Boatyard smashes my rib

pop · 28 June 2006, 22:21

Hi Ribsters

What a nightmare! I took my rib to RHP marine (Ridiculously High Prices) in Cowes to have a new thermostat fitted. 2 days after I dropped my rib off i got a call from a mate on the folly water bus saying ben what you doing towing a boat up the river, i said no mate not me i am at home, he then replys well its your rib. i call RHP straight away and The owner of RHP had advised me that my rib was ready for collection and that it was not on the river but on th pontoon. when i arrived at RHP i found my boat had been completely damaged and had been towing a 40ft powerboat, whilst doing this they lossed control and slashed the tubes on a potoon or chain ferry, I have not yet got to the bottom of it. where the transom connects to the sponson there is a curved overhang of fiberglass that the tube connects to. this had to be repaired, which meant the back half of the tubes had to come off and the glass be redone. the other damage consists of two slashes in the tubes where the scorpion signs are, both are about 7in long and 3in wide. The next day they offered me £600 to get the repair fixed

i cant belive the generosity of this company, this does not even cover the haulout and storage fees. of course they received a letter in the post from my shark. RHP then proceedes to contact me telling me he employes 8 people and how he is going to squash me with lawyers fees (stop laughfing everybody). 8 people WOW i mean f**k me your alan suger mate! A month later my rib is in the last stages of being fixed. i have been compensated for 15days loss of charter, all out of water mooring fees paid, costs of repair work (£1,900) and i am trying very hard for a 50% compensation towards a new set of tubes, needless to say this has not been forthcomig from RHP. I hope that you all have better luck then me this season however to maxamize this i strongly recommend staying away from these boys.

BogMonster · 28 June 2006, 22:28

Unbelievable

Bad luck, you must have been really ****ed off!!

I'd sue them for a replacement boat, and start my negotiating position from there!

codprawn · 28 June 2006, 22:46

People like this REALLY piss me off - they just have no respect for other people's property.

Shame you had to resort to legal action - an obvious company to avoid like the plague!!!

pop · 28 June 2006, 22:57

yer the people there are mad they tried this bully boy crap. i am young so they think i am stupid and they can take the piss, where as i at 20 probably have the slightest chip on his sholder about being told what to do by someone else. not the best cobination as you can imagine.

isn't it a coincidence that people who go around saying ill squash you are the ones who never have any money

and you a right about other peoples property, i had new uposltery and their grease monkey got his dirty hands all over it, my liferaft thrown on deck and she was not tied up propely,and all canvas was left stuffed in console (where the batteries are) to mention just a few things. i spent a whole day cleaning the whole rib!

Nos4r2 · 28 June 2006, 23:03

I congratulate you on your patience with this idiot. I would have been up there ensuring he had no business left to run after being treated like that.

Oh, hang on....you've probably just cost him more than I would have done

Limey Linda · 29 June 2006, 01:00

Just Google to RHP Marine, they have a site with E mail, and give them some polite business advice. They will get the message, we hope. Remember " the pen is mightier than the sword"

BogMonster · 29 June 2006, 02:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Limey Linda

Remember " the pen is mightier than the sword"

Especially if you stab the ****** in the eye with it

matt h · 29 June 2006, 06:51

nice company to deal with !! i think it woould have been a easy case for a commercial solicitor to deal with, best thing to do, if he threatened you like that, (with sqashing you) why don we do the same and put out the feelers big time to AVOID RHP BIG TIME !!!!!!

Nasher · 29 June 2006, 06:58

If the RHP website quality is any indication of their Customer Service quality, it don't look good!

Nasher.

Mollers · 29 June 2006, 07:18

Hang on a minute, why do we have insurance? It shouldn't be you fighting them, it should be your insurance co. dealing with theirs. Plain and simple. What a total shower of crap this yard sounds.I can think of a couple around here that are very similar.

Nasher · 29 June 2006, 07:32

Unfortunatly there are more than a few around that act as if they are doing you a favour by even thinking about entertaining your custom.

I've been trying to buy a new propnut for my 200 Suzi recently, its a long story, not helped by the fact that the only Suzi dealer left around here will spend hours telling you about what he's done in the past, but for some reason can never help with anything now.

Somebody lend me the cash to open a yard that gives good honest service at a reasonable price.

Nasher.

Roy Smith · 29 June 2006, 08:02

We had the same probleam years ago, left a merc to be serviced and some scratches to be touched in.
a week later they told us they had trouble getting parts then my brother in law spots the owner of the garage coming out of his local driving our car.
when asked if he would like his life surport turning off he did the service and paint for next to nothing, iam lucky that we are a large family. however that was a long time ago and the way the law is now you have to be very carefull,
lots of pics and wittness and small claims court as long as its under £5000
Good luck

pop · 29 June 2006, 09:37

Thanks for all the responses. your opinions are much appreciated.

in responce to why we have insurance:

RHP tried to tell me that it was a claim on my insurance, can you believe? i have contacted my insurance and they are putting the pinchers on him as well but these types of things get more complicated the more people involved, its best for me to apply the kiss (keep it simple stupid) rule and eat him alive with my great white shark,its quite ironic that a man with such little affluence thinks he is so powerful! my family are a large paint manufacturing company and will make sure i am treated fairly (no matter cost or inconvenience.) so i think he best get a new paddle and start paddling fast because there is a tidal wave of shit coming their way!

I am contacting all boating magazines about my experiance with RHP, i will fly a flag from my partners restaurant saying nice things about him over cowes week. i am sure this will help him get business

.

the most annoying thing is they have not even said sorry. all he says is we are here to help. funny ****ing way of doing that

mdt · 29 June 2006, 10:13

I love the comments and suggetions part on his site that links to an e-mail...

However I think you have been quite reserved and gone about things in a very correct and proper manner.

Just think how you would feel sticking your car into the garage and your mate spotting it being used as a recovery vehicle and the same sort of damage occurring. You would go up the sodding wall.

Accidents happen… but as this was completely avoidable.

Phil Chitty · 29 June 2006, 10:21

Pop

I'd like to thank you for bring your unfortuate and very avoidable tale to all on this forum.

I'm a big believer in "name and shame" when necessary and in this case I think RHP deserve this more than any other.

I'd like to wish you luck in getting this resolved to YOUR satisfaction.

John Kennett · 29 June 2006, 10:22

Sounds like a very unsatisfactory experience.

In the interests of balance, I've emailed RHP to invite them to give us their side of the story. Should be interesting!

John

< Edit: My email to info@rhpmarine.co.uk bounced, so I've tried a couple of other addresses that I found >

pop · 29 June 2006, 10:32

thanks phil

i belive that they should be name and shamed as well, they have lost me business this year and in turn those people will not book next year. people like this are a disgrace to people in busniess and deserve everything that happens to them.

I also love the comments on there email bit, what were they?RHP Marine prides itself on providing the best possible service in a professional and friendly manner. hahaha

good i would love to here it it seems to change each time i ask them

please RHP reply

Bootneck · 29 June 2006, 10:50

If you want some advice on an insurance claim PM me, I can put you on to a guy who knows his stuff.

BTW, did you know you can put in a claim in for normal damages to the Court within 3 years, but only two for marine claims ?

BootNeck

pop · 29 June 2006, 11:12

thanks bootneck for the offer

i am happy the way things are, i am getting to the end now and i think we did it preety fast being only 1 month after the damage was caused. the insurance company that RHP have are quite good they have been proactive, its the asshole i have been waiting for to pay his 1,000 pound indemity that he spent 10 days messing everyone around for.
The owner of RHP is an academic needless i say more.

jyasaki · 29 June 2006, 16:14

I don't know much about the law on your side of the pond, but I think the way it would work here (US) is this:

You left a boat at their shop for repair.

They used your boat for commercial purposes, other than what was needed to evaluate or test said repair.

They ended up damaging the boat while engaged in that commercial activity.

In the US, simply having access to something does not give you rights to use it however you see fit. There is a defacto contract in leaving something at a repair yard which allows them to operate the item to troubleshoot or verify repair on the problem. Anything beyond that can be construed as theft of the item left (in this case, the boat.)

I certainly would get your insurance company involved (which, I believe, you already did), but I would also get the police to take a report detailing exactly what happened.

In any case, I hope thing end up OK for you;

jky