Bluewater Boats ltd (Warwickshire )

[fergyguy]

Hi guys what a shambles Bluewater Boats are? I was fed endless Bulls..t at Crick and strangley enough I said to my wife as I was walking away I would never buy a boat off him as he had a handshake like a limp lettuce and his whole sales pitch was that of a secondhand car salesman. I am so glad I am apart of this informative forum and I will not be have a wide beam built by them.my heart goes out to you guys who have been treated like s..t by this company...we all want our dreamboat to be special and built the way we want it..not to be palmed off with the builders version of our dream. I have removed them from my list of possible builders and they are now on my never in a month of Sunday's list.

[Staarek]

We would also like to share a terrible experience that we had with Bluewater Boats ltd (Warwickshire). We wish that we read Staarek’s comments before we ventured into this contract. When we read their story, it was like an exact déjà vu of our own experience.

We followed all the advice written about new builds; we read up and researched various boat builders, we visited their yards, and we considered and deliberated all the facts before making a final decision. We accepted that Bluewater was not the most modern boatyard, but David Warner made a good sales pitch and we were happy for a small family team to handle the project.

With the build specifications and drawings agreed and the promise of a cancelled build slot immediately available, we signed contracts and everything looked good. The steel arrived and the hull took shape. Then came the first request for extra money, for items which were clearly included in the specifications and shown on the supplied drawings but which were, according to Mr Warner, were not priced in his standard specification (which somehow was not the same as the actual Build Specification!). Please note that despite together working through several modifications to the Specifications prior to signing the contract, and it being included as part of the contract, Bluewater constantly challenged the authenticity of the document afterwards, as they hadn’t produced it themselves and also said that it was produced by someone who doesn’t know about boats (I have been boating all my life). Anyway, after much discussion we reluctantly agreed to pay for some of these “extras” as by then we already parted with nearly half the money and if we didn’t pay, Bluewater threatened to put the build on hold. At that time we found out from other customers that it was typical of Bluewater to add another 10% for “unexpected” extras to each build. However, we tried to stick to the contract, which was a fixed-price contract, and refused to accept charges for other items Bluewater insisted were outside of the contract. Throughout the build, we only made one change to the specifications, where we added a dinette unit, and for this change both sides agreed in writing for the extra cost involved. Even so, we have had this “extra” constantly thrown back in our face that it was provided for free or that we had manipulated it out of Bluewater. We constantly re-iterated to the builder that unless both parties agreed in writing (as per our contract), there should be no changes to the spec nor should there be any extra “hidden” charges. All the way through the build we requested and received confirmation of this. However, we then got our fingers burnt when we found that items listed in the specification were not built into the boat, and then Bluewater tried to insist that we had informed them that we had changed our minds on such fixings. Nevertheless, Bluewater were unable to substantiate their side of the dispute nor could they provide any evidence either in writing or in the form of notes of any meetings where we had made any such changes.

Because Bluewater were failing to get their extra “commission” out of us, the atmosphere from them became quite nasty and they were constantly rude and downright insulting with us. Discussions with other customers indicated that when Bluewater got their “little extra”, they were sweet and charming with the customer. But they failed to get their “bonus”, they became extremely difficult. We were repeatedly told that we were the worst customers that they had ever had – however, we were not unique in this matter as other customers had also been told the same!

We found that points made and agreed at meetings were being reneged upon a couple of days later. As we live overseas, we had to make special efforts to arrange and fly in to attend such meetings, and for us then to receive emails saying that they had changed their minds about matters discussed made the whole point of having these meetings a complete waste of time.

In the Contract and Specifications, International Paints was specified by Bluewater as the type of paint they would use. However, after handover of the boat, we discovered that the paint spec had been downgraded from the agreed “International” paint to a lower-quality paint which (as David Warner stated in an email to us) “is a load of crap”. Apparently this was because Bluewater had “used up the budget” and that there was no money left to do a good job unless we paid more money, over and above the contractually agreed price. They also skimped on primers and basecoats, and put a miserly amount of topcoat on. Bluewater were unable to get a decent finish nor a decent shine to the paint, and wrote in an email to us “if the paint is not good enough to get a top quality finish and shine …. we can’t be expected to keep putting more and more on” . He also stated that he wasn’t trained to put this sort of paint on. Bluewater actually put on three different shades of our chosen topcoat, spraying the front and back cabins in one shade, and the wheelhouse in another obviously different shade. They then touched in damaged areas of the wheelhouse paint with the paint used on the front and back cabin, so the touched-in areas stood out quite noticeably. To cap things off, they then tried to cancel the handover of the boat 12 hours before our crane / haulage company was due to pick up the boat, refusing to offer any compensation for the £2500 we had spent with the haulage company. The reason they gave was that we had complained about the quality of the paint finish (which we hadn’t at that time), whereas we subsequently found out that they had tried to pull the wool over our eyes by not informing us of this error, and then had panicked after discussing the matter with the paint supplier. We also had the boat delivered to us with wet paint on the decks, and with footprints in this wet paint. For factual reference, the delivery date was two weeks after we had signed off the boat, so we wonder why they were still working on the boat two weeks later.

Bluewater also built into our boat a second-hand heater they had taken off another boat because it did not work. Needless to say, it didn’t work on our boat either. But after first of all accusing us of having broken it somehow, then after six warranty callouts from the manufacturer / supplier, we finally had a brand new heater fitted by the manufacturer (at no hassle to Bluewater). This is a typical event that we have been involved with first hand, and have heard happen to other customers. Bluewater’s warranty is all but non-existent. They rely on the goodwill of their suppliers to put right their faults; you will unlikely get Bluewater to come out to fix issues, at least not until you have completely exhausted all chances of the supplier fixing it on their behalf, and then only after numerous accusations to the customer that they must have caused the problem somehow and thus trying to render it outside of the warranty.

We have since discovered (too late for us) many other dissatisfied Bluewater customers, some with current outstanding issues, some with past court proceedings, and some who gave up the court fight because of delay tactics, lies and false accusations by Bluewater. Just like us, anyone taking legal steps has to consider not just the legal cost but whether, if they win, they would actually get things put right and/or whether compensation would actually be paid out.

Here are some of the faults on our boat:

Boat handed over 3 months late (not bad, really!)

Items agreed on the original spec not included in the build

Bluewater unable to supply the steering system as specified in the Contract

Heater that did not work from day one (we found out later this was a second hand faulty heater)

Dangerous electrical wiring

Wrong paint colour applied in certain areas of the boat

Excessive rust on welds and exposed (unpainted) steel on some areas

Very thin paint coat over most of boat, which failed an independent paint survey

Wet paint on boat two weeks after the boat’s signoff, with footprints in the paint

Bluewater blame us for these problems by taking the boat away too soon (ie 3 months after contractual handover date). This was after Bluewater had taken the final payment from us, handed us the Bill of Sale, VAT documents, and keys, but then later tried to claim that the boat wasn’t ready for collection.

No doubt Bluewater will reply with counter-accusations and denials (Bluewater’s favourite quote is “it’s not our fault”), but we have written and photographic evidence to support each and every one of our claims.

One point we will make is that the yard workers themselves are generally excellent and polite and their workmanship is good. However, they are employed by the company and have to follow the rules imposed by the management / office team, who let the side down with arrogance, complacency and overall inefficiency.

Did we learn something over the last couple of years? Yes we did.

1. Never trust people with a limp handshake

2. Judge their build quality by the way they maintain the toilets in their office

3. Judge their organisational skills by the way the keep their office organised and tidy (not!)

4. Don’t confuse the smell from the farmyard with the bullshit you are constantly given ( you will only understand this if you visit Bluewater’s boatyard)

5. Accept that you will never win an argument with a stupid person

6. There can only be one truth but there can be many lies

7. Warn other potential buyers to save them from making the same mistake

8. Don’t let the bad experience ruin the flavour of your Champagne

 

Don’t get me wrong, they probably do have some happy customers , although we haven’t actually come across any yet. But if you do not want to pay more than your contractually agreed price), if you expect good quality (and new) materials, if you expect professionals standards and a courteous manner to customers, if you expect your builder not to cut corners , lie or cover up then I suggest you just walk away from Bluewater Boats.

 

Yep, we had exactly the same experience. Even though we had everything in writing it didn't mater for Bluewater. Also, it's funny how quite a few members of the forum were willing to take BW side without knowing any facts.