Amazed (and not in a good way) by Great Haywood Boat Sales

[WotEver]

3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Exchange rates 4% better than the banks offer, no commission, transfer charges significantly lower.

They will send your money anywhere in the world for £15 (£5 for regular transactions) - Banks typical charge is £40

I find Transferwise cheaper. 

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I find Transferwise cheaper. 

I'll make a note  to check them out for further transactions  - thanks.

[WotEver]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I'll make a note  to check them out for further transactions  - thanks.

Yer welcome. They also offer a ‘borderless’ account which you should look at at the same time. 

[aracer]

Back to the original topic, I'm interested by those commenting that they visited GH wanting to see a boat. I presume they're meaning they visited GH marina - but I looked at a boat GH were selling which was at a different one of their marinas - they have quite a few. Which is relevant to the issue I had with them - there doesn't appear to be any way to tell from their website the exact location of the boat, though a bit of sleuthing also using Apolloduck can narrow it down. That may not be an issue for some people, but personally when buying a boat I set a limit on my range of about a week's cruising from where I am now as I couldn't really afford to spend longer than that. That put some of their marinas out of my range, hence some of the boats weren't interesting to me - but I couldn't tell that without speaking to them. Maybe that's just an issue for me, but in this day and age it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect to be able to do most things via the internet - and indeed the other brokerages I looked at which had multiple locations all specified which location the boats were at, hence no time wasting checking out boats which were too far away.

 

A kind of related issue, is that on my way back from viewing the boat I'm currently sitting on I drove past one of their marinas and thought I might as well have a quick browse whilst I was there so I stopped in and found an unattended office - I asked at the marina office but they said they had nothing to do with the sales, so I called the number (after driving down the road a bit, no signal at the marina) to see if I could have a look at any boats which might be there (I had no idea what boats were), but apparently it wouldn't be possible without booking an appointment for the next day. I can kind of see the point of this, and one other brokerage was similar, but I visited several other marinas where I did just turn up on spec and was able to look around boats. Admittedly I would have just been tyre kicking as I had a very specific requirement and I did eventually view the only boat they had which met that, but they didn't know I wasn't in the market for something more generic - I certainly had the cash available to buy.

 

Just to balance things out I should point out that when I did view the boat they had, the service I received from their staff was great, including follow up phone calls - and whilst some might find that irritating, they were very polite when I told them I had already bought a boat and took me straight off their system. I note that the boat I viewed over 3 months ago still appears to be for sale...

 

No mention on here of the brokerage I did buy my boat through - ABC boat sales. I've no idea what their reputation is, but as a buyer I found them to be excellent in every way, seemingly going out of their way to make things easier for me with very helpful staff. Though as mentioned above it's really all about the boat - given my requirement which probably ruled out more like 95% of the boats for sale I'd have bought the one I now own whoever was selling it.

[Jennifer McM]

Believe they've got satellite offices around, think there's one at Wigram Marina that doesn't appear to be staffed. 

 

Boats they sell can be in different marinas (we've visited them, meeting the salesperson from Gt Haywood there), including one we bought that was moored by itself miles from anywhere.

[Dr Bob]

2 hours ago, Jennifer McM said:

Believe they've got satellite offices around, think there's one at Wigram Marina that doesn't appear to be staffed. 

 

Boats they sell can be in different marinas (we've visited them, meeting the salesperson from Gt Haywood there), including one we bought that was moored by itself miles from anywhere.

The office at Wigram's is manned by Liam who is there most of the working week apart from when he is out. You have to book an appointment to see a boat as it is possible he will not be available if you just turn up...ie he may have a 1 hour appointment with a client when you just turn up. We were lucky when we were looking for our boat as he was free when we 'turned up' (actually when we called him 30 mins before when driving towards the marina).

[dor]

One of Great Haywood's brokerages in a marina was (and probably still is) operated by one Steve Harall,   ex Wincham near Northwich.  'Nuff said.

[Athy]

8 minutes ago, dor said:

One of Great Haywood's brokerages in a marina was (and probably still is) operated by one Steve Harall,   ex Wincham near Northwich.  'Nuff said.

I think Steve Harral has his own brokerage - Ash Boats - though he may be an agent for G.H.

I recall that he had some bad press a few years ago, the nature of which escapes me, but I bought a boat from him in about 2010 and found both the service and the transaction very good.

[Rob VP]

2 hours ago, dor said:

One of Great Haywood's brokerages in a marina was (and probably still is) operated by one Steve Harall,   ex Wincham near Northwich.  'Nuff said.

That is not correct. Steve Harall has never had any connections to GH boat sales.

[Daniel Grantham]

On 02/01/2019 at 17:12, Jinna said:

I called great GH three weeks ago to arrange to view 4 boats on there website, after naming the boats i was informed 2 were sold and 2 were under offer, they are still advertised as for sale today.

It’s just a ploy to get you on their books I’ve had same experience

[Thomas C King]

On 03/01/2019 at 11:03, mrsmelly said:

Perhaps I should start in the brokerage business!! err maybe not that sounds like work!!!!!!

I think there is a lot of value in someone providing a service somewhere between a surveyor and a personal shopper. Many comments on this forum suggest that marinas such as Whilton have some good, some bad and some ugly boats. I'd have paid a few hundred to get someone to help us choose a boat prior to having the survey done. There is just far too much for the average first-time buyer to know, especially those of us who work longer hours and have less time to do the research. Embarrassed to admit, but I offered the asking price on our Whilton boat, didn't have a feel for whether we could have offered less (in hindsight, yes we could have).

[Alan de Enfield]

42 minutes ago, Thomas C King said:

I think there is a lot of value in someone providing a service somewhere between a surveyor and a personal shopper. Many comments on this forum suggest that marinas such as Whilton have some good, some bad and some ugly boats. I'd have paid a few hundred to get someone to help us choose a boat prior to having the survey done. There is just far too much for the average first-time buyer to know, especially those of us who work longer hours and have less time to do the research. Embarrassed to admit, but I offered the asking price on our Whilton boat, didn't have a feel for whether we could have offered less (in hindsight, yes we could have).

 

There are one or two on the forum who offer such a paid for service, and, for example have viewed boats for overseas buyers, got it down to a short list of 2 or 3 and then the buyer can make a visit and the final decision.

 

I'd suggest howver that there is always potential for misunderstanding and recriminations and the terms should be drawn up quite tightly - example : if the 'personal shopper' recommends a boat which then turns out to have problems what responsibility does the 'shopper' have (if any) ?

[LadyG]

On 02/01/2019 at 17:35, Athy said:

Citing our own true experiences, as some have done above, is fine, but please don't step into potentially libellous speculation.

alledgedly, or wot? 

These brokers offer boats which are not for sale, we all know that. 

[Hudds Lad]

4 minutes ago, LadyG said:

alledgedly, or wot? 

These brokers offer boats which are not for sale, we all know that. 

so true, at least on some of their listings they have now amended the sales guff to begin with "SOLD....SIMILAR BOATS REQUIRED..."

[Athy]

10 minutes ago, LadyG said:

alledgedly, or wot? 

These brokers offer boats which are not for sale, we all know that. 

They call you "Lightning", don't they?

That post was from over two years ago!

[Thomas C King]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

There are one or two on the forum who offer such a paid for service, and, for example have viewed boats for overseas buyers, got it down to a short list of 2 or 3 and then the buyer can make a visit and the final decision.

 

I'd suggest howver that there is always potential for misunderstanding and recriminations and the terms should be drawn up quite tightly - example : if the 'personal shopper' recommends a boat which then turns out to have problems what responsibility does the 'shopper' have (if any) ?

True. I think in this case because someone might not 'know' that the shopper should tell them if e.g., the engine cooling seems sufficient, it would be hard to draw up specific terms.

 

Trust though, is a longstanding mechanism. Look at 'Which?' for example. Ideally the shopper would have detailed description of why they think it is a good boat ('easy to find parts for this engine', 'good insulation').

Edited January 13, 2021 by Thomas C King

[doratheexplorer]

3 hours ago, Thomas C King said:

I think there is a lot of value in someone providing a service somewhere between a surveyor and a personal shopper. Many comments on this forum suggest that marinas such as Whilton have some good, some bad and some ugly boats. I'd have paid a few hundred to get someone to help us choose a boat prior to having the survey done. There is just far too much for the average first-time buyer to know, especially those of us who work longer hours and have less time to do the research. Embarrassed to admit, but I offered the asking price on our Whilton boat, didn't have a feel for whether we could have offered less (in hindsight, yes we could have).

This isn't a bad idea.  Ultimately a broker acts on behalf of the seller.  He gets his commission by selling as many boats as possible at the highest possible price.

 

It's also true that many first time buyers are shockingly green when making their first purchase and can frequently dump tens of thousands of pounds on a lemon.   If they're slightly more sensible, they'll get a survey, but that only really helps after they've selected a boat.

 

Someone knowledgable who can help them make a selection could be a valuable thing.

[ditchcrawler]

13 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

T 

 

It's also true that many first time buyers are shockingly green when making their first purchase and can frequently dump tens of thousands of pounds on a lemon.   If they're slightly more sensible, they'll get a survey, but that only really helps after they've selected a boat.

 

 

You only need to follow some of the Facebook boating groups to see the brokers we discuss being praised for how they help first time buyers with the purchase of their bots , arranging surveys and every thing else

[doratheexplorer]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

You only need to follow some of the Facebook boating groups to see the brokers we discuss being praised for how they help first time buyers with the purchase of their bots , arranging surveys and every thing else

I don't doubt it.  But they're doing that because it's good business to sell their boats as quickly as possible.  Some brokers don't get this.  But no broker is going to say "I don't really have what you're looking for, but there's a broker up the road who does"