Unacceptable behavior by Abingdon Marina

BORED NOW. !
Can we now go back to slagging off the EA and River Pikies the rowers and the swimmers and err visitors from the Medway aimlessly dawdling up the river at a snails pace,totally unaware that there is a RACE to the next lock.
PS. Any river restrictions narrowing.the navigation somewhere due to a rowing event or some such ,looking forward to real challenge,preferably with some really scary branches sticking out as well. :)
 
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BORED NOW. !
Can we now go back to slagging off the EA and River Pikies the rowers and the swimmers and err visitores from the Medway aimlessly dawdling up the river at a snails pace,totally unaware that is a RACE to the next lock.

I'm suprised you didn't introduce into the thread that the man is a fool for even contemplating out drives ;)
 
So if I have this straight :confused:

You drove to see a boat that wasn't as advertised so were disappointed ... I think we've all got that tee shirt :(
You found another boat 20 miles away in the general direction of home ... all good there, no extra expense :encouragement:
You arrived to find your mate had made a mistake and not read the entire advert ... we all make mistakes :) (Incidentally that boat was sold months ago)
and finally the young lady would not let you in to see a boat that they didn't have ... no surprise there really


It's the last bit leaves me a little dumbfounded ... the behaviour of said young lady was unacceptable, and you have publicly slated them accordingly.
Personally I feel the title of this thread should be changed to reflect that after a comedy of errors, you didn't get to look at a decent boat, blew some cash on fuel and were a bit miffed... again a tee shirt I'm sure that many of us have :rolleyes:




Yes that about sums it up! :) clearly the problem with thinking/googling on the hoof?
I still think that the business is run in a very Dickensian way though, but hey ho such is life!
Please don't anyone else reply with "the web site is quite clear" sure when you are sitting at home and actually know now what the situation is! But of course there are clearly some folks here who are exempt from mistakes?
 
Nicer part of the river too :) especially above Osney where the prat filter does its job admirably :encouragement:

This is not good when you're a prat though, and anyway, theres so much to do and see between Henley and St Kats don't you think!?

When I get old and want to die a slow peaceful death, I may pop in and see if there are any Mirage 29's for sale at Abingdon, chop the screen off and join you.

For the moment, I'm enjoying the activities Henley and Windsor has to offer, the pretty stretches we have, the busy bits in London, all within a days cruise...

:encouragement:

PS. I may pop up in the tender next year. Drinks on you? :cool:
 
It's always a 'very wealthy' person ! Who was undoubtedly going to buy a boat.

Why does this need to be told ? To make the owners 'think 'oh no ! A guaranteed sale from a man with lots of money' ? If only we'd have run our marina differently , perhaps he could have given us some of his lovely money ! As it is , I guess we'll have to have beans on toast for dinner again ....

If he was that serious about buying a boat that very day , he'd have done his homework beforehand , not googling it on his phone as you all drive around the top end of the river.
 
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Well you are the clever one, are you not? I just explained our position, presumably you didn't read what I just wrote? Just like we didn't spot on their web site it was viewing by appointment, which I might add is quite unusual as I'm very familiar with how marinas boat sales work in general!

You wrote
I have just looked and it is not very clear that there is no admittance unless an appointment is made!

Their website has a 'for sale' section. On this section the only instructions on viewing are that it is by appointment. It then allows you to click to go to another site which advertises the individual boats all of which state viewing by appointment only. I suggest that you have had a bad day and taken it out on someone else. The marina appears to have a very straight forward and understandable policy which is displayed on their website and external adverts. You might think that anyone should be permitted access but since it is not your marina you don't get a say. It seems that your group made a number of minor errors which led to your minor inconvenience, none of which was the fault of the 'young lady' or the marina. To post otherwise on a forum is a bit OTT IMO.
 
So perhaps you could close the thread out by apologising to Abingdon marina and the lady in question?

I was never rude or abusive to the lady in question and the reason for my thread was to point out that the marina is run in a very old fashioned way compared to most not wanting visitors at all. It has been said that the boat we went to look at had been sold, people are very good at putting things on a computer but very bad at removing them! You will see in my post No: 14 that I have apologised for making the mistake of assuming they are a sales facility.
I strongly suspect that now many more people are aware of the "Fort Knox" policy they operate they will attract more people to moor there in the full knowledge how safe their boat will be!
 
Does that also apply to the rest of your group?

I still think that the title of the thread is a bit strong considering all of the above.
It could be damaging to their business, however "Dickensian" you believe it to be.

Well that may be your opinion but I can assure you that having had my own business for the best part 45 years I can say quite categorically that the lifeblood of ANY business is new customers and that means visitors! Ignore that at you peril! The only damage here is of their own making! The way we were turned away in MY opinion is unacceptable! In fact four other people while we were trying to gain entry! Absolutely crazy, it reminds me of an old joke, a guy goes into a car showroom and says I want to buy a car and the showroom guy says to him, I keep telling people and you are the fourth today, there is just no call for them anymore go away!

And no my friends were not in any way abusive to this lady, we are all gentleman, and I like to think all have a certain status in life.

As OG says let's leave it there now shall we?
 
Well that may be your opinion but I can assure you that having had my own business for the best part 45 years I can say quite categorically that the lifeblood of ANY business is new customers and that means visitors! Ignore that at you peril! The only damage here is of their own making! The way we were turned away in MY opinion is unacceptable! In fact four other people while we were trying to gain entry! Absolutely crazy, it reminds me of an old joke, a guy goes into a car showroom and says I want to buy a car and the showroom guy says to him, I keep telling people and you are the fourth today, there is just no call for them anymore go away!

And no my friends were not in any way abusive to this lady, we are all gentleman, and I like to think all have a certain status in life.

As OG says let's leave it there now shall we?

Who doesn't have a 'certain status' in life or do you mean that your status is just a bit higher than some others? You tried to view a boat that didn't exist in a marina that is appointment only where there was nobody there to deal with you other than a 'young lady' who is not going to let a bunch of random 'gentlemen' without an appointment into the marina to see a boat that doesn't exist. Next time you might do your research a bit better and not blame others for your mistake. If the marina does not have anyone available to show you round unless you phone in advance then that is a business decision that they have made and are quite entitled to make. It does not strike me as unusual and there are plenty of other businesses that operate successfully in the same way.
 
Who doesn't have a 'certain status' in life or do you mean that your status is just a bit higher than some others? You tried to view a boat that didn't exist in a marina that is appointment only where there was nobody there to deal with you other than a 'young lady' who is not going to let a bunch of random 'gentlemen' without an appointment into the marina to see a boat that doesn't exist. Next time you might do your research a bit better and not blame others for your mistake. If the marina does not have anyone available to show you round unless you phone in advance then that is a business decision that they have made and are quite entitled to make. It does not strike me as unusual and there are plenty of other businesses that operate successfully in the same way.

A state of maturity in life to which I have already alluded! Don't twist people's words to suite yourself.
 
Who doesn't have a 'certain status' in life or do you mean that your status is just a bit higher than some others?

It's not just me then :rolleyes:

A state of maturity in life to which I have already alluded! Don't twist people's words to suite yourself.

I'm sorry, but that does come over as incredibly pompous

I'm curious, do you own your own house? I'm sure that you do considering your obvious status. I'm just wondering how you bought it considering your very high standards of customer service.

I paid cash for my first house. Whilst it did make the estate agent sit up and treat me a bit more seriously, I still didn't get the level of customer service you seem to require.
 
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