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New Princess 55 - Quality Control problems?

Discussion in 'Princess Yacht' started by Mikolebi, Jun 13, 2018.

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  1. chesapeake46

    chesapeake46 Senior Member

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    Me neither
  2. f3504x4ps

    f3504x4ps Member

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    I have this worry purchasing used, not so much with a new purchase till now. I've seen issues with new boats but nothing like this. Feel very bad for the OP.
  3. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    I feel horrible for him and really wouldn't have expected anything like this from Princess. Don't know if it's dealer or factory or what the history of that boat is. I've seen such disasters more than I like to remember. I recommend, even with the most dependable builders, making acceptance subject to survey. However, that doesn't resolve the issue as they've still got most of your money and getting it back is very hard. Now, when it's a builder that lacks honesty, even worse. I would love to hear what Princess has to say because I can't see how they would possibly consider any part of this acceptable. Dealers don't surprise me and, unfortunately, it's probably the dealer that has his money. Even so, I'd expect Princess to apply real pressure. Anything other than helping the OP can lead to serious damage to their reputation.
  4. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    We have talked about Princess and the Viking imports in the past.
    Overall, I thought our comments were better than fair to very good.
    I'm still at a loss over this (New?) delivery.
    It's got to be a bad dream (nightmare) for the OP.
    I really feel sad for the OP.

    The option warranties will expire before he starts using the boat (if he takes delivery of it).
  5. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    I have witnessed dealer demos that were run hard, put away wet, and finally fixed the following year (or next) to sell new.
    I have a customer with a boat like that he purchased. All the option warranties expired while the dealer ran it from boat show to boat show.
    He thought he bought a new boat with warranties.
    He can't give it away now.
  6. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    That's why I suggested checking some serial numbers and finding out the manufacturing date of the items. There was one case I heard of with a builder no longer in business where when the boat was delivered the engines were 5 years old.
  7. f3504x4ps

    f3504x4ps Member

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    If I'm buying New there is no way I would allow it to be used in boat shows, its not like there going to give me 30-40% discount. Just the wear and tare from people trampling through the boat being destructive looking over the boat and not having a care in the world how they treat it since there not buying it. I've seen it before. As CaptJ said run hard put away wet and fixed cosmeticly to look good again. No way.

    I would also be interested in knowing the mtg dates of mechanicals and electronics. I wish the OP the best in a resolution that he is happy with. MFG needs to make this right.
  8. PacBlue

    PacBlue Senior Member

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    After thinking about it a bit, I would have a hard time working with this Dealer any more.

    Trying to pass off that product as "new" for $2M shows me they don't understand the business or there intentions are truly misguided. They should know the product inside out, same with all the systems, cosmetics, etc. They should be experts in what they are trying to do, especially when selling a product for $2M. OK, they may be "trying hard" to get the work list done (or not), but they should have known this was coming and either took care of the items before marketing the product or had a team in place to accomplish the work list (with factory support aligned) during the sales process.

    As far as the factory goes, a less than urgent response and assignment of resources to this customer's issues is a great clue as to what they are about. They both can play the factory/dealer blame game at the customer's expense, not to mention loss of boating time as the season is now, but that behavior is inexcusable and hard to observe in our industry.

    I would walk right now, as the future only holds more misery when the things "missed" on todays work list come back to haunt you.

    I sincerely wish the OP a much better experience in his yacht purchase, the customer deserves much better.
  9. Fishtigua

    Fishtigua Senior Member

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    At this point I be handing the keys back to the yard and asking for my money to be returned.
    Kevin likes this.
  10. Kevin

    Kevin YF Moderator

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    Agreed. Instead of fighting to get things repaired, he should be fighting to get every last penny refunded so he can begin looking elsewhere.
  11. wdrzal

    wdrzal Senior Member

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    If I was in your position , I concur with above posts; A complete refund ,do not accept this boat no matter what they promise or offer (you've been lied to and mislead to the point this is not only a civil matter but a criminal matter "theft by deception"). I would possibly accept a new boat from Princess if they let you monitor the build from the keel up ,be present at the first splash and sea trial and your surveyor signs off at the delivery point (this is because I believe that most all the problems occurred at the dealers hand or after it left Princesses yard.

    Also keep posting as many pics as you can to publicly show what's been done to you on a world wide forum and continue to put pressure on the dealer and Princess to end this nightmare.
  12. Mikolebi

    Mikolebi New Member

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    Dealer's story is typical I believe. A couple times apologized then business as usual.
    Perhaps no reason to act otherwise as the price was fully paid (?)
    Unfortunately we had to chase the dealer multiple times every day to get things done. Every week they introduced a new 'responsible person' and we had to go through the list over and over again each time a new face appeared onboard. Most of these faces disappeared now and we are left with the after sales manager and one engineer. They have prioritized the list according to their criteria and are currently progressing at idle. Since a month, we have only a single engineer dealing with all the issues on our list.
  13. Mikolebi

    Mikolebi New Member

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    The CEO of the yard has been contacted as well. We got a reply from him, first apologies then a copy paste of the dealer's (outdated) status report.
  14. Mikolebi

    Mikolebi New Member

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    Another issue that we are facing is the platform. We have asked whether a ZAR ZF1 tender would fit in the platform without any issues. Princess confirmed it will, so we placed the order through them. After fitting, we noticed that the platform needs to stay in the water as long as the passerelle is out. This poses a problem during docking/undocking (ie when you need to jump to dock to pickup the lazy line or release the stern line etc) or even periodically start the engines at the marina. When platform down, a loud buzzer goes off and engines would not start. You have to retract the passerelle and raise the platform. Dealer now says the tender is too big for the boat, although they were the ones to confirm dimensions and place the order.
    Attaching a few pics.
    IMG_2144.jpg IMG_2145.jpg IMG_2146.jpg
  15. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    And you have all their notes in writing?
  16. olderboater

    olderboater Senior Member

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    The dealer is lying to you and hasn't told you the history of the boat. Call the builder NOW!. You're getting shafted and you should not accept it. Don't just bend over and take it. You've been given a used and badly damaged boat instead of new.
    Kevin likes this.
  17. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Back out of the deal. IMO this is not the "new" boat that you ordered or purchased. This is just the surface of issues to come. I could say a lot more about the situation but have refrained.
  18. Mikolebi

    Mikolebi New Member

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    Yes, all comms have been made in writing. We avoided verbal comms as we thought the resulting ambiguity would only serve the dealer/yard.
  19. Mikolebi

    Mikolebi New Member

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    Many thanks for all your comments folks. They have been extremely helpful!

    After having read your comments, we have finally decided to start a blog where we will be describing in detail all issues that we encountered so far as we don't want other fellow boaters to go through same problems that turned our pleasure into a nightmare.

    Honestly speaking, we also feel that we have been deceived. We have talked to a few more Princess owners and they also confirmed that they had quality problems.

    I will be sharing the blog link very soon.

    We also contacted a legal firm in UK specializing in maritime law and asked for their legal opinion on how to deal with the situation.

    Will keep you guys posted... ;)
  20. amgscrap

    amgscrap Member

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    Unfortunately most people don’t realize that all boat manufacturers have a choice of law and venue provision in their contracts. Those provisions require any legal actions to be held in the builders location . Thus a UK built boat legal action must be brought in a specified location in the UK. The same with an Italian built boat, etc etc. Further, even if the boat is purchased from a USA local dealer, almost all dealer contracts indicate the buyers only recourse is from the manufacturer and not the dealer.