Mailspeed Marine - a very unfortunate experience

[Burnham Bob]

Mailspeed used to be my chandler of choice in Burnham before the shop shut. As part of my retirement, my friends at work wanted to give me some chandlery vouchers. SWMBO told them about Mailspeed, although the remaining chandlers Marinestore also do vouchers and would have been easier to deal with.

Nevertheless, I needed a new C+ chart plotter card and had Mailspeed vouchers to use. Two e-mails to the sales team at Mailspeed went unanswered so a third to customer services was forwarded internally and I got a reply.

Sales said they would get me a price. The resultant quote was way above what I was expecting so I checked with Jeppeson. I forwarded a letter from Jeppeson to Mailspeed who then agreed to recheck the price and came back with the right one and sent a pro forma invoice and promised a four to five day turnround.

As this was an upgrade I sent off the old card special delivery May 5th. Last Saturday, having not received the new card I rang and Mailspeed said they had never received my letter. Checking my royal mail code online said it had been delivered May 6th but the phone salesline could not answer detailed questions until the Monday - May 23rd. Called Monday, and they still denied receiving it. Royal Mail agreed to e-mail me a facsimile of the signed receipt showing delivery. Bear in mind that a simple card purchase has now become a major saga and time wasting exercise. But then Mailspeed 'found it' adn called me. They sent it off for updating and promised they would contact the company updating the card and let me know when to expect it. I heard nothing but the card arrived today. Trouble is the legend on the card shows the date of the electronic chart as 17th February. That's three months ago and I thought the card were updated in April after advice from the forum.

When I could walk into Mailspeed here I could get free advice and browse the stock. Stuff could be ordered in a week. Mailspeed online prices are nothing special. They don't seem to stock anything out of the ordinary. I can't see the point of buying online from them at all, and don't think I will in future. And if anyone can advise me about the when the chart MENC07026 should have been updated I'd be grateful.

No apologies, or gestures of good will at all from Mailspeed. In fact no contact at all. I'm very disappointted

 

[robertj]

Can't give advice on card but thanks for the tip on their service as I needed quite a few expensive upgrades. I will not buy from them. Thanks again

 

[scoobydoo]

Hi

Mailspeed was bought out a few years ago by the Friday-Ad - and they don't like having a 'shop frontage' and the shops were closed with a view to everything being on-line.

Unfortunatley the majority of the knowledge went along with the shop staff - and the staff that are there would love to give a better service but appear not to have the tools or the resources to do so.

If you look at historic postings this now seems to have been going on a while with delayed delveries wrong information etc

 

[ZEBEDEE]

17th Feb is the correct Date for the latest Update for C Map and it was released at the end of March/early April there is usually also an update in June and also again in October.

 

[jollyboy]

It's a great shame that Mailspeed has gone down the internet shopping route. I used to spend loads of money at their shop in Warrington, but since they went online, I haven't spent a single penny. How do you try on a sailing jacket online?

Jollyboy

 

[colvic987]

Saved me a fortune since they have closed the shops, i dont like to do internet shopping on sailing goods as they dont seem to have the same customer service in relation to returns and a good service review, compared with your high street department store online, so spending a couple of hundred pounds and have stacks of hassle for it, will just not happen for me.

Last internet chandlery shop took over a month to sort out a simple purchase, although not mailspeed, but not worth the hassle in my view.

 

[scoobydoo]

Personally I am of the same opionion there are some things that I just won't buy on-line without seeing/trying on etc.

Also Mailspeed Marine processes let them down (returns, delays in receiving goods) so I will shop elsewhere

 

[Gavroche]

Mailspeed Marine - don't waste your time

We ordered from mailspeed marine. Despite waiting 16 days, calling them numerous times and being promised delivery on 3 separate occasions the goods did not arrive.
We eventually requested a full refund and will not be using their services again.

 

[KevO]

Perhaps mail order or other chandlery companies should have a box you tick to indicate that you are a member of this or any other well known sailing/boating forum.

That way they can be aware that their p*ss poor performance can be easily published to very large numbers of other potential customers and rapidly lead to p*ss poor business reputation and declining sales!

The 'blag a penny and lose a pound principle' in action...

 

[1bobt]

Perhaps mail order or other chandlery companies should have a box you tick to indicate that you are a member of this or any other well known sailing/boating forum.

That way they can be aware that their p*ss poor performance can be easily published to very large numbers of other potential customers and rapidly lead to p*ss poor business reputation and declining sales!

The 'blag a penny and lose a pound principle' in action...

I sent them a C map to upgrade from Greece. The version sent was English language.
The up grade came back in Italian three months later .

 

[KevO]

I sent them a C map to upgrade from Greece. The version sent was English language.
The up grade came back in Italian three months later .

Ok... maybe I could understand if they had sent you a Greek version by mistake... but Italian??

 

[Off the Beat]

I have spent a lot of money using the website service (some £2000 over the past six months), and most of the items received were quickly and readily dispatched and were exactly what I needed/wanted. However, I recently wanted a proper locking fuel cap/filler for my boat and phoned the company. The person I spoke to appeared to have little or no knowledge of what I required and simply referred me to the online catalogue. I told him I had tried there, he then found stated that he had found one, and said it was a key locking device he had found and was new on the market.
They then sent me the item and when it arrived, I found that it was exactly the same idea of filler I had on the boat already and was simply one of the 'universal key' filler. I returned the item on 2 June and thankfully requested it registered for after a week I had heard nothing, phoned to be told that the refund had already went through and it would be in my bank by the next day. Hitherto, it wasn't and I phoned today to be told that it hadn't gone through and they put it through my card number as immediate refund. Here's hoping it will be, however, after this disastrous effort at customer service and having read previous posts, I will not be returning to their site.

 

[Daydream believer]

Mailspeed used to be my chandler of choice in Burnham before the shop shut.

Same here but just go a bit further down the road by Rice & Cole's yard & go & see Andy at yachting solutions.
Not a big shop but always keen to provide an honest service understands what people are taliking about ( unlike the chandlery at the yacht harbour)& will get stuff in very quickly