Shout out to Scan Marine

M

Molly Brown

Member
After a 4 day Thanksgiving cruise on the Peace River and Shell Creek, temps to a 36 degree wind chill and near gale force winds, our compliments to Doug, Bruce and crew at Scan Marine for a job well done, on time and as promised. Our 95D Wallas stove/heater hadn't been serviced since installed in the boat in August of 2002 and finally quit starting during a Sand Bar Barge Fest in Matlacha Pass last month. Family and job related pressures prevented us from servicing the unit ourselves, something I'd obviously been procrastinating, hence a call to SM for service. Can't beat UPS for package tracking and consistent delivery, and we found Scan Marine's voice and internet presence and response to be above par. It's certainly what we'd hoped for and they delivered. Compliments to the tech that did the work on our unit. Package was delivered, placed back in the counter top and launched within a couple of hours. Ran it all night twice and had about six or seven other start up and shut downs, all seamless with zero problems.

It's a well know fact that, like twin's vs single engines, that there are two camps when it comes to Wallas products....you either hate 'em or love 'em. Ours has been an integral part of our boating and gets used every day, every trip. It's a great unit and is much appreciated by this crew.

Again, thank you Scan Marine for great, timely service at a fair price. Kudos!
 
We also have a Wallas 95D in our 2001 22' Cruiser. We have always started it during the off season ever month. It ran perfect until last year, when it became hard to start. I took it up to Scan Marine and they went thru it and replaced the blower motor, glow plug and serviced it. The price was very fair and it was shipped back UPS within 3 days.

They have been very helpful over the phone with any questions I had. I have been running low sulphur pump diesel and change it once a year. One of the best purchases on the boat.
 
Although I decided that a stove/heater combo wasn't for me, while I still had the Wallas 95 that came in my boat I went into Scan and met the folks there, and then subsequently sent in my stove for inspection/service (before selling it). The people there were so good to work with that I was starting to feel sorry about not having a Wallas in my boat, just so I could deal with them! In fact, I'm considering a Wallas 1300 or 1800 (heater only) as one of my options (to go along with a separate cooking stove).

It's just such a pleasure to deal with business people who "get it" from a customer service perspective :thup
 
Scan does have a good reputation for customer assistance, as mentioned here and in previous discussions. I do not mean to rain on this particular parade, but I feel a caution is in order if you are sending a unit to them for repair.

Be very clear in what you want, and ask them to contact you before doing what they may think is best. The last time I sent my older Wallas up to them for no start issues, they did all the standard cleaning stuff and put in used - yes, used - parts to correct the starting problems. I had also asked them to look at the hood blower fan, which they did not. Well, they got $600 out of me for the repairs and it worked good for a couple months. Now it starts when it wants to - again - and about every third time I have to bang on the lid to get the blower to run. The hundred - or two or three - I saved on the parts wasn't worth it. If they had asked first I would never have accepted used parts.
 
Can't argue with that, and it would never had occurred to me that it would be serviced with used parts! Used or not, it's working great and always has since we got the boat in July 2002. Notice in my earlier post I mentioned it had not been touched since installed in August of 2002. The reason for the discrepancy is that the unit was a replacement for the one that was installed by the factory originally. Needless to say that with all the banter on this site over the years about Wallas this and Wallas that, I kept my fingers crossed in the beginning. We have come to have confidence that ours will work when it needs to, thought I admit that the lid blower is not something we have used often. We sure did this past trip but 9 out of 10 nights we don't need heat. Down here we mostly run air conditioning and use the Wallas for cooking. Thanks for the heads up...I'll use that advice for all needed repairs. As I write this I remember a neighbor who had a body shop and sub'ed used parts for new. He got arrested!
 
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