Trevor S

Well, I'm one who hadn't visited and I was completely taken in by his lies on the phone when I was checking out places for a winter mooring. Luckily (and only because my memory isn't what it used to be) for me I had already written down a list of my questions, and his answers to them, almost word for word, but I'd been ill and was desperate to find an affordable winter mooring as I'd missed my window to beat the closures on the Thames by just two days, the clincher was when he told me that Barbie was at over 85% full - and that if I left it much longer then, at the rate bookings were coming in, he might not be able to offer me anything! He was / is(?) an excellent liar, and I give him full marks for that, because no matter how I asked a question he always had a ready answer. Some parts of that conversation *were* honest, he volunteered the fact that some of the buildings were not quite finished as we spoke - but the would definitely be up and running by Christmas, eight or nine weeks later. Electricity, fine, the power points were in (neglecting to mention that there was no wire between his 12 hours a day only generator and aid power outlets, fresh water taps were in - but without a pipe to the water main, and so it went on ....) He even asked me to use the repair dock if I wanted to put some paint on the outside of the boai so I'd not disturb my neighbours in the small floating hamlets of eight or ten narrowboats - designed by him that way in order to build small communities who would take pride in their particular local areas, looking after it, picking up any litter blowing around, helping each other when somebody has a problem or falls ill .... Well, we can all be wise after the event, can't we - it is just such a shame that retrospect only looks backwards, it would be so much better if it worked forwards, wouldn't it .... but when you are living it, under pressure to find a safe and secure mooring over the winter, 'cos that's what you promised your family you would do - and have the recommendation of a fellow singlehander to boot (however mistaken she might have subsequently discovered those words to be) as we chatted whilst we worked our way together down through the Napton locks. I'd wager that poor woman's heart fell into her boots as she steered in through the entrance to Barby Marina She told me that she had been there earlier in the summer, 'before the mud I'd guess, and she had chosen, booked (and presumably paid in advance for...) her berth at Barby; not only that but she had left her car there whilst she collected her boat and had a holiday - in fact she was *very* positive and the *only* reason why I'd been checking out McMaster's website. By the way, if you were that lady then I've forgiven you completely I'll even buy you a coffee, LOL, as your own disappointment and dismay, when you arrived there the following morning must have beaten mine by at least a factor of ten .... In the end, of course, the only thing at all professional were the information pages on McMasters' website, the publicity blurb from RBoS, and his adverts in the canal orientated press. One day, when there is a new owner, one with his pockets stuffed full of used fivers, that marina will be good - but at the current rate of progress, and in McMasters' hands, I'll have turned my toes skywards long beforehand Trevor S

I'd be lying if I said I can remember right at the moment as all of my cards are 'Visa' now and the First Direct ones are almost indistinguishable from each other, IRC - as I am 'living on' I only keep a couple of quite low limit cards with me in case they 'disappear' and, as neither are the ones from the bank anyway I can't easily check .. well, not wiithout telling my wife to get out of bed, go down stairs and dig out the statements - and I'm really not that brave, or foolish, not even at this distance .. LOL! I deal through the bank, by phone, on all of their cards but I have a vague memory of going through security only the once - which would seem to imply it was one of the debit cards. With apologies, because I am not just pointing in your direction <g>, what a lot of folk do not know is that whilst a 'charge back' is a legal right with a credit card transaction (which I would have preferred to have had - but couldn't as my credit card had timed out and the replacement had still to reach me), with a debit card it is at providers discretion. (In reality all they do is put through a negative sum to the specified account in the same value as the original credit - with a reference link to the appropriate file and customer; the physical process of a charge back between a cc and a dc is more or less identical really - only the numbers are different. Trevor S

I appreciate the terms of the settlement are confidential but I note we are not told that she was actually paid out, only that a settlement was reached. A stark contrast with the crowing about how Barby caved in and paid out the other claim, Slim's I think. MtB Been interesting watching this all start up again but he 'caved in' with me too - crediting my bank account back less than an hour before my bank, First Direct, did a back charge (I think that is what it was called) on my behalf. I've never understood why more folk didn't get their cash back via their banks because all they require is a written statement saying that what they bought was not supplied. Then Barby would have had to go to court with a claim against *me* and prove that I had received, or could have received, what he had contracted to supply me in return for my money - which, of course, he couldn't do. There were many other issues where he had no leg to stand on, such as being able to live aboard 24/7/52 (he claimed that all I would need to do was step ashore every three days - ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous; the man was an idiot as well as a conman - in my own experience and, I have heard, in others'; it has also been said, almost broke and living from 'newly sold (imaginary) pontoon mooring to mouth'!) Coincidentally, at that time RBoS were using him as one of their big success stories - say no more, I rest my case! Trevor S

OOps - guilty :-( I for one have made a mistake on this site by mixing up Barby Marina (which is really only 'moorings') with Barby Moorings (which is, on the other hand, likely - one day, maybe - to be more of a 'marina' .. albeit under new ownership perhaps?). My abject apologies to the owners of 'Barby Marina' for my mistake! Trevor

I was but, whilst I was waiting for the paperwork from Visa to arrive [at home, in Sussex] I was still emailing him - and he was still stonewalling me - but when I stopped being polite (and treating him as an human being, with a decent sense of 'right' and 'wrong', and open to logical thought and reasoning) and laid out exactly what I was going to include in my costs application when I submitted my claim through the courts - oh, and mentioned the 'fraud' word, he suddenly saw sense and refunded my money. If Barby Marina, and the operators/owners, suddenly get court judgements against them it opens up a whole new can of words - including, in the longer term, the option of initiating bankruptcy proceedings against them if they don't pay up and, of course, it all ends up on their credit agency files. He just took the cheapest, and safest, financial option for him. Reading through the planning applications (permission was initially refused), Northampton absolutely insisted that Barby Marina did all the ecological stuff first - and that is possibly where his financial plans went completely awry .. he had a pretty site but no income. There is no doubt in my mind that the marina will eventually be completed, and be successful, but my guess is that he will have to sell up (and sell cheap) and to somebody who has the cash to complete - and they'll get a bargain too.

I got my £400 back as soon as I mentioned the words 'Fraud' and 'would also claim my costs including sending my agent to take photographs". No "Thank you for letting me hold your money in my bank account" though - which I thought was a little mean-spirited under the circumstances ... Merry Christmas to everybody and a Happy New Year (and a prosperous one to everybody still trying to get their own money back ....)

It would be interesting, at this juncture, to have some idea of who have been promised refunds (and when) and if (and when) they have actually had their cash back - and I also seem to recollect that at least one person mentioned that they had received a rubber cheque... To my mind it there is not only the 'money' problem but also the fact that McMaster has lied through his teeth about what he has claimed to be supplying in return for that money - such as fully serviced moorings on invisible pontoons AND that there is no problem with live-aboards staying over the winter. He really ought to change his name to 'Walter Mitty' as it truly appears to me that they are both inhabiting the same dream world.

Although banks don't necessarily tell their customers this, you can still 'cancel' a transaction with a debit card if the cash was taken fraudulently (as in this matter); the banks simply cancel the original debit - effectively the cash never leaves your account and simply disappears from the other party's account. They then have 60 days to prove to the bank (or Visa in my case) that it was a proper, and legal, transaction. They cannot simply re-apply the original debit and they cannot stop the cash leaving their own account (they mostly only discover it has gone when their next statement arrives, which is probably weekly as a business - or even sooner if they are having cash-flow problems) but I quite agree that a debit card doesn't offer the same level of protection as a credit card can - and I'd certainly have used one of mine if I hadn't completely maxed them all out that day!

In response to my last email to McMaster (copied below) I received, yesterday, a very brief email telling me he had refunded my £400 deposit - the bank has yet to confirm that the money has actually arrived though .. There were previous emails that didn't get the same response :-( Trevor. ------------------ Dear Mr McMaster, I do not totally understand your request for my home address as this was provided when you took my deposit. I certainly expected the receipt you mentioned together with your T&Cs, neither of which appear now to have been sent to my home. As I have said previously, and despite your protestations to the contrary, your planning authority restricts usage of Barby Marina to 72 hours in any seven days; the fact that your own terms and conditions state much the same proves that you are aware of this yet when I telephoned you on three different occasions and made you aware that I would be remaining on board WYRD you failed to either mention this restriction of use or to draw my attention to the fact it was a part of your marina's T&Cs - despite my routine request at the end of each telephone conversation, viz: "Is there anything else I need to know?" You were clearly told that the only information I had about Barby Marina was that taken from your advertisement in the magazine 'Waterway World', also that I was unable to access the Internet for further information at that time because I was in an area where there was no mobile internet signal. I am also aware that, despite telling me that I would have a pontoon mooring, you have no pontoons at Barby Marina - and are, indeed, presently 'rafting' vessels together. Your 'marina' is, to be quite frank, presently little more than a building site - and one with electric cabling strewn across it (frankly I am at quite a loss to understand how the H&SE has allowed this to continue). You have no contract because you have not provided the service that would have been contracted, specifically a fully serviced pontoon mooring where WYRD and I could spend the winter months, both legally and without contravening the Marina's own T&Cs, the latter being very specific regarding the question of living onboard. As you have not returned my deposit and also appear to be quite unwilling to contemplate even doing so, I have now initiated steps to recover it from you, plus my own costs involved in so doing and those of my agent engaged in photographing the present state of the site. I would have much preferred that this had been done amicably, and privately; that this had not happened can only be laid at your own door. As a final point, and quite separately from the indisputable fact that you have knowingly and fraudulently sold me something that you knew you are not in a position to supply, it has been drawn to my attention that this transaction almost certainly falls under the current 'Distance Selling Legislation' - which of itself gives me certain cancellation rights. My apologies for the fact that you have been unable to talk to me on the telephone; your partner did get through one one occasion but I was just entering one of the Braunston locks at the time and I could only suggest that she tried to contact me again during the evening - unfortunately this did not happen. It has now been suggested to me that, should this conversation continue, it is probably better that it be 'on the record', i.e. in writing, rather than verbally. ----------------------- Tony (elcipse) tony@barbymoorings.co.uk to me show details 24 Nov (1 day ago) £400.00 refund to VISA DEBIT xxxx xxxx xxxx XXXX (the capital 'X' is me removing my remaining numbers) Regards, Tony McMaster Barby Moorings Limited. Tel:01788 890486 Mob:07766 301895 Email: tony@barbymoorings.co.uk Web: www.barbymoorings.co.uk ------------------------ It may be even better if it referred to the actual name of the place, viz, "Barby Moorings Limited" if only to clarify the fact that this is *exactly* what it referred to. As a matter of interest, is this forum viewable by 'outsiders' as 'read only'? Trevor

I did wonder about the bridge - but the side is not very conducive to a safe mooring and I also needed to get further down the cut and find a spot to moor for the evening. Once it had become obvious that nothing had changed I didn't bother too much - other than to feel sorry for the folk inside. Are they too scared about being sued for the outstanding money if they upped and went? It all just seems very strange to me; if you booked into an hotel and there wasn't a bed then most folk would get up and go - even if the management DID offer to put two armchairs together ....

Well, I took a trip up to Barby today and nothing much seems to have changed - not a pontoon in sight, afloat or ashore; near the entrance there is a bunch of four or five nb rafted together, it was difficult to determine whether they actually were moored 'stern to' or one was laying alongside one of the 'garden' moorings and the others had simply been layed alongside. The brick bridge looked complete from the outside - but that's no guarantee it has any form of roadway yet. I did manage to get some pictures whilst dawdling down the cut but not from any great height unfortunately - it looks as if there are nb around the periphery of the lake but none on the island itself. Electricity - frightening! It looked to me as if the electricity is supplied via cables simply laid on top of the grass and every now and then there is some form of multi-outlet socket which then powers the nb .. but nothing looks secured and apart from the trip hazards (coils of cable and not a bit of warning tape to be seen from the cut) those blue plugs aren't exactly watertight - I'd lay money that if the H&S paid a visit they would have kittens, it looked shocking (sorry about the pun!) Once I find my usb cable (for the camera) I'll put some pics up but, having looked at some taken a month ago, I'd suggest not a lot has altered apart from the bridge. To think TM said to me 'that if I wanted to touch up the paintwork I ought to do it in the maintenance area - so as not to disturb my neighbours' .. well, it's just a bad joke, isn't it :-( I suppose ... noo o o ..., there couldn't be *two* new Barby Marinas, could there? Like, well a 'proper' one - and this one has been fitted with several dozen 'You've Been Framed' cameras, all well hidden away? Trevor

I'd appreciate those - I've IM'd you about it - Cheers :-)

Does anybody have any recent photographs of the marina - or do I have to stop in mid cut and put the stepladder on the roof so I can climb up and see over the bank? (I don't expect Mt M to let me wander around the site with my camera - unless I go in disguised as a duck!) I wish I'd been reading this thread before I booked in and parted with my £400 .. but what has really made me angry was discovering that I couldn't stay on board over the winter unless I was prepared to break the law - which I'm not. His answer was, effectively, that 'he owned the marina and in the marina what he said goes'; when I queried the <72 hours in any seven days> his answer was that he 'didn't know anybody who stayed on their boat for three days without going ashore to stretch their legs - or walk the dog' Speaking personally, I don't think that he can hold me to any contract where he hasn't confirmed the T&Cs, etc., beforehand and, luckily for me, I did everything by phone from an advert in WWW as I had no internet access at the time. This kicks in the 'Distance Selling Regulations' and give a lot of rights regarding cancellation - apart from the fact that nobody can enforce a contract that requires the other party to commit an illegal act. The only question, insofar as I can see, concerns getting back the money he took under false pretenses - and I'm working on that right now

.. drifts gently ... rear up .... 30 degrees ...... see sawing ....... Hmm - perhaps we have a need here of a universally acceptable definition of "gently"? T.