Mercury Marina

[STEVEDUNSTABLE]

Hi All..... in all the years of nautical "muckin about", have always enjoyed Mercury the best and as most of you know about these parts, I spend both most of my meagre hard earned pennies and floating season frequenting the same... its like a family of friends when there.. IMHO, the staff have without exception always been polite, courteous, helpful and willing with a pair of hands if required and happy to spend 5/10mins chewing the cud... ANYWAY.. had cause to call in Sunday for bit of "info and advice"...WOW WOW what a change !!!!...... had heard about new broom etc etc but to say moral was low is an understatement.....now I must becarefull what I say and I wont mention ANY NAMES ..it seems some of the guys are being "redistributed" and the remainder will be required to spend less time "interacting" with the "clients".. the info I was after was met with a polite but positive "not if I have my way" sort of air !!!....... do hope this state of affairs doesn't last and the status quo returns ....I do fully except that its not everyone's favourite marina but it ticks all my boxes..... and also that this old git is to old to change attitude !!!...moan switch off "click"............ thoughts ??

 

[andy59]

Sad thing that it seems to be the modern way , make profit but not give the customers that warm cuddly customer service that is sadly missing more and more nowadays . But it is a tough call as nobody likes bigger fees .

 

[superheat6k]

Amazed your still there - prices halve upstream of the bridges and the Yard staff and indeed owner (Foulkes) take the time to talk to you and provide decent advice, like not to leave your tender outboard out as there is a known thief about.

 

[Double Vision]

Premier at Eastbourne have gone the same way. Seem to be met by an "everything has to be done by the clipboard" attitude and an unfriendly cold corporate atmosphere in the office with noticeably very low staff moral. Do they really think this is going to fill the empty berths there?

 

[vandy]

Sunday? Bank Holiday weekend - two-three days of good weather - busy marina - tired personnel! Think positive!

I am based at Hythe (with MDL) and for various reasons had to visit two other MDL sites over the weekend and to be honest never felt anything has changed in terms of customer care.

 

[freddy the frog]

Mercury

Sunday? Bank Holiday weekend - two-three days of good weather - busy marina - tired personnel! Think positive!

I am based at Hythe (with MDL) and for various reasons had to visit two other MDL sites over the weekend and to be honest never felt anything has changed in terms of customer care.

The duty staff are great been at Mercury for years most of them, not sure about the manager ex finance guy i think but dont quote me not sure he is totaly switched on with customers needs but i suppose he is only a puppet having his strings pulled from those above him.

You will prob find its MDL higher management throwing their toys around, shame as the staff in general are brilliant.

 

[Firefly625]

I have been around Mercury all my life, parents were there before MDL (so 1971), had a boat there continually ever since, when we got our first "proper" boat 7 years ago we moved there. Its home from home. With my new boat I thought I might do the freedom berthing bit, and as cheeky as hell pay shamrock key rates and berth at mercury, nothing to stop me doing this... its even in the T&C's. Chatting to the Martin, Mike & Dave in the office I just couldn't bring myself to continue with that plan, so stumping up the additional £££ of Mercury rates, so I'm paying extra and that is not a lot to do with MDL, but all to do with the guys in the office. MDL as a company do some funny things, size is not always a wonderful thing. But the guys have all been there years, they have seen changes, some good some not so good, it will come round and I hope will get better for them.

 

[freddy the frog]

no loyalty

I have been around Mercury all my life, parents were there before MDL (so 1971), had a boat there continually ever since, when we got our first "proper" boat 7 years ago we moved there. Its home from home. With my new boat I thought I might do the freedom berthing bit, and as cheeky as hell pay shamrock key rates and berth at mercury, nothing to stop me doing this... its even in the T&C's. Chatting to the Martin, Mike & Dave in the office I just couldn't bring myself to continue with that plan, so stumping up the additional £££ of Mercury rates, so I'm paying extra and that is not a lot to do with MDL, but all to do with the guys in the office. MDL as a company do some funny things, size is not always a wonderful thing. But the guys have all been there years, they have seen changes, some good some not so good, it will come round and I hope will get better for them.

The prob with MDL is they couldnt give a toss attitude will always be. Yes Firefly the freedom berthing thing sounds great from a marketing pitch same as the 30 nights free berthing but who actualy used the 30 nights not many who will freedom berth away from the solent hell of a hike to west country every weekend yes you might get a few locals abuse it.
I suggested to the area manager a few years back that a loyalty berthing discount would be good just a few percent off
each year would keep berths full. Premier have a scheme where if you vacate for a period in the summer while on holiday you will have that time deducted from next years berthing.
A few years ago i had aboat for sale at mercury, up for sale for some time eventualy sold it , when it came to the ballance of the anual berthing being refunded ( yes refund in those days ) Debi Burns deducted 1 months berthing as i had not given her the 4 weeks notice, i could hardly tell the guy he would have to wait another month for the boat, low and behold she put a new berth holder on the pontoon the following week. I had been with them for years.
She could have waived it as i had ordered a new boat which was comming to Mercury. LOYALTY NONE

 

[n.herring]

Have been with mdl for about 20 years now, always polite and helpful. Some of the things said above do not relate to my experience at all. The manager at Hamble point even delivered hot cross buns to our boat on Sunday morning, can't ask for more than that.

 

[beejay190]

Have been with mdl for about 20 years now, always polite and helpful. Some of the things said above do not relate to my experience at all. The manager at Hamble point even delivered hot cross buns to our boat on Sunday morning, can't ask for more than that.

+1 for Cobbs Quay.

 

[Go with the flow]

Totally agree with you on this. I spent a number of years at Swanwick before moving 2 years ago to MDL Shamrock quay. The difference in customer service and general friendliness of the staff at Shamrock was very noticeable from the day we arrived and continued throughout our time there, well done Shamrock quay, you have got it right in my book.
I have this year moved to Hamble point Drystack as work commitments mean I will have very limited opportunity to use the boat, if at all this season but I will be back at Shamrock next year.
I too had hot cross buns and Easter eggs (for the kids of course ) delivered by a giant bunny when I arrived at Hamble point on Sunday, before they lifted, washed and stacked my boat in the rack, they even phoned me after I had left to ask if I required the electricity plugging in on her as I had left the lead on the transom. As you say " can't ask for more thn that"

 

[Jurgen]

Mathew has moved jobs and is now in charge of the yard facilities @ Hamble Point and Mercury (MDL take over from HYS 1st May)

The new manager Colin is covering Port Hamble and Mercury marinas.

We too had Hot cross buns, Flowers and Bacon baps Friday,Saturday and Sunday.

As for the rest of the staff they have been very helpful. we have pestered Martin for various berths and he has come up trumps for us.

It is often the case that business's try and squeeze more for less from staff but my experience has been a good 1.

Will be interesting to see how the year pans out!

 

[kanajobe48]

++ 1 for Cobbs Qauy,
We never have a problem with marina staff, have always found very welcoming, helpful and friendly,
Not a clip board in sight!

 

[matt13]

I've booked into Mercury this summer for 30 days using my freedom berthing. Thought it would make a nice change from being 10 feet up on the DryStack. Didn't know matthew had left always found him a pleasant chap.

 

[freddy the frog]

mdl

I've booked into Mercury this summer for 30 days using my freedom berthing. Thought it would make a nice change from being 10 feet up on the DryStack. Didn't know matthew had left always found him a pleasant chap.

As said before staff briliant at mdl marinas its the higher management that need a reality check. They should spend a few days hands on with the dockmasters they may learn a bit about their clientel.

 

[paul salliss]

We had a few good years at Swanwick but we are MDL OV for a year now and the staff are in a different league , they are ace!!

 

[PhillM]

We had a few good years at Swanwick but we are MDL OV for a year now and the staff are in a different league , they are ace!!

+1 we moved to Mercury but have since moved on to OCean Village. OV staff are totally different than Mercury, the service is brilliant. As it happened I bumped into Nicola who looks after Customer Service for the group and was impressed with what she had to say about the way the company wants to drive service and customer satisfaction.

A few examples...
i kept blowing the shore power fuse at Mercury - when I complained about power, they reset the fuse. It looked like that fixed it, but next week it was blown again.

Same problem at Ov - I called in asking why the power wasn't working, the guys reset the power but then went on and tested my cables and found the problem was a faulty connection in my meter. It blew the fuse when it got wet. So, they told me to plug in without it, until I had fixed it. It was cold and wet So we really liked being able to use our heater.

They are pressure washing the pontoons at ov today. The manager saw we were going out today and got ours done while we were out. No mess, no fuss. No disturbance.

When I was thinking about berths the Ov guys took me out in the workboat to show me the approaches to various berths, so I could pick the one I liked best. Never had that service before.

 

[P4Paul]

We had a few good years at Swanwick but we are MDL OV for a year now and the staff are in a different league , they are ace!!

To be fair to Swanwick, they started to get to grips with customer service when Martin and Mark arrived and since Andy took over and gave them the authority and trusts them to make good decisions I can honestly say the service has been out-standing.

 

[PhillM]

To be fair to Swanwick, they started to get to grips with customer service when Martin and Mark arrived and since Andy took over and gave them the authority and trusts them to make good decisions I can honestly say the service has been out-standing.

I would say that I never had a problem with staff or service at Swanwick or Mercury and i am sure I will be back to use them somtime in the future. But I is noticeable how much more customer focused they are at OV. Everything I ASKED for at Swanwick or Mercury was done. The difference is that at OV they seem to ANTICIPATE what needs to be done and either offer it, or do it before I need to ask. That makes quite a difference.

 

[P4Paul]

I would say that I never had a problem with staff or service at Swanwick or Mercury and i am sure I will be back to use them somtime in the future. But I is noticeable how much more customer focused they are at OV. Everything I ASKED for at Swanwick or Mercury was done. The difference is that at OV they seem to ANTICIPATE what needs to be done and either offer it, or do it before I need to ask. That makes quite a difference.

I think that when you return to Swanwick you will see and feel a similar thing. This year, everytime you bump into a member of staff they stop and tell you what is happening rather than Having to point out something or to ask. Knowing that they have everything under control and when it will take place has certainly made a good marina into a great marina.

Of course I can only speak for myself, but I can't believe they are just singling me out for exceptional customer service!