Mornin!:seeya:
Here's the Story from Yvonne.
Yvonne A. Aleman
February 18 at 8:42 PM ·
I rarely, if ever, make a negative post but this one is well-deserved and a longggg time coming.
I remember when I started going with Greg to the Miami Boat Show 12 years ago, it did not matter whether you owned a boat or not, a Cigarette or not, everyone hung out at the Cigarette display. It was ground zero for our performance boating family. Year after year, it was the corner we all gathered in at the convention center at the start of the day, the end of the day and gaps in between. Every. Single. Day. Of the show week.
Granted... things changed a bit when we all moved to Virginia Key for those 3 years. But when we all went back to the convention center, Cigarette became the least welcoming builder display in the ENTIRE show. And it got worse and worse yearly.
Fast forward to this year and it was the most ridiculous display of not understanding your customer base. I was flat out refused entrance to their display area because I did not hand over my LICENSE and all my personal information. The "gatekeepers" were rude, pretentious and downright clueless about who their buyers are.
Whether we had a Fountain, Cigarette, Active Thunder, Skater, MTI, Concept, DCB, Airship or NO BOAT AT ALL, every single builder that has a display at Miami Boat Show has never been anything but overwhelmingly friendly, inviting, warm, pleasant and just an absolute joy to spend time in their displays catching up and appreciating their creations because - brands aside - we are a boating family and the performance boating community is small.
We currently have 2 DCBs, well I suppose 1.5 DCBs since the new one isn't due till Spring and every builder we spent time with was kind, hugged us, talked like friends - every single one. Except Cigarette. The 4 of us could not so much as make it past their velvet rope to visit their display AT A BOAT SHOW. I hope that Cigarette's ignorance and arrogance costs them their client base. Go buy boats from builders who are kind no matter what you run because the welcoming builders are the true heroes of our small performance boating family.
At times, the ONLY people in the Cigarette display were the merchandise sales people and the actual sales people standing around with their arms crossed. It's a boat show, for the love of Christ, and chances are that your buyers are already in your lead list and not someone providing a DRIVER'S LICENSE to enter a display, which was full of incomplete boats BTW. Know your audience. Know your community. Know your buyers. I hope every other builder surrounding the Cigarette display earned business with their kindness and welcoming nature. And I sincerely hope Cigarette sells for pennies on the dollar to someone who can truly manage the brand appropriately and welcome the very people who made Cigarette, Cigarette. See less
— with Greg Harris.