Disillusioned with costly timewasters

[jonic]

Ok, I know it's the silly season and as brokers we take the rough with the smooth.

But if you know the owner is giving up his Easter sailing for you to view his yacht.

If you know the broker is going to see you well out of office hours and make a 200 mile round trip and give up his family time for you.

If you know that the viewing is set up on the basis that it is for a cash purchase at or near the asking price.

And if you know that you had no intention of ever buying the yacht, if you know you do not even have the funds and have lied through you teeth and put a lot of decent, honest and helpful people out.

Why the **** would you do that to people. :disgust::disgust::disgust:


Warning -It's a small world the sailing world and if you are going to lie, be sure it's consistent and not to the wrong person.

You know who you are.

 

[chinita]

Oh dear, sorry to hear that.

But don't let it change your ways.

 

[jonic]

Oh dear, sorry to hear that.

But don't let it change your ways.

Don't worry it won't.

I usually avoid these types but bloody hell, there seems to be a bit of an epidemic at the moment.

It's like it's their right and sod anyone who they put out along the way.

No manners.:disgust:

 

[Giblets]

We in the heating world have a saying for people like that (and it happens quite a lot). The initials are NOFA - the first two words being Nation Of!

 

[Seajet]

Estate Agents used to be plagued by people who actually made a hobby of spending weekends viewing houses they had no intention of buying; they have largely got round that by checking the viewer and who they are listed with, at least for upmarket houses.

My uncle knows a middle class couple who still do this with houses, his subtle then progressivley less so hints that maybe they're being unfair is water off a duck's back...

Jonic,

I'd be highly tempted to create and send them details of a wonderful mega-yacht at a bargain price, somewhere around Aberdeen !

 

[rogerball0]

Yep i'm getting my fair share of time-wasters at the moment. Spending hours at my desk these last few weeks pricing, drawing then spending countless evenings with the customer to discuss, amend etc etc, finally agree a spec, agree a price, designs signed off everyones happy, they look you in the eye you think alls well - you pencil in a date to start then they cancel everything at the last minute unless you drop your price (in one instance the customer wanted to knock me 30% - WTF!)

Then week before last got the interminable cant-make-up-their-mind types, its like they want me to build & install each of the different designs in each of the rooms of their house for them to choose which one they want even after supplying sheafs of photo-realistic 3D cad drawings.

I got so frustrated with one customer's insistance that i could somehow go lower on the price i itemised everything; labour - all the materials down to the last screw and gas nail and was still met with "well we're not paying that". I walked off the driveway of their million pound house in Broadstone walking past two very new very german cars thinking what a pair of c*nts!

Unfortunately the worlds full of them Jonic, you do have my sympathy.

 

[longjohnsilver]

You know who you are.

Does that mean it's someone who's likely to read this forum? Either way, it's hard to fathom what makes some people tick.

 

[jonic]

My uncle knows a middle class couple who still do this with houses, his subtle then progressivley less so hints that maybe they're being unfair is water off a duck's back...

Jonic,

I'd be highly tempted to create and send them details of a wonderful mega-yacht at a bargain price, somewhere around Aberdeen !

That's the disturbing bit. It really is water off a Duck's back met with righteous indignation when unmasked.

Lol about the mega yacht idea. :encouragement:

 

[jonic]

Yep i'm getting my fair share of time-wasters at the moment. Spending hours at my desk these last few weeks pricing, drawing then spending countless evenings with the customer to discuss, amend etc etc, finally agree a spec, agree a price, designs signed off everyones happy, they look you in the eye you think alls well - you pencil in a date to start then they cancel everything at the last minute unless you drop your price (in one instance the customer wanted to knock me 30% - WTF!)

Then week before last got the interminable cant-make-up-their-mind types, its like they want me to build & install each of the different designs in each of the rooms of their house for them to choose which one they want even after supplying sheafs of photo-realistic 3D cad drawings.

I got so frustrated with one customer's insistance that i could somehow go lower on the price i itemised everything; labour - all the materials down to the last screw and gas nail and was still met with "well we're not paying that" and i walked off the driveway of their million pound house in Broadstone walked past two very new very german cars thinking what a pair of c*nts!

Unfortunately the worlds full of them Jonic, you do have my sympathy.

I say to people who start off on this tack, once you become fixated on a stupid discount or screwing someone for "a deal" and lose focus on the quality of what you want, you usually do end up with a "cheap" deal.

What's that saying

The pain of poor quality lasts long after the joy of a cheap deal

 

[xyachtdave]

How do you know he's not got the dough? (Polite serious question..!)

My mate has recently bought a £1.2m yacht and to meet him you'd never know he's worth a few quid. This is probably because he's totally self made and completely grounded.

When he bought his first boat £200k and 45ft he (we) raised a few eyebrows from the boys in the red trousers when viewing.

 

[jonic]

How do you know he's not got the dough? (Polite serious question..!)

My mate has recently bought a £1.2m yacht and to meet him you'd never know he's worth a few quid. This is probably because he's totally self made and completely grounded.

When he bought his first boat £200k and 45ft he (we) raised a few eyebrows from the boys in the red trousers when viewing.

Nothing to do with that scenario.

We know through a third party and there has been much duplicity.

 

[xyachtdave]

I see....he has the money and the red trousers but is never going to spend it!

I'll try and think of a question only a serious buyer of one of your blue water yachts could answer.......

 

[jimi]

Ouch, thats a real pain. Look on the bright side though, the weather could have been good!

 

[rogerball0]

I say to people who start off on this tack, once you become fixated on a stupid discount or screwing someone for "a deal" and lose focus on the quality of what you want, you usually do end up with a "cheap" deal.

What's that saying

The pain of poor quality lasts long after the joy of a cheap deal

I've never heard that one before, I'll remember it though for the next fantasist customer i come across.

 

[Poecheng]

It doesn't help JR one bit but this happened to me about 15 years ago.

Looking for house by a Suffolk river and ideally wanted to be in sight of water (not just near it) but looking to buy generally if the ideal could not be obtained. Anyway sat in front of various estate agents in the locality and set out our stall which was fairly simple and we had a budget sufficient to buy what we were asking for.

In one Estate Agent got on well with the chap and he indicated he owned such a house overlooking the Deben that he would be willing to sell. We discussed it and its position and where it was etc. It was lower down the river (nearer to Felixstowe Ferry) than I was used to. I cannot remember now how it was left but I didn't look at it at the time (whether this was tentative or whether through my family commitments etc I can no longer remember)

Moving on a bit I thought I would pursue this so I rang the chap, discussed it with a view to me looking at it and I took the day off work (precious now and then) and drove from London upto the Felixstowe Ferry area armed with a good map. I couldn't find this place anywhere and I turned up every farm track etc between FF and Waldringfield, spoke to him again on the phone and he gave me "directions" and still could find nothing at all on the ground to correlate to what he was telling me (and he was not the agent, he owned it). I knocked on doors (and met a lovely lady whose hubby did my job as well). I tried absolutely every inch I could, scratched my head, tried it all again and again.

In the end I gave up and drove home.

I am convinced that the house did not exist at all (and never had existed). Fantasist !

JR: I haven't been asked when buying boats but, when buying the house we did eventually buy, we were asked to show to the Estate Agent our bank balance to show we were good for the money ! (That was then - these days the internet can apparently provide you with a bank statement showing anything !)

 

[blenkinsop]

Well, as a very happy former customer of yours I sympathise entirely. It is his loss and as you say, it is a small world. If time allows, take a day off in lieu, and if not, take refuge in strong drink and toast him!!

 

[vjmehra]

I've had a similar thing recently, had even agreed a price for our RIB, then the guy went cold when we were due to arrange a time! No more contact and no reason given, its frustrating, but it happens and it does work both ways...

After all, can any of us currently trying to sell honestly say we haven't shown up for a viewing of some sort and found the seller wasn't actually a total timewaster (or in the case of houses the agent perhaps, i.e. the house is completely not as described)?

The buyer has all the power right now (with boats, not houses), so they are the more likely party to walk away, its frustrating, but its the way it is!

 

[AndrewB]

Got sick of being accused of being a time-waster when I was looking for a yacht last year. Specially when I had driven 200 miles to see a pile of rubbish that in no way matched the broker's lavish description and carefully touched-up photographs.

To all you who said that to me ... yes I did buy, about the 20th boat I viewed. But not from any of your listings.

 

[Lakesailor]

It's not Taz, is it?

 

[Poecheng]

It's not Taz, is it?

I think Jonic still has the boat !