Brokers - here we go again...

[Cashbuyer]

Sent an email sales enquiry to Burton Waters at 15.22 this afternoon with a couple of easy questions. No answer back

If I was the owner of the boat I would be pretty annoyed at the lack of response.

And they say it's a slow market

 

[Sneds]

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they had to contact the owner for the answers?
But agree, you shouldn't have to chase them. An e-mail back saying they are dealing with the enquiry goes a long way and should be mandatory for good manners at least.

 

[Cashbuyer]

Hi Sneds

Perhaps, but a quick step aboard would have sufficed to let me know about heating and battery charger

 

[longjohnsilver]

Well maybe they were out of the office for some reason for the last couple of hours of the day. I'd be getting annoyed if no answer by tomorrow morning.

 

[exfinnsailor]

Why don't you just pick up the phone. They must get loads of emails about boats. It hardly shows any interest if you just fire off a couple of random questions and expect a reply by close of business. How do you know it actually got there. You may have sent it to the wrong place

 

[captainscott]

Brokersw here we go again

Not all brokers are the same! Some are spot on for service, try Boatshed.
I have no connection or any financial interest with them just know they are pretty good.

 

[pentane]

Funny, I had exact opposite experience with these same two brokers. Mind you one of 'em has gone very quiet so I must have been asking the wrong (right) questions...

 

[Vern]

Seakers at Weymouth, looked after me well.

 

[AdeOlly]

I think you're being a little impatient; many of these offices only have one person during the week and they can be out and about. However I would expect to hear back within 24 hours. Having said that, when I was looking a few months back I all but gave up emailing enquiries as the bulk didn't get a response. I found that Ancasta and Boatshed normally responded fairly promptly, and Grange International were extremely good to deal with, but otherwise very hit and miss. Phone them if you're serious is my advice.

 

[volvopaul]

I had an offer on my boat last sunday which was too low so discussed with broker where we needed to be, I heard nothing so rang this morning to be told the buyer didnt want to go any higher, would have been nice to have had some feedback after the brokers contact with the potential buyer instead of having to chase my own curiosity.

Swmbo got all excited at the thought of a new boat, but hey who cares the sun is going to be out all weekend, the water looks the same from any boat!

 

[gjgm]

Sent an email sales enquiry to Burton Waters at 15.22 this afternoon with a couple of easy questions. No answer back

If I was the owner of the boat I would be pretty annoyed at the lack of response.

And they say it's a slow market

For those who live at a desk or with a BBerry to their ear, the idea of instant email response seems a minimum expectation.
Reality is, large parts of population do not live like that, and he may have far more profitable leads to address before spending time on your request.
If I am really interested in something, I use the phone.

 

[OAF]

I had similar experiences with BW, very slow to respond to questions whether by phone or email, I wont mention any other Brokers and the very poor treatment that I have received whilst looking for my new boat, they do all seem to be a bit lackadaisical with their approach to customers requests, Communication is paramount!

Give the broker a kick up the arse, that will make him stand to attention, trust me no one wants to loose a potential sale at the moment!

 

[lovezoo]

Its quite simple, if the broker doesn't want to deal with email enquiries, either because he doesn't think they are serious, or he doesn't have time to deal with them, or he is out and about and doesn't have a Blackberry/iphone/Nokia Communicator, then he should take his email address/contact form off his website and say "Telephone Enquiries Only", instead of pretending that he is living in the 21st century.

 

[CX54WEK]

To be fair to Burton Waters they are very busy at the moment both with sales and the repair shops. They dont have enough staff in the office at the best of times. If you are a serious buyer then maybe a phone call wouldnt go amiss rather than sitting on here moaning about them.

We found them to be the complete opposite when we bought through them. They couldnt give us enough time and the boat was prepped to an extremely good standard. We would certainly buy another boat through them.

 

[gjgm]

Its quite simple, if the broker doesn't want to deal with email enquiries, either because he doesn't think they are serious, or he doesn't have time to deal with them, or he is out and about and doesn't have a Blackberry/iphone/Nokia Communicator, then he should take his email address/contact form off his website and say "Telephone Enquiries Only", instead of pretending that he is living in the 21st century.

That is just silly.
We dont know why the Op didnt get his wanted response within an hour or so.
I imagine if the broker was in the process of closing a sale on your boat, you would be pretty annoyed in losing a sale bcz the broker interrupts the deal to answer a spurious email enquiry.
I seriously doubt the broker was watching afternoon TV and simply couldnt be a*sed.

 

[lovezoo]

What is silly is investing money in a website, investing money in marketing the website and advertising your products and then to ignore email enquiries.

There is no need to instantly respond to all emails, but you should respond as quickly as possible. If you think that you might be busy with clients or can't respond quickly for some other reason, you should have an autoresponder that says something like "Thank you for your enquiry. We normally answer all email enquiries within XX working days."

Its how a well organised business with a web presence works.

p.s. Christmas is great in Andalucia, what with all the parades and so on.

 

[gjgm]

What is silly is investing money in a website, investing money in marketing the website and advertising your products and then to ignore email enquiries.

There is no need to instantly respond to all emails, but you should respond as quickly as possible. If you think that you might be busy with clients or can't respond quickly for some other reason, you should have an autoresponder that says something like "Thank you for your enquiry. We normally answer all email enquiries within XX working days."

Its how a well organised business with a web presence works.

p.s. Christmas is great in Andalucia, what with all the parades and so on.

Cant see that takes your enquiry further forward.
The OP sends an email late afternoon, and is then unhappy the broker hasnt got back in, what, 90 minutes?
I would rather get a personal response a bit later than a meaningless answer message, but maybe we all differ

 

[PCUK]

No excuse for being out of touch when you can get smart phone for less than fifty quid on Ebay. If your business is selling, you need to be in touch at all times and it isn't difficult these days.

 

[gjgm]

No excuse for being out of touch when you can get smart phone for less than fifty quid on Ebay. If your business is selling, you need to be in touch at all times and it isn't difficult these days.

No.. the OP used email. Email does not demand an instant response..it requires a response. If the OP REALLY wanted a prompt answer, why did he send an email and not simply phone? If I was getting seriously close to putting down a deposit, I would be less than impressed with some idiot who thought non stop answering of his Blackberry was a priority. And I am sure any broker worth his salt would know where his priority lies.
Quite what immediate decision was the OP about to make with the response, I wonder ? A decision that was going to be made within the next 90 minutes?

 

[DAKA]

we are all different and have different ideas.

The Broker is being paid to deal with these differences and if that means replying to an email then he should do so without delay as the op wants to deal by email.

If the Broker wants to tag a few days onto the bankhols or take lunch from 1130 to 1430 then fine but he should either take his blackberry with him or pay someone to reply while he is lazing in the sun.

The Broker has agreed to sell a boat for someone and is taking 8% + VAT of the sale, this is another classic case of the Broker expects 10% of someone elses hard earnt cash for doing sweet FA

Iam sure there are good Brokers out but good luck with finding one !