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canalboat

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I came across a boater going North on Oxford Canal who had stopped in Hillmorton Locks pound and was bailing out at the stern. He said he had just collected it from the broker’s marina and it was letting in water through the prop shaft tube. I asked the obvious and he had tried putting new great in and turning the screw as hard as he could. I suggested it may need repacking. As he had a concerned audience he told me the rest of his “new to boating” woes.

The automatic bailer wasn’t working as the battery was flat which we agreed was probably due to it standing in the marina for some time trying to bail out the rising water.  It seemed OK when he inspected the boat. He made an offer which was accepted and he made a date to collect the boat. When he went to collect, several fixtures were missing and the broker charged £1,000 for them to magically appear again.  It was only now that he discovered that the previous half a tank of diesel fuel had also nearly all gone.

I have heard this type of tale so many times that it must be common practice and it’s a real shame that what I usually regard as the modern curse of social media, has not put a stop to it.

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4 minutes ago, canalboat said:

I came across a boater going North on Oxford Canal who had stopped in Hillmorton Locks pound and was bailing out at the stern. He said he had just collected it from the broker’s marina and it was letting in water through the prop shaft tube. I asked the obvious and he had tried putting new great in and turning the screw as hard as he could. I suggested it may need repacking. As he had a concerned audience he told me the rest of his “new to boating” woes.

The automatic bailer wasn’t working as the battery was flat which we agreed was probably due to it standing in the marina for some time trying to bail out the rising water.  It seemed OK when he inspected the boat. He made an offer which was accepted and he made a date to collect the boat. When he went to collect, several fixtures were missing and the broker charged £1,000 for them to magically appear again.  It was only now that he discovered that the previous half a tank of diesel fuel had also nearly all gone.

I have heard this type of tale so many times that it must be common practice and it’s a real shame that what I usually regard as the modern curse of social media, has not put a stop to it.

Ohhhh. Name the broker?? Or shall we guess??

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6 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Hillmorton, be Rugby then? 

Can't always belive lockside talk as truth.

 

other brokers are within striking distance of Hillmorton, New & Used at Dunchurch, Braunston Marina, Weltonfield, Castle Boat Sales at Wigrams just off top of my head

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59 minutes ago, canalboat said:

I came across a boater going North on Oxford Canal who had stopped in Hillmorton Locks pound and was bailing out at the stern. He said he had just collected it from the broker’s marina and it was letting in water through the prop shaft tube. I asked the obvious and he had tried putting new great in and turning the screw as hard as he could. I suggested it may need repacking. As he had a concerned audience he told me the rest of his “new to boating” woes.

The automatic bailer wasn’t working as the battery was flat which we agreed was probably due to it standing in the marina for some time trying to bail out the rising water.  It seemed OK when he inspected the boat. He made an offer which was accepted and he made a date to collect the boat. When he went to collect, several fixtures were missing and the broker charged £1,000 for them to magically appear again.  It was only now that he discovered that the previous half a tank of diesel fuel had also nearly all gone.

I have heard this type of tale so many times that it must be common practice and it’s a real shame that what I usually regard as the modern curse of social media, has not put a stop to it.

 

Wait until you buy a second hand caravan from a dealer.

When we purchased one from a dealer near Bedworth we had to buy, at "special offer," - yes right :(,  a kit containing a water barrel and greywater container. Surprise surprise there was no battery or gas bottle, we had to purchase those too. The motor mover and associated wiring etc. had also been taken off.

All the above would have been on the van when it was traded in. We know this because when we were looking for a 'van we looked at some vans which had just arrived complete with kit but were not yet ready for sale. A week later all the above equipment had been take off the vans.

 

Sharp practice?

 

Edited by Ray T
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28 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Hillmorton, be Rugby then? 

Can't always belive lockside talk as truth.

Doubt it, they are the other side of the Buckby and Braunston flights past Weedon

18 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

other brokers are within striking distance of Hillmorton, New & Used at Dunchurch, Braunston Marina, Weltonfield, Castle Boat Sales at Wigrams just off top of my head

Toll house boat sales at Hillmorton, however, I couldnt see Tony ever contemplating this kind of practice 

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41 minutes ago, frangar said:

Ohhhh. Name the broker?? Or shall we guess??

 

Indeed. This IS social media. If as the OP says, it's a real shame that social media hasn't put a stop to these sort of practices then perhaps he should be leading by example? I'm not saying it's necessarily the right thing to do because as Tracy says it's just lockside talk, but how else would social media be able to put a stop to it other than by naming & shaming?

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23 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Toll house boat sales at Hillmorton, however, I couldnt see Tony ever contemplating this kind of practice

 

i was just pointing out there were numerous brokers nearer to Hillmorton locks than Rugby, only person who knows for sure hasn't said so Tracy's assumption seemed a bit more like an axe being ground?

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55 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Hillmorton, be Rugby then? 

Can't always belive lockside talk as truth.

 

Doubt it. I don't think that is their style at all.

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6 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

 

i was just pointing out there were numerous brokers nearer to Hillmorton locks than Rugby, only person who knows for sure hasn't said so Tracy's assumption seemed a bit more like an axe being ground?

Hey, Punk, make my day. I never said Rugby Boay Sales but Hillmorton is in the Rugby area. Keep your axe to yourself.

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54 minutes ago, Ray T said:

 

Wait until you buy a second hand caravan from a dealer.

When we purchased one from a dealer near Bedworth we had to buy, at "special offer," - yes right :(,  a kit containing a water barrel and greywater container. Surprise surprise there was no battery or gas bottle, we had to purchase those too. The motor mover and associated wiring etc. had also been taken off.

All the above would have been on the van when it was traded in. We know this because when we were looking for a 'van we looked at some vans which had just arrived complete with kit but were not yet ready for sale. A week later all the above equipment had been take off the vans.

 

Sharp practice?

 

The van we have just bought came with no gas bottles. It wasn't a problem as we were fitting the refillable LPG bottles anyway but we know that it has caught several people out recently when they have gone to pick up their new van and it has no gas!

 

We know what the previous owner left on the van we now have because he is a member of the same Facebook group. The dealers helped themselves to quite a bit of kit from it.

 

It is a shame we didn't get to the van sooner before he had traded it in really. We could have come to a better agreement privately I'm sure.

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8 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

The van we have just bought came with no gas bottles. It wasn't a problem as we were fitting the refillable LPG bottles anyway but we know that it has caught several people out recently when they have gone to pick up their new van and it has no gas!

 

We know what the previous owner left on the van we now have because he is a member of the same Facebook group. The dealers helped themselves to quite a bit of kit from it.

 

It is a shame we didn't get to the van sooner before he had traded it in really. We could have come to a better agreement privately I'm sure.

 

When we bought ours in 2015 I got about ten miles from the dealer and twigged I hadn't seen a mains hook up cable in the 'van. Sure enough pulled over and checked, there wasn't one, returned to the dealer.

 

The sales guy at Kimberley Caravan's said 'no worries I have a spare one I can let you have' as if he was doing us a favour.

 

I did remind him that all new 'van's are supposed to be supplied with one so it really should have been checked it was present and correct. They'd obviously purloined it for us on another 'van. 

Edited by The Happy Nomad
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I would think that storing the lpg in a separate compound away from the camper vans and caravans would be a good idea in a closely packed sales park, formal fire safety reasons...

But making sure they were re-issued on sale.

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When we bought our secondhand caravan the dealer explained that it came without tanks, hose,  battery and cable and with only one gas bottle. Seemed reasonable to me as we knew what was and was not included before we bought.

They run a separate "spares" business on the same site which was cheaper than anywhere else ?

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3 minutes ago, Loddon said:

When we bought our secondhand caravan the dealer explained that it came without tanks, hose,  battery and cable and with only one gas bottle. Seemed reasonable to me as we knew what was and was not included before we bought.

They run a separate "spares" business on the same site which was cheaper than anywhere else ?

We did at least get batteries :)

 

New ones at that.

11 minutes ago, matty40s said:

I would think that storing the lpg in a separate compound away from the camper vans and caravans would be a good idea in a closely packed sales park, formal fire safety reasons...

But making sure they were re-issued on sale.

They are not so tightly packed on the sales yards at the minute. The yards are empty :lol:

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57 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

The van we have just bought came with no gas bottles. It wasn't a problem as we were fitting the refillable LPG bottles anyway but we know that it has caught several people out recently when they have gone to pick up their new van and it has no gas!

 

We know what the previous owner left on the van we now have because he is a member of the same Facebook group. The dealers helped themselves to quite a bit of kit from it.

 

It is a shame we didn't get to the van sooner before he had traded it in really. We could have come to a better agreement privately I'm sure.

No it is not sharp practice, at a guess: when we bought our boat from new and included a gas bottle (or two) on the specification, the builder explained that they could not supply it as a result of the contractual arrangement of Calor bottles (you do not own them but a sort of rent) We had to make our own arrangement's with a supplier and pay accordingly. AFAIK, strictly you cannot trade second hand gas bottles to another 'owner' - since you cannot sell something unless you own it. I am not sure of the situation with used boats - when we last bought one I think a bottle happened to be on board but there was not paper work to cover it. OTOH I have never been asked o show it when exchanging empty for new.

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6 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

No it is not sharp practice, at a guess: when we bought our boat from new and included a gas bottle (or two) on the specification, the builder explained that they could not supply it as a result of the contractual arrangement of Calor bottles (you do not own them but a sort of rent) We had to make our own arrangement's with a supplier and pay accordingly. AFAIK, strictly you cannot trade second hand gas bottles to another 'owner' - since you cannot sell something unless you own it. I am not sure of the situation with used boats - when we last bought one I think a bottle happened to be on board but there was not paper work to cover it. OTOH I have never been asked o show it when exchanging empty for new.

Our boat definitely came with a gas bottle when we bought it.

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8 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Our boat definitely came with a gas bottle when we bought it.

Our boat had a gas cylinder when we bought it. It had no gas in it though. Which we found out at tea time 

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Just now, Tonka said:

Our boat had a gas cylinder when we bought it. It had no gas in it though. Which we found out at tea time 

Ours was not far behind. It managed tea but it ran out during coffee the next morning :rolleyes:

 

(It's funny the daft little things you remember)

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My impression was that his story was genuine but of course, you don't have to believe it - and by the way - he had been travelling for a good few hours before I met him at Hillmorton.  At least - that is what he said..................  

Strange that none of you regulars mentioned that perhaps he should have had an independent survey? 

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2 minutes ago, canalboat said:

  

Strange that none of you regulars mentioned that perhaps he should have had an independent survey? 

Perhaps because you hadn't mentioned that he hadn't had one.

In any case, would such a survey usually include inspecting the stern tube?

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4 minutes ago, canalboat said:

  Strange that none of you regulars mentioned that perhaps he should have had an independent survey? 

 

Perhaps because you didn't mention he hadn't.

 

Cross posted with Athy

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Like many others I have been ripped off, scammed, conned and so on over the years, nothing too awful but it made me almost phobic about paying someone else to do stuff. I reckon this has saved me a lot of money in the long run but has also cost a lot of traders, some good and some bad a lot of money too. Bad businesses are damaging to good businesses as well as customers.

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