Choplin Marine

I took my boat to Choplin Marine to be winterized last year. This spring I attempted to go to the lake. The boat would not stay running and the power steering was empty. \r Took it back to them and they said the carb needed rebuilt. I said fix it. This was in beginning of june,\r They tell me the Carb was rebuilt and the power steering was fixed, Boat was good to go.\r I picked it up and took it to the lake to find the power steering was still empty.Boat ran poorly.\r Now they say the intake manifold is bad. \r I say fix it. \r They say boat is good to go. Mid july now.\r I come to get it but they broke the bimini top and the toungue jack. Have to wait on it while they fix it.\r A few hours later they bring it out and put it in the test tank. \r Boat runs and shuts off. Mechanic Jimmy tells us he broke a terminal out of the ignition module working on the boat. If he pokes at it the boat shuts off. He does it again.\r Boat now wont run at all.\r Jimmy tells me my ignition module is bad. I need to buy a whole new distributor.you cant get the ignition module anymore.\r I tell him no kidding you just told me you broke it.\r I go online and find the module which you could not get anymore and tell them to get it.\r They agreed. \r A couple weeks later they call me to tell me the boat is overheating.\r Then they call back same day to say the boat never overheated The mechanic was wrong. It never happened.Your good to go and by the way you have no oil pressure, but you never had any oil pressure.\r They say nothing happened to the boat , it was like that always. \r mike the salesman told me they were running it at 4600 rpm across the lake for a mile or so when it overheated.\r I come to get the boat. I go into the shop to see the bad intake and find it is not bad, it did not need replaced. I also find a different prop on my boat and my mangled prop on the workbench,\r The mechanic jimmy tells me that he guesses the prop that is on the boat is mine. He doesnt think he changed it, I say he is a Liar.\r Chris Mace tells me that jimmy lied about it and it is a different prop. Chris however could not tell me how the prop got destroyed or why they tried to conceal it.\r Daniel gray tells me they will order a new prop and call me when it comes in, He gave me a ""We Owe"" slip.\r About a week and a half goes by and they call saying the prop is in.\r We go to get it but they refuse to give it to us. Chris says they put a used prop on that was better than my prop they destroyed, I ask Chris did he look my prop before they destroyed it? He wont give the prop. \r This was a $500 prop they destroyed.\r Can you say Breach of contract.!!!\r \r Now back to the oil pressure. \r Before i took it away fom those goobers,\r I gave Choplin Marine the opportunity to make things right but they refused to fix what they broke.\r I asked them if my boat never had oil pressure then what were you doing running it at 4600 rpm. Why would you run my boat like that. My boat weighs around 7000 lbs and has a 454 engine in it.\r You know your not supposed to do that.\r \r I got no answer.\r \r So Itook my boat away from Choplin marine directly to another boat repair shop. \r \r He looks at the boat and tells me the motor is blown.\r \r Choplin marine refused to replace the prob they broke .\r \r Choplin Marine refused to admit they blew the engine....\r \r more

Be aware that if you attempt to buy a new boat from these people you will be told everything you want to hear from the Salesman (like when he pulls out the drain plug - 12 gallons of water come gushing out and you say ""Is that normal?"" and he says ""Oh sure, it's just the livewells draining"") And then you sign on the dotted line ... After that you will NEVER get a return phone call or email and you will wait for many weeks (months in my case) for expensive options to be ordered and/or (poorly) installed. I could write many pages in this review about my disappointing experiences with Choplin Marine but I'm not going to go into all the specifics. I just want to make sure that no one else has to go through what I did. The fact is I repaired many of the (manufactures) problems myself (one major--- I had to pull off and re-seal all of the rubrail to stop massive leakage into the bilge) because I knew if I took the boat back to Choplin I would wait for many months and I'd get the boat back in worse shape than it was to begin with.... The Parts Dept. blames their lack of due deligence on the silent Sales Dept. and the kids in the Service Dept. are a joke. (but I wasn't laughing). Take your hard earned money to another boat dealership. There has GOT to be one better than this outfit. Update (12/19/11) Choplin Marine is out of business and inventory sold to Chatlee Marine. I called Chatlee and they WILL NOT honor my 2011 Nitro warranty which was purchased from Choplin in August 2011. They will however fix my Mercury Pro XS when it breaks. more

My very first boat. I searched many websites and was hoping to find a great deal. I went to Choplin Marine and the staff was very helpful specially their finance Guy Daniel. We signed on the dotted line all was to be great! Then it all went South! The salesman Michael told us all the things that would be included with our purchase, that the 1st 20 hour maintenance on our boat would be on them, that they would really hook us up even throw in a boat cover! We thought man these guys are really treating us like family and really want our business. We got to the dealer to take delivery and saw that the attitude started to change, we no longer were the flavor of the day and we just needed to take delivery and move on. We said OK they are just busy and need to make other sales it more

BEWARE!!! If you are looking to buy a new or used boat, save your self some valuable time and money and and don't go near this place. I have dealt with many boat dealerships in my life, but have never experienced anything like the shady business practices and poor customer service I received at Choplin Marine.\r more