Problems with All American Drive Service in Michigan -- bankrupt? Or just terrible service?

LaRea

Is anybody else getting jerked around by All American Drive Service in Bronson Michigan?

Several of us have used this place over the years.  In the old days, they did fantastic work.  

Nine months ago, as a repeat customer, I shipped them my Bravo 3 outdrive for a routine rebuild.  Eight months ago, I paid in full (almost $6k).  Then they went dark on me.  A couple times he called me back to whine about supply chain, so I have been patient and friendly.  At this point, I no longer believe his story.  

Here's my guess:  the company has gone belly-up.  He probably fixed my drive months ago, and sold it to pay debts.  I'll probably get nothing back unless I sue in small claims court. 

I'd love to hear a positive recent experience to restore my faith in the company.  

aero3113

WoW, that’s not good….. I’ve only heard good things about them, but that was about a year ago. Don’t know their current status….

YYZRC

Sounds like a bad marriage…

Black_Diamond

I always had good luck with George there.  His shop was always loaded up when I stopped by. 

FWIW His shop is not too far out of the way when I travel over to Detroit for work.  Could wander by. 

Aqua_Aura

Did you pay with a credit card? Maybe you can do a charge back. 

LaRea

Long-timers here on the forum know I don't freak out over small stuff.  I do understand how the pandemic has affected small business owners, but it I don't think it takes nine months to get Merc parts. 

I filed a credit card dispute.  I also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but that complaint went nowhere because the company refused to respond to the BBB.  I even emailed the town's vice-mayor, but got no reply.  

@Black_Diamond if you find yourself in the neighborhood and can stop by, I'd love to know if he's still in business.  

Cableguy Greg

@LaRea, there is a place outside of Shanksville, PA called Blackburn Marine that all of the Pittsburgh marinas use for drive work. Might be worth it to change once you get things resolved. 

PickleRick

I had to order a merc part that was on a factory back order.  I ordered online vs a local vendor since price was better and I wasn't getting it quick anyways. I was told that if Merc gives you an eta on a back order it will likely take longer.  


Hope it's just a supply chain hold up for you.  For 6k, I'd be losing sleep. 

LaRea

@PickleRick - Actually he owes me around $10k.  He was supposed to sell the rebuilt drive on consignment, and give me the money.  I'm pretty sure a Merc drive with a 2-year warranty would go for $10k now.  I paid $12k for the new one to replace it.

Actually, I can't even use small claims court because the limit is $5000.  

Liberty44140

Have you called the police? At this point it’s theft (assuming you have some kind of email confirmation of services). For $10k I’d probably find a cheap flight there and show up with the Sherriff. 

PickleRick

If his business is going under he'll likely file bankruptcy, screwing anyone he owes money to, customers and vendors alike.

Hopefully he's just short staffed and can't gets parts.  Still in the swing of the summer busy season.  If rebuilding a bravo was easy every dope at a lawn mower shop would be rebuilding them as they are much more profitable than anything that says Briggs and Stratton. 

davidbrooks

This makes me sad to hear.  He did such a great job on mine.  The only reason i am not in the same situation is that i decided to just hold off cause i was moving and didn't think i was going to get much time on the boat this year...i was right.  I still need to get one of my outdrives rebuilt though.  I really hope this all turns around.

captkevin

Wow thats not good.

LaRea

If the problem was lack of parts, he would have told the BBB he can't get the parts.  The fact that he didn't respond to them at all makes me think he's disappeared.

captkevin

That really stinks. Had a similar experience & can relate. 

LaRea

I talked to George today.  It was the same story -- he's still waiting for parts.  If that's true, and he eventually fixes my drive, I'll come back and edit all of my comments in this thread. 

Man, I REALLY want it to be true.  It has now been 11 months since I shipped him that drive.  

captkevin

That stink. Good luck.

earl1z19

LaRea said:

I talked to George today.  It was the same story -- he's still waiting for parts.  If that's true, and he eventually fixes my drive, I'll come back and edit all of my comments in this thread. 

Man, I REALLY want it to be true.  It has now been 11 months since I shipped him that drive.  

I would be inclined to ask him what part?  I recently had drive issues and we needed to rebuild a drive. All the parts were available including the cone clutch which has been an availability issue all year. I think I would get my drives back and go to another shop. 11 months is ridiculous.

LaRea

It's the XZ gearset for a Bravo 3X.  If he's telling me the truth, he's getting yanked around by Mercury.  He said the parts are starting to flow now, so I agreed to wait another 2-3 weeks.  I'm glad that he finally returned a call, and that he's still working the problem, but I'll reserve judgment for now.

earl1z19

Yep, I needed that same part. Had it in 3 days out of Wisconsin and I needed mine just before labor day.  We did a 3x  2.0 ratio rebuild from top to bottom only thing we reused was the case. Sorry to hear its taken so long

LaRea

@earl1z19 who did the work for you?

earl1z19

A local outdrive company here in Port Clinton Ohio

PickleRick

Get the part number you need, call any mercrusier dealer and ask if said part number is on back order.  If they can get it call him back and tell him you can get it in a few days.  See what he says.  If he's behind on his payments mercrusier may have frozen his account.  

LaRea

Updating this thread. 

Do not use All American Drive Service.  You will lose your money.  George (if that's his real name) has nothing but excuses.  My outdrive and my $6k of cash are long gone.  I'll never see them again, and he shows zero remorse.  

I apologize to this forum for my past endorsements of this company.  

J3ff

Man. That stings man. He used to be the go to guy on all the forums for these things. Sorry to hear man. 

Liberty44140

Sorry to see this. He won’t even return your drive, unrepaired? 

Lake_Bum

Wow.  Terrible ending to this!  Did @Black_Diamond ever get a chance to stop by there? 

LaRea

No, and I've talked to George by phone quite a few times over the past 16 months.  He gets all defensive and starts yelling at me about how he has lost over a million dollars because of COVID supply chain problems.  At this point, I assume he sold my drive long ago to pay his debts.

Forget about email responses ... he refuses to put anything in writing.  He refused to respond to the Better Business Bureau, so they gave up trying.  

YYZRC

You should update the thread title @LaRea

I would also take another run at the credit card company. 

earl1z19

With $6k invested it would be worth a drive to go get it.
Also, SEI has started selling bravo 3 drives at a good price so if you need one I would check there as a starting point. Their drives come with a 3 year warranty and are about half the price of what Mercury wants for a new unit

LaRea

@earl1z19 - Fortunately for me, I installed a new drive before shipping the broken one.  If you think I'm angry now, imagine if my boat had been unusable for 16 months! 

Shame on me for being a repeat customer.  Even before COVID, everybody was b#tching about long delivery times.  I should have recognized the warning signs of a failing company.  

Lessons learned:
* Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

* If a vendor requires full payment before starting service, find another vendor.

* If a vendor's customers all start complaining about long delivery times, find another vendor.