Ritts Marine Extorsion fraudulent ripoff billing Westbrook Connecticut

In 2003, i decided to buy my first family cruiser and was looking around for boats. I decided on a 30ft express cruiser and the broker i was working with decided to take me to Ritts Marine to see a 30ft express cruiser that had twin 4.3L engines. I liked the boat and decided to move ahead with the purchase. I recall Ritt saying to me before i bought the boat " Good choice! That's a fast Boat" Thats what he said to me. So,when the trouble started in 2004-5 Ritt Czel did not hesitate to tell me that the the boat with those engines is " A BIT OF A SLUG IN THE WATER "

Anything to make a sale or to get the Money! Read on!

In fall of 2004, i decided to have Ritt of Ritts Marine winter my boat. Seeing that i was a new boater and still needed a lot to learn about maintaining a boat i decided to have them do everything. Of course, i am not completely dim when it comes to having someone do work for me, by the time fall of 2003 came around, i was very familiar with my boat inside and out.

I actually knew what the cost to winterize and store was. BUT i did not know what the cost of recoditioning my props would be. SO! i asked Ritt how much and he told me " Those will cost $175 per prop"......... so, when i got the bill he tried to charge me $250 per prop. I informed him about the mistake and he said " I HAVE TO MAKE MY 40% " and complained that the price he quoted me was his cost and he made a mistake so i was unwilling to pay more than the price he quoted me.

Anything to make a sale or to get the Money! Read on! Theres more!

So, at this point i am thinking a better check everything so i am familiar with what is being done to my boat. Flash forward to spring 2004. I call Ritt to tell him i wanted the boat prepared for launch in March of 2004. They did and and just before they launced the boat, i noticed two things. 1. The dive plate zinc was the exact same one that was on it from the past year.

2. The starboard side outdrive did not look like mine which was a very common type of outdrive and a mistake could have easily been made. I did mention this and they never followed up on it. (why did it not look like mine? Simple, there were no decals or serial numbers on the outdrive and i knew they were there when the boat was pulled out of the water in 2003 ) So.......He charged me for a brand new dive plate zinc even after i told him it was the exact same part. Of course later on i would protest the charge.

Anything to make a sale or to get the Money! Read on! Theres more!

So in March of 2004 I take the boat from his marina and drive it 25 miles down the coast with my friend to where i will be slipping the boat for 2004 and the whole way there in heavy seas, my friend and i noting that the boat is really performing poorly. We made it to our destination. At this point i Notice a few things.

The head still had anti freeze in it, which means they never commissioned the toilet. There was still antifreeze in the fresh water plumbing pipe which means they never commissioned the fresh water plumbing.

The sea water intake for the air conditioning system still had antifreeze in it which means they did not commission the air conditioning system.

Later i notice that he tried to charge me $17 a foot to paint the bottom when i was quoted $14. I thought to myself, "no big deal" i will just take it off the bill. Well, all said the total bill from fall of 2003 to the launch in spring 2004 was:

$2786.68 for the fall 2003 winterize and storage. None of which i disputed and i did pay!
$1118.19 for the spring commisioning( REMEMBER THIS AMOUNT, IMPORTANT! )
$693.03 for the other services, i.e. prop recon and a few other things.(remember the prop recon issue above?)

So all said, i paid the bills minus the parts and work i claimed not to have been done, which amounted to $522.19. I also sent them their invoice where i had noted the items which i was unwilling to pay for.

Here is where Ritt pulls a sucker punch and gets more money.

Remember the part of the story where i told you that i was concerned that the starboard side outdrive was not mine? Okay.... so all of the 2004 season, my boat was not performing, It was a short season and i did not use the boat that much, but it was nagging at me and for the life of me i could not figure out why the boat was not coming up to speed.

Finally in the spring of 2005 it dawns on me that it was possible that the outdrive was the culprit. I think about and finally get it in my head that the outdrive MUST be the wrong one!. So now,looking down the barrel of having to spend $7000 for a new outdrive, i contact Ritt Marine and tell them that i am angry and feel they should look into this as a possiblity.

They were very nice and wanted to help even after i sent some strong emails about how they may have switched the out drives by accident. I NEVER accused them of doing anything underhanded. As i was saying, they were very nice and pleaded with me to bring the boat to them so they could look at it.

I finally agreed and brought the boat to them and my best friend was there with me. When i arrived, they said that they could not look at it today and to come back tomarrow.

At this point you should remember that i still had never paid the disputed amount of $522.19 and assumed that they had accepted it as a loss. Little did i know, Ritt was out to get me. From this point on you can call me the dummy!

So i go to Ritts Marine the next day and he has my boat out of the water and the outdrives are removed from the boat AND completely taken apart. Now i know i am in trouble. Ritt takes me into his office and tells me how he called the former owner who confirmed that the starboard outdrive was in fact a reconditioned unit because the one that was on it when it was new had blown and the manufacturer replaced it with a rebuilt out drive.

The Ritt hands me a bill for $1118.19 and says " Okay, so all you have to do is pay this bill and we will put your boat back together and put it back in the water " Extorsion!? You Guessed it!

And all i thought he was going to do was "LOOK" at my boat, but nope! You guessed it, he was going to hold my boat in dry dock till i paid the bill. I suppose i should have called the cops, but i had a strong feeling that the police would have said its a civil matter and i would have to sue him which would take months. So i paid the bill and left very upset.

But not as upset when i looked at the charge slip and invoice he handed back to me. The charge slip dated 07/29/05 for $1118.19 was stapled to a copy of the invoice from 04/22/04 which was for the exact same amount.

So, as far as i am concerned, if you dispute a bill with Ritt, leave his marina and dont ever come back, because he will find a way to get the money out of you.
My brother had a similar experience, i am not going to get into that, but it is worth noting.

Michael
Guilford, Connecticut
U.S.A.