Like an idiot, I didn't do thorough research and just believed the EBay Feedback score, which was more for buying than selling. Also Mike has the gift of gab , excellent Con Man! Good job Mike for Stealing my 10 Grand, you piece of s***.. I have tried multiple times to contact the company and Mike, no one will return my emails or calls. I paid them $10.000 for a zero hour, profesionally rebuilt 250 hp Mercury pro xs, with a warranty. what I recieved was a motor that made it 500 feet. That's what I got.... How people can continually get away with screwing people over, with no repercussions is totally beyond me. STAY AWAY. FAR AWAY!!
I don’t know about you but I always try to do my research any fully plan out any major transaction I’m about to do in advance and so far I have had excellent luck in doing that. For this project I wanted to get a new engine for my 1998 See Ray F16 XR2 and found Blackbird Motors on eBay. I decided to contact them to see what the entire job would cost and on April 2nd, 2016 I got this response from Mike DeMayo, “If you bring us the whole boat we can do the wild job $4250. Give a call if I can help answer any questions. 724-290-0509 thanks mike. I then asked if they accept AMEX and he let me know that it had to be MC or Visa.
I was definitely interested and needed to get more details so I gave him a call and asked how long the job would take and he said about 1 week. This was reasonable and would work perfectly for me. I explained that I had to remove the electronic oil injection from the engine and put everything back to stock and wanted to get some other things done before bringing it to him but wanted to bring it out on Saturday April 30th if that would be ok. He said yes and could definitely meet me there so I said I would call him on Monday April 25th to verify everything was a go on my end. I did see some negative feedback when I googled the shop but most of it was older and they did have an A rating with the BBB, there was also some positive feedback so I decided to move ahead. Bad decision on my part, keep it in mind.
Monday morning, I called a little after 9:00 AM and explained why I was calling to the lady that answered the phone and when I mentioned eBay she said it was probably Mike I needed to talk to but he normally didn’t come in until 10:00 AM and that they were closed on Saturdays so I said I would call back. She also took all of my information for the work that was going to be done.
I got through to Mike at the business number a little after 10:00 AM and everything was still a go and he actually had 2 of the engines I needed in stock. I also verified how long it would take and he not only told me 1 week but if I wanted, for an extra $300.00 he could do the swap while I waited in about 3 hours. Not wanting to spend the day there I said I’d just drop off the boat. The other reason was I was thinking about getting the extended warranty for $500.00 instead and that would really be pushing the budget. I asked for the Pittsburg address and he said it was actually a shop in West Sunbury PA near Pittsburg and gave me the address. I said it was a little over 2 hours from Cleveland and I would be there around 9:00 AM he made it clear that he didn’t get there until 10:00 AM, I said fine, I’d get there between 10:00 and 10:30.
On Friday April 29th I called the business number at 4:27 PM to let them know I was still coming out and wanted to make sure there were no problems. Keep in mind, all calls I mention are from the history of all my calls made from my phone so rest assured all times are accurate. Also note that their business hours are posted as 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, nobody called me back.
On Saturday April 30th I got to the shop at 10:13 AM and this is when everything started going south, the gate was locked and there was nobody around. I walked through the gate and checked the place out while I waited for Mike to show up, I called the business number at 10:17 AM and it went straight to voicemail so I left a message just in case they were monitored. I called again at 10:25 AM to let them know I was getting a little frustrated and hoped someone would call me. At 10:36 AM Mike still hadn’t showed up so I called again to let Mike know I was heading into town to get something to eat and to call me if he came in. While I was eating I went digging and found Mikes cell phone number he had left on his eBay response, called it and it went straight to voicemail so I let him know where I was and that I hoped he didn’t waste over half a day of my time and to please call me. This was at 11:23 AM. At 11:31 AM I called his cell number back and it not only went to voice mail but the mailbox was full. At this point I went back to the truck and started heading home.
At 12:14 PM I was heading home and my wife called to see how things were going so I let her know what happened and that I was 57 miles outside of Cleveland and should be home soon. All of a sudden I get an incoming call and tell her I want to see who it is and I’ll call her back. It turns out to be Mike and he wants to know where I’m at and I tell him the whole story and that I’m over half way home. He starts giving me all these excuses and tells me he saw me as I was leaving but didn’t call because he didn’t realize who I was and all that so I’m thinking I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, head back and get the work done. I’d like to also mention that this guy swears a lot but some people are just that way and I can deal with that.
Not sure what time I actually got back to the place but an owner of a pontoon boat pulled in right behind me. Mike was in a newer building and came out and introduced himself to us. Seemed like a nice enough guy and kept apologizing for the mix-up. He told me where to park the boat and after I backed it in he helped me unhook it. He then went in and worked with the other customers while I verified everything was good with the boat and saw the drain plug was slowly losing water because it was plugged and fixed that. I then went inside and asked if I could check the place out. The other customers said to go ahead and finish up with me, it appeared they were weighing their options on outboards that were available. Mike took me around and told me how he just shipped one of the engines to Florida and that mine was being built and was almost finished and sure enough there was an assembled V-6 short block sitting on the bench the just needed the heads and manifold added. Never mentioned the second engine that was allegedly in stock but things happen. He then takes me to fill out the paperwork and I let him know the lady I spoke with originally took all my information. I then let him know that I can use a personal day Friday to pick up the boat instead of coming out Saturday. He said he wasn’t sure and to give him a call on Thursday to see where everything stood. I said fine, a couple more days won’t hurt, it’s probably not going in the water until June anyhow. That statement was only to show I could be somewhat flexible, I still wanted the job done on time and could add a second week if need be but in no way was indicating I would be willing to wait until June.
On Thursday May 5th I call Mike at 12:36 PM and ask what the status is on my boat. He tells me he’s at lunch and will follow up and get back to me as soon as he gets back to the shop. At 2:36 PM there is still no call from Mike and this is one of the many complaints on the web so I call him back. The number starts to ring, transfers to another ring and goes to voicemail so I leave him a message. At about 10 minutes to 3:00 I call the business number and that goes to voicemail and leave a message to call me. I wait a few minutes and decide the only way I’m going to find out what’s going on is to put in for a personal day and drive down.
I get to their shop around 10:30 AM and there’s a lot of activity going on so I’m getting kinda hopeful everything is all right. Mike comes walking out of the shop playing with is cell phone and asks what I’m doing there so I tell him that since nobody is returning my phone calls I’d drive down personally to see what’s going on. He then tells me I should have called the office and that he had no idea I was coming down to get it. I told him I did call the office and that went to voice mail also. I then told him I didn’t come down to get it I merely came down to find out what’s going on. He starts giving these excuses how he’s on the phone all the time and couldn’t get back to me. I’m thinking about how he found time after I’d left the previous Saturday.
He then tells me my engine is being machined as we speak and then I know I have been lied to from the beginning and said t you showed me my alleged engine on the bench last Saturday and it was almost done, are you now telling me you’ve pulled my engine and its being machined. He tells me yes and to come in and he will show me. I told him I wanted to go look at the boat instead. He walks into the shop and I walk over to by boat that’s been moved to the very back and is behind a bunch of stuff thinking maybe he did pull the engine and is actually working on it. I pull the cover off the back of the boat, open the cover of the engine compartment and sure enough nothing has been touched so I decide to just bring it home, drop the engine cover and snap the boat cover back on. Mike comes back and asks what I’m doing and I tell him I’m catching him at another lie and that we are done. Get the crap out from in front of my boat, I’m taking it home.
He starts making excuses about all the boats there and I tell him I don’t care, they weren’t here when I brought mine in and we are done. Get the crap moved, I’m taking it home. As I’m hooking up the boat up to the trailer an elderly gentleman is standing they and I try to apologize to him. I tell him I’m sorry but I set this up a month ago and Mike has done nothing but lie to me. His response is to tell me he doesn’t like dealing with people like me and he’s glad he is doing it now instead of later. I told him I may be working on the east coast up to the next 4 months and don’t have time for this and he says they do 400 engines and month and he would have it easily had it done in 4 months. I only needed one engine installed in one week and they obviously can’t do that. That wasn’t the deal that was made and now you know what they are really all about. They may build some of the best 2 stroke engines on the planet but they have no honor and you will probably just get nothing but lies and excuses like I did before I wised up. These people do not deserve my money and they do not deserve your money.
Don’t believe me? Look at the other dissatisfied customer reviews on Google.
Blackbird Motors Reviews
Like an idiot, I didn't do thorough research and just believed the EBay Feedback score, which was more for buying than selling. Also Mike has the gift of gab , excellent Con Man! Good job Mike for Stealing my 10 Grand, you piece of s***.. I have tried multiple times to contact the company and Mike, no one will return my emails or calls. I paid them $10.000 for a zero hour, profesionally rebuilt 250 hp Mercury pro xs, with a warranty. what I recieved was a motor that made it 500 feet. That's what I got.... How people can continually get away with screwing people over, with no repercussions is totally beyond me. STAY AWAY. FAR AWAY!!
I don’t know about you but I always try to do my research any fully plan out any major transaction I’m about to do in advance and so far I have had excellent luck in doing that. For this project I wanted to get a new engine for my 1998 See Ray F16 XR2 and found Blackbird Motors on eBay. I decided to contact them to see what the entire job would cost and on April 2nd, 2016 I got this response from Mike DeMayo, “If you bring us the whole boat we can do the wild job $4250. Give a call if I can help answer any questions. 724-290-0509 thanks mike. I then asked if they accept AMEX and he let me know that it had to be MC or Visa.
I was definitely interested and needed to get more details so I gave him a call and asked how long the job would take and he said about 1 week. This was reasonable and would work perfectly for me. I explained that I had to remove the electronic oil injection from the engine and put everything back to stock and wanted to get some other things done before bringing it to him but wanted to bring it out on Saturday April 30th if that would be ok. He said yes and could definitely meet me there so I said I would call him on Monday April 25th to verify everything was a go on my end. I did see some negative feedback when I googled the shop but most of it was older and they did have an A rating with the BBB, there was also some positive feedback so I decided to move ahead. Bad decision on my part, keep it in mind.
Monday morning, I called a little after 9:00 AM and explained why I was calling to the lady that answered the phone and when I mentioned eBay she said it was probably Mike I needed to talk to but he normally didn’t come in until 10:00 AM and that they were closed on Saturdays so I said I would call back. She also took all of my information for the work that was going to be done.
I got through to Mike at the business number a little after 10:00 AM and everything was still a go and he actually had 2 of the engines I needed in stock. I also verified how long it would take and he not only told me 1 week but if I wanted, for an extra $300.00 he could do the swap while I waited in about 3 hours. Not wanting to spend the day there I said I’d just drop off the boat. The other reason was I was thinking about getting the extended warranty for $500.00 instead and that would really be pushing the budget. I asked for the Pittsburg address and he said it was actually a shop in West Sunbury PA near Pittsburg and gave me the address. I said it was a little over 2 hours from Cleveland and I would be there around 9:00 AM he made it clear that he didn’t get there until 10:00 AM, I said fine, I’d get there between 10:00 and 10:30.
On Friday April 29th I called the business number at 4:27 PM to let them know I was still coming out and wanted to make sure there were no problems. Keep in mind, all calls I mention are from the history of all my calls made from my phone so rest assured all times are accurate. Also note that their business hours are posted as 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, nobody called me back.
On Saturday April 30th I got to the shop at 10:13 AM and this is when everything started going south, the gate was locked and there was nobody around. I walked through the gate and checked the place out while I waited for Mike to show up, I called the business number at 10:17 AM and it went straight to voicemail so I left a message just in case they were monitored. I called again at 10:25 AM to let them know I was getting a little frustrated and hoped someone would call me. At 10:36 AM Mike still hadn’t showed up so I called again to let Mike know I was heading into town to get something to eat and to call me if he came in. While I was eating I went digging and found Mikes cell phone number he had left on his eBay response, called it and it went straight to voicemail so I let him know where I was and that I hoped he didn’t waste over half a day of my time and to please call me. This was at 11:23 AM. At 11:31 AM I called his cell number back and it not only went to voice mail but the mailbox was full. At this point I went back to the truck and started heading home.
At 12:14 PM I was heading home and my wife called to see how things were going so I let her know what happened and that I was 57 miles outside of Cleveland and should be home soon. All of a sudden I get an incoming call and tell her I want to see who it is and I’ll call her back. It turns out to be Mike and he wants to know where I’m at and I tell him the whole story and that I’m over half way home. He starts giving me all these excuses and tells me he saw me as I was leaving but didn’t call because he didn’t realize who I was and all that so I’m thinking I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, head back and get the work done. I’d like to also mention that this guy swears a lot but some people are just that way and I can deal with that.
Not sure what time I actually got back to the place but an owner of a pontoon boat pulled in right behind me. Mike was in a newer building and came out and introduced himself to us. Seemed like a nice enough guy and kept apologizing for the mix-up. He told me where to park the boat and after I backed it in he helped me unhook it. He then went in and worked with the other customers while I verified everything was good with the boat and saw the drain plug was slowly losing water because it was plugged and fixed that. I then went inside and asked if I could check the place out. The other customers said to go ahead and finish up with me, it appeared they were weighing their options on outboards that were available. Mike took me around and told me how he just shipped one of the engines to Florida and that mine was being built and was almost finished and sure enough there was an assembled V-6 short block sitting on the bench the just needed the heads and manifold added. Never mentioned the second engine that was allegedly in stock but things happen. He then takes me to fill out the paperwork and I let him know the lady I spoke with originally took all my information. I then let him know that I can use a personal day Friday to pick up the boat instead of coming out Saturday. He said he wasn’t sure and to give him a call on Thursday to see where everything stood. I said fine, a couple more days won’t hurt, it’s probably not going in the water until June anyhow. That statement was only to show I could be somewhat flexible, I still wanted the job done on time and could add a second week if need be but in no way was indicating I would be willing to wait until June.
On Thursday May 5th I call Mike at 12:36 PM and ask what the status is on my boat. He tells me he’s at lunch and will follow up and get back to me as soon as he gets back to the shop. At 2:36 PM there is still no call from Mike and this is one of the many complaints on the web so I call him back. The number starts to ring, transfers to another ring and goes to voicemail so I leave him a message. At about 10 minutes to 3:00 I call the business number and that goes to voicemail and leave a message to call me. I wait a few minutes and decide the only way I’m going to find out what’s going on is to put in for a personal day and drive down.
I get to their shop around 10:30 AM and there’s a lot of activity going on so I’m getting kinda hopeful everything is all right. Mike comes walking out of the shop playing with is cell phone and asks what I’m doing there so I tell him that since nobody is returning my phone calls I’d drive down personally to see what’s going on. He then tells me I should have called the office and that he had no idea I was coming down to get it. I told him I did call the office and that went to voice mail also. I then told him I didn’t come down to get it I merely came down to find out what’s going on. He starts giving these excuses how he’s on the phone all the time and couldn’t get back to me. I’m thinking about how he found time after I’d left the previous Saturday.
He then tells me my engine is being machined as we speak and then I know I have been lied to from the beginning and said t you showed me my alleged engine on the bench last Saturday and it was almost done, are you now telling me you’ve pulled my engine and its being machined. He tells me yes and to come in and he will show me. I told him I wanted to go look at the boat instead. He walks into the shop and I walk over to by boat that’s been moved to the very back and is behind a bunch of stuff thinking maybe he did pull the engine and is actually working on it. I pull the cover off the back of the boat, open the cover of the engine compartment and sure enough nothing has been touched so I decide to just bring it home, drop the engine cover and snap the boat cover back on. Mike comes back and asks what I’m doing and I tell him I’m catching him at another lie and that we are done. Get the crap out from in front of my boat, I’m taking it home.
He starts making excuses about all the boats there and I tell him I don’t care, they weren’t here when I brought mine in and we are done. Get the crap moved, I’m taking it home. As I’m hooking up the boat up to the trailer an elderly gentleman is standing they and I try to apologize to him. I tell him I’m sorry but I set this up a month ago and Mike has done nothing but lie to me. His response is to tell me he doesn’t like dealing with people like me and he’s glad he is doing it now instead of later. I told him I may be working on the east coast up to the next 4 months and don’t have time for this and he says they do 400 engines and month and he would have it easily had it done in 4 months. I only needed one engine installed in one week and they obviously can’t do that. That wasn’t the deal that was made and now you know what they are really all about. They may build some of the best 2 stroke engines on the planet but they have no honor and you will probably just get nothing but lies and excuses like I did before I wised up. These people do not deserve my money and they do not deserve your money.
Don’t believe me? Look at the other dissatisfied customer reviews on Google.