Cruising Outpost

So. Pictures and welcomes are populating the new site, so I'll add a real boating story.

Last Oct, A/C in boat gave up the ghost. It was an 11 year old Marine Air system. Control board died for the 3rd time, so I was done with systems that have proprietary control systems.

Used space heaters through the winter and all was good. Got to May, time to find a new A/C.

Trolling through EBay, I found that many manufacturers will stick a unit or two on Ebay at reduced prices. So I settled for a 16.5K BTU unit from Flagship Marine. Got a good deal on it.

The guys at Flagship are really nice, but it would have helped to know that when you order a unit, they then build it, so there is a 1-2 week lag. I can live with that - but would have liked to know at the time of order.

They ship the unit to Dallas, and the games are on. In one corner: Me. In the other: R&L Carriers.

The unit shipped on Thursday, set to arrive on Tuesday. Tuesday shows up and I get a call "We will deliver tomorrow". OK. Wednesday get a call "We lost your package". Thursday, get a call "We found it, can't deliver until Friday or Monday". I drive 60 miles to the terminal and pick the unit up myself.

Weekend arrives: Install the A/C, and it doesn't work (doesn't cool). I pack it back up and ship it back to Flagship. Again - they are great about it and organize the pickup and everything. The unit ships on July 3rd........

That Friday, Flagship gets the unit, determines the high-pressure valve was leaking and all the NU22 was gone. They fix it and ship it back....on July 12th set to arrive on July 17th...a Tuesday.

Tuesday arrives, get the call "We will deliver tomorrow". OK. Wednesday get a call "We lost your package" (Deva vu time....). Thursday, get a call "Uh, we REALLY lost your package". On Monday the 23rd I've had enough and pretty much blow a gasket (I'm looking for a new one on Ebay now ). Suddenly the package is found back in Tampa Florida. R&L got confused with origin and destination . They ship the unit back to the Dallas terminal.

On the 25th I call about the delivery. You guessed it: "We lost your package". Multiple phone calls later, a very nice lady with R&L in Atlanta takes the case and tracks down the A/C and I get it Thursday night after her own company hung up on her and called her names repeatedly.

The good news is that the unit is installed and working. I feel I would have had a better chance of getting it on-time if I had it delivered to a Kuna village off of Guatemala..... (next time - I will).

Moral of the story: The people at Flagship Marine are good and I appreciate them. If you have anything shipped that has to go through Dallas - don't use R&L Carriers.

-Caribguy

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Caribguy
Searching for the next island with a cold beer

AC? What's an AC?....
you should file a bad report about R&L to Flagship. let them know what went on. also let the marine industry magazines , and messages boards, know what happened and that might help if they order something from Flagship they could request another carrier. face book and Angie's list might also be another route to take to warn others.

I had a small boat so I used a walmart AC. one of those small units fit right my door way and the boards drop on top like it was made for it. lol. plus I think I paid $125 for it.

I wish you luck on it.
Bill.

Bill,

Thanks! I did have a small portable unit that we used for awhile to knock the edge off.

I run a small biz, too and talk to Chris at Flagship and told him what his shipping choice was doing to his reputation. Didn't seem to change things, so that why I go to the "Big Boys" with the big forums to relay my story.

Bob: Yeah, that's you.

-Caribguy

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Caribguy
Searching for the next island with a cold beer

You must have skipped class the one day they might have taught Central American geography, sociology, and history. The Maya live inland in Guatemala. The Kuna live in Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands) offshore of Panama.

did the Panama gov. move the Kuna Off the islands? I thought I heard something about the gov. was moving some native folks from their island home a while back but I never got the name of which people.

I had to replace the condensing unit on my Marine Air system about 4-5 months ago. I called a local AC guy in the morning, he had one in stock, I was cool the following day. It would have been that afternoon. I was the delay doing some troubleshooting before I told him to come out. I noticed the breaker was tripping at an indicated current much less than the breaker rating. I replaced 2 breakers and one shore power cord before determing I had a locked rotor in the compressor. The local guy here has a good reputation for service. He is expensive. But mostly what I like is he will give you all the information you need to troublshoot it yourself in case it is a minor problem the owner can fix. And he's a live-aboard.

BTW, many times when I was leaving the boat, I just turned the feeder breaker off. Lesson learned, don't just turn off the breaker if the unit is running. Turn the unit off first with the unit controls. Opening a breaker under load is not good for the breaker and it eventually weakens it. I replaced the shore power cord just to eliminate it as a cause, because it was a bit blackened at the plug. I still had good voltage at the unit indicating I did not have a high resistance connection.

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Bruce
S.V. Far Horizons
Island Packet
http://svfarhorizons.com
"I am what I am, and that's all that I am" Popeye the Sailorman

Damn Geography! Normally, I just pull over and ask directions.

Still have problems with Gorilla vs Guerrilla ... can't remember which one has the banana (fruit, not clip)

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Caribguy
Searching for the next island with a cold beer