West Marine warranty scam!

[Kevin84]

Originally Posted by kthoennes

That's the key to huge profits, massive volume. Nickel and diming - well, dollaring - a relatively small customer base will just drive more customers elsewhere.

You just hit the nail on the head. It's a small customer base. WM sells only to boaters. Wal-Mart sells to everyone. They can absorb a small margin and still make a profit. West Marine is a far smaller company. They need higher margins to turn a profit. They can't afford to make .02 on an item and hope to stay in business. They don't move that kind of volume. Their just isn't the customer base to support it.

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[pbiJim]

I've actually had good luck returning sub-standard items to West. As recently as a few months ago, I returned some electronics to them simply due to poor performance & they gladly gave me store credit towards a better performing item, which is what I asked for at the time.

Twice I've brought stuff back to them. Twice they have made good on it.

The only burr that they left under my saddle, came recently. I was looking at the HX-100 handheld VHFs that were 2 for $100. They were listed with a 3-year warranty that said $65 flat rate repair. Now a $65 warranty charge on a $50 radio seemed a little out of line, so I e-mailed them about it. They confirmed that this was indeed the case. I then commented that it wasn't much of a selling point. A few days later, I looked back at the web site again & still saw the 3-year warranty listed, but did not see the $65 flat rate detail enumerated. I'm wondering if the policy changed, or just the advertizing. I haven't dug into it any deeper since I saw the change.

[Gemini Dreams]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

and today i got some more bad news from west marine.

they will be charging you for the paper catalog - $5 i think - unless you're a 'gold' or 'silver' customer (don't know what that is). not that i blame them. must cost a few bucks to print them....

This has been true for years, it is customer "basing". They want your mailing address and email. They are pushing very hard for 100% customer information base. This way they send you all the flyers etc. Also if you loose your receipt they can print another one for your return. Accepting a return without a receipt can get the associate reprimanded and or fired. It can also prove that the radio you bought a year and 11 months ago is still covered under the 2 year warranty if you loose the receipt.

As a silver and gold member you get in store money back, they call it points like frequent flyer miles. silver is free and gets $5 for every 500 gold costs $24 and gets you $10 for every 250 spent. A good example would be a GPS on sale for $999 you should buy something for $1 and you would get $40 in certificates for use at West Marine.

Almost everyone but Publix and Walmart play the card game! I hate it but it is what it is. Seriously how many of us have a car that cruise and what happens to all those discounts from winndixie on the gas? The marina doesn't take the winndixie card!

W