A THT buying experience with a good ending

[FireFly]

I guess you could say my recent boat buying experience is more or less one for the THT history books.

After selling my 19ft Key West CC last fall the wife and I agreed that the next boat would be a tad bit more wife friendly and it would need to have a working toilet and a cabin for the lady.

We checked out many boats and I sought feedback from many THT members and we narrowed our search down to the Scout 242 Abaco. Now the tough part was finding one with the options we wanted in a leftover 2005 model.

Called around to several dealers and my experiences were fairly typical with a mix of good sales people and some who were not so great. I had to expand my search quite a ways from NH to find what I was looking for an eventually found a 242 in Florida and the price was right.

I did some research on THT and found that Ed P. had purchased a boat from this dealer (Shafer’s Boats in Pinellas Park) and had a positive experience. I called the dealer and he was very pleasant to deal with and made the buying process hassle free.

We agreed on price and he worked with me on when I could have the boat picked up, payment and any other issues related to the sales process.

I called Steve at East Coast Trailers and he walked me through the ordering process and went above and beyond the call of duty when he helped me troubleshoot my wiring for my 7 pin connector and in cab brake controller on a Saturday night. The trailer is simply a piece of art and outstanding!

Then I called Jim at BOE and he helped me order up a slew of electronics and other goodies for the new boat. I could not have asked for better service from Jim!

The last piece of the puzzle was to arrange shipment of the new boat from Florida to NH. My dad and I thought about making the trip but decided it would be too costly to miss work, pay for hotels, gas, wear and tear on the vehicle and ourselves.

So I found Uship.com and put my details on the site. I had never used the site before so I did not know what I was in for. Sure enough I had several reasonable bids to haul the boat from Florida to NH.

I chose one bidder simply because he had good feedback and he lives right around the corner from my office. He drove to my office and met me the day I chose him so we could go over the details.

Turns out he had a client bail out at the last minute to haul a boat from MA to Texas so he was going to have to go to Florida with an empty rig but luckily I found a THT member in MA who just sold his Pathfinder to a guy in Florida and he needed the boat transported.

Last week my trucker (Jim) left NH, picked up the boat in MA and drove it Florida. On Monday Jim picked up my boat and he delivered it late last night.

I am not endorsing Uship.com because I am sure your results will vary from trucker to trucker but I can endorse the guy who transported my boat. He’s a class act and communicated with me throughout the entire process.

I could not be more pleased with the buying experience and want to thank all of those who provided feedback on boats, dealers and electronics.

I’m busy getting the electronics installed and will post pictures when I can.

Thanks again.
Joe

[fish on]

Now that's a good story and a good example of using online/THT resources. I've had the pleasure of working with both Steve and Jim and have had a similar experience. Makes the boat buying/rigging experience a whole lot more enjoyable. Congratulations and enjoy the new boat. Got a name for the new boat????

[Jetpowered]

Congratulations! What are you going to name the boat?

[Wet-n-Wiley]

[Parthery]

Congratulations....

Another THT success story!!!

[endoman]

Sound good!!
I have enjoyed my numerous transactions with THT vendors.
Each and every one are customer oriented and go that step beyond.

[HOTSPOT]

Congratulations and thanks for supporting the THT Vendors.

[msumoose]

Congrats on the new boat, and it is always nice to hear on here when something worked correctly, and not just blasting it when it does not!

Tight lines and best fishes on the new boat!

[auguste]

Congratulations FireFly

The last option you need for your boat is a THT anchor

I wish you many safe years of boating with your new boat.


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[FireFly]

No name picked out yet but we are working on it.