My wife and I bought a brand new...

[GHall4]

My wife and I bought a brand new 2019 SDX 270 OB (which we love) and the lower unit failed with only 17.9 hours run time on the Mercury 300HP Verado. Gears inside broke with no known cause. Never hit anything, etc. Broke down Memorial Day weekend and we still don’t have it back in the water. To add insult to injury, we have to pay extra towing fees to get it from our dock to the nearest boat ramp for our dealer to pull it and install the new lower unit. Our dealer informed us that neither Sea Ray nor Mercury would reimburse us for the extra towing fees totaling $250.00. I find that incredibly disrespectful and unprofessional considering the amount of money we spent on the brand new boat and the failure was due to no fault of our own. Even our dealer won’t fully reimburse. This experience truly makes it difficult to be a proud Sea Ray boat owner.

[wingless]

Welcome to the forum.

Good luck w/ your boat.

Fortunately the towing fees were only $250. It is very easy for those charges to be an order of magnitude higher.

There are companies offering towing service coverage for an annual fee. Sea Tow and Boat US are a couple of the big ones.

IMO, this "insurance" is something that is required to avoid the costs associated if the boat becomes disabled.

[Mikeeh]

Since the tow fee is only $250 I have to assume its a relatively short tow. You don't say if you're in a marina or a private dock. In either case I would hope there would be another friendly boater who could help you out with a tow.

[GHall4]

Actually, tow boat US had to cancel on me due to some training. I ended up towing it with my Yamaha Waverunner! Very short, low traffic tow to a private ramp. She’s all fixed up now and runs great.

[wingless]

"we have to pay extra towing fees to get it from our dock to the nearest boat ramp" and "tow boat US had to cancel on me due to some training".

What do these mean?

Doesn't the active Tow Boat US contract include moving a disabled boat for service? Was this an availability issue, requiring a delay in receiving service?

Great the boat was fixed. What repair was required?