Hillside Powersports & Marine — Local services in Lakeport

The Hillside Powersports Marine service department cost too much and failed to fix the issue.

My experience at Hillside had some positive moments, like the check in with Paul and regular calls from Cliff the mechanic.

Overall Cliff, the mechanic that worked on my boat, proved to be incompetent and the shop itself proved to have inadequate systems or knowledge to fix my '08 MB Sports B52 wake boat.

Hillside had my boat from 11/18/17 until 1/5/18, 48 days. They did fix my bilge pump. Then they attempted to identify the issue with my engine that was lugging or as I have heard it called, butterflying. The mechanic, even said he thought the issue was the throttle position sensor, however they did not have a way to test it. They never ordered the part. Instead in what was seemingly a fit of frustration, the mechanic said he "felt" I needed a new engine, that his gut told him it was that I needed a new engine.

New engine for my boat would have cost between $6,000 and $20,000 depending on a number of factors. They also told me the would go to Jasper engines for the new motor, my quick research on Jasper showed me that they have many consumer complaints with the State of CA. :( This was my first hint that we might not be dealing with an upstanding service shop.

In the end I paid $935.35 for them to fix my bilge pump (according to their notes a 30 minute job), do an oil change, then spent roughly 6 hours troubleshooting the engine issues. They did not replace the throttle position sensor, which from multiple phone calls, the mechanic seemed to have honed in on as the issue. Had he followed his troubleshooting and his gut on that issue, my boat would likely have been working.

On January 5, 2018, I drove 2.5 hours north to Lakeport and got my boat, then I drove the boat to Larson Marine in Stockton. Larson Marine in less than 24 hours, had tested a new throttle position sensor, found it to be the issue and replaced it. Fixed in less than a day.

It feels fair to call Hillside incompetent, whether it was the person working on the boat or the system that failed that person, I do not know. I only know as a customer I feel that I was taken for a ride and failed to get good value for the money I paid.

My boat will never be going back to Hillside My advice is that you think hard about whether or not Hillside is the right shop...

What a terrible experience. I guess if you are not a Lakeport local then you will wait for your repair maybe 1 or 2 days extra. Then they charge for 45 minutes work ($75) to replace a battery on a quad that is under the seat. The experience started when I went in to the service dept to schedule my appointment with PAUL in Service. Paul is not a multitasker. He may be able to do 2 things at once but I haven't witnessed it. He was so wrapped up with another customer/friend that I took a card and called a half hour later. When I called I asked if he was busy and he said no. I then asked to schedule. This was June 13 and he said earliest is July 1st. I said I will take it. He then said he will call me back to lock it in. He never called. I called the following week and asked him if he had me in for the 1st of July. He said no and soonest would be July 12. I asked for a supervisor and he said there were none around today. I then called the front office and a gentleman there asked what was wrong. I told him about the appointment and he quickly took care of it and got me in for Thursday the 29th. I was to bring it in on the day before so they can jump on it. (The only thing they jump on is beefing up the charge on your invoice). Paul the service guy put my quad off on purpose for 1.5 days. He would've made it so I wouldn't have it back before the holiday if it was his way. PAUL DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE CUSTOMER, ONLY ABOUT HIMSELF. Then I had to get the owner's wife Barbara involved. She was very apologetic. She was an elderly lady and seems she has done this quite a bit before. She gave me a lot of excuses but who wants to hear about their problems when they are charging the customer $75 to check a battery and put a new one in. Obviously this is easily remedied by not using them. If they lose business then they will understand. Unfortunatly there are businesses who will take advantage of their customer if they don't think they are local and won't see them again. BEWARE OF HILLSIDE HONDA IN LAKEPORT,...

Drove to hillside july 2nd 2020 from Sacramento to pick up a new yamaha fxho after calling nearly every dealership in nor ca,nevada, washington and oregon trying to find a ski. Everyone was sold out but travis informed me over the phone the had a couple left. I was a bit leary as i had been told this by other dealerships, even left a deposit and everytime they were sold out from under me. However in this case hillside gave me their word. We Handled everything over the phone because agin i live hours away. Everything was painless, in order and as described. I put alot of pressure on travis the sales guy to have it ready from freight for pick up before the forth of july, giving him only a few hours for prep from my initial inquiry. Hillside was slammed with service as well as sales at the time and he made it happen. I was extremely impressed with the level of forwardness, clarity and follow through by everyone at hillside. No b.s. sales. No pressure. Great attitudes! My wife and i left extremely impressed and jovial. We were in and out in less then an hour fully informed and satisfied with our purchase. Im not one to leave reviews positive or negative but i would absolutely recommend these guys for any major purchases/ service and would gladly drive another 3hrs for the piece of mind they deliver. A+ rating all...