West Marine

My hubby restores boats & his family had a boat dealership years ago, so he KNOWS boats. This store never stocks even the most common items like marine plumbing parts, epoxies, sealants, engine parts, even compasses! Electronic accessories are a joke as they hardly have any in stock. The customer service is lacking as well! We could have cleaned them out of stuff & the big guy in the back office wouldn’t have noticed! We stood there timing the bell at the register for 5+ mins & he finally came out, heard the phone ring, & turned back to get it, saying he had to help whoever was calling. REALLY!!! We have frozen bait melting… WTF!!! They carry crap for tourist boaters, like ski ropes & child blow up toys, but for those of us that I seriously and fish year round, they don’t have anything in stock to fix our boats. They say there is not enough business here in Oceanside for them to be bigger. Are you kidding me? They have all of North Carolina and part of orange county and they are right off the freeway access, and they don’t think they would have enough business!!! The reason THEY don’t is because they have crap for stock, their customer service is horrible, and they don’t know anything when you ask basic marine questions! They can barely find anything on the shelves. Such a poor excuse for a marine store!

Purchased a west marine sea volt jump start battery as a backup for my boat. After having it a couple of years, in the boat, charging it as I went out on trips. It failed to jumpstart my battery when I needed it. It was unable to crank the motor.
Called west marine, they said sorry, one year warranty.
Great, money spent for junk, no option to replace.
I’ll buy my extra battery at costco. Not here

Although small, John and Mark are very helpful and knowledgeable. They aren’t like newbies that don’t know squat about boating, but both are avid sailors/​fishers themselves.
Selection is limited due to very small store, but they rake the time to look in catalogs for you so you don’t have to drive to SD. I requested something and got in in 1 day. Good stuff.

Mixed feelings about this place. Had a bad experience with one employee (not a multitasker) and a good experience with another. I’m not mean enough to only give 3 stars. Didn’t have what we were looking for (website lied apparently) but they did give us suggestions on where to find it elsewhere.