Yanmar servicing North Kent?

[Oscarpop]

Anyone know a yanmar service dealer that will travel in or around North Kent?

I have just tried Gillingham and they informed me that as it is 8 whole miles from them, it is out of their driveable range?!?

Also as its £145 +Vat +parts it seems a little steep.

I normally service them myself as its simply oil and filters. However I need the stamp in the book to keep the warranty valid.


Cheers.

 

[maby]

As I discovered recently, Yanmar official dealers in North Kent are rare commodities. We used the Gillingham workshops and were very pleased with their service. They only work from their workshops - our boat is at Chatham marina - walking distance from Gillingham - but we had to deliver it to them - can you not do the same?

I doubt you'll find any cheaper alternatives if you want an accredited dealer - I did a lot of research before going to Gillingham. The only other candidate was French Marine who are somewhere in Essex. Their price for the work was similar to Gillingham's but they also wanted to charge travelling which pushed it up quite a lot higher.

Do you need an accredited dealer? When I spoke to Yanmar in an attempt to find alternatives, they indicated that they only really insisted on an accredited dealer for the initial 50 hour service. After that, they just seemed to want the work carried out competently. I thought that there had been a comparable test case a few years ago which ruled that any manufacturer insisting on service work being done by a main dealer for warranty purposes was an unacceptable breach of competition rules.

If you want the contact details for a very highly qualified, but not accredited, marine diesel engineer in the Medway area, PM me.

 

[Oscarpop]

Many thanks for the reply.

I guess I'll have to take her up to Gillingham for the day.

It is the first 50hr service, so based on your observations will definately need to take the boat up there.

I guess thats the problem with a lack of competition; you get to choose whether you travel locally or not.

There was a chap in Hoo, who came out to service my last boat three years ago, although he has now sold up.

 

[maby]

French Marine were prepared to split the travelling costs across multiple customers - is there nobody else at your marina/club that needs a service done?

 

[Spuddy]

Yep, Colin over in Hoo has now retired. Chrissie is still based over that side so might be worth asking around over there....Lorna's cafe as a start. Talking of which, I met a bloke in that cafe who was a marine diesel engineer based at Chatham Marina; might have been a liveaboard as well.

 

[ROBMH]

Deisel engineer

Try Gun boat john in chatham marina he has worked on my boat before and really knows his stuff.He.s Tracey's husband from the marina office.
Good luck

 

[maby]

Try Gun boat john in chatham marina he has worked on my boat before and really knows his stuff.He.s Tracey's husband from the marina office.
Good luck

I will definitely support that. Have already passed his contact details on privately to other readers.

 

[Spuddy]

Got some details of the engineer in Chatham - could be the same as Gun boat mentioned above. I'll send the numbers by PM.

 

[Oscarpop]

An update on my servicing predicament.

I called Barrus and had a good chat with the chap in charge of the Yanmar marine division.

He said that as long as I had a marine engineer carry out the work and had a receipt on headed paper to prove the work had been done, then it would validate my warranty. It did not need to be a certified Yanmar engineer, just a marine engineer, who was part of a professional organisation.

Good news indeed .

 

[maby]

An update on my servicing predicament.

I called Barrus and had a good chat with the chap in charge of the Yanmar marine division.

He said that as long as I had a marine engineer carry out the work and had a receipt on headed paper to prove the work had been done, then it would validate my warranty. It did not need to be a certified Yanmar engineer, just a marine engineer, who was part of a professional organisation.

Good news indeed .

That is good to know. I also discussed the same question with them just a couple of months ago and the answer was not quite the same. Did you get a definition of "a professional organisation"? Does a well trained and qualified sole trader count?

 

[Oscarpop]

That is good to know. I also discussed the same question with them just a couple of months ago and the answer was not quite the same. Did you get a definition of "a professional organisation"? Does a well trained and qualified sole trader count?

I am not sure as I wasn't asked for the qualifications of the chap who is servicing my engine. I pointed out that the engineer was qualified and a member of the YBDSA .

I talked to a Johnathon Hay (sp) at Barrus who apparently is the chap I need to talk to.
He said that seeing as a first service is simply a change of filters,engine and gearbox oil as well as a visual inspection of the engine, it shouldn't require a recognised Yanmar dealer to carry it out.

These are jobs that I have always done myself and will continue to do in the future.
I just want to make sure that my warranty does not become invalidated. Hence I need to use someone to take the filters that I have ordered and had delivered and change them.