H Marine TOTALLY RIPPED ME OFF OVER CHARGING ME FOR WORK NOT DONE - DO NOT TRUST THIS PERSON OR OUTFIT. THEY WILL TOTALLY RIP YOU OFF IF YUOU HAVE THEM REPAIR YOUR BOAT OR WATERCRAFT OR BUY THE GARBAGE THEY SE St. Petersburg, Florida

In business there are always some customers who feel that they deserve to receive something either for free or at a reduced rate, and then they make threats when they do not get their way. Some people even fabricate stories, elaborate experiences and make plainly false statements as a result of being told no.

This customer even admits to "guessing". We have never gone "out of business" and reopened elsewhere. We have continued to grow our client base and our company. We have factory trained technicians and a large customer base who come back time after time, and recommend us to friends and neighbors. We have increased the dimension of our business in order to be able to continue to meet their needs.

Over the years we have occasionally seen similar cases of "buyers remorse" - that is where someone makes a rash decision to buy an old vessel, usually from a friend (or a friend of a friend), thinking that they will make it run after spending a $100. They use this "excuse" to "sell" it to the wife and then find that they are in the doghouse when the bills mount up.

As for the authors comments regarding why would he bother writing a report. Well, apart from the reasons stated above, we all have met or heard of those people/neighbors who have absolutely nothing better to do, haven't we?

Also, for the record, we have never sold any vehicles other than boats, personal watercraft and trailers to transport them.

For anyone reading this and wondering who we are and what we do, I once again openly invite you to come and see our business operation, meet the team and judge for yourselves. We are conveniently located at 222 14th Avenue South, St Petersburg, 33701.

Once a liar always a liar. If you trust this guy only you are to blame. Why would I waste my time posting a report if I was treated fairly? Exactly, I wouldn't. The owner, lied almost a half dozen times: Here are just a few.

1) His teck never jumped the waverunner with his truck. He nearly sank his truck trying to back down the ramp. We used a small jumper I had my wife bring to us.
2)The wave runner was never tested in the water. He left the horrible experience to me.
3) He never adjusted his price. He stated he is not in the practice to negotiate his own rates.
4) If he doesn't sell cars on his lot, why was there an old BMW with a for sale sign in the windshield?
5) He went out of business and opened up elsewhere. My guess is he was a deadbeat tenant and the property owner evicted him.
6) The battery he claims was used was purchased brand new from Auto Zone.
7) and the lies continue.
Bottom line is the guy is a con artist. Trust him at your own risk. You will regret it. Stay away from this guy. He is bad news. In the event he opens else where and changes his company name, his name is Mark and has a British accent and zero personality.

As one would expect the author of the "report" has misled, misinformed and left out some very important facts during his rather poorly put together rant.

Firstly, we were contacted to install the carburetors on a ski that he had obtained from a friend. On arrival it was obvious that the ski was in poor condition and that the carburetors were not to be found. They were at a repair shop where a friend of the new owner worked. We collected them from this repair shop, and rebuilt them using genuine Mikuni rebuild kits. We then revisited the client and installed them in the ski.

At that point the client was informed that the fuel was old and should not be used in the rebuilt carbs. Also the battery was totally dead and should be charged or changed.

We were paid the $200, as previously agreed, for two visits, collecting the carbs, rebuilding using rebuild kits, and installation. This was agreed prior to any work being undertaken and we completed the work as requested in a timely and professional manner.

We were contacted some days later by the client as he had been unsuccessful in starting and running the ski despite a good battery and fresh fuel. We pointed out that if further work was required then it would be easier, and cheaper, to have the ski at our shop where we had more equipment and easy access to supplies. As the client did not own a trailer we offered to loan him one to bring the ski to our shop.

Some time passed before we were presented with the ski on our trailer by the client who was accompanied by a friend. They were unable to unhitch the trailer from his truck due to a very corroded hitch system. We attempted to help but in the end he disconnected it by tieing a strap from the trailer a lamp-post and driving his truck fowards in an attempts to separate the two. The strap was so badly entangled in itself that he abandoned it on our sales forecourt. We later had to cut it for removal.

The client had attempted to start the ski without removing the old gas and had undone the work that had previously been paid for. We also noted that the battery was not a new one. In addition there were other items that needed to be done to restore the ski to running condition. We worked on his ski between other, previously booked in, jobs.

Once we had the ski running in the shop and all seemed well, the client was informed and invited to collect it. He was also invited to test run the ski before paying any invoices. He collected the ski and took it to a nearby ramp. A short time later he returned with the ski and stated that it wasn't running "quite right". We agreed to take a further look at the ski and do some sea trials ourselves.

Once we tested and adjusted the ski our factory trained technician took it on a sea trial and passed it as ready to go. He was witnessed by our yard person who helped with the launch and retrieval.

When we informed the client that it was ready we presented him with the invoice for the work undertaken which included the carburetor rebuilds which had to be redone because of the use of bad fuel.

The client was not happy that he had a further bill from us and said that he did not wish to spend any money on a 17 year old ski. It would appear that he expected it to run and be fixed for free. As he was a "repeat" customer we did work with him on the bill and there were several shop items that were not invoiced, nor was the sea trial or the loan of the trailer. The client continued to argue that it was too much to spend on an old ski and then threatened to trash our company name as he was a journalist (hard to tell when you read his report riddled with spelling and grammatical errors).

We agreed to arrange for a technician to meet with the client at a ramp close to his home where he could ride the ski. Our technician waited for almost an hour before the owner turned up. They launched the ski and it failed to start because of the old battery that he refused to replace. The technician jumped the ski using the delivery truck battery and the owner proceeded to ride the ski. He then rode the ski to his home rather than pay the technician.

My technician drove to the ski owners home where he had already returned and collected a check for the invoice, and the check was returned to our office to be banked as normal.

Until reading the blatantly false report we were not aware that there were any further issues with this ski. Our work is guaranteed and we would gladly have taken it back for further examination.

One thing that continued to be a sore subject with the ski owner was that it was an old ski and that he didn't want to spend any money on it. So I ask, why buy it from a friend (some friend) in the first place, why have another friend remove the carburetors and take them to another repair shop, and why then think that an established company would pick up the pieces of your mistakes and make it all right for free?

HMarine Inc has been serving the Pinellas county boating community for 11 years and we occasionally run in to the odd difficult customer, but we have never been called "thieves" or anything like that. In fact we have many customers who trust as with spare keys not only to their boats but also to their properties so that we can maintain and service them even in their absence.

We have just opened a larger service and sales center in the Harborage Marina area at 222 14th Avenue South, St Petersburg, and I openly invite anyone to come and see this great facility where we continue to keep boats and their owners on the water.

We also have an inventory of pre-owned boats and jetskis for sale that we offer on behalf of our clients. We do not however sell used cars as falsely stated by the complaint author - but then again it does contain an awful amount of factual errors.