Purchased a 265 express (2002) and mothballed it for a couple of years (the boat was warehoused and out of service for a couple of years prior to my purchase. The cuddy cushions were still in plastic and paper wrap when I purchased the boat.). Recently pulled it out and put new outboards, outriggers and electronics,etc on it. Not my first Grady and not new to boats and rigging by a long shot. I noticed several cracks in the headliner and contacted Grady about it.. They sent me a free pint of gel coat and basically told me have at it. That was from their head of customer service. Their head of Customer Service acted like he had never heard of the problem, when in fact there are numerous references to it on this forum alone, as well as several documented responses by Grady in the past to repair a known defect in product. Subsequently I have seen on this forum and several other forums where they have admitted a problem in my year of manufacture and model (as well as other models) and have stood good for repair/compensation beyond the normal warranty period. I keep getting the email newsletter from Grady that Grady Days are here and how wonderful the new models are and how Grady is first in customer service according to "some award service" and to buy buy buy. But sadly receive nothing about support and service after the sale, when it comes down to my problem. I have attempted to contact Grady again about this problem and shall post an update as their reploy.
Poor Customer Service from Grady White
- Thread starter captain swag
- Start date
The boat is going on 11 years old! It was stored for years, who knows under what circumstances. You bought it used too...
Are you serious?
Are you serious?
seasick said:
X2
We've had our boat for almost 11 years, we know how it has been used and cared for, and we have always had excellent customer service from GW when we've needed it.
Brian
Fishtales
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Hi,
I'm thinking GW misunderstood your problem. A pint of gelcoat will not solve the problem.
I'd contact them again and go over it with them. The problem you describe is a crack in the plastic headliner due to contraction and expansion of the headliner and the fact that it is hard mounted to the cabin ceiling. If this occurs (not all are subject to the problem - my 300 did not have the problem), it usually will happen during one of the first exposures to low temperature.
The two methods I have seen done to fix the issue is to heat the area with a heat gun and fuse the crack. I have also heard of using a block of the material and heating it with the heat gun to transfer some of the block material into the crack area to again fuse the crack. I believe the block is solid until heated. The problem happened to my first 282 and my dealer fixed the issue for me and it never reappeared. Done right (as it was done on my boat) it is almost impossible to detect.
While I agree an 11 year old boat is out of warranty and usually you are out of luck with most manufacturers, I think you will find GW Cust Service or a local dealer will be willing to assist you to make it correct. If not, post again and maybe someone here that did the repair themselves can help.
Good luck!
I'm thinking GW misunderstood your problem. A pint of gelcoat will not solve the problem.
I'd contact them again and go over it with them. The problem you describe is a crack in the plastic headliner due to contraction and expansion of the headliner and the fact that it is hard mounted to the cabin ceiling. If this occurs (not all are subject to the problem - my 300 did not have the problem), it usually will happen during one of the first exposures to low temperature.
The two methods I have seen done to fix the issue is to heat the area with a heat gun and fuse the crack. I have also heard of using a block of the material and heating it with the heat gun to transfer some of the block material into the crack area to again fuse the crack. I believe the block is solid until heated. The problem happened to my first 282 and my dealer fixed the issue for me and it never reappeared. Done right (as it was done on my boat) it is almost impossible to detect.
While I agree an 11 year old boat is out of warranty and usually you are out of luck with most manufacturers, I think you will find GW Cust Service or a local dealer will be willing to assist you to make it correct. If not, post again and maybe someone here that did the repair themselves can help.
Good luck!
Poor customer service ? Are you kidding ? You got free gel cote too. Let me remind you your boat is 11 years old.
sorry to hear you feel that way.
i thought i read that the headliner cracks were in the larger cabin boats (marlins and express). might be that is what the cs was talking about (not hearing it in 265s), but i speculate.
i've personally had nothing but top shelf support from their customer service.
was the crack there when you purchased the boat? if not, there could have been water intrusion during your layup that froze and caused the damage; something to look into and fix before it gets worse. if it was there, was there any external damage repairs in the area of the crack? sometimes it's hard to fix some boo boos.
i do hope you get what you are looking for, but the probability of GW (or any mfg) doing a warranty repair on an 11 year old hull, on their dime, doesn't sound great.
good luck, ron
i thought i read that the headliner cracks were in the larger cabin boats (marlins and express). might be that is what the cs was talking about (not hearing it in 265s), but i speculate.
i've personally had nothing but top shelf support from their customer service.
was the crack there when you purchased the boat? if not, there could have been water intrusion during your layup that froze and caused the damage; something to look into and fix before it gets worse. if it was there, was there any external damage repairs in the area of the crack? sometimes it's hard to fix some boo boos.
i do hope you get what you are looking for, but the probability of GW (or any mfg) doing a warranty repair on an 11 year old hull, on their dime, doesn't sound great.
good luck, ron
Capt Swag,
I feel your pain. I too had a crack in the headliner of my 30 Grady. It was less than a year old and they fixed it no questions asked. But, your expectations of "Customer Service" are out of line. You lay up a boat and don't use it for 10 years then expect the manufacturer to fix it? There is not a boat manufacturer on earth that would provide support for that.
Put yourself in their place. They would be out of business if they provided unlimited, unconditional lifetime warranties.
I feel your pain. I too had a crack in the headliner of my 30 Grady. It was less than a year old and they fixed it no questions asked. But, your expectations of "Customer Service" are out of line. You lay up a boat and don't use it for 10 years then expect the manufacturer to fix it? There is not a boat manufacturer on earth that would provide support for that.
Put yourself in their place. They would be out of business if they provided unlimited, unconditional lifetime warranties.
I've had nothing but incredible service from GW including a headliner repair when my boat was 8 years old. You might contact Eddie Rowe at GW. He can help you find a qualified person to make the repair. It is not reasonable to expect a warranty repair on a product that old by ANY manufacturer.
This has to be the first time I have ever heard anyone complain about GW customer service. Hear plenty of complaints about the boats over at the Hull truth but never CS not even over there. GW replaced my entire top on my 1997 Marlin 3 seasons ago, thats when the boat was 12 years old. The top started to delaminate in a few places. I called GW HQ and my local dealer Spellmans on Long Island. The boat was picked up from my house a new top installed including all the rigging and delivered back to me. NO CHARGE! What company would that on a 12 year old boat?