Hunter Warranty

[2ndcourse]

Hunter Marine had a 5 year warranty on new boats with Intercontinental Marine Service Corporation d/b/a First Warranty Group of Florida. That company was liquidated on December 12, 2009.

Another Hunter owner at my marina sent an email to Hunter Marine earlier this week asking what they are going to do about waranty service. So far Hunter Marine has not responded. Neither of us recall an announcement of what they plan to do about warranty servicing.

Does anyone have any knowledge of what Hunter is doing in this regard? Has anyone had successful warranty claims since December 2009?

 

[Beechjetdriver]

Cpt Cook started a thread entitled "Hunter Extended Warranty" in this forum concerning the same subject. You can read the discussion at http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=121811.

 

[VelaFella]

Here is the response I got from Hunter:

"You are correct, the State of Florida website ( http://www.myfloridacfo.com/Receiver/interMarine/intro.htm ) says they have been placed into bankruptcy by the state of Florida. We have been told that owners with policies should continue to submit claims using the information provided on the State of Florida website. We have asked but been given no other information by the State of Florida.

Hunter had no say in how the company was structured to meet the State of Florida requirements for selling insurance. Nor were we in control of how the escrow account or bankruptcy was handled. All we do know is that we have both paid good money and you now have no coverage to show for it. This foreclosure has possibly left a lot of boat and car owners without the extended coverage they were expecting.

The state of Florida informed us in June of 2009 that all owners would be notified about the claim process in writing. I have yet to hear of anyone who was notified in writing. Hunter has requested update information on numerous occasion but we continue to receive the same information as everyone else which is see our website.

I’m sorry that I could not give you a more encouraging answer about reimbursements, but this is what we know today. The only thing I can assure you is that we are just as unhappy about this as you are. "

 

[Brezzin]

As an owner of a 49 and also holding a bill for a repair of the turbocharger that went bad I feel that I do have a dog in this hunt. I only found out about the bankruptcy when I went to submit the bill. My dealer has also gone belly up due to the recession so I'm truly SOL.
It seems to me that Hunter who made a very big deal about the 5 yr warranty (Got the stickers from the boat to prove it) would have/should have

1) Taken it upon themselves to notify customers of this bankruptcy
2) Negotiate with a vendor to be able to provide owners with a replacement policy.

I don't expect Hunter to fund that replacment policy mainly because I knew from the get-go that Hunter was not providing the warranty but a third party was. But I did expect Hunter to do proper due-diligence in selecting that vendor. It certainly seems that Hunter did not do that. So I would like to see Hunter negotiate a fair but discounted price with a quality vendor to take up the balance of the warrant. Then it would be up to me to roll the dice or not. But then again I'm a fair minded business person. My wife on the other hand believes flat out that Hunter is guilty of fraud and deceptive advertising by promoting a 5 year warranty and not standing behind that (they did choose the insurance company). I will admit that her argument does seem to have merit but I'm not a lawyer.

Dave

 

[Steve Walsh]

Different industry, but some similarities: About 10 years ago, a close friend who owned a large new car dealership tried to recruit me as sales manager. Long story short, one of the items discussed was the 3rd party extended warranties and what the dealership was paid. 40% of the total extended warranty premium was paid to the dealership and that was split with the sales rep that sold it. Applying that example to the Hunter Extended Warranty issue, 20% might have gone to Hunter and 20% to the selling dealer and maybe a part of that to the actual salesperson who sold the new Hunter. With the dealer closed, that leaves Hunter with only 20% to rebate, pro-rate, whatever, from the original deal.However, if they could negotiate a 40% discount (not taking a commission) for a replacement extended warranty, then it might be attractive to the boat owner. Hope this helps.

Steve