Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

First of all... Sorry for the long post.

So here is the deal. Sent some e-mails to my dealer about some issues I have been having. (gel coat, vinyl, grip step) and they agreed to fix one of my seats (of the 4 that are damaged) repair the gel coat and replace the grip on the bow. The 3 pieces of vinyl they aren't replacing are the 2 seat backs furthest back on both sides and one seat back in the bow. all of the tears are because of a hard surface under the vinyl that has no padding. There have never been any sharp objects near them and they have split due to pressure.

After dealing with this I told them that my cover has a 2" split down one of the seams and would like to have it fixed or replaced as well. My dealer sent me an email in october asking me to take a pic and send it but my boat was in storage and I didn't have a chance before they closed for the season. When I brought up the issue last Saturday when I towed my boat 400km to the dealer she began to tell me that she doesn't think it is under warranty because I paid for the boat in Feb 2012. When I bought my boat I asked multiple times if my warranty would start when I paid for my boat or when I took delivery. They told me it starts on the delivery date.

I am tired of trying to deal with them and would really like to speak to Axis directly. My warranty should be good until April 24 so I need to do this before next week.

Does anybody know who to contact? If I can phone or e-mail somebody that would be awesome.

Assuming you are in the states, you could try calling Malibu's offices in Tennessee and asking to speak with someone in customer relations / warranty. Explain your situation, have pictures ready, etc. Hopefully, you will get some answers. I had no issues like you have had with the vinyl in my 11 and 12 A22. The only problems I had was a seam pulled on a rear rear seat base in my 11 (where people stepped down onto the piping all the time), and I had a small smooth spot develop on a piece of textured vinyl in the bow.

Tennessee
5075 Kimberly Way
Loudon, TN 37774
(865) 458-5478

I am now scared that something will happen to my boat this year and I will have warranty problems. I always cringe when people step down into the boat. I always have them remove any shoes, sandals, flip-flops, etc. What extra steps are folks making to help make sure that the seats don't rip or separate at the seams....? People always enter my boat from the drivers side, either entering in the front or in the back right behind the tower.
I had a 89 Ski Nautique before this and only had to have the seams replaced one time in 20+ years. (drivers seat and rear seat) Is this really a big problem with Axis...? Just a concern and looking for extra steps to help protect my baby.

I don't let people step on any of the rear seats, I move the skybox seat and tell them to step on the box over the transmission, the only cushion I allow feet to touch are the two big ones In the bow and the chillax In the walkthrough, that and I don't let every yahoo that I know just go to the lake with me.

I have one big, thick beach towel folded up that people step on. Then again I rarely have more than myself and who ever I'm dating at the time in my boat...most of my friends have their own boats.

I don't think the Axis vinyl is more prone to these issues than other boats. I had piping pull in all of my nautiques and in my mastercraft. Places where piping bends like 90 degrees are just more susceptable to pulling. Older ski boats that did not have wrap around seating didn't have this same issue. Just try to have people be careful and not step onto the corner cushions. The good news is that those corner cushions in the axis boats are small, compartmentalized pieces. If you do have an issue, a skin for that small seat is relatively inexpensive.

Sounds like your dealer is just being difficult, and does not like having repeat customers buying from them. My dealer (Singleton Marine in GA) has been awesome. My corner seats in the bow bubbled up where the black material met the black gelcoat and they replaced the seat vinyl with no questions because it was a know defect (they said that they were just going to put grey vinyl in, but they ended up replacing with the same colorscheme. My corner seats in the rear were starting to separate at the seam. The dealer gave me the option and stated that the vinyl was covered, but the labor was not...so I just took the replacement vinyl to use when it finally rips. They also replaced my windshield braces that had stress cracks, BUT they did request that I email pics ( I think they need it to turn into the factory for warranty work).
I am with Walter on people walking/steping on the seats...we even take the bench seat out if we have alot of people wanting to wakeboard especially newbies

Thank you everybody.

Chatt, I contacted Malibu boats at the number you listed and sent them an E-mail with pictures. Within 2 days they had approved warranty work that my dealer was denied. I then received this email from my dealer.

As far as the seats go I will put an order in for those seats. They need to be made before they are even shipped so you are looking at a good three to four weeks before they arrive. I will also have to schedule you in again at the upholstery shop so it could be yet another week. I’ve have mentioned all this to John and we would have preferred this all being dealt with last fall when I was dealing with ordering parts for your boat. Now we will have to hold the boat here for over a month which is an inconvenience due to the influx of boats coming in out of storage and new boats arriving. We usually do not allow customer boats to be left here for that extended length of time due to our space constrictions.

I think it is more of an "Inconvenience" for me... not having my boat for the first 3 weeks that the ice is off of the lake. I then proceeded to call the sender of this e-mail to talk to them about ME not having dealt with this last fall only to find that this guilt trip that they are trying to lay on me was not necessary at all because the seat skin that is being replaced right now was the wrong one and they have already shipped my actual seat cushion down to the factory to be re-skinned. This tells me that my boat was going to sit there for the 3-4 weeks regardless of the new warranty work required.

I apologize about whining about all this stuff but I really feel that I am not being taken care of by my dealer which makes me upset because I love my A22 and wouldn't want something this stupid to force me to buy my next boat from somebody else (Different Brand) because any other Axis dealers would be way to far away.

Your dealer sounds pretty lame. Definitely trying to place the "inconvenience" guilt trip on you.

Lame dealer! My local axis dealer closed so i have delt directly with the factory having a three back cushions replaced under warranty. Process is like your ex planed; send in pictures and hin, take three weeks to create seat skin, installations on your nickle. Fair enough.

Did you already mention which dealrr this is? Go on yelp.com and google/maps and write some negative reviews of this dealer to warn the next guy....