On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 15:01:44 GMT, "tony thomas"
wrote:

~~ snippage ~~

As for the trolling motor. Mercury listens to their dealers. If the dealer
had done his job properly by stating the problem - Merc would have covered
it. The dealer should easily be able to tell if the motor had been under
water or not.

Brand loyalty is a good thing Tony, and I will gladly admit that it
was a late post and I was feeling tetchy because of a lack of sleep
from a sore back and leg, but the point stays the same - Mercury is
stalling because they don't want to replace the motor because
admitting it means that it's a stupid and lousy design.

I took the time to point out the design flaws when I made the claim to
the dealer including, but not limited to, uninsulated pot tap and
positive/negative connectors, positive connection on top of the brace
of potentiometer taps including the 24 V dc negative lead, a complete
lack of positive lock connections anywhere on the potentiometer wiring
and a complete lack of proper sealing by which water could have been
kept out of the motor head if, by any chance, it had gone underwater
and finally, I gave them a copy of a national ad from "Sal****er
Magazine" and "Florida Sportsman" in which they tout the motor as
being "water resistant".

Secondly, to assume that a dealer didn't do the job properly, is
insulting. I've dealt with this dealership for a long time with more
than one boat and have received nothing but excellant service. They
went to bat for me on a FICHT that I had some problems with and about
ten years ago when I had a Fisher BassHawk with a 40 hp Merc out of
warranty by two months, they talked Mercury into covering the cost of
a new powerhead which failed - I paid the labor. Do you really think
that a dealer who has had a customer for more than twenty years, who
has spent well in excess of $100,000 with them over time for boats,
engines, service, winterizing, parts, etc., won't do what they can to
make it right?

Third, even if I had put the thing underwater at some time, it would
have had to stay there for a long period of time to allow sufficient
moisture to enter the control head to corrode the connectors. At that
point, the boat would have to had sunk. Which it hasn't.

One item of note was that there was no corrosion evident on any of the
other connectors what survived the fire. So much for Mercury's
contention.

Mercury's current warranty department is less than accomodating based
on this experience. And because of that, and anecdotal evidence from
other Mercury owners in my area who have had different warranty
problems, I won't own one again.

And I apologize for the poorly worded and over the top post last
evening.

All the best,

Tom
--------------

"What the hell's the deal with this newsgroup...
is there a computer terminal in the day room of
some looney bin somewhere?"

Bilgeman - circa 2004