Forced to use marina maintenance services

[h4nym]

What's the take on this? I know that most marina berthing agreements contain some kind of clause prohibiting the use of external maintenance. Is this legal? Anti-competition an' all that?

What are the workarounds? And would anyone be interested in joining some kind of class legal action? Am I alone in objecting to this rip-off? Am I wrong in seeing this as a rip-off?

[tcm]

Hm, from a distance this sounds ok, but of course for anyone on the ground, if you fall out with the approved contractors, or they're busy and so on...then what?

has anything specific triggered the question?

[hlb]

Easy way is just to carry on and use who you want. If it causes a problem, deal with it then. Personaly even though I've seen the contract. I've never been afected by it.

No one can force me to come here-----------
----- I'm a Volunteer!!!

Haydn

[h4nym]

Last summer, I asked them to carry out some work - put in a holding tank because I'd brought our boat up from the sea o the river.

Instead of a holding tank, what I got was an extortionate quote, and a flooded cabin. OK - so I resolved not to use them. Looking through MBM, Marine Diesel Services advertised regularly in the classifieds so I thought I'd give them a try - and was extremely pleased with both the quality and price of the work. Job done quickly, for £30 an hour, not £50, and with a real pride taken.

Cool - lots of other work to be done - I wanted the dashboard remodelled etc etc. But now the marina owner wont let them on site! Not a major issue, they just go down there, take the boat out and tie her up to some public moorings about a mile upstream. But now we have to manage everything so much more tightly - eg can't get the boat lifted out at the marina to service the legs etc.

The final straw is that he's objecting to a Boat Saftety examiner carrying out the examination on site, because he has his own "preferred" examiner.

For 20 quid an hour, I'll put up with the hassle, but I'm sure that if we could all get together we can get this rip-off declared illegal and free ourselves from this closed shop. We don't have hundreds of marinas on the Thames to ensure that market forces prevail!

[tcm]

I wonder how far you have got with "talking to them"? It simply can't be a "solid" requirement - as some waranty work must be carried out by other authorised agents. Prasp he was banking on loads of work from you? - but of course if they're incompetent and/or overpriced, could he not "approve" someone else?

[miket]

Pretty certain this situation arose some years ago at MDL Harleyford. (Thames)

One or two bertholders suggested that it contravened the laws on restrictive practices, or unfair trading, think the former.

Don't think it got as far as court. Probably resolved face to face. Certainly those concerned were able to continue using own contractors. Some marinas get round it by charging the contractors an access charge.

[mikef]

I think its common practice to put it in the berthing contract but very unusual to find it actually enforced. Obviously it is anti-competitive but the marina will probably give you some garbage about their insurance not covering outside subcontractors. As tcm says, its always worthwile talking to the marina manager and coming to an arrangement on 1 or 2 named companies to work on your boat

Don't mind taking flack when we get things wrong but I should point out that Harleyford is not an MDL marina.
And MDL do NOT insist that customers use 'our' contractors. Customer choice is king.
John Watson
MD
MDL

[hlb]

Very nice to see some one in the industry, taking part. There should be more like you.

No one can force me to come here-----------
----- I'm a Volunteer!!!

Haydn

[tcm]

ooh, more feathers in jw's increasingly rather cumbersome and very silly-looking hat.