Chandlers - the good, the bad and the ugly

[David Hudson]

Just Google "marine megastore complaints".

[David Hudson]

I shop around for most chandlery bits. There are certain chandleries that are either consistently fairly priced or expensive.

You may be lucky, as I am, and have an internet supplier near you with collect facilities whose prices about right. They may not be competitive for non website items and I will then compare with the market.

You takes your choice and pays your money.

[Steve Joyce]

for the landlocked, it is also worth checking out the various chandlers on the canal system. granted they will not have everything for sailing boats, but useful for stainless screws and so on.
Midland Chandlers are a bit like the canal version of marine megastore though, price wise.

I have also used force4 and seamark nunn for bits for my narrowboat which nearly complete now (hence the interest in canals) and found them very good.

Happy boating

steve

Storm 15 "Robin"
&
NB "Fred Bingham"

[Matthew P]

I have recently received prompt service and useful advice from www.boatgeardirect.co.uk, after spending some time hunting around for a reliable, good value supplier for anchor warp, chain and fittings.

Boat Gear Direct supply several makes of anchor but not Rocna which for the 6Kg seems cheapest from Jimmy Green Marine at present - although Jimmy Green is not always the cheapest for everything.

Matthew
BR20 Gladys

[Graham W]

Even allowing for Covid problems, I'm afraid that Seascrew have disgraced themselves.  They claim on their website [online] "business as normal".  With my order, it definitely wasn't - they failed to ship it despite it being in stock (according to their own system), didn't respond to emails querying where it was and were generally unresponsive.  Eventually I had to raise a dispute with PayPal to get my money back. 

I don't mind businesses being slow because of current problems as long as they give advance warning.  To pretend that everything is OK when it clearly isn't is not a good idea and it's even worse to ignore customers when things go wrong.

[boomerangben]

I've used Gaelforce marine for various bits and pieces although not tried their online shopping.  They seem reasonable.  If you are fortunate to have a fisherman's chandlery nearby they can be worth a look.  The Stornoway Fisherman's Co Op is our local one (clearly unlikely to be of any use to many!), is a bit of an alladin's cave but is good value and has a huge variety of stock.