Let me just preface this by saying I am in no way affiliated with Phowler boats. I'm just a customer that happened to buy a boat from them based on a recommendation from some friends. I know some of y'all are familiar with their boats because Paul posts on here some (or used to). For what it's worth, I also bought my boat before the Robertsons got involved with Phowler, so it should be clear that buying a boat from them was entirely an independent decision on my part. All of this is being posted to illustrate that I get absolutely zero benefit from saying this. This is in no way an advertisement. I just think my situation is something people should be aware of.

Anyway, I ordered a custom 1750 lite jon from Phowler a couple years ago. They were really incredible to deal with throughout the entire process. My boat had some options on it that had never come out of the Phowler shop before, and they were in constant contact with me throughout the build to make sure everything was being done the way I wanted it. No idea was too difficult, and they built a really awesome boat for me.

Fast forward a year or so. Right before this past duck season, I noticed a leak back near my transom on the floor (not on the transom itself). The leak wasn't anything serious, so we fished for the rest of the day and decided to deal with it later. One of my good friends is a commercial offshore fabricator in Bogalusa, and hands down the best welder I've met in my life. I brought the boat up to him to look at. When he flipped it over, he found multiple cracks along two of the longitudal braces on the floor/hull. I called Phowler and explained the situation to them, but also told them that my buddy suggested ripping the entire floor out and redoing it, because he didn't think the patch welds would do much good. Paul at Phowler basically said no big deal, fix it and we'll foot the bill. Paul and my friend both concluded that the boat was probably welded too hot in the build process.

The patches lasted for a few weeks, but then the boat started leaking again - this time worse than before. I'm pretty frustrated at this point; not with Phowler in particular, but just because I'm concerned about getting out from under a boat with a cracked one-piece hull, and nobody likes a busted boat.

So I emailed Paul at Phowler to explain my situation and really just ask him what he thought the best way to handle it would be. He emailed me back and said, "don't worry about it, we'll start building you a new boat. Let us know if there's anything you want to change on the new one." No questions asked, no drama, and no issues whatsoever. Just "we built that, it broke, so we'll build you another one on us." All the while, they were in the process of updating their shop and had a ton of other stuff going on. Not only did they build me a new boat, but they were really receptive of anything I wanted to do differently on this "new" warranty boat, and they shipped it down here (south Louisiana) from Iowa on their own dime, all of this AFTER paying for the boat to be fixed initially.

Now I know a lot of people will say something like "well yeah, they should build you a new boat." You're right. If you build something for someone for a price, you should stand behind your product no matter what. That said, everyone here knows that business practices like this are not the norm, and I'm not familiar with too many smaller boat companies that would stand behind their products like that. It's pretty cool to know that there are people running small businesses all over the country who still value customer service like that. Again, I get absolutely no benefit from posting this here, but I think as many people as possible should be aware of what a stand-up group of people run the operation at Phowler.

That's definitely a warranty worth being proud of. While I don't like the fact you had the issues you had, they definitely made good on the problems, and glad you got what you paid for eventually.

Way to stand behind your work, phowler.

Well said. Well done by Phowler. Outstanding.

Thank you for the kind words, but this was one of those issues we just felt we needed to handle.

I will not make any excuses, this hull was an early Light Jon and it is plain and simple, one of my welders simply turned the machine up to high (having mostly done 1/8" hulls vs. .100 hulls) and over penetrated the hull. It can be repaired correctly here, but since the customer is so far away we did not want to have issues down the road.

At Phowler we stand behind our work and if we goof we admit it and do whats right. We have built over 1100 hulls now since 2007, we have only had to warranty repair about 25-30 total, most of those minor weld cracks resulted from trailering with no transom straps causing a bow eye weld to crack or a cross stinger to crack do to the pounding on the bunks going down the road. This is only the third hull we have ever felt it would be best for the customer to replace completely. If we had to do this regularly we probably would not still be here.

When we get this boat back we will tear it apart, reinforce the areas of concern on the inside, repair and reweld and then sell the boat locally as a rebuilt hull. That is what we did with the other two we replaced and they are still running the river today with no more issues. We only will sell these local so if an issue does come up down the road we can take care of it without the customer having to travel or try to get it fixed locally.

Phowler is known for quality hulls and this one is a rare exception, but we are human and sometime a mistake can slip by my personal final inspection. When it does we do what is right by the customer every time. Our warranty is only as good as my word to stand behind it. Anyone who know me knows that my word is never given lightly and when it is given it is as good as gold, no matter what the cost.

Again thank you for the positive post but it was just the right thing to do.

PW

It's good to hear folks doing the right thing. It used to be the way People conducted business, but it's fastly becoming a thing of the past. Good job Phowler!

Good form!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Way to go Phowler, my hats off to handling this issue the correct way and I am sure keeping a satisfied customer for life!

Very respectable Mr PW. Good job!

Paul and his guys will get my business again should I ever decide to get a new boat. I've had a positive experience every time, from building my rig exactly how I wanted it, to fixing a small 1' section of weld that cracked on top my transom, to adding efi and doing motor mods, they do quality work and stand behind their products. They build a hell of a strong boat too, I had a guy running wide open down a narrow channel in the cattails hit me head on on a curve. I had enough time to crack my throttle to get the nose up and planted my bow eye right on the top center of his front end. My boat slid on top of his until my motor hit his bow when I then slid off sideways. The only damage to mine was a small fist sized dent and a scratch in my gatorglide. The other guy wasn't so lucky, I pushed the front of his boat back into a b shape almost 2' back. Pretty tough boats in my opinion

Way to stand behind your work Paul. Well done! That type of service is far to uncommon these days.

Well done!!!

I have known Mr Paul since around 2004 or so. He's always been good people to deal with.

Paul at Phowler is a pleasure to do business with. Any issues I have had with my boat we're handled in to most professional and no nonsense manner.