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Praise for BW


Machpoint005

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It may be unbelievable to some forum members, but I've been very favourably impressed by the efficiency of BW's licensing system.

 

I applied for my next year's licence on-line this Sunday afternoon, and it arrived this morning (Tuesday) by post. This means the necessary human agency has picked up the task, processed as necessary and put stuff in the post all in the course of a single day. Royal Mail has delivered it, too, in spite of the Arctic weather.

 

OK, they are only doing their job, and OK, a cynic may say that's bound to happen when it's a matter of BW taking money from the punters. Nevertheless, credit where it's due, and at least they are collecting efficiently what is rightfully theirs. As a 'stakeholder' (whatever that is) I'm happy to see that task done well!

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It may be unbelievable to some forum members, but I've been very favourably impressed by the efficiency of BW's licensing system.

 

I applied for my next year's licence on-line this Sunday afternoon, and it arrived this morning (Tuesday) by post. This means the necessary human agency has picked up the task, processed as necessary and put stuff in the post all in the course of a single day. Royal Mail has delivered it, too, in spite of the Arctic weather.

 

OK, they are only doing their job, and OK, a cynic may say that's bound to happen when it's a matter of BW taking money from the punters. Nevertheless, credit where it's due, and at least they are collecting efficiently what is rightfully theirs. As a 'stakeholder' (whatever that is) I'm happy to see that task done well!

 

 

 

hmmm.....I filled in the new owner licensing forms, send copy of safety cert and bank details for automated debit, and have received nothing yet.....been a few weeks...I mailed them the docs in the post.... starting to worry, but thought it must be due to Christmas season?

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You've started something now! There will be dozens of posts from BW bashers relating stories of delayed licence deliveries.

 

Yup - four weeks (min) in my case ....

 

and didn't Chertsey recently have to wait months for hers recently.....

 

it is nice to see that can do it much quicker though, though it would be better if they could do it so much quicker for more people

 

(I also suspect Amy's post might have a ring of truth about it..)

 

edit to add - this is not BW bashing BTW just a simple statement of fact, they don't always do it anywhere near that fast.

 

 

..

Edited by MJG
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Mine was an on-line renewal, and all the paperwork was in order.

All three factors - on-line, renewal, and order, are probably relevant.

 

Well apart from the first mine too, don't see why an application arriving electronically should deliver a 29 day advantage over one that arrives by first class recorded delivery like mine did though.

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I pay for ours by monthly direct debit. Licence turns up every year with no problems.

 

We decided to pay by DD this time around as the cost difference was negligable for NC and it splits the boats costs over the year. Previously the moorings, licence and insurance were all due together!! I think that is why ours took slightly longer this time around than last year.

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It may be unbelievable to some forum members, but I've been very favourably impressed by the efficiency of BW's licensing system.

 

 

It is.

It's a long story, but for year after year there was a mistake every time when I renewed the licences and mooring permits on my two boats.

Two years ago, for the first time, BW got the sums right and within a week of applying I received two licences and two mooring permits – in four separate envelopes with four lots of postage on four successive days. :P

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We've renewed online three times now and all had a three day receipt of new licence. No doubt will not be as straightforward next year when we have to post off a safety certificate with the application :unsure:

 

Mick

I'll be in that position too, next year. Will it help, do you think, to let BW have the new BSS certificate as soon as it is issued (say July 2011)? That way, they will already have up-to-date paperwork on record, assuming five months is long enough to process it.

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I'll be in that position too, next year. Will it help, do you think, to let BW have the new BSS certificate as soon as it is issued (say July 2011)? That way, they will already have up-to-date paperwork on record, assuming five months is long enough to process it.

 

When you get your BSS certificate they'll be a copy of it for you to forward to BW. I also send BW a copy of the insurance certificate as soon as I receive it.

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I'll be in that position too, next year. Will it help, do you think, to let BW have the new BSS certificate as soon as it is issued (say July 2011)? That way, they will already have up-to-date paperwork on record, assuming five months is long enough to process it.

Yes,

 

Send them their copy of the BSS as soon as you have it, and there is absolutely no reason why you can't continue to renew on-line, with all the advantages that seems to offer.

 

I regularly bash BW over many things, but we have never had to wait as long as even a week for a licence, I think. Their service standard is actually two weeks, but we usually get them within a few days.

 

Try telling them about an incident in a particularly dangerous lock though, and our experience was unfortunately a lot less positive.......

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Licensing certainly worked recently, please step forward one Samantha Scott and accept the praise. When we bought Juno we were advised she had a safety certificate, but the vendor couldn't produce it (for complicated reasons Juno changed hands twice in three months). Ms Scott not only confirmed that BW had seen it but emailed me a copy. She then emailed the application forms, which I filled in, scanned and emailed back. The licence was in the post that day, and this was before the big freeze.

 

I also suspect Alan has a surly bunch on the Grand Union, there is no doubt that staff in the North West and on the Severn respond quickly when alerted that things are wrong.

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Here we go!

 

I also suspect Alan has a surly bunch on the Grand Union, there is no doubt that staff in the North West and on the Severn respond quickly when alerted that things are wrong.

The problem was far more complex than one of surliness.

 

Without retelling the whole thing again, two things contributed....

 

1) If you use external contractors to "repair" historic lock structures, but who have zero knowledge of canals or boating, they can reasonably be expected to create the odd accident waiting to happen.

 

2) If you appoint someone to head up South East Waterways who has absolutely no background in any related business, or with anything even to do with engineering, and has actually come from directly from the retail sector, then he possibly should not accept unchallenged everything he is told by his underlings, without making any attempt to verify it's accuracy.

 

Sufficient to say that I got a very full and abject apology from the manager of South East Waterways once he realised that I had a very legitimate complaint about a lock where a retired working boatman and lock keeper lives, and who assured us there had been a series of near misses for months, of which our incident was just one of many.

 

So as you say "here we go!", whatever that meant!

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We've renewed online three times now and all had a three day receipt of new licence. No doubt will not be as straightforward next year when we have to post off a safety certificate with the application :unsure:

 

Mick

 

Ah you don't need to post off the certificate, when you renew on line you just enter the new certificate number and the examiners PIN Number and the new licence is issued.

 

When you get your BSS certificate they'll be a copy of it for you to forward to BW. I also send BW a copy of the insurance certificate as soon as I receive it.

 

I have never sent BW an insurance certificate except when I crossed the Ribble Link last year, was supposed to send them one for Liverpool Link but they managed to find the original file for Ribble crossing as both are handled at Wigan and so did not need to send certificate again, but I have certainly never sent one for licence, going from memory I think all they ask is the name of Insurance company and the dates.

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I applied for mine by post with a new BSS certificate and it took a couple of weeks. I did notice a comment on Narrowboatworld a short time ago regarding the colour of the licence, apparently 2011 colour is purple, however he received a blue one, so did I. Can anyone confirm what is the correct colour for 2011?

 

Ken

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Mine was an on-line renewal, and all the paperwork was in order.

All three factors - on-line, renewal, and order, are probably relevant.

Mine due for renewal Dec 31st was also an on-line renewal ((£2100 worth of licence and mooring) - money taken from account but still no licences. Someone forgot to hit the right button.

 

It was much easier when renewals were handled by Watford office.

 

Merry Christmas one and all - soon the snow will be gone and we will all have something to look forward to .....................POTHOLES.

 

Leo

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