Company Policies
All work requires a deposit of funds, equaling 50% of the estimate or quote, to schedule that work. There will be no exceptions.
Payment is expected within 48 hours of the completion of your work. If you cannot get to your boat to see the work, you can come to my website to see your boat and it must be paid for based on the pictures I have supplied.
DEPOSITS: All deposits are to be made by cash, certified check, or checks made out to cash (thanks to the people on the “deadbeat list”), prior to being “scheduled”.
SCHEDULING WORK: In order to get on our schedule, you will need to deposit 50% on your quoted job. There will be no “penciling in” or reserving a place without that deposit. If you mail me the deposit, I still wait until it is in my hand before scheduling your work. “The check is in the mail” doesn’t work. It has to be in my hand.
REPAIRS: Anything that is to be repaired must be ABSOLUTELY CLEAN, and ABSOLUTELY DRY. Those two terms mean exactly that! They are non-negotiable and my determination is the law. If your cover is not clean enough to shake out over your dining room table, then it is not clean enough to be put through my machine. My sewing machine costs in the neighborhood of $2500.00 to $3000.00. Would it be good business sense to run your dirty , filthy, wet cover through that machine and risk damaging an expensive part( the hook; $600.00) for your $20.00 repair?
WORK SCHEDULING: There are many things that may affect the schedule during the season, and weather is a big one! After working on this lake for 20 years, I find that the schedule I give you has rarely been effected by any circumstances other than emergencies. In all these years there have been only a few emergencies.
SCHEDULING AN APPOINTMENT AT YOUR BOAT: I do offer dockside service to most areas of Lake George. However, if you are outside my normal realm of travel, it will cost you to get me there. Each trip made to the boat is an expense and loss of productive time for me, so you will be charged for it. Also, unlike doctors’ offices, if your appointment is at 1:00 pm then it is just that. I will only wait 10 minutes, then I am off to the next one and you will have to reschedule your appointment.
EMERGENCIES: There are those few, rare, bona fide emergencies that will get my undivided and immediate attention. But most fall under the category as follows: I am sorry that you had your ripped canvas cover or rotted top for the entire winter without thinking about it. Perhaps your forgot to secure your top (which, by the way, you should never travel with it up) and it got damaged due to your negligence. Unfortunately, your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency to me. There are a lot of people that not only thought about their covers, but “SCHEDULED” their work ahead of time. You will be put on the list for repair no matter how much you offer me. With all of this said, I am sorry I had to be so direct and repetitious. Some people just don’t get it, and it needed to be explained.
Often I hear, “If I had a sewing machine, I could fix it myself.” Well here’s the deal with that. Go spend $2,500 on a commercial sewing machine and the insurance to run this business. By the way, you will have to figure out how to do these repairs and covers and run the equipment. Next, start repairing the requests for free and give people all the free advise they need. If you manage to accomplish all of this, I’ll see you in the food stamp line next week. How far would you get if you asked a professional doctor, lawyer, or accountant for free help or advice?
