Boat company too proud?
 

Just wanted to share an experience with everybody. As some of you know on here, I have a wakeboard boat dealership.. My dad is a big inboard boat fan and lives about 8 hours away, so definitely in a non- competing area with me. I am not going to name the dealership or location so nobody gets their feelings hurt. My dad goes to the local boat show where all of the major brands are displayed. He is walking through, taking pictures as many on this message board do. He is not in anyones way, not taking up sales peoples time, only taking pictures with his camera phone. He goes into an inboard boat dealership's booth last and after a couple of pictures he is met by a representative. My dad thinks he was with manufacturer and not the dealership but is not 100% sure. The guy tells my dad to stop taking pictures and if he is not planning on buyin a boat, he needs to leave. My dad responds with, I'm just taking pictures for my son (which is not a lie). There is no way this guy could have known my dad is associated with a dealership in some way. My dad responded with he will gladly leave his booth.

Do companies really treat all of their customers this way?!? As a dealer I have no problem with people taking pictures. This dealership almost acted like they had something to hide.

This was just shocking to me.

The whole point of going to boat shows is to get hands on and I see taking pics as simply a part of this.

I have people come to booths I run at boat shows and take pics all the time, I don't have an issue with it... Even if that customer isn't there to buy this year, they might be next year and the way I (and staff) treat them should be the same way they'd treat a good customer (assuming they have the time to chew the fat).

Never should someone be asked to leave purely because they weren't there to buy a boat that day!

I'd write a letter to the manufacturer to let them know your experience. I know if one of my guys acted this way that I'd want to know about it.

never experienced that one. weird.

but sometimes I experience the annoying routine of salesmen bashing on competitors and spouting a list of cons about the other guy, be it boats, or wakeboards or other gear. don't get me wrong i like to hear how things compare, but it can be done without so much obvious bias and instead, contributing more pros for the brand being represented.

Seems very odd, especially considering the health of the boating industry right now. I have, however, been at car and boat shows where people have indirectly prevented others from looking at cars/boats by taking non stop pictures and not getting out of the drivers seat. Not saying that was the case, but if it did happen exactly how you described, its hard to believe.

What was the boat company?

I can't imagine it was the manufacturer. A buddy of mine is a national sales rep for one of the big three and he's mentioned before that his company and most of their competitors will freely share their demo boats with each other. Must of been a very narrow minded dealership owner.

wow, he would need afew more dudes to remove me from his booth and a proctologist to remove my camera, to retrieve the pics of his colen

Its a boat show open to the public rather than an early private dealer showing. So the cat is well out of the bag at this time. I can't imagine any good reason for the protectionistic posture in this case. Maybe there is a little more to the story or the representative was aggitated by something or someone else.

Did he have to pay to get into the show? Most shows I have been to you have to pay to enter. If so, I would say he has payed his dues to look at and take pics of whatever he wants unless there was a rule about not taking pictures posted somewhere.

i'm glad they didn't do that to any of the wakeworlders that have taken pictures of the new boats. this is very helpful information as to color combos and how different towers and speakers look as well as decks and storage areas. thanks to all of the wakeworld members for their great pictures and information.

Wow what was he going to do if your dad didnt leave? It wasnt a MC booth by chance was it?

One of the major things about having a booth at a show is to show people what a cool company you represent... chewing the fat, sharing your excitement about the brand and trading stories is all part of that IMO.

Unless he was being super obnoxious or some how really offended the guys working there I just don't see how this can be justified. I've had some people in my booths I didn't particularly warm to (OK, I didn't like them! ha) but they still get the right to be there and explore... It's all part of it.

Maybe they did not want pictures of their new wedge on the net? Hell , I don't even know if they still have one! LOL..

Maybe it was a competitor secretly chasing people away from the competition by acting as a rude representative...I mean what else would make sense?

That was my first thought!!

Interesting. My very first tournament boat was bought "sight unseen". It was a brand new company, never been in Canada. The boat was on display about a 14 hour drive from me, so I wasn't going to drive there just to look. So I surfed the net and found a lady who had a great real estate website and as if she would do me a favor and go look at this boat for me. She took 150 pics and 5 minutes of video and couriered it to me. I then bought the boat!

Interesting thought. One way to find out..... go visit that dealership & see if he's there.

And let him know that your talking about him here. That should get some attention. :confused:

Thats really strange. I'm a 20 year old student (and I look like it), and had several salesmen who seemed very happy to make conversation with me and tell me all about the boats I was looking at. I was very obviously not buying, and told them all as much when they asked, and they were still happy. Maybe someone just had a case of the Mondays?