Illinois limits boats to 2 POB

[BigAbe75]

Kind of off topic, but since most of you are Illinois residents; where did you buy your boat?

My nearest Yamaha dealers are Chicago, St. Charles, and Indy. I'm in the middle of all of them. Do you have any suggestions or individuals that were great?

St. Charles Boat and Motor. Great experience with them - sales and major warranty help.

 

[WiskyDan]

Bought mine at Team Winnebagoland as well. It‘s not the cheapest place but great service and very knowledgeable - I definitely recommend.

 

[Jores]

Nielsons, Delivered my boat with a torn seat cushion- took months to get it replaced- had to go directly to Yamaha and they were not impressed with the customer service I received. Haven't been back since

 

[hapyfishrmn]

I just don't understand this type of service. Do they operate this way because they don't have any competition with all the dealerships spread out. You have only your local dealer to go to? Maybe Nielson's believe that their population territory is so large they can always get another customer through the door, because customer service doesn't pay the bill. I don't think you have to bend over backwards to please a customer, because people take advantage of business all the time. Just being decent seems to be too much for some people.

 

[Jores]

Yea me neither, or Yamaha for that matter- not sure if its just the guy running there parts or what- I quit talking to them on the phone because I couldn't get an answer and started an email conversation so I'd have records of everything. Again even the Yamaha customer service was surprised. Yamaha actually informed me that a replacement cushion was approved before the parts guy. Nielsons then acted like they did me a huge favor and tried to schedule me for ten hour service and winterization- what a joke. The boat was a great deal and the sales end there was helpful but I'd never recommend because of my experience with service.

 

[Dixie Highway]

Nielsen is (I believe) the only Yamaha jet boat dealer in Northern IL. This includes Chicago, the 3rd largest metro area in the U.S. I'm sure they have a certain arrogance that where else are you going to go? Well, I went somewhere else because as I (and some of you) have mentioned, they were unwilling to help a customer. Quick story, right before Memorial Day 2018 I stopped in looking for a 210 FSH. Told the guy I was serious, but I would not place an order before seeing one in person. I wanted to be sure it would fit our family needs, and at the time I had not seen one in person. I told him if I liked it I would purchase. The salesman hemmed and hawed and said they didn't have one but they had a 190 FSH base. I did not like the layout, and told him the bow seating in the 210 was much more desirable. The 190 was a base model, no T-top or bimini. He basically told me that's what they had, and they would not be willing to bring a 210 in. He then proceeded to tell me I was foolish for wanting a center console here in IL and I should buy an AR210 because "that's what everyone buys". I thanked him for his time and left. Later in the year after Labor Day I was up in Oshkosh for business, and saw the dealer there had a 210 FSH Sport in stock. I called to verify and went to look. They were super accommodating, I told them up front I wasn't buying a boat mid September and then immediately store it. They offered the boat with $5k discount, plus they'd store it all winter and I wouldn't have to close until the next spring. I put a deposit down that day. They've been helpful since, even sending me warranty parts since they're 3 hours away. All I had to do was return ship the old ones. In my opinion worth the drive.

 

[WiskyDan]

I tried buying two used Yamaha’s in August of 2019 from two large dealerships in Wisconsin/Illinois - one was a Yamaha dealer and one wasn’t. I’m not going to mention their names in this thread but if anyone is interested I would share via PM.

My initial contact with Team Winnebagoland was in regards to a 2008 SX210 but it sold before I could get there. I told them to let me know if anything else interesting popped up and they said they would keep their eyes open.

The second place was a Yamaha dealership and had a 2010 AR240 at their showroom in northern Illinois that they were brokering for $23,000. I initially made contact with a nice sales guy at their Milwaukee area showroom and he put me in touch with a sales guy at the Illinois dealership. The guy didn’t return a single one of my calls or emails and when I complained about this to the Milwaukee salesman he got all pissy with me and I gave up.

The third place had a 2008 212SS for $17,000 that I put money down on to hold it site unseen. I talked to the sales gal and drove an hour to see the boat the next morning. I get to the dealership and the sales manager tells me that they don’t actually have the boat at the dealership. They got it on a trade in from a guy that is on the same chain of lakes as the dealership and when they were driving it back the port side engine died. Why the sales gal didn’t tell me this is a mystery - she works in the same location. Since they’re not a Yamaha dealer their service guys wouldn’t touch it so they sent it to Yamaha shop in northern Illinois - my guess is Nielsen. They told me that as soon as the shop was done with it we would finalize the sale. I was pretty happy because I figured that the boat would get fixed on their dime and I had avoided an engine issue. Fast forward four weeks and still no boat. I didn’t receive one pro-active call from the dealership to give me an update - I had to pry every piece of info out of them that I could. It appeared that the Yamaha shop couldn’t get the engine running right after several attempts.

At this point (first week of September 2019) I got a call from Team Winnebagoland about a low hours (122) 2006 SX230 that they had just taken in and we’re looking it over. The sales guy said that there was no need to put money down over the phone to hold it - they would give me first dibs when it was ready. I went to see it a few days later and after a 20 minute ride on Lake Winnebago I decided to buy it. I picked it up in the middle of September and it immediately went into heated winter storage. The sales guy said that while there wasn’t an official warranty on the boat he would work with me if anything came up once it went in the water this season. On my second time out in May, I noticed that the gas gauge wasn't moving off of full. I called the sales guy and he said they would take care of it - even offered to pick my boat up and bring it back to the dry-stack place that I have it at. Since I’m having so much fun with the boat (other than docking, ugh) I’ve held off so I don’t miss time on the water but it will get remedied at some point.

I was stunned by the lack of customer service at the second and third places - it seemed like they didn’t really want to sell me a boat.

 

[Jores]

We bought a 2016 242 limited that was still in the showroom (almost two seasons) at a great discount- we discovered the cushion after delivery and then had to work with the parts guy. I got so frustrated with his non answers over the phone i switched to email to create a record of what he was telling me. I then started a communication with Yamaha. Hard to figure how they would let a dealer treat a customer so poorly. I buy parts from babitts and do my own work- If I had to do it all over again I still would have bought that boat at that discount but I wouldn't advise the yes warranty until you figure out who's gonna be doing the work

 

[RiverRat]

I bought my boat from Nielsen’s back in 2014. Only negative thing about the purchase was paying Illinois sales tax. Just a tad higher than Wisconsin. At the time Skipper Bud’s(within 5 miles of me) didn’t sell Yamaha, and Lake Villa was about the same distance as Oshkosh. I bought in February, they had the boat I wanted in the color I wanted, gave me 2500 off msrp for a boat show special.