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***Please read the last post as this was resolved***

I just finished restoring a Whaler with a hull ID that is 27xx. It is a wonderfull 13' boat and I suspect that it is around a 1960 Born on Date. I have emailed Chuck Bennett as well as a few other email address I have found on Google for customer support. I can't get anyone to respond at all. I am very frustrated at the lack of response from anyone at Boston Whaler. Please confirm the email addresses of someone at BW that might actually be willing to look up my hull ID to confirm the Born on Date. As of now I feel Boston Whaler is not the same company as in its years in Massachusetts. Hopefully they just didn't receive the emails from a spam filter or something, otherwise they really don't care about owners of the antique boats. BTW -- Mike at Nautical Lumber is a great person to deal with and Specialty Marine does a great job as well for restoration parts. -- Bob

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cbennett, He's usually very prompt in replying and seems like a very decent guy too....

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I have actually tried over the last few weeks from several different email addresses to reach Chuck at: cbennett@whaler.com and chuck.bennett@whaler.com (it appears BW has changed to a first.lastname convention from what I can tell). No luck---I am not getting any responses. I have also tried other email addresses that I have found on Google but they don't like me :-(

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I'd heard that like other recreational boat builders, they've been having hard times recently due to the economy. That's most likely a large part of what's happening in their lack of response. Hopefully Chuck still works there!!

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Be patient. I needn't badger the point all of us know concerning all the possible pitfalls surrounding electronic communications. Mr. Bennett is as valuable a resource as I know on this planet concerning all aspects of BW and is a kind and prompt gentleman. He helped me a great deal as I am sure he will help you. Just keep trying. Have fun with your Whaler! Paul

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Well I do believe Whaler laid off a bunch of employees.

I believe you can get Chuck on the Continuous Wave board.

Edit:
Chuck Bennett is also a member of WhalerCentral.com as are many other Whaler personnel.
As Tom mentions below, they most likely will not post on boards like this but do help us out a lot behind the scenes. As mentioned, Chuck may well be on vacation and hopefully not on temporary leave.

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I remember emailing him several occations and he's usually very prompt. There were a couple of times it took him a little longer than usual. One other thing to think about, he might be on vacation. Just a thought.

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Fellas,

First let's straighten a few things out.

- Chuck is always very prompt in returning calls and emails.

- Chuck has never direclty participated in the continuouswWave site or this one, nor will he or any other Whaler employee ever do so.

- Whaler shuts down for a one or two week vacation each summer between model years. Chuck *deserves* a vacation now and then.

- Whaler has recently furloughed quite a few production employees, but as far as I know not any engineering or customer service people.

What happened when you called Whaler and asked for Chuck?

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Just call their customer support line and leave a message, I've always had a response. Again, they be on summer shutdown or the workload with fewer people puts these kind of questions to the back of the line. While information about all our boats is important to us, I'm sure their main concern is producing and selling new boats.

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I just got an email from Chuck on the 3rd of July. He is always very quick and helpful when I have contacted with him in the past. Just be patient and it will all work out.

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Mr. Bennett has always answered all of my questions, no matter how trivial, almost immediately. He has always gone out of his way to help with my restoration projects and providing information on classic Boston Whaler boats. Walter

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Chuck is very prompt and courteous.
I think Whaler is off for a few weeks as they are between production years.

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I can assure you that neither BW nor Chuck Bennett are ignoring you. He offers all of us a great service in tracking down the origin of our classic Whalers. Be a little patient and I'm sure you will get both an answer to your question and an explanation for the delay in response.

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Thank you all for your responses to my original post. I would like to clarify one thing about being pateint. I have been trying to get responses since late May. Apparently he (Chuck Bennett) and the other Boston Whaler employees are not receiving my emails. Everyone tells me that Chuck is an outstanding individual. So please don't perceive this posting as a bash against him. I am just frustrated with trying many different emails to BW and not even getting acknowledged. I can only assume that the emails are not reaching them (eventhough I have tried several different email addresses and locations in case they are getting tossed by their company wide spam filter).

I will have to attempt contacting BW via phone since electronic media is failing.

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Yeah. I know exactly what he is dealing with.

I've never had to contact BW and have no issue with them, but, I do have alot of experience with having to provide customer service and deal with customer problems. I often get calls from irate people wondering why I have been ignoring emails. Just wait 'til the bad guys get serious about disrupting the net. They're only fooling around now I would guess. The internet, for all the good it is, is too unreliable for anything really urgent that just has to get done.

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Chuck Bennet is good people. He responded to me within a week which was a far shorter time than I expected. I think BW does provide good support..... Keep trying is all I can advise.

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Just a thought... Is there any way to check your Spam filter to see if they've replied and maybe it got caught in there somehow?

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I emailed cbennett late last night requesting the history on my hull, he responded before 8:30 am this morning. I am impressed and very pleased with this resource that is available to us Whaler owners. Maybe you should try sending your request from someone elses computer.

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Chuck is the man, over the last 2 years I have contacted BW 9 times. I have always received a reply within a day or so

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This is the resolution to my many attempts at contacting Boston Whaler. I decided to give up on the email alone and called them. I got put into a service que and reached a person by the name of: Justin Brown. He had me resend the emails. He received them right away. Not sure what happended previously but now I was getting somewhere. He was very helpful. They confirmed my 1960 Hull Born on Date. Upon calling Boston Whaler, I was very pleased with the customer service. I on the other hand don't put credit into just emailing them as it initially got me no where. I never heard from Chuck, but sounds like he is still there. Justin was great though. If you really need an assistance at BW, call them is my advice.

Thanks for all the replys.