Hi Magnus. Customer
service means a lot of different things to a lot of different people across the globe. For example, in
Australia I believe we generally have excellent customer
service, especially when dealing with
government agencies, but also in most large businesses. My limited experience with the UK is that they have similar service quality to
Australia. Of course there will always be some bad apples, but in general you do t have to file a law suite to get problems resolved. Since you were asking earlier about FP warranty, I'll share my thoughts on Frances customer service in general. In my experience, most French
government and businesses above the level of the local bakery, have no idea or care for customer service and the benefits of satisfied customers. Their systems are archaic and they are not in any hurry to resolve customer issues. Rather they take the stance that if they drag it out long enough, the customer will eventually tire and give up. This applies to any warranty issues as well. Government offices don't have
email and contacting by
phone is usually impossible so you are forced to communicate via regular post. Electronic forms are not widely in use so again, it's back and forth with regular mail or appointments. This is the case for most, but not all government offices, larger businesses, banks etc. smaller owner operated businesses tend to vary in quality. Some realise the benefit of good customer service, some follow the lead of what they deal with when dealing with banks and government. For the locals, they don't know any better and don't expect anything different. For non locals it can be frustrating...
My experiences with
Lagoon and FP are that they are firmly in the government/big business camp, and resolving issues can be frustrating for customers. I've heard good things about outreymer and nothing bad about
catana or privelige, so possibly those companies set aside more of their
budget for warranty and customer service than
Lagoon and FP or possibly it's partly the scale of economics that we don't hear as many of the issues as well.
Lagoon and FP generally discourage direct contact from customers. All contact and warranty issues should be made through the dealer. This means a good dealer can make the world of difference to the customer, either helping resolve the situation with the
builder, or helping the
builder sweep it under the rug. Sometimes the dealers hands are tied and they are the unfortunate middle man. I've had good and bad results when dealing with lagoon warranty. At times receiving replacement
parts in the next port (faulty sail track cars) and at times not being satisfied with their performance. Our dealer has always been extremely helpful in resolving any issues. That said, over the past few years and having two new yachts from lagoon, the issues have been minimal and
purchasing them is not based on after sales service, except from our dealer, or on any perceived warranty. Most components on board fall under the individual manufacturers warranty, so if you have an issue with your plotter, it's raymarines issue, not lagoons.
Raymarine I should add have some of the worse after sales service I've ever come across btw, but I still like their
equipment so will continue using it.
FP in the past have had satisfactory
repairs made to all the yachts that suffered from
osmosis due to sub quality resins so I would expect they would honour any major structural issues during the warranty period, as I would expect Lagoon to also.
The most disappointed and stressed out customers I've seen from Lagoon and FP have been sailors expecting the same level of after sales service as they might expect from their local Ford dealer. It's not going to happen,,,
Our approach is that the benifit of
buying new has nothing to do with warranty, except a slight
insurance that anything major within the warranty period may be covered, it generally along the way any small
repairs are part of sailing. Hope for the best, expect the worst...
On our L380 we had the following issues serviced and repaired by lagoon to our satisfaction
Damaged sail cars
We fixed the following issues ourselves
Faulty plotter connection - paid a
Raymarine tech 100 euro to find the loose fuse under the berth and tighten a screw.
Lazy bag - replaced a sun damaged zip - 80 euros
Broken fridge, my fault - replaced
cooling unit for 500 euros
Faulty
radar, sent back to Raymarine who fixed it but charged for
removal and re
installation as well as postage - 300 euro
Loose
rudder collar 10 euro
No other issues.
On our l400 we had the following issues repaired by lagoon to our satisfaction
Replaced 2 non return valves
Tested
batteries
Replaced broken cupboard catch
We fixed the following issues ourselves
Intermittent
wind sensor - paid a tech 60euro to replace cable. Can be claimed back from lagoon with some paperwork but Raymarine makes it difficult.
No other issues
One issue that was t resolved to our satisfaction was the wrong
autopilot was installed originally. We specifically wanted the Raymarine evo, but the older ap was installed. After following this up, going to their
head office and meeting with their global after sales manager, we soon gave up on expecting satisfaction on that one. Sure we could have engaged a French advocate, taken them to French court etc but decided to move on and let it go