Without a doubt, the worst customer service I have EVER experienced. It boggles my mind that they could still be in business with that kind of service.
We dropped our boat motor off the first week of June. It was an old piece of junk, so we offered them $100 just to take a look and let us know if it was fixable or not. They said that wouldn't be a problem.
After not hearing from them for over a week, and wanting to actually use our boat, we called. They said, to our amazement, it was only the bottom end that had seized and they would fix it--they just had to find the right parts. They would let us know.
Another couple weeks passed. We left two phone messages that were not returned. We stopped in on a Friday and the mechanic told us the parts he needed had just arrived that morning, and it would cost us less than $300 to fix. We told him that was great, because if it hadn't been fixable we were ready to buy a new motor--we'd started shopping for one that morning. He told us not to worry, it would be ready Monday or Tuesday.
We didn't hear from them, so I called again on Wednesday afternoon. The receptionist told me bluntly that no, it wasn't ready. When I asked when it might be ready, she told me she didn't know. I pressed her to find out, pointing out that the summer was fast disappearing and it would be nice to be able to use our boat. She told me she wouldn't be able to find out when it was ready, I'd just have to wait for them to call.
Over the course of the next 5 weeks we stopped in and called several time. Three more times we were informed that "the part we needed just arrived today". We could believe in a coincidence where we happened to stop in and the part happened to have arrived that morning the first time. Even the second. Four times? It wasn't difficult to see they were lying to our faces. We were clearly not a priority.
Further, when we told them it had been there for 8 weeks, and to simply tell us if we needed to go buy a new motor, the mechanic acted astounded, as though he couldn't believe it had been there for that long. What kind of business is Wharf running if they don't have some idea of how long a work order has been on their desk?
We finally picked it up from them 3 weeks into August. The bottom end was in pieces; they said "something must be warped, because we can't seem to get it back together." Well, it wasn't warped when we brought it in to them 11 weeks ago.
We had told them right from the beginning to tell us if it wasn't fixable--we'd have bought a new motor. Instead we spent the entire summer with our boat on dry land because they strung us along with "the part just arrived today" and "it'll be done next week."
On top of that, during the 11 weeks they had it we were told several times they would call us with an update, and we left at least half a dozen phone messages requesting they call us back. In 11 weeks not a single time did anyone at Wharf actually pick up a phone and call us. We had to chase them down every time we wanted an update. I work for a small business. My boss would die if we ever treated a single one of our clients--big or small--in such a way. read more
