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I wanted to take a moment and share an amazing story with everybody on this forum. In early July I had my 28 CC hauled out at a local marina in Ft. Myers, FL to have the bottom painted on it. The marina told me that my boat had about 40 major blisters and that I would have to pay them to peel the entire exterior gel coat and re glass and gel the bottom to fix the blisters. I will not even go into details as to the proposed cost of the repair.
I decided to call Carolina Classic and get their opinion in regards to repairing the boat. I called up CC and asked for the warranty department; when transferred a gentleman answered the phone and introduced himself as Mac Privott, I had no clue at this point that I was talking to the President and founder of the company. Who would have ever thought that the owner of the company would be taking telephone calls let alone warranty calls? As Americans I think we are conditioned to anticipate being blown off in these situations and we never find anyone who really cares when we need help. Most corporations have outsourced their service departments to developing nations so when you actually get a live body on the phone you are talking to someone in India or somewhere that deep down probably hates your American ass. Anyways to make a long story short I explained my situation to Mac and in a thick southern draw he says, “I don’t believe there is anything major, wrong with my boat send it to me and I will fix it and send it back to you”. Honestly I was not ready for a response like that and I almost had to pull of the road to gain composure. I had heard that Carolina Classic made great boats and had a good service department but my boat is a 1996 and I am the second owner. Why would they even consider helping me, right? Mac arranged to have my boat shipped over a thousand miles to CC headquarters in Edenton and within 3 weeks I had my boat back at home floating next to my dock fixed good as new with no out of pocket costs to myself. They also went around my boat and fixed every nick, chip, crack, and ding that I had put in the gel goat from years of wear and tear on their own free will and at no cost to me.
As consumers we are programmed to proceed into situations with our guards up and assume that we are going to be taken advantage of if not cautious. This experience has not only made me a Carolina Classic boat owner for life, but it has changed my contemptuous outlook on businesses in general. There are still some good companies out there that do the right thing by putting their customers’ interests ahead of their own you just have to find them. Carolina Classic is one company that has truly figured it out; if you put the people first the profits will follow. By genuinely caring about me as a customer and wanting to make me happy they have forged a life long relationship with a customer who will definitely be purchasing a CC 35’ within the next 2 years. In the meantime I am a walking billboard for Carolina Classic boats. I tell anyone who will listen about my experience and that they would be a fool to buy any other boat. We could all take a lesson from Mac Privott and the business that he has built and that lesson is if you give back you will receive a whole lot more in return. Telling this story honestly makes me a little emotional because I am so proud to be a part of something that is so great. This story isn’t just about boats it’s much bigger than that. Thank you so much Mac and I hope some day I will be able to return the favor.
Dan Shannon
I decided to call Carolina Classic and get their opinion in regards to repairing the boat. I called up CC and asked for the warranty department; when transferred a gentleman answered the phone and introduced himself as Mac Privott, I had no clue at this point that I was talking to the President and founder of the company. Who would have ever thought that the owner of the company would be taking telephone calls let alone warranty calls? As Americans I think we are conditioned to anticipate being blown off in these situations and we never find anyone who really cares when we need help. Most corporations have outsourced their service departments to developing nations so when you actually get a live body on the phone you are talking to someone in India or somewhere that deep down probably hates your American ass. Anyways to make a long story short I explained my situation to Mac and in a thick southern draw he says, “I don’t believe there is anything major, wrong with my boat send it to me and I will fix it and send it back to you”. Honestly I was not ready for a response like that and I almost had to pull of the road to gain composure. I had heard that Carolina Classic made great boats and had a good service department but my boat is a 1996 and I am the second owner. Why would they even consider helping me, right? Mac arranged to have my boat shipped over a thousand miles to CC headquarters in Edenton and within 3 weeks I had my boat back at home floating next to my dock fixed good as new with no out of pocket costs to myself. They also went around my boat and fixed every nick, chip, crack, and ding that I had put in the gel goat from years of wear and tear on their own free will and at no cost to me.
As consumers we are programmed to proceed into situations with our guards up and assume that we are going to be taken advantage of if not cautious. This experience has not only made me a Carolina Classic boat owner for life, but it has changed my contemptuous outlook on businesses in general. There are still some good companies out there that do the right thing by putting their customers’ interests ahead of their own you just have to find them. Carolina Classic is one company that has truly figured it out; if you put the people first the profits will follow. By genuinely caring about me as a customer and wanting to make me happy they have forged a life long relationship with a customer who will definitely be purchasing a CC 35’ within the next 2 years. In the meantime I am a walking billboard for Carolina Classic boats. I tell anyone who will listen about my experience and that they would be a fool to buy any other boat. We could all take a lesson from Mac Privott and the business that he has built and that lesson is if you give back you will receive a whole lot more in return. Telling this story honestly makes me a little emotional because I am so proud to be a part of something that is so great. This story isn’t just about boats it’s much bigger than that. Thank you so much Mac and I hope some day I will be able to return the favor.
Dan Shannon
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