Fairline customer service

dkm

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26 Sep 2007
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We often hear of poor service so I thought I would share some good news for a change.
I bought my Targa 34 in July 07 from Fairline Southampton and was aware of a rain water leak but decided to try and fix the problem myself - big mistake, after 1 year and a lot of frustration I was unable to find the source of the leak. Water was accumulating along the starboard stringers in the rear cabin and also collecting under the starboard forward cabin trinket shelf where the beautiful cherry gloss was slowly turning a matt grey.
Fairline southampton offered some good advice but at the end of the day the source could not be found.
I decided to write to Fairline, even though the boat was a few years out of guarantee, and ask if they could suggest any solutions assuming the problem was not unique to my boat.
Fairline responded by immediately sending 2 engineers to inspect the boat and a leaking gunwale band was suggested as the problem, even though it appeared to look OK. Fairline offered to replace the gunwale band when the boat was next out of the water at their expense. On removing the band it appeared a few extra holes had been drilled that were never used nor sealed and this was the source of the leak. Fairline then replaced the gunwale band.
After several wet days that would have previously led to a few litres of water leaking in, the boat remained bone dry. I then contacted Fairline to ask if it was still possible to buy a replacement wooden trinket shelf, recognising that the model was now out of production. Fairline responded by telling me that a replacement shelf was already being manufactured for me and would be fitted in March. The engineers completed the job this week, again free of charge. The workmanship was excellent.
Its good to know that excellent customer service is alive and well at Fairline. I'm thinking of trading up later this year, my recent experience with Fairline means they will be my first port of call.

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Good to hear.

As and when we emerge from the recession, it will be the companies that have managed to maintain good customer relations that will benefit first, imho.

dv.
 
With something as complicated as a boat ,perhaps with thousands of individual bits and multiple seperate operations carried out during its build.Its amazing that more things do not wrong.
 
Hmmm.... not the only incidence.

My 31 had had a (very small) leak causing the varnish to lift from the wood by one cupboard.
Slowly got worse until brown water leaked into the bathroom from above.causing a small brown stain down the wall.

After hours/days of trying to pinpoint the source, we finally decided that it had to be coming in through one of the screws mounting the windscreen.
Capt Tolleys wouldnt flow in , indicatin thatthe screws were OK so nothing for it but to remove the whole windscreen.

WARNING... not for the fainthearted!!

It's really heavy!!, took 3 people to lift it! and means disconnecting (cutting) the wires to the nav lights.

Surprise, surprise.....
1. 2/10's of naff all sealant used to bed it down

2. About 3 holes drilled through the GRP into the wwoden bearer that were not used!!!.... these dripping with water.

how hard can it be to 'spot through' the screen when drilling the screw holes and to use proper amounts of sealant??

Not impressed.

Now that it's properly done, everythings dry a treat.
 
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