Tom’s Outboard

Just got some phone help on a Suzuki outboard. The gentleman I spoke with was helpful and friendly. Didn’t seem rushed at all. I work in a service environment and I know how easy it is to get burnt out on the same questions over and over. Greatest part was I think he got me pointed in the right direction. They will defiantly get my business in the future. Thanks guys!

I walk into this place and wasn’t given the time of day I had to ask somebody to ask a question and they didn’t seem very interested at all in helping me. I was here to look for a new motor for my boat. I figured with how much a motor costs they would really want to help me so they can make money. I commuted all the way from Tacoma because I heard this place was good. I Definitely wont come back here for sure! Sounds like the Tracker boat center at Bass Pro is where I will take my business.

This is a well respected, old school shop. It’s been a fixture in Olympia as long as I’ve been around. And that’s a really long time. I know several guys that bring their motors here exclusively for years and I’ve never heard a bad word spoken about Tom’s. That is until the 2 sour grapes reviews here on Unilocal.
Used to be Tom’s dealt exclusively with OMC outbards and Volvo Penta. Now they no longer work on I/​Os, but do work on Honda, Yamaha, & Tohatsu in addition to Johnson/​Evinrude. As I understand it they’ll work on Mercs too. So if you need work done on you OB this is the place.
I just wish they’d still work on my Volvo Penta I/​O. Dang it.

I’ve been relying on these guys for several years for my two older outboards now, and have had nothing but positive experiences. These guys definitely know their stuff. They diagnose the problem extremely quickly, give a fair quote and stick to it. Occasionally something may crop up that costs more than expected, but they are right up front with it and Tom has personally eaten some of his profit on two separate occasions with me because he quoted me a cost and they had to do more work than he expected. Plus, they seem to get work done in a timely manner, even in the middle of the summer when it seems EVERYBODY is bringing something in for repair.

Have been here a few times and have gotten real nice service. What i appreciated the most is that they offered advice on my motors to fix it myself and did not seem like they where money hungry. When i did have something fixed it was fairly priced.

Bent the prop in my inboard/​outboard. Ordered a replacement at Tom’s. The wrong one came in, but I don’t think it was their fault. The spline for my boat prop comes in several varieties, and it is not apparent from just looking at the part number on the old prop. Anyway, they lent me a spare and quickly reordered the correct one. Tom also gave me a good price on a second one to use as a spare. I had my two new props in a couple days. I am a happy camper.

This place is terrible. It took ten months for them to start working on an engine I had brought in last spring and I had to keep calling and stopping in to get them to even start it. They did not call me once during the course of the entire ten months they had my engine. If you are friends with Tom and crew he probably does a great job in a timely manner — if not, I’d avoid them entirely. They will not give you good service. Also — their parking and receiving area is ridiculous. If you do go there (and I don’t recommend it) be mindful that if you pull into their parking lot you are going to have to back your boat back out through the parking lot, around a tight curve and onto a busy street.

I have taken motors to Tom’s before with no real issue, however, this time was quite different. As I was dropping my motor off, I heard a customer complaining that he was not notified that the work he wanted completed was going to cost $ 180 instead of the $ 100 he was quoted, Tom gave him some run down of how he was saving money, the customer said it was OK, but he really would have appreciated a call letting him know about the change in price.
I dropped my motor off and told them it wasn’t working and I would like them to check the compression and spark, and give me their opinion on the carb, I expected all this to take about half an hour, at least as far as charging me, although I don’t think it would take any mechanic more than 15 minutes to do that. They said they would give me a call on Friday and let me know what was up. Come Friday, I get a call saying my motor is all fixed and I owe $ 150, I expressed my concern about the price, but being at work, I did not have time to discuss it. Today I went to Toms to talk to them about it, and explained that I did not want the carb rebuilt, nor had I asked them to do so. What ensued was a large amount of profanity about how I was trying to rip them off and that if they had known that they never would have taken it it, that he’s here to make money «not deal with little B.S.». After a bit more profanity and explaining that this is what they do for a living and times are tough for everyone he asked me what I wanted to do. I told him I really had no idea, since I never asked him to do this work, and wasn’t expecting to pay for more than ½ an hour of what should have been easy money for him. He said, fine, that he would take all the new stuff out, put the old stuff back in and charge me for a half hour, and how did that sound? I told him it sounded perfect, he then walked about spitting out more profanity. At this point I half expect to get my motor back in about a month with more broken on it than when I dropped it off, at least that’s the feeling I was left with when our «conversation» was over.
I did not walk into this looking to rip anyone off, I just wanted an opinion about a $ 60 motor, and was expecting to pay about $ 40 for that opinion not $ 150 for unauthorized repairs. Needless to say, this ended up being a fairly bad experience and I will not be returning. I don’t suggest working with anyone who treats their customers with such little respect over something that was clearly a misunderstanding, and instead of trying to figure out a way to work it out, so everyone is happy, just to go off the deep end and cost him self more money and time. However, if you do decide to go to Tom’s I suggest you get EVERYTHING in writing and sign a written estimate.