Boatshed experience?

banger said:
Ian at Boat shed Port Solvent is good in my experience,no I did not buy through him but he was prompt and professional in his dealings, I won't mention two others that I tried to deal with this year,both totally ignored my emails with requests to view, the boats I was interested in are still for sale,one by the owner on eBay. I took my money to Holland and to a good and efficient broker.
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I used to work with Ian Dawes of Boatshed 'Port Solvent' - he's a good egg and not to be sniffed at.

Having owned a Boatshed franchise in the past, I found most of the franchisees to be decent, hardworking, honest people who do a good job. Some people may express weaknesses in the system and with the leadership (I couldn't possibly comment), but the guys in the field (with one or two exceptions) are generally pretty good.
 
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This post has made interesting reading for me, for instance I do Pre Buying Inspection visits of Colvic Watsons to help new CW buyers, but when you have people like boatshed Lincolnshire who advertise boats as Colvic Watsons like this one new buyers have no chance http://www.boatshed.com/colvic_watson_23-boat-162120.html

This boat is as much like a Colvic Watson as a split banana, it is infact a Colvic 23 which was designed by John Scott a fine little motor sailer but no match offshore to a Colvic Watson and Boatshed should know better.

My advice to all who are thinking of buying a Colvic Watson is 'know what your buying' and don't think the so called yacht broker does!!

Mike
 
Boatshed North Wales are superb! Both Andy's and Caroline are excellent, informative, very knowledgable and most importantly patient. I would not hesitate to sell my boat through them given how good they were with me when I was looking for a boat (unfortunately I didnt buy through them in the end). No connection to boatshed other than being very satisfied with the level of service received when I was looking for a boat.

Steve
 
Am I missing something? Why are people popping at Boatshed per se?
As has been explained, it is a franchise, and therefore franchises will vary with the proprietor. Is that not true of any business?

Or have I misunderstood things completely?
 
Laurie said:
Am I missing something? Why are people popping at Boatshed per se?
As has been explained, it is a franchise, and therefore franchises will vary with the proprietor. Is that not true of any business?

Or have I misunderstood things completely?
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The thing with franchise type operations like this is that there are essentially two businesses. The first is the national advertising and database that is run by the franchisor and the second is the individual franchisee who negotiates the actual deal between the buyer and seller. If you read all the post you will see that both sides of the business attract some criticism for falling short. One of the supposed benefits of this type of business is that it presents a "national" and standardised image which is very difficult to achieve in all cases.
 
I know a couple of the brokers and they're very great people who are doing the best to make their franchise work. I think my main gripe is with their search tool. At some stage I'll be looking for a 34ft sailing yacht with 3 cabins. Best I can put in is a sailing yacht at 34ft +/- 20% (without specifying no. of cabins). The results cover yachts from 27ft to 40ft :(
 
Barleycorn said:
.......when I rang the broker I got a stroppy sounding woman who said that she had tried both his numbers but couldn't contact him.

I'm just wondering If Boatshed has real brokers, or is just an Internet selling device?
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Going back to the original question - yes, most of the brokers are real. However, quite a number have sold, given up or left their franchises for various reasons. When this happens, if a new buyer can't be found, the franchise is run by Boatshed HQ via a call centre in Cowes - which is where I suspect your 'stroppy woman' was based. In other cases, a broker from another territory is asked to 'babysit' the vacant territory - for example, if you look at Boatshed Chichester and click on 'contact the broker,' you'll find it's a guy from North Wales (not very convenient for viewings etc!). But, as I said earlier, many of the brokers are very decent people trying to make an honest crust in a tough market.
 
Boatshed wales good, i bought a boat through them in Milford about 8 years ago and the agent, Allan Coy couldnt have been more helpfull, he even went to the trouble of given us a lift to view 3 boats i was dithering about..In fact he is a font of all things boatey and i have cheekily rang and asked his advice on my current boat which i bought privatly.

but i guess it is down the the franchaisee and his personality.
 
Barleycorn said:
Just wondering about anyone's experience of Boatshed? I am not impressed.

I am currently looking for a boat. On enquiry to boats on Boatshed several times I have written quite lengthy emails, only to have an automated email back with a link to the advert.

I have been looking at one boat for several weeks. I emailed the broker and just got the stock reply, as above. This weekend I decided to view this boat, and emailed the broker to see if she was still available. I have had no replies to emails, and when I rang the broker I got a stroppy sounding woman who said that she had tried both his numbers but couldn't contact him. This morning when I went to view the boats advert it said that the reference number has not been recognised, so the boat has disappeared. Usually when a boat is sold it is still on the system, but is marked as sold.

I'm just wondering If Boatshed has real brokers, or is just an Internet selling device?
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Hello Barlycorn,

I have just used Boatshed and it was a disaster from start to finish.
I live abroad and used a broker, as a way of protection, if anything went wrong, as i have never owned or bought a boat before.
Despite assurances that it was well maintained and serviced, and mechanically sound, i got a boat with a broken engine, broken drive, broken injectors, broken engine mounts, wiring and much more.
The previous owner failed to turn up to two handovers and then did not send us the engine keys until after Boatshed had legally transferred it into our name.
So the boat was not as advertised and now i have gone back to Boatshed, they have immediately gone legal and refused to speak to us.
Less than impressed by Boatshed Suffolk, however i understand that each is a franchise and each has a different level of integrity.
 
GB1307 said:
Hello Barlycorn,

I have just used Boatshed and it was a disaster from start to finish.
I live abroad and used a broker, as a way of protection, if anything went wrong, as i have never owned or bought a boat before.
Despite assurances that it was well maintained and serviced, and mechanically sound, i got a boat with a broken engine, broken drive, broken injectors, broken engine mounts, wiring and much more.
The previous owner failed to turn up to two handovers and then did not send us the engine keys until after Boatshed had legally transferred it into our name.
So the boat was not as advertised and now i have gone back to Boatshed, they have immediately gone legal and refused to speak to us.
Less than impressed by Boatshed Suffolk, however i understand that each is a franchise and each has a different level of integrity.
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Not sure you are telling all the story. The broker has no responsibility to you other than not to mislead you or steal your money. He works for the seller.

It is entirely YOUR responsibility to ensure that the boat is what you want and its condition is acceptable to you before you hand over your money. To do this one usually employs an independent surveyor who works for YOU. The contract you signed makes this clear and would include a sea trial if you requested which together with a survey would have revealed the faults you claim are there.

So, your complaint is with your surveyor if you had one, or with yourself if you did not.
 
Thats not what a broker does. Its like an estate agent putting buyers in touch with sellers or showing them around boats. There is no pretence at warranting the condition of the purchase,that would be up to the buyer and their surveyer.You wouldnt buy a house from the estate agents description without inspecting it yourself and having a survey surely?
 
Tranona said:
Not sure you are telling all the story. The broker has no responsibility to you other than not to mislead you or steal your money. He works for the seller.

It is entirely YOUR responsibility to ensure that the boat is what you want and its condition is acceptable to you before you hand over your money. To do this one usually employs an independent surveyor who works for YOU. The contract you signed makes this clear and would include a sea trial if you requested which together with a survey would have revealed the faults you claim are there.

So, your complaint is with your surveyor if you had one, or with yourself if you did not.
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Once again, a post on the money
 
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GB1307 said:
I live abroad and used a broker, as a way of protection, if anything went wrong,
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Let’s be clear here - did you hire a broker to represent you in the purchase, dealing with the seller and his broker on your behalf? That’s relatively rare, but not unknown especially where people are based abroad and/or too busy to handle the transaction themselves.

If that’s not what you did, then you didn’t really “use a broker”. The seller is the one who used (and paid) the broker, to sell his boat.

BTW, continuing to search for mentions of Boatshed in order to dig up five year old threads and whine about them is just going to make you look like an Internet crazy-person like Brent Swain.

Pete
 
Biggles Wader said:
Thats not what a broker does. Its like an estate agent putting buyers in touch with sellers or showing them around boats. There is no pretence at warranting the condition of the purchase,that would be up to the buyer and their surveyer.You wouldnt buy a house from the estate agents description without inspecting it yourself and having a survey surely?
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Although, as Tranona says, the Broker like the Estate Agents have a legal responsibility not to mislead. If you have an email from the Broker saying that the engines are in excellent condition in response to a direct question from you and it would be reasonable to believe that the Broker is speaking from personal experience, then you have a claim if the engines are not in excellent condition.

However, most Brokers (and Estate Agents) will presumably qualify any such statements with a suitable disclaimer.

Richard
 
I've used Boatshed to buy and sell, their performance was excellent. It is essentially a franchise so could vary I suppose but the Brixham team couldn't be faulted, they attended the actual boat handover which was good.
 
Laurie said:
Am I missing something? Why are people popping at Boatshed per se?
As has been explained, it is a franchise, and therefore franchises will vary with the proprietor. Is that not true of any business?

Or have I misunderstood things completely?
Click to expand...

………...because it's a brand. And bad experiences damage the brand for customers and for the good franchise holders.
 
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