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Customer Service - Boat Related


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In our far off neck of the woods, when you ask many marine tradespersons for estimates, 

they give you a small smile and say it will be "time and materials." 

Awful experiences almost always result. 

Kiwi sailors, don't let this happen to you!!

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I am so lucky I can do everything on my ship , building it , glasing it , painting , wiring , fit the engine. Stand the rigging , it's so handy to have the will and skills , if I don't know how I will have a go after advice I feel for the captains who can't or won't ,

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I know said rigger very well and would call him far from a crook so I believe there is more to the story here. 

 

How big a boat is the replacement rigging going on as $600 for a boat of any size sounds bloody cheap especially if replacing all the rigging screws etc at the same time. 

 

I would suggest you go down and see him rather than bag him on a public forum.

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Sounds like you don't want to go there , my mates 30 ft yacht just had all new wires , turnbuckles , unfitted as we did that $3100 wire , swages, turnbuckles , pins etc double back stay and Y fitting So $600 bucks be careful , he may have quoted one wire

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All I am saying is I think $600 is pretty cheap to quote for that job and what he has charged maybe reasonably fair. 

 

Theres a few hours work in making stays so on top of the components etc you have labour did he have to take them off the rig and refit them this all adds up and was it in the original scope of work. 

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All I am saying is I think $600 is pretty cheap to quote for that job and what he has charged maybe reasonably fair. 

 

Theres a few hours work in making stays so on top of the components etc you have labour did he have to take them off the rig and refit them this all adds up and was it in the original scope of work. 

 

Well if the rigger dude is as experienced and as good as you and a few others say he is, what is he doing quoting $600 if its too cheap? He should know better. And, if he has cocked up - yep, we are all human - then what is the problem with him fronting up to Sabre on the phone and admitting he cocked up, and working it out with Sabre? Sabre seems like a genuine good bloke - I am sure they could meet halfway.

 

And Sabre is spot on - its not up to Sabre to take time off work to go chasing this rigger.

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Well let's say 4 turnbuckles at $30 is $120 , thimbles x 8 say including crimps $20 each , 4 mill wire is $6.00 mtr say $200 ,shackles pins say $20 , labour say $400 + gst it's getting up there seem $600 was light or just a ges maby

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Agree there is not much to a Sabre rig. Very light and rigger wouldn't have to remove or replace as you could take all the old to him so no fitting costs. Can't realy compare with a 30ft keeler Think i paid just under 4k a few years ago for mine all fitted with new rigging screws on 30ft.

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Well let's say 4 turnbuckles at $30 is $120 , thimbles x 8 say including crimps $20 each , 4 mill wire is $6.00 mtr say $200 ,shackles pins say $20 , labour say $400 + gst it's getting up there seem $600 was light or just a ges maby

Yep, as BP said, doesn't matter. Even if the guy estimated $100 for the job and Sabre knew it would likely cost much more, if the gets into it and then works out the cost is going to be wildly different, then the guy needs to let the client know, or take a chance the customer is going to hit the roof over it.

There are three very important rules when it comes to good Business/Customer relationship. Communication, Communication and Communication. None of them should ever be broken.

 

 

 

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Today someone got the wrong side of my wife re bad customer service. As KM knows, because his Admiral is similar to mine, you don't want to be on the wrong side of either of them.
A Tyre company that I have supported for many years and out tens of thousands through over that time. They have always been great and I am loyal to any Businesses if they look after me. But the manager I have always dealt with has moved on. No problem, except today, the new guy tried one on. He didn't know my wife was my wife, In fact they had mistaken her for someone elses wife. We had a borrowed car that we were using while ours was being worked on. It's a beat up lump of junk, but it goes and gets from A to B just fine. The tyres were shot and needed replacing. The owner had a set of 4 old ones that were warrantable and we just wanted then swapped over. The Tyre dude said to my wife, no prob, I will finish my sammy and get into it. She went back several times during the afternoon and nothing had happened. No one commented anything to her. Around 3.30PM, she went back and finally asked someone what was going on. This manager dude went off about how they don't make money from fitting old tyres and blah blah and they got busy and come back tomorrow. So she told them what she thought and that at $30 per tyre, how was $120 not making money. She came back to tell me what happened and I went around. As soon as they saw me, they realised what they had done. The Dude was so apologetic, but the apologies were really pathetic. But what he said next was basically swapping his spade for a shovel. He said, I thought your wife was so and so's wife. Which was the owner of the Car. And he always brings in old tyres for us to change. I said, What the Hell does it matter whose wife anyone is. She is a customer. If you don't want to do the job, say so instead of stuffing someone around the entire afternoon. Thing is, I do all the maintenance for my mates Vehicles and he lets me have a workshop for free. I am the one that gets the tyres, so this tyre guy had never seen him buy new tyres. But he assumed wrong. He continued to make weak apologies and was just burying himself deeper and in the end I just drove away. There are so many tyre dealers here in Blenheim.

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Yes it's fair to say between $600 or up to $1k lesson learned people ask me all the time for rough figures on thing they want to do to there homes , I give them a ball park and if they want to go further then I cost it up accurately and stick to it from experience past in this industry , I won't say $600 and go into to gain more wich there is a lot of that going on , $600 the tempting and $1300 actual You Won't get replete custom

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"Sabre" just send a cheque off for what you think is fair,estimate/quote $600,final bill $1300,rigger does not answer phone or want to discuss?so send him a cheque for say $700 and make it clear if he/she banks it that they accept this as the final price.

 

he/she will soon be back in touch no doubt.

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Working in the industry-I find this sort of thing constantly frustrating, admittedly usually from the young guys (under 40) when I ask for a quote I want a quote -not a guess.

 And the one rule that always holds true is : when the job is finished I offer to pay straight away, those who accept that, are straight and proper business people, those who say I have got to make up your bill -then send it more than a week later sometimes 8 weeks later do not deserve to be paid quickly as they are feeling guilty, or have conjured it up out of fresh air- and are obviously not proud of their workmanship, all too common now in this industry. 

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Just to lighten things up and talk about an encounter where communication was exemplary and the customer was very satisfied (and no prizes to the Shore boys for guessing who this is)

I needed a small casting and had made a pattern, dropped into the local foundry - discussion went something like this:

me: Gidday xxxx, how are you

xxxx: what the f... do you want

me: can you make a bronze casting for me from this pattern

xxxx: of course I f.....g can

me: that's great, when do you reckon you have it ready

xxxx: why don't you come back next f.....g week and find out!

 

a week goes by

me: gidday xxxx, is my job ready

xxxx: course it f.....g is

me: excellent, what do I owe you for it

xxxx: why don't you just f... off

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Just to lighten things up and talk about an encounter where communication was exemplary and the customer was very satisfied (and no prizes to the Shore boys for guessing who this is)

I needed a small casting and had made a pattern, dropped into the local foundry - discussion went something like this:

me: Gidday xxxx, how are you

xxxx: what the f... do you want

me: can you make a bronze casting for me from this pattern

xxxx: of course I f.....g can

me: that's great, when do you reckon you have it ready

xxxx: why don't you come back next f.....g week and find out!

 

a week goes by

me: gidday xxxx, is my job ready

xxxx: course it f.....g is

me: excellent, what do I owe you for it

xxxx: why don't you just f... off

 

For some reason your exchange reminds me of this scene from Gran Torino

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXD8yOxIPB0

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Marinheiro I know the gentleman that you refer to and over many years +20 he has always been this polite to me and delivered on time and on or under price , despite this one or two boatbuilders have taken advantage over the years.

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I hope you have not paid him anything?  That is just nuts. Double the quote with no explanation? WTF.  

 

I am pissed about the "attitude" I got,  

 

But, I'd be blowing like Mt Krakatoa if I was in your position with this rigger.

I have had a similar experience, what was quoted over the phone was the price of the materials but not the labour. The final price was double what I thought, it was poor communication on both parts.

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