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Why buy a Malibu?


XBoys

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Sure Malibu makes a great boat just like many of their competitors. I would like to share the following story with you that may help you decide the next time your out looking for a new boat.

I am no expert when it comes to boats and had never owned one up until recent years, excluding a couple of jet skis. When I started my search for a boat I knew exactly what I wanted, I was looking for a wakeboarding boat :). I looked at Mastercraft first and fell in love with an X-45 and if not for my better half would have probably bought the boat on the spot. But as luck would have it I continued my search and went to check out Malibu's line of boats. The guys at Darryl Moores Marine where very helpful and I test drove the Wakesetter 23 LSV. The boat drove great and although a bit smaller than the Mastercraft it handled better and rode much smoother under similiar conditions. We negotiated a bit and after a little back and forth we purchased a new 2008 Wakesetter 23 LSV. So the journey begins...

From the very first time we took the boat out we experienced problems. The port side rack fell off and sunk to the bottom of the lake, the tower bolts came out, lost a Samson mirror during trailoring due to excessive vibration from the Tower, heat sensors, heat sensors, heat sensors... This boat was in the shop more than it was out of it. We had numerous family outings and long weekends cut short becuase of problems with this boat. By the end of the season I was sincerely questioning my decision to buy the Malibu over the Mastercraft.

Then came the recall... Malibu had a recall program for the 2008 and sent Factory Technicians to my house to service the boat and replace specific items under the recall program. The guys showed up and did a great job and were very professional. At this point I was quite impressed with Malibu's commitment to addressing problems and making things right.

Work got busy and our first outing was to be Memorial weekend. We got out a bit early on Friday and got the boat in the water and did a bit of surfing with no problems. On Saturday we loaded everyone up and went out to do a bit of kneeboarding / tubing with all the kids when low and behold ... the temp sensors went off again. My first thought was you got to be kidding... I now know why boat places are closed on Monday, it gives the pissed off boat owners time to cool down :). On Teusday I called Malibu directly and ended up getting a hold of the VP of Customer Service. Much to my surprise he knew who I was and was familiar with the problems I had encountered. We spoke for about half an hour when he finally asked me "Mr. Thiel what would you like me to do?". Now I was always taught to shoot for the moon and if you miss you'll land among the stars. So I said with out missing a beat "I would like a new boat." After just a brief moment of silence he replied Ok, lets see what we can do.

From here the process started with me following up with a letter in writing to Malibu with my incidents and my request. All my service records were pulled and the dealership contacted. After all things said and done Malibu replaced my 2008 Wakesetter for a 2010 Wakesetter at No Charge. The only thing I would have to pay for are any upgrades my 2008 boat didn't have if I choose them, i.e. MaliView.

I am a big believer in it is not the mistakes we make in life it is how we handle those mistakes. Malibu is a company that believes in their products and more importantly are willing to stand behind them when they do have problems. Throughout this entire process the people at Malibu and Darryl Moore's Marine have been nothing less than professional, courtious, and understanding. They have taken a situation that more times than not ends with a Customer Disatisfaction story and turned into a customer loyalty story.

I can't guarantee you will not have problems with your boat but I can tell you Malibu will be there for you if you do and that is why I recommend you buy a Malibu.

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Nice post. I would like to believe that your 2008 boat was an exception to the quality of the product. Regardless, customer service is so important and unfortunately with the expense reductions we all are seeing it usually goes out the window.

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Fairy Tales do come true!

It sucks when you hear horror stories about all the problems they had to endure, especially when it's your buddy's ride that is down. It will make you...Crazy.gif

This is the stuff you hear about but you never see first hand. Way to go Malibu!

Now if we could just get a stinkin invite for some surfin it would be the perfect ending, after all we're family. Innocent.gif

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It's no wonder people spend 6 figures of dough with Malibu. I'm so glad I can't tell that story based on my experiences with Malibu. Mine have just been happy times :-) Well at least there are pictures of the happy times. Always seems to be a bottle of tequila in the picture though Whistling.gif

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Nice post, thanks for sharing.

That is why I do and always will believe in Malibu, kudos to Malibu.

-Paul

PS: Mastercraft used the same ETX-Catalyst Sensor and had all the same issues in 08.

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people come on these boards often just to complain and vent. It is VERY nice to hear a good story like yours. Props to malibu, but also to you for (seemingly) keeping your cool and working things out responsibly.

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I havn't had the major problems you have had but still a few things here and there that where irritating. Malibu sent out the crew to do the recall and they went through my boat from stern to bow and if it was broke or questionable they fixed it. I c an't speak highly enough about malibu's customer service. I too looked at MC before buying as well as Tige. This is why I own a malibu beside the fact it's an awesome boat.

Clap.gif

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As cool as it is that Malibu stepped up and replaced that boat (and they should've considering the money you spent), it's probably not in anyone's best interest to post that on this site. I'm sure your intentions are in the right place, but discussing a situation where Malibu provided a replacement like this puts unrealistic expectations on the company and dealership. People with non-serious, non-frequent quality issues will begin to think if they scream loud enough that they too will get a replacement boat. I'm sure your quality issues were severe and significant, but most owners' problems are not or Malibu wouldn't have the quality reputation that it has. It makes the job of Mike Sanchez (or whoever is heading up Customer Service now) extremely difficult. Again, I'm sure your intentions are in the right place and I'm sure it was the way you handled the situation that made Malibu take notice, but I just can't believe that this is in Malibu or the dealer's best interest. Good will and standing behind a product are a given with Malibu I think. My $.02.

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MalibuSteve, you make an excellent point and I was a bit hesitant to post. It is so rare to find a company like Malibu that stands behind their product in this way, that goes for any industry not just the boating industry, that I had to share.

It is worth noting that this was not a case of me bitching and yelling and acting like a two year old either. My attitude is and always will be that if boat problems are the worst thing to plague me than I have it pretty easy. Sure it is a bit frustrating but nothing to get excited about. Had I taken the approach of screaming I probably would not have made the friends I have through this process.

Definetly enjoyed a nice cool glass of lemonade with the good folks at Malibu and Darryl Moore.

I'm assuming if you bought it at Darryl Moore you ride on Lake Conroe or Lake Houston and not Clear Lake or Galveston Bay right?

We generally go to Lake Bryan or Lake Somerville. Lake Bryan is small but the water is smooth and clean.

Edited by XBoys
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As cool as it is that Malibu stepped up and replaced that boat (and they should've considering the money you spent), it's probably not in anyone's best interest to post that on this site. I'm sure your intentions are in the right place, but discussing a situation where Malibu provided a replacement like this puts unrealistic expectations on the company and dealership. People with non-serious, non-frequent quality issues will begin to think if they scream loud enough that they too will get a replacement boat. I'm sure your quality issues were severe and significant, but most owners' problems are not or Malibu wouldn't have the quality reputation that it has. It makes the job of Mike Sanchez (or whoever is heading up Customer Service now) extremely difficult. Again, I'm sure your intentions are in the right place and I'm sure it was the way you handled the situation that made Malibu take notice, but I just can't believe that this is in Malibu or the dealer's best interest. Good will and standing behind a product are a given with Malibu I think. My $.02.

Initially when I saw this post, I had the same thought. It could potentially put Malibu in a tough spot, & could make people think that if they have small problems then they'll get their boat replaced on a whim. But after giving it some thought, I'm not so sure that it's a bad thing. Conversely, a person can go on this board or Wakeworld or any of the others, make a post that positively rips the company a new one & Malibu is pretty much powerless to do anything about it. Have any of you checked out the Craigslist Rants section? It's gotten to where the company that I work for has to monitor that section, because people can be incredibly petty & downright dishonest with regard their grievances, & many times they'd rather just rant about it on the internet than to contact someone that can actually give them satisfaction. Google is launching its own version of reviews for sites (in addition to other new site ranking factors), so all of this is upon us whether we like it or not. So I guess my point is that we have had to take the bad, & with that being the case I will gladly take what good that comes with it. What Malibu has to come up with (if they haven't already) is a plan/policy for how they deal with this that would be clearly defined & easy for people to understand. Sort of like Malibu's version of the Lemon Law. With regard to the OP's situation, I believe that there are several reasons that this happened so easily, not the least of which is the fact that the boat was an '08. People should keep that in mind when having expectations with regard to warranty issues. Not that that means that they will.

I think that we're just living in an age where online reputation management is something that all companies are going to have to learn to live with (if they haven't already).

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Initially when I saw this post, I had the same thought. It could potentially put Malibu in a tough spot, & could make people think that if they have small problems then they'll get their boat replaced on a whim. But after giving it some thought, I'm not so sure that it's a bad thing. Conversely, a person can go on this board or Wakeworld or any of the others, make a post that positively rips the company a new one & Malibu is pretty much powerless to do anything about it. Have any of you checked out the Craigslist Rants section? It's gotten to where the company that I work for has to monitor that section, because people can be incredibly petty & downright dishonest with regard their grievances, & many times they'd rather just rant about it on the internet than to contact someone that can actually give them satisfaction. Google is launching its own version of reviews for sites (in addition to other new site ranking factors), so all of this is upon us whether we like it or not. So I guess my point is that we have had to take the bad, & with that being the case I will gladly take what good that comes with it. What Malibu has to come up with (if they haven't already) is a plan/policy for how they deal with this that would be clearly defined & easy for people to understand. Sort of like Malibu's version of the Lemon Law. With regard to the OP's situation, I believe that there are several reasons that this happened so easily, not the least of which is the fact that the boat was an '08. People should keep that in mind when having expectations with regard to warranty issues. Not that that means that they will.

I think that we're just living in an age where online reputation management is something that all companies are going to have to learn to live with (if they haven't already).

I see where your coming from and xboys i'm appreciative that you didn't fly off the handle at my response and see it as a personal attack that I disagreed with your decision to post that information. That cool headed response is probably a major reason that Malibu was willing to work with you. Wakegirl, I hear you about the whole negative rant thing. Unfortunately though, when Malibu does swap out a bad boat for a new one and it gets publicized, this costs Malibu too. It costs them to make the swap and then potentially causes future warranty resolution issues with other customers. It's like danged if they do or danged if the don't. At any rate, since its already out there, it's worth noting to all that Malibu is a stand up company and this really proves it.

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I see where your coming from and xboys i'm appreciative that you didn't fly off the handle at my response and see it as a personal attack that I disagreed with your decision to post that information. That cool headed response is probably a major reason that Malibu was willing to work with you. Wakegirl, I hear you about the whole negative rant thing. Unfortunately though, when Malibu does swap out a bad boat for a new one and it gets publicized, this costs Malibu too. It costs them to make the swap and then potentially causes future warranty resolution issues with other customers. It's like danged if they do or danged if the don't. At any rate, since its already out there, it's worth noting to all that Malibu is a stand up company and this really proves it.

Just don't forget that there is a positive to the situation for Malibu as well. Nobody will ever know how many unregistered guests come to this site one time or for one weekend while they are debating over their purchase of a new boat. A post like that could go a long way toward convincing a Newbie that Malibu is the way to go.

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I see where your coming from and xboys i'm appreciative that you didn't fly off the handle at my response and see it as a personal attack that I disagreed with your decision to post that information. That cool headed response is probably a major reason that Malibu was willing to work with you. Wakegirl, I hear you about the whole negative rant thing. Unfortunately though, when Malibu does swap out a bad boat for a new one and it gets publicized, this costs Malibu too. It costs them to make the swap and then potentially causes future warranty resolution issues with other customers. It's like danged if they do or danged if the don't. At any rate, since its already out there, it's worth noting to all that Malibu is a stand up company and this really proves it.

I think that sums it up nicely. :)

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