Larson Powerboats Sports Northwest

Warning: Do not buy from or service your boat at Larson Powerboats Sports NW in Fife. I have spent over $100k at their car dealerships over the past 30 years and have had good experiences. I had them do a pre-inspection on a used Regal boat I wanted to purchase since they are a Regal dealer and I was satisfied with their other dealerships. The cost was to be around $500. I had to drive a120 mile round trip on several occasions to contact their boat service department since followup phone contact by their service department was sporadic. After approximately 3 weeks I received an inspection report indicating the systems on the boat checked out. It was recommended the boat be serviced for an gear oil change, spark plugs, and rotor and cap so I had this completed expecting to have a good boating season. The total cost including the inspection came to over $1,400. Upon launching the boat in Lake Washington it would not accelerate beyond a very slow speed or plane and bogged down. Since it was now close to the 4th of July weekend and most dealers would be closed, we hired a certified mechanic to look at the boat on the water hoping it was something simple and a quick fix. The mechanic found two of the cylinders were not firing and one of the fuel injectors was bad. This cost an additional $150. He suggested we re-contact Larson for a resolve. We did so on 7/5/17 and asked for the inspection fee back since we were not going to chance further work by their service technicians. We were told that since we didn't have them test the boat under load in the water they had no responsibility. No where on any of their contractual paperwork does it specify nor did the service manager or any service technician ever indicate that their work would only be valid if an operational test was done in the water. We have owned several boats and had them serviced at various boat dealerships never having as a prerequisite that their service or repair was contingent upon a water test afterward. Since we believed Larson corporate may not be aware of the insidious dealings of their boat franchise, we contacted corporate officers directly again asking only for our inspection fee back. The specifics of the situation as outlined here was presented to them in writing. After a month of being passed around to various customer service representatives indicating they were looking into the situation, we were given the same response that since no in water test was completed they would refund no money. We misjudged that the corporate officers would want to keep Larson’s good name. Again we must stress that a water test was never offered, mentioned, or on any contract for service and repair that we received as a pre-requisite to the certification of work done.