etc), hence its antifouled etc.

My season lasts from early may to end of october, between these two dates the boat just sits floating in the water. When I went to use the boat for the first time this year I started to get a water pressure sensor fault on the smartcraft display, I had the local merc tech look it over and he diagnosed it as a faulty water pressure sensor which he replaced and the problem was solved. He also mentioned that they had quite a few boats with this problem.

I am trying to get this repair covered on the warranty, The repair was not expensive (£150) , but the boat was less than a year old when the fault occured so I feel it should be covered. However merc are refusing to cover it under the warranty because they say its caused by leaving the boat in the water for too long.

I am continuing to argue with them, just thought I'd canvass opinion on whether you think it should be a warranty item or not?
 
Just re read my post, and thought I should clarify something. The boat is in the water 12 months of the year, but between May and october it is in intermittant use, between october and may it is not in use but is still in the water.
 
well.. i hope you purchased the merc extended warranty... if you did.. everything should be covered! if not after the first year they dont fix nothing unless its a recall!... i purchased the merv extended warranty.. the BEST one they had and its cost me 40 bucks extra a month.
 
This is europe, we get a two year default factory warranty on the engine (its now 3 years from boats bought in 2007 onwards), but in any case the fault happened just before the boat turned one year old.

So the length of the warranty is not the question mark here.
 
julians said:
This is europe, we get a two year default factory warranty on the engine (its now 3 years from boats bought in 2007 onwards), but in any case the fault happened just before the boat turned one year old.

So the length of the warranty is not the question mark here.


wow.. then they whould of fixed it under warranty.. if they say its a faulty piece that you didnt mess up and other boats have this problem they should pay for it.. :huh:
 
That my thinking too. However they are saying that it is the fact that the boat spends its life in the water that caused the problem, and this fault would not have ocurred in a boat that lived mainly on a trailer .

I dont think the warranty specifies anywhere that you must not leave the boat in the water for more than x months.

I guess their argument is that the part failed due to corrosion or marine growth.

Its a tricky one......
 
My boat is in the water year round. If this problem happened to me I would insist they either cover it under warranty or point out the exact clause in the warranty that excludes it.

There are many boats with outdrives that remain in the water year round and if this is truly an exclusion it would really surprise me.
 
Be persistent with the dealer. If they won't handle contact either Sea Ray or Mercruiser directly and ask for assistance. Don't get angry or demanding, simply state that this is a warranty issue and needs to be explained if they don't want to cover it.
 
IMHO it should be covered under warranty, Stilbolts summed it up. Who are you dealing with? Have you contacted SeaRay or Merc directly yet? As Stilbolt said give your local dealer a chance and get something in writing from them stating why it is not covered. Send that info up to SeaRay or Merc and see what they say.
 
Spoke to the overall service manager for the dealer group today, he confirms it should be covered under warranty and he will be contacting the specific dealer for them to rectify the problem.

Cheers for the input all.
 

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