Another online chandlery firm to avoid

longjohnsilver

longjohnsilver

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Direct-chandlery.com and waveline leisure, same organisation, advertise same day despatch. Almost a week later, order still being processed and no one answers the phone or returns answer machine messages. Luckily I'm not desperate for the goods.

Not impressed!
 
longjohnsilver said:
Direct-chandlery.com and waveline leisure, same organisation, advertise same day despatch. Almost a week later, order still being processed and no one answers the phone or returns answer machine messages. Luckily I'm not desperate for the goods.

Not impressed!
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Working in the internet industry, and having ran online retail operations, I think I'm qualified enough to say that in general, the marine industry is so very behind the times when it comes to selling stuff online. I've bought from most of the online chandlers, and whilst I do occasionally get the service I expect (and I'm very laid back so my standards aren't exactly unreasonable), it more often than not ends up with problems one way or another, from sending the wrong kit, to massive delays and no communication.

The entire industry needs a kick up the arse, or at least to employ somebody who knows how to run online retail operations properly.
 
I've had problems too.Once I ordered one seacock and was sent six and on another occasion was sent the same order twice.In both cases I was told to keep the goods.
 
It'd be a fine thing if one of those ongoing forum-votes could be arranged, allowing contributors to 'score' for the chandleries they've had good results from...

...it would encourage trade for the competent and courteous outfits, and show the cowboys in all their glaring low-scoring incompetence. Anybody know how to set up a vote-thread?
 
dancrane said:
It'd be a fine thing if one of those ongoing forum-votes could be arranged, allowing contributors to 'score' for the chandleries they've had good results from...

...it would encourage trade for the competent and courteous outfits, and show the cowboys in all their glaring low-scoring incompetence. Anybody know how to set up a vote-thread?
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Think you will find this has been done already on numerous occasions - not necessarily a poll, but asking contributors for their experiences.

Just the same as asking for suggestions of boats to buy, you get good reports about just about all of the on line chandlers and the odd complaint about some - but the some is not usually consistent. A couple do come up as problems more than others, but not for long as they either sort themselves or go out of business.

Unless you are prepared to set up a proper attitude survey covering a wide range of people (not just the few nerds on here) all you will ever get is a snapshot of people's immediate recall experiences, and mostly only the negative ones. Constructing a truly representative sample and designing a reliable questionnaire is a real challenge, as anybody who has ever done serious consumer research will tell you. (Used to teach this stuff! - only real value was in providing well paid employment for me which enabled me to buy my own boat(s) - among other toys!)
 
Right on cue - just as I posted the above, bendyone posted positive experience about Force 4. Unsurprising that they are arguably the biggest player in the market at the moment.
 
As you say, contributors are only usually spurred to comment, by repeated intense frustration or occasional satisfaction.

Sorry if a thumbnail pic appears here...not sure how to remove it. :rolleyes:
 
dancrane said:
As you say, contributors are only usually spurred to comment, by repeated intense frustration or occasional satisfaction.

Sorry if a thumbnail pic appears here...not sure how to remove it. :rolleyes:
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Ah, so the picture wasn't a subtle way of saying "Rowlocks!" ?

Pete
 
Good one Pete. ;) No, actually I was agreeing...

...in fact I'd been trying to tell a story of how hard I'd found it to source the right bit of kit, even something as humble as that...

...Force 4 sell the Plastimo rowlock sockets, which require a dirty great 24mm hole sunk into the side-deck. They also stock nice slender-diameter gunmetal ones, but at silly prices. And other metal ones (chrome, brass or very rough galvanised) are surprisingly difficult to find. Eventually I found the chrome ones at Norfolk Marine, but they don't accept PayPal...:(

Googling "rowlock socket" typically takes you to two or three chandlery brands, often with far-flung stores, but usually with the same limited stock...and routinely out of stock. I suppose half the problem is the fault of disorganised cataloguing - and lousy photography (the same generic picture for a dozen different sizes and styles) - plus inconsistent measurement or quoted dimensions.

I believe Pinnell & Bax are very highly regarded, though I've had no response to a well-reasoned email-enquiry about whether the gelcoat hardener they sent me was the right stuff...that said, nobody in the country (or outside the Plastic Padding company) seems quite sure about that, either!
 
Latest update, direct quotes from their website and order confirmation email

Your credit/debit card will not be charged until your order is ready to be shipped.

When an order is placed on this website it will be sent within 1hr to a 10,000 sq ft marine warehouse for prompt despatch; if out of stock we will contact you within 4 hours during the working day and give the option to choose an in stock alternative or cancel the order.

Both these are lies. My credit card has been debited. They also emailed me to say my order would be delivered last week. Another lie.

And still no reply to 2 answermachine messages left.

Avoid them like the plague!!
 
I ordered a new bike wheel on Wednesday night. On Thursday I received an E-mail saying that it would be delivered the following day. On Friday it hadn't arrived by mid afternoon so I looked on their website to see if there was any more information (not that I was in any hurry for it). The website told me that it would be delivered between 3.30pm and 4.30 pm. A minute later there was a knock on the door and the delivery driver handed me one new wheel. It was 3.35 pm.

Nathan's earlier comments are right.
 
dancrane said:
It'd be a fine thing if one of those ongoing forum-votes could be arranged, allowing contributors to 'score' for the chandleries they've had good results from...

...it would encourage trade for the competent and courteous outfits, and show the cowboys in all their glaring low-scoring incompetence. Anybody know how to set up a vote-thread?
Click to expand...

Good luck with that. YBW and PBO are paid by these companies in the form of advertising.
 
I daresay that's true, but our forum-hosts seem to put up with endless criticism of their paymasters at present. I doubt they're unnerved by the prospect of the advertisers reading our remarks, or perhaps they know the advertisers have no interest in what we say of them...
 
dancrane said:
I daresay that's true, but our forum-hosts seem to put up with endless criticism of their paymasters at present. I doubt they're unnerved by the prospect of the advertisers reading our remarks, or perhaps they know the advertisers have no interest in what we say of them...
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I would also like to see a sub-forum dedicated to honest reviews of products and services, it works very well on other, more independent forums I have frequented. I do notice that reviews in the publications that own these forums, rarely give a product a terrible review, and one has to "read between the lines" to a certain extent to find the truth.
A fair few years ago, I helped an American chap with a legal dispute he has against Gibson Guitars, he (and I as it happens) believed that Gibson have been manufacturing their headstocks wrong since the late 50's. The angle of the headstock means that any stress placed in a certain spot will shear the headstock clean off (but this doesn't happen in copies by other companies).
The American chap wanted the independent assessment published in all of the Guitar magazines in America, to bring light to this quite huge problem. Not one magazine took him up, the reason obviously was that Gibson paid these magazines huge amounts for advertising. But by spending that much on advertising, they had "cheaped out" on the product.
Independent endorsement of a product or service means far more to me than a huge marketing machine.
 
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