Born to Boogie Fishing Charter

This company ripped us off. A friend of mine set up the trip and I%26#39;ll include the email he sent to them afterwards. Basically they promised us a fast boat and a lot of action (fish) using a bunch of different fishing techniques. We ended up going on a slow boat with broken engines. We had to stay near shore because of the engines, so we ended up trolling a mile or two offshore for 6 hours and had only two bites (possibly) and didn%26#39;t catch anything. I understand that you%26#39;re not going to always catch fish, but because we didn%26#39;t have the fast boat we weren%26#39;t able to go out and check different spots. Also, it took us an hour to return back to the dock because boat was so slow.

Here%26#39;s my friend%26#39;s email.

I want to write this email now because if I wait a few days I am afraid some of the emotion I am feeling right now will not be conveyed (and I want it to be conveyed).

This was my fourth trip with you; out of these four trips we had a broken boat three times. Two of the four we were promised the ';fast'; boat and both times we were on crippled boats. (BOTH BROKE) Today%26#39;s trip I can not forgive and I feel your actions this morning lacked integrity, honesty and common courtesy. I can not let this trip pass without expressing our outrage. (In retrospect I should have said something last year!) We booked and were promised (again) to go on your fast boat, in addition we were told how many different tactics we were going to use, the different kinds of bait fish we were going to catch to target different fish and basically we were going to ';kick butt';. You were going to personally take us out etc..etc..etc...

Well, as somebody who has been fishing his entire life I can deal with a bad day of fishing. What I can not tolerate is being taken to the cleaners on your charter.

Not only did we not get anything we paid for, (by the way 660 dollars is a lot of money for us) we were put on a boat with a max speed of 18 miles an hour vs the 50 miles in hour it can go when it is working.

We were not, however, informed of this until we were already on our way. That my friends is BS.

Had we, or anybody for that matter, been informed that the boat we were paying full price on could only go at ~30 percent of its%26#39; max speed we would have chosen another day or cancelled all together. My two friends and I were so disgusted we could not even speak to each other when we got back to land. They were livid and so was I.

Rest assured that we will never refer anybody your way. And if asked we will tell whomever exactly what our and my experiences have been. Steve lives in Panama City and has many young AF Capt%26#39;s, Lt%26#39;s and Airman working for him and they are always looking for outdoor activities to do. Without even talking to Steve about it I am certain he will not send anybody your way.

At an absolute MINIMUM what should have happened today was for you to be upfront and honest. You should have let us know the boat was not operating at 100 percent, offered us a discount or cancelled the trip.

One more thing, I dont give a crap if the fishing was bad everywhere for everybody today. That is NOT the point.

We were not even able to try another spot because your boat was BROKE...period, and that is not the way paying (returning customers) should be treated. You have lost three valued customers and many potential future customers.

I am sure this email is disjointed and fragmented, and I still wish I could write more but I am tired and very pissed.

Born to Boogie Fishing Charter

WXdue---When did this happen? Have you or your friends contacted the boat company? Do you have anything IN WRITING from the company that states what they promised?

As a travel agent for the last 11 yrs and a Customer Service Rep for 13 yrs with Ingersoll Rand and Bendix Automotive (now Bosch), I have had the unfortunate opportunity of having to write letters of complaint and also having to solve them. The biggest piece of advice I can give you and anyone else that doesn%26#39;t get the service or product they were promised, is to DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT. Write down names, dates and times of the people you spoke with. Right now I%26#39;m trying to solve a problem for a client that stayed at a hotel in Orlando. Their complaint is that it wasn%26#39;t clean, the room was noisy and other issues. They checked out after the first night%26#39;s stay. Then they called me demanding a refund for the night they didn%26#39;t stay. I asked them for a check out receipt--didn%26#39;t have one. Asked for the name of the person at the front desk they complained to --didn%26#39;t have it. Asked if she took any pictures-- she did not. So basically it%26#39;s their word against the hotel and they expect me to solve the problem and get their money back.

I definitely would not let this go. Demand your money back or at the very least half a refund. If there were other folks on the boat w/you contact them and get their help. Keep all receipts and document conversations to the date, time, and who said what. It%26#39;s called

';CYA';!! Give the company an opportunity to make it right for you. Tell them you want a reply w/in 3 weeks or so--whatever you feel is a resonable amount of time. If they haven%26#39;t, send them a 2nd letter by priority mail and threaten them w/BBB. Then if they don%26#39;t respond, call the BBB. You may want to consider that anyway but do give them the opportunity to make it right for you. They may have just had a lousy day. Not trying to say they shouldn%26#39;t have done it right there on the spot since they promised a fast boat, different fishing tatics and more but give them ample opportunity to respond and fix the problem. Then get ugly. Don%26#39;t give up but remember to give them a reasonable amount of time to respond to your complaint and try to make it right.

Good luck!!

Karen