BOAT: Buyers, beware

My family of seven — five boys and my husband and me — recently purchased a boat with some money that we had put away. May I say I am a stay-at-home mom to these wonderful children and my husband works 10-hour days.

We decided after thinking about what to do with this money we had set aside to pursue a dream of owning a boat. We looked and looked until we found one.

It was so beautiful. Clean inside 1989 Bayliner. We were so excited and paid $2,500 for this boat which we ended up finding right down the road from a retired couple who parked it with a sign. We looked and talked to them, asked lots of questions and we were told it was a good running boat. Friday two weeks ago we bought it, licensed it and Sunday we took it out. Get it out there and halfway across the lake, a buzzer went off telling us it overheated. We are blessed we didn’t get stranded. We brought it home and found this boat has a broken water pump we were told had been replaced, and needs so many things that we can’t even get parts for anymore.

This nice running boat that was our family summer is a piece of yard junk. The words from the snotty retired couple: It’s our problem. Feel so ripped off and hurt.

ANNA AHRNSBRAK

Athol