Business ProfileforSouthwest Florida Yachts, Inc.

Our charter was 1/2022. Our experience with chartermaster Chuck was horrible. Chuck admitted to having no knowledge regarding any sailboat, including ours, and kept reiterating that with questions. He did not know how to turn on the engine, throttle up while out of gear. There was only 1 bumper on the boat and we asked for 3 more, he brought 1 with a very short rope. We had to attach another rope ourselves to use it. Several dock lines were broken, including a crucial very short line in the middle of the boat. We asked for a new line, he said "switch lines" and then switched it to the front of the boat. Short line was unusable during charter. He was very rude taking offense when our sailing instructor, Captain Joan G., tried to teach my husband the nuances of docking. Our trip was an ASA sailing class/trip. He was condescending towards her. He later "failed" Capt. Joan for her 2 charters after ours. Was it retaliatory? She has over 30 yrs experience and was ASA Outstanding Instructor of 2020. No way she does not know how to handle a sailboat. SFY took her charter fees and wouldn't refund them. After the charter he was supposed to meet us for refueling and water fill up. He never showed. There were 2-3 inches of water in the bilge. He said it was because he "washed the boat" with a hose but the inside of the boat was dirty. The boat was in poor shape, an old boat. The boat had several potentially dangerous problems including a frayed topping lift; nonfunctioning emergency bilge pump, un-detachable boat charging cable, nonworking boovang stopper and bow/foredeck lights. Other minor things - 3 missing light bulbs, 2 broken lights, several port windows did not open or missing screens, 2 missing cowls w/ broken plastic covers, and a broken bimini zipper. It took 6 wks to get our deposit refund. Office folks were nice. SFY should give Cpt. Joan back her money. Too bad about Chuck, who is going to lose a lot of business for SFY.

I'm sorry that Captain Joan has tried to damage our reputation for her own gain - again. Her actions completely go against the ASA Instructor Code of Ethics. I would advise you to reconsider taking your lead from her. The fact that we are just hearing from you after 8 months also coincides with the fact that Joan has lost her attempts to receive a refund from the credit card company. Interesting. It is shameful that she would talk her students into partnering with her to try to damage us in a public venue like the BBB as well as making some online disgraceful comments. We tolerated her bad behavior for months, but now that she is slandering us to our very own clients as well as to the public we will be forced to take action. We have worked too hard for 40 years to allow someone like this to slander our company. We will take whatever measures are necessary to protect our company from people who are attack us because they are called out for who they really are. It is sad when people try to tear down others to make themselves look better. Joan's actions are unacceptable. Please govern yourself accordingly.
Barbara H.

I forgot to mention that it is very disappointing that we are just hearing from you now, eight months later about the issues you had on the boat. We are here 7 days a week and we never received a call asking to discuss this matter with me or my staff. I'm sorry that you chose to air your grievances in this manner. Sadly, it is becoming all too common for people to hide behind an online post. I understand why people do that; however, it does nothing to resolve the issues at hand and only demonstrates a lack of civility that is prevalent in our society today. Small businesses like ours much prefer to talk to customers one on one. It would have been much more beneficial to you and helpful to us if we had been given the opportunity to look at all of the items in question while you were on the boat. I'm sorry that we were not able to meet when you were here. We wish you pleasant cruising.

It is surprising that the response to our review is a verbal lambasting and badmouthing of others instead of an inward look at how one can improve business. We did send a list of problems to Chuck during our charter via text We recognized that if we were to have those repairs done beforehand then it would have taken time out of the few days we had for our charter. That was not the focus of our review. The review (of which there is no time limit) is to let others know of the poor experience we had from our interaction with Chuck. Now I would extend that poor experience to Barbara/SFY based on the response.

After looking through our records we also did send a list of repairs and problems to the front office via email before we left our charter. We never got an answer so I am not sure why you would be disappointed about not hearing anything. We ended up going to the office to get bulbs

On Sun, Jan 9, 2022 at 10:33 PM <-------gmail.com>
Hello,
We have some problems with the boat that we would like addressed:
1. The topping lift is badly frayed in two areas and we are concerned that it will break and the boom will drop and damage the boat
2. There is about 2 inches of water in the bilge. The emergency build bilge pump turns on but does not reduce the water.
3. We need 3 - 12 volt light fixture bulbs.
Questions:
1. Is the Y valve set to holding tank?
2. Should we leave the fridge on all the time? Even when sailing?
3. Do we keep the battery switch on "ALL" all the time?
We plan to leave the dock at nine and would like these addressed by then.
We would like to drop off extra bedding, etc.. that we don't plan on using.
Thank you,
***** *----

It was clear from your first email that your mail reason for contacting us was to come to the defense of Captain **** for a dispute that had nothing to do with you and about which you had no facts.
It is clear now that we will not be able to make you happy no matter what we do. Many months have passed and it does no one any good to continue this conversation. I am sorry we did not have a chance to meet when you were here. We wish you good health and happy sailing.