Beneteau Attitude Suck for You?

[gtsusa]

Dear Beneteau Owners Past and Present,

I am interested in finding ALL of you out there that have had a difficult time buying a Beneteau boat in the US - either (1) you tried to buy a Beneteau, but decided not to because of either the dealer, or Beneteau SA or (2) you purchased a boat and had a terrible experience with warranty issues.

I am not trying to drum up a class action lawsuit, but I do want to hear all the ''horror stories'' so that in an article(s) I am writing will have as many real world examples of poor service and brand destruction as possible.

After all, Beneteau is a GREAT brand, but as I know many have also seen, it is being ruined by arrogance, complacency and a corrupted dealer network that is encouraged to manipulate the market and fix the pricing through lack of transparency and the CSI program.

So you may be asking - Who is this guy and why should anyone write to him?

I am a Beneteau Biggot and love the design, the brand and have been sailing Beneteaus for over 20 years. My first experience of buying a new Beneteau was torture and even after trips to France to the HQ in 2005 and to see ''my'' boat on the production line in Marion I was forced to dissolve the contract due to the attitude of the dealer AND Beneteau. I want the shareholders of Chantiers Beneteau S.A. to know what is going on here in the US and how the management is killing a great product quality and a great name. I intend to publish the events of my failed purchase in various magazines and online.

If you have any stories and want to get anything off your chest, let me help you. I''ll work with all respondents, keep confidentialities and protect identities as requested. Please send me your Beneteau ‘frustration story’ and/or Beneteau nightmare (big, or small) to gtsusa@yahoo.com.

Regards and thank you in advance for contributing to a process to protect the Beneteau brand and your investment!

A Beneteau Biggot.

[Jeff_H]

I am wondering if you have simply hit a bad dealer. I have been in direct ccontact with quite a few people who have bought new Beneteaus out of Annapolis Yacht Sales and others who have owned older Beneteaus. I have been extremely impressed with quality of service that I have witnessed. Annapolis Yacht Sales has its own service company and perhaps that may affect the quality of service relative to other dealers but I have watched over and over again as issues have been sorted out quickly and to the owner''s satisfaction. Frankly the high quality service has been one of the aspects that leads me to recommend Beneteaus so strongly.

I have also been involved with a number of people who owned older Beneteaus. Again I was extremely impressed with Beneteau USA''s support of older models. Odd items like the curved doors were readily available at reasonable prices. Items like the Lewmar hatches that were not even Beneteau products were stocked and sold below prices at discount stores. They had tech guys just a phone call away who knew even the older boats inside and out and in sufficient detail that they were capable of providing detailed routing for new wiring allowing us to run the wiring through the pan without having to cut new holes.

In the new boat deals that I have followed Beneteau seems to have delivered their boats on time, for the quoted price, and as ordered. The only shortcoming that I have experienced is that these are production boats and so the Beneteau factory seems to be reluctant to make anything beyond the most minor changes and charge quite a bit for any changes beyond the norm.

Since I often recommend Beneteaus to people looking for coastal cruisers or cruiser/racers, I am concerned that you have not had a good experience with them. I would be very interested in learning what sort of problems have you encountered?

Respectfully,
Jeff

[gtsusa]

Jeff,

Thank you for the feedback. I too have found AYS very helpful. In fact, Ken Commerford at AYS is a ''stud'' when it comes to sales and selling a Beneteau. If I could I would have purchased a boat from him. However as so well put by AYS and the 7 other dealers I spoke with myself, or through a proxy, Beneteau USA drives dealers via the CSI reward program. They also support the notion that "This is America and you can buy from any dealer....BUT..."

And here is the kicker that is just ONE part of what I''ll write up for all would be buyers of a new Beneteau...this is a quote from the dealer that just lost the sale in which he is 100% honest and right about buying a boat ''outside'' of region as you are suggesting...

"if you buy it from another dealer, honestly they are not going to warranty it here. Beneteau will warrant it but you''re going to be dealing directly with Beneteau on any warranty issue on the boat. No different than if you walked in here, bought this boat and you then moved to Florida a week later. The Bnt dealer in Florida is not going to help you. Sure they might be friendly etc, but they are going to tell you to call the factory direct, they didn''t sell the boat to you."

Thanks and keep sending the emails. Yes, there will be great service scenarios (as should be the norm), but I want to hear from all those that had poor experience a the hands of a dealer, or Beneteau USA.

[TejasSailer]

gtsusa,

I recently purchased a Beneteau First 36.7 from the Texas Sailing Academy, and so far I am pleased with the boat, the dealer, and indirectly, with Beneteau.

[eragbag]

I bought an OC 381 from Sailing Specialties in Mystic, CT in 2000 and experienced no problems with either the dealer or the boat. In fact, the boat was delivered remarkably trouble free.

[welshwind]

For what it is worth, your request to only hear the bad stuff (as opposed to simply asking people about their experiences - good and bad), comes across as someone with an axe to grind as opposed to someone trying to figure out if your experience was the norm, an aberration, or somewhere in between.

I have never bought a new boat (never understood why people wanted to pay the 'new boat' premium), so I have no experience to contribute.

[JohnRPollard]

Before this goes any further, I just wanted to point out that the original post is almost two years old and the thread has been dormant just as long.... and Beneteau is still in business...

[sailingdog]

eragbag-

You really shouldn't revive old dead threads... this was dead for almost two years, and you need to check on the dates of the posts before replying to them. In many cases the posters from a dead thread are long gone, and no longer active on sailnet. GTUSA for instance, has only two posts to their credit, both of which were on this thread....

[welshwind]

Yikes - I hadn't noticed the date or I would have kept quiet. Sorry.