Hansen Marine: Lazy, Greedy and Stupid

Watch out. Hansen Marine Engineering and XRT Power Systems in Marblehead Massachusetts is a service provider to avoid.

First an overview:

• Lazy: It took them three tries over three months to produce an acceptable estimate for a Caterpillar 1,000 hour scheduled maintenance service

• Greedy: They grossly overcharge on parts. An analysis of 15 parts produced an overcharge of $600. Some of the overcharges were ridiculous, like charging $64.80 for a part that I had previously obtained for $4.15. Further, there was no rhyme or reason to the overcharges - like a consistent mark-up.

• Stupid: When the $600 overcharge was brought to the owner's, Bob Hansen's, attention he became belligerent and refused to budge on the pricing. 

The estimate for the 1,000 hour service was $7,706 or which $4,000 was labor at $115 per hour. Do the math. Even paying two technicians $30 an hour leaves a strong $55 profit margin on 37 estimated hours. Add to that the profit on parts, even if charged at retail, and they had a very profitable deal, Bob Hansen's refusal to correct the $600 overcharge resulted in our cancelling the project.

Lesson for Bob Hansen: You can cut a fat hog but first you have to catch it.

Now the story.

We've had the 63 Outer Reef for two and a half years and in that time period have made five 1,600 mile trips up and down the east coast as we snowbird between Sarasota and Hingham. Each of those runs racks up close to 200 engine hours. Caterpillar's first major service occurs at the 1,000 hour mark and includes four major tasks in addition to an oil change; inspect and clean the intercooler, heat exchanger, and turbo-charger and check valve adjustment. 

Explanatory Note:  We also need some transmission and generator maintenance. My Wheelhouse Technologies on-line computerized maintenance management program designates the tasks that are needed.

We passed the 1,000 hour mark on the May run from Sarasota to Hingham. So, upon arrival in Massachusetts, I set about to arrange for needed engine, transmission and generator services. And here I ran into my first obstacle. There is only one Caterpillar dealer, Milton Caterpillar, in Massachusetts and they seem to have little to no interest in marine work. They will only work on Caterpillar engines. They won't touch the transmissions or generators. Hence, I would have to hire another service vendor for those tasks. Not efficient.

Caterpillar also has three authorized service providers in my area. Sacchetti Marine in Plymouth, Windward Power in Fairhaven and Hansen Marine in Marblehead. So, shortly after arrival in Hingham, I reached out to Milton Caterpillar and the three authorized servicers for an estimate; providing each with a detailed list of required tasks obtained from my Wheelhouse Technology application. I also called and talked with the owner or service manager in the hope of establishing a bit of rapport so they would take my project seriously.

Bottom Line: Sacchetti, Windward and Milton Caterpillar did not respond and to add insult to injury, I contacted each personally several times to remind them that I was looking for an estimate. I guess I was not very persuasive.

Explanatory Note: Not to get off the subject, but getting maintenance and repairs performed in Hingham is VERY difficult; in fact almost impossible if you are a transient boater. Why? My best guess is that due to the short six month boating season, servicers must run lean and mean (e.g., too few technicians). 

Finally, on June 3rd and after much prompting, Hansen Marine finally sent an estimate. Hurrah! Oops, spoke to soon. The estimate, for $4,031, did not enumerate the specified tasks and did not contain a complete list of parts. Essentially, what they put on paper was a very expensive oil change.

Explanatory Note: Why do I require a complete list of parts and tasks? Simple. I want specificity on the tasks, so they get done, and most important, I want to ensure that the servicer has all of the parts on hand before starting the job. The 1,000 hour service is a three day job. Missing a part could delay completion of the project.

So I sent Hansen back to the drawing boards, reiterating that I wanted the tasks specified on the estimate and a complete list of required parts. More prompting (i.e., calls every other few days) and finally, on August 8 (yes, two months later), I finally get a revised estimate. Now the price is $6,131 and the four major 1,000 hour tasks are specified on the estimate. However, the parts list is still incomplete. How do I know? Remember, I have a computerized maintenance application (Wheelhouse Technologies). Wheelhouse specifies the maintenance tasks based on time and hours and provides a list of the needed parts for each task. While it took some work on my part, I was able to audit Hansen's estimate and in doing so provided them with a list 11 missing parts including nomenclature and part numbers.

Two weeks later (August 17), Hansen sends a revised estimate and this time they have it 98% correct. Hurrah! Now the price is $7,706. Not unreasonable especially with the added parts. We schedule the project for the week of September 12 and I agree to bring the boat to Marblehead.

Explanatory Note: Caterpillar dealers and authorized servicers charge time and their standard labor charge ($115/hr) and miles ($1.25/mile) to come to your boat. Hansen's technicians would have to drive through Boston rush hour traffic morning and evening (a two to three hour 68 mile round trip). Hence, over three days, I could easily rack up over $2,000 in additional travel charges. Bringing the boat to Marblehead costs far less ($100 in fuel and $500 for dockage).

My daughter, Lesley, my granddaughter, Amelia, and my son-in-law, Scott, spent last weekend with us on the boat in Hingham. Scott is a biology teachers who runs a jet ski rental business on Cape Cod (Aquasport in West Dennis) during the summer. Scott and I got to talking about maintenance and he proceeded to tell me a story about a Yamaha dealer who grossly overcharged his company for a jet ski engine repair. Scott told me that he audited the parts on the dealer's invoice using the internet and discovered outrageous discrepancies. 

So I said, "let's, just for the fun of it, check Hansen's part pricing." Here again, Wheelhouse Technologies to the rescue. Wheelhouse, as one of their services, provide parts to their subscribers. This is a nice feature as sourcing boat parts can be very difficult. Note: Wheelhouse is upfront about their part pricing which is generally slightly over retail. Having ordered many of the parts on Hansen's estimate, I went one line and checked my order history. That's when I discovered the overcharges.

Examples. Charging $64.80 for a transmission zinc that I had previously obtained from Wheelhouse for $4.15. Two are required. Hence, a $121 overcharge. Charging $143.46 for a raw water impeller that Wheelhouse charged me $88.27. Another $110.38 overcharge for two impellers. Note: I later learned from my contact at Caterpillar that the impeller retails for $69.00. Other lower priced parts where also marked up but there was no consistency or logic to the mark-ups, which ranged from 15% to 65%. 

Unfortunately, I did not have pricing all of the parts so I called Wheelhouse on the way to Marblehead and my contact, Craig Parkhurst, provided me with their "over retail" pricing for the one's I was missing. Now I was ready to have a discussion with Hansen.

Tom, Hansen's service manager, and my primary contact at Hansen, arrived shortly after we docked. I showed Tom my parts audit and requested he go back and make some adjustments. A half hour later he called back and said that his boss, Bob Hansen, would not budge. I asked to speak with Bob and that's when things went down hill. Bob was immediately belligerent. He claimed that I should have brought this to his attention months ago. I reminded him that we had spent 3 months getting an estimate and that I had assumed that their pricing would be retail of close to that. Bottom line: I got him to concede that I could use my zincs and impellers (saving me $231 of the $600 overcharge).

Unfortunately, for Bob, Diana overheard Bob's belligerence and expressed a very legitimate concern. If he can't be reasonable on the parts, what happen if they screw up. Will he stand behind his work? We concluded that he probably would not. Diana wanted me to pack it in and tell Hansen that we would get the service performed elsewhere.

In the meantime. I called my contact a Caterpillar and reported the problem. Caterpillar expects better of their authorized repair facilities and offered to intervene with Bob Hansen. I said it was too late and that we had lost faith in Hansen.

At that point, Tom returned to the boat with another technician to start the job. I informed Tom that we were cancelling the project. I told him that a very unflattering blog article would be forthcoming and that he should bring it to Bob's attention. I also mentioned a formal complaint to Caterpillar. Bad behavior has consequences.

So here we are in beautiful (no exaggeration) Marblehead. We will spend four days here and then return to Hingham. I've already made arrangements to complete the 1,000 hour service when I return to Sarasota.

Written by Les.