Report # 9 - 26/11/2008 - Why the owner of a Caribbean 35 bought in November 2007 "will never do business with those bastards again."

"I bought my Caribbean 35 off St Kilda Boat Sales in November 2007. As soon as I took delivery I knew that I should have bought a bigger boat. As I live on the other side of the bay but kept the boat at St Kilda Marina, I hardly used the 35 and within a few months decided to sell it.

"Even though it was too small for me, I liked the 35 - and knew that they were coming out with a 47 footer, and I was very curious to see it as a potential upgrade option.

I offered the boat to Darren at St Kilda Boat Sales to try to sell it, but they were more interested in selling their other 35, and despite his words I know that they didn't bring anyone through to show my boat. I decided to try to sell it direct and soon after ended up selling it to another St Kilda Marina resident in July 2008 without any help from St Kilda Boat Sales. I'd only had it for around 6 months, and it had less than 15 hours on the clock. Basically brand new.

But I have to say, after all of my experiences with Darren from St Kilda Boat Sales, and even worse, his partner Andrew from St Kilda Boat Sales Service Centre, I'd never do business with those guys again and I want nothing more to do with them. They're shonky. I'm over them and I'm glad my boat is now at another marina.

Here's why:

"When I bought their boat I was assured that I could keep the berth it came with and if at some stage I wanted to upgrade to a bigger boat, I could sell the 35 and the berth would go with it. This was confirmed many times over months by St Kilda Marina office.

"But then in July, exactly the same day I was doing a deal with the guy that wanted to buy my 35, I received a call from of all people Andrew from St Kilda Boat Sales Service Centre telling me that " we need your berth and we're going to move your boat to another berth on the other side."

"I told him that seeing as I paid my berthing fees to the marina itself and not him, I wanted to keep the berth as previously promised by the marina's office, and that besides it was none of his business. And I also told him that he better not attempt to move my boat or touch it in any way.

"In response he called me every dirty name under the sun, and if that wasn't bad enough, after phoning me in the first place, he then hung up on me.

"Shortly after that I received a call from Eula at the marina's office telling me that "there has been a terrible mistake, and that the berth could not be transferred to the new owner". It turns out that Darren and Andrew had a friend with another 35 called "Niktom" on H-Row that they wanted to move into my berth.

"It makes me wonder who's really running this marina?

"Despite all the previous promises from the marina that the new buyer of my 35 could keep that berth, he then had a meeting with the marina's Manager Greg Spooner, where Greg not only told him that he HAD to move, but threatened to tow his boat out of that berth if he didn't move it himself. Unfortunately, the buyer of my 35 really had no choice and agreed under protest to move his boat to the other side.

"Even worse is that the buyer of my Caribbean 35, who spent more time on the boat in the first 2 weeks than I did for the whole 6 months I had it, discovered some minor problems with the boat. Unbelieveably, upon contacting International Marine, the makers of Caribbean boats, he was told that my new boat warranty was not transferable to him - and therefore they accepted no liability for any warranty work whatsoever.

This is the email he received.

"They even had the gaul to suggest that he take these issues up with "the boat surveyor that MAY have carried out any pre inspection before you purchased the boat".

"After that I was completely over these guys and there was no way I'd ever want to deal with any of them again.

"What was even more ridiculous was that the problems the buyer of my 35 was complaining about were minor, but relevant. For example, one of the internal doors wouldn't close properly as it should have, but they weren't even prepared to fix these little problems. So much for their own confidence in their own product.

"I also know that Darren was dirty with me for selling my boat direct to another buyer, but what do I need them for when they didn't achieve anything with regard to selling my boat? If a guy on the next row wants to buy my boat he can walk over and talk to me with no need for a middle man. That is exactly what happened.

"I've since taken delivery of my 2007 Riviera Flybridge 45 and it's just fantastic. The difference between the standard of features and fitout compared to the new Caribbean 47 is like chalk and cheese.

"More than that, my Riv is completely covered by the manufacturers warranty.

"But what's best is that I don't have to deal with those guys ever again." - John M.

I'd never do business with these bastards ever again. That goes for St Kilda Boat Sales, St Kilda Boat Sales Service Centre and Caribbean Boats/ International Marine."