Good or bad service from Essex Boatyards?

jfm

jfm

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As many will know I've always been 100% pleased with the quality of service from Essex Boatyards but posts 9 and 10 in this thread (which drifted onto EBY, hence I'm starting a new one) hinted that this was not always the case. Mjf referred to several cases with recent unhappy customers. I'm intrigued because I've had such good service from everyone in EBY that I am genuinely surprised to hear of bad service. Anyway, as they are the biggest boat dealer in the land and many of us cross paths with them it seems a legitimate thing to discuss, so will those who have had good or bad service from them chip in with their stories on here please? Mjf especially!
 
I have Bought from them twice & would do so again, as said in my post on the other thread it took a while for them to put a few things right on my Doral, but I believe this to be because they were trying to get the UK dealer for whom they were an agent to act, I believe that Doral Phil had similar problems but he bough Direct from the dealer so perhaps his outcome was not as good as mine. Only from memory though.
Having said that, the guy that bought my 1st boat from them was, I believe far from happy. EBY took her in PX for the Doral & she was, as all boats I have owned in top condition with no expense spared on maintenance, she was also less than two years old. Her new owner took her out in incredibly bad weather and managed to ground her, which then led to water coming in over the back & flooding her, including the engine bay, result was that the boat was later sold as salvage. He, I am told called the coastguard for help only to refuse when they got there, & then blamed it all on EBY for selling him a duff boat :confused:
I did hear a rumor that EBY refunded him just to get rid of the idiot, so I guess that it is also down to personalities,I also have my fair share of mad customers. :D
 
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I have purchased a Targa 52, Phantom 50 and Squadron 55 from EBY in the last 4 years and the service has been excellent and I know I am a pain in the a..e perfectionist. No car company has got close to the service I have received from them.
 
Yep, at the risk of making this a rather dull thread, I'm another 100% satisfied customer with EBY - bought my T40 from them a couple of years ago now, very easy transparent transaction, James Barke extremely straightforward to deal with. My boat was a stock boat, so was warrantied by them, and they have been very good about honouring the warranty, even going beyond the strict time limitation of the warranty in one instance. They were also very helpful when I bought ACE's generator off him - Nick Barke drove the forklift himself when loading the generator into the back of my truck.

Incidentally, while we are on the subject, I'd like to add a word about their Fairline Southampton subsidiary. Their after-sales support at FS is provided by Ian Mackenzie, and he's been absolutely terrific, a real credit to their operation.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
JFM - I'm gonna have to join in here pronto!
There is no no doubt about the reported treatment you have enjoyed from both Fairline and indeed EBY; you have mentioned it on many many occassions and its very nice to hear this when you factor in the money involved and the pleasure that is at risk!

My point in the other thread was that its not always a one way street and attitudes, expectation and personalities get caught up in all this; always tempered too with the perception of whether each of the parties is 'happy' with the end deal too! ie I got stuffed there! syndrome.

Specifically I know two owners quite well who are not on this forum and if i gave details here it would be obvious immediately to those who frequent these pages which owners/ boats are under discussion. I am happy to give some detail here - as they have told me in conversation - but only after I mention the matter to them beforehand.

I'm not sure that this will prove a constructive move frankly. Many people are indeed happy with Essex and the very limited interface I have had with them has been 1st rate but in fairless that was with the Barkes, and I recall the nice chat we had with EBY together at London this year.

Remember to that on this forum there is a member who had big issues with princess in Spain whilst others have lauded their service; and similarly same chap with Sunseeker.


Horses for courses
 
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That sounds very bizarre indeed...

I'd like to share with my story with EBY from the start as such.

My first boat was a Phantom 40 purchased in 2008.

At the time I was looking at an 05 model and an 06 model. One broker had the 05 model and EBY had the 06 model.

At the time as it was my first boat I had a very strict budget. I went for the 05 model from the broker and EBY turned round and said "No problem, please let us know if we can ever help you with anything in the future".

Quite a great attitude saying they didn't even sell me the boat.

So over the next 12 months... I had a few small items needing sorted on the boat. Ironically the broker was very slow to reply yet EBY who didnt even sell me the boat were really on the ball even though I hadnt bought the boat from them!

So I built up a relationship over the year with James and nick Barke and found them very helpful regarding anything. Nothing too big too small.

I was looking at changing 12 months later and was eyeing up a Sunseeker Man 50, Fairline Phantom 50.

Again... at the time various brokers didn't seem too happy to educate, they just wanted the sale. Greed first...

So James, Nick and Ben kept answering any questions I had as I bugged the hell out them :-)

Ben then suggested would you be interested in a Squadron 58? Again.. I wasnt sure about leaping into this size.

But because of the attention to detail and OUTSTANDING service, and a corking deal I went ahead and purchased the Squadron 58.

I've had it nearly 3 years and done around 800 hours in it and all in all awesome boat.

Over the years, like any boat there have been problems . Again it's how these things are handled which reflects how good a company really is, well at least in my opinion.

One incident was an ECU broke early into the ownership. EBY allowed my local Volvo dealer to fix and invoice them direct.

Another was a bimini frame damaged part of the gel coat during transport. Again EBY agreed a deal with me and was fixed.

Other items are if you are shipping the boat to the Med, EBY will always try and get you the best deal possible.

And finally to bring you totally up to date.. At this exact moment Im on the way to Mallorca from the Uk. I'm stuck in La Coruna, Spain with a failed port gearbox coupling.

Nick Barke and I have exchanged at least 30 phone calls and he has pulled out every stop possible to get me going as quick as possible. I couldnt ask for any better service.

And this is 3 years into ownership of the boat which was 3 years old when I bought it.

For years I've never been interested in buying a brand new boat mainly due to deprecation.

However because of the totally incredible service from EBY I would half consider it - simply because I know these guys will look after me day and night . I can pick up the phone any time, drop an email. Fly over and see them. They will respond asap.

Very very few companies in the world that can compete with that level of service.

So thats my experience with EBY and as JFM said "IF carlsberg build boats... "

Hopefully I won't get talked into a new squad 58 or 65. Fighting the urge :-)

anyway thats my view,

BL
 
Just to add my two pennies worth - I bought a boat from EBY in July last year, and to be absolutely honest, they just couldn't do enough !

Super service in all respects - so much so that two of my friends have bought from them with exactly the same experience after my recommendation to them..

There will always be problems, it's how it is solved is the issue.
 
My experience of EBY has been positive. I have an american approach to gratification which is to say that I want it instantly. So when I wanted to sell a sailboat, I spent a couple of months with a broker and then decided to px it for a stock mobo at EBY. I liked the fact that I could do a deal there and then with people who actually took ownership of their decisions. I liked the fact that I got the boat that I wanted delivered to where I wanted it when I wanted it at a price which worked for me and that the boat worked when it arrived.

As a minor gripe, I'm probably never going to recover from driving through Basildon: my dears, all those spray-on tans and Kappa shellsuits: quite frightful.
 
benjenbav said:
As a minor gripe, I'm probably never going to recover from driving through Basildon: my dears, all those spray-on tans and Kappa shellsuits: quite frightful.
Click to expand...

Drive, dear boy, drive? What on earth were you thinking of?

52de08d9.jpg


Cheers
Jimmy
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
Drive, dear boy, drive? What on earth were you thinking of?

52de08d9.jpg


Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...
ROTFLMHO! The irony! That could be more Essex than Essex Jimmy, turning up at a boatyard in a blimmin helicopter :D :D

I was talking to my youngest son the other day about Essex, and he can be a bit erudite at times. He said don''t knock Essex - how many other counties in the UK have managed to establish a clearly defined county "brand"? Apart from Essex, there is maybe Yorkshire, Cornwall, and er, that's it isn't it?
 
Unbelievable Service from The Barke brothers at Fairline Essex

Here is a copy of a letter I am sending to MBY

Alex Mc Donald

Fairline Essex did not Turn a Crisis into a Drama!

I feel I must bring to you and fellow boaters attention the astonishing service I recently received from the Barke brothers at Essex Boatyards.

In the spring of 2011 we purchased a new Fairline Targa 47 from Fairline Essex. The 47 required some additional specification which was undertaken in their yard and was ready for delivery to Spain early in May.
Silver Anni 111 arrived in Cartagena Spain on time and final PDI and Radar mast fitting was undertaken by and under the instruction of Fairline Essex by Paul Osborne and his team at AP Marine. We duly sailed Silver Anni on a two hour journey to her berth on the Mar Menor. AP Marine done the final cleaning of the boat and left our 47 like a new pin.

Silver Anni 111 followed on from our previous boats Targa 34 and then Targa 38. This was the first boat we had bought in the UK and were a little nervous of how warranty and service would work out. After meeting James Barke and his team we were very assured that they had the ability and network to wipe out any misgivings we may have had about service.

Our new boat was to have her maiden voyage on our annual cruise from the Mar Menor to the Balearic Islands starting on Bank Holiday Friday 27th May. We set off early morning on the 27th and arrived in Moraira
after a four hour trip. The 47 performed beautifully and after refueling we put her on the berth in Moraira.
As soon as I stepped down to the engine bay I immediately knew there was something wrong. There was a smell of burnt oil and visual signs of black oil below the port gearbox. This looked very serious and I immediately phoned James at Essex. Within minutes I was being assured that they were ‘On The Job’ and so they were. That day we concluded that the gearbox had unusually failed and it had to be replaced. We really thought that was the end of our cruise and that we would be layed up for weeks. NOT THE CASE. All over the weekend I was updated as to what was happening. They located a new box on the South Coast of England.
James Barke drove to the location and collected the box. Another member of the team drove all the way from Essex with the box to our location in Spain. While all this was going on the boat was taken round to Altea for removal of the faulty box. The new box astonishingly arrived in Spain 7.00am on Friday morning. It was fitted and sea trialed by Friday Evening and after a few nights in a local hotel we were back on our cruise to the Balearics on the Saturday morning.

We would not have believed that such a level of Customer Care was available over such a distance and a Bank Holiday Weekend. So gentlemen of Fairline Essex and all their service partners take a bow! You have overwhelmed us with your dedication, professionalism and True Customer Care.

No prizes for guessing where we will be purchasing all future Fairlines!

Alex Mc Donald
 
Do we get the title of record holders as we 've bought 3 Fairlines from Essex BY?

We went back to them as we always felt we got a fair price and there was limited haggling - you to get a good deal very quickly with James Barke and you can make your decision.

The after sales support has been really very good.

They've gone out of their way to source parts for us (Volvo as well as fairline) and to do that quickly so holidays weren't ruined. When necessary, they've paid to change parts so things got sorted quickly.

There'll inevitably be problems with new boats but Essex take a lot of pain out of it and we'd be very pleased to buy our next fair line from them.

So a 3x recommendation from us!
 
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