Freedom Boat Club
Perdido Key/Pensacola, FL Read the contract carefully. Reservation system is not what the salesman pitched
- 06-19-2009
- 31
I joined the club about a month ago, fell for the idea of the freedom of being able to use a boat whenever you wanted and not have to pay for maintenance and storage. I signed a contract that had different terms concerning the reservation system than what the salesman told me (my fault). Their reservation system gives you four reservations, with only two of them able to be used on Sat or Sun and a full w/e day reservation requires two of your reservations. Also, the reservation system will not let you make a reservation for both a Sat & Sun. So, better be good at predicting the weather, because you're only gonna get one shot at a w/e day.
As far as the boats go, the pictures you see in the office are from when these boats were new. Can you imagine if a rental car company kept the same cars for years? You think they'd get pretty nasty? If you're considering joining, make them pull the boats off of the racks inside the building. Do not settle for just looking at them from a distance. Who wants to take the family out cruising on a dumpy, dirty, even sticky boat? Again, if these guys had nice boats, it MIGHT make up for the horrible reservation system. And you'd think they would with a $5000 joiner fee times all the members they claim to have.
The $5000 joiner fee, is clearly written into the contract to be NON-REFUNDABLE. And I signed it. After one weeks worth of use, I was able to get them to refund $1500. I was happy to take the money and get out. $3500 for a weeks worth of boating seems a bit ridiculous, but you live and learn. And tell ALL your friends to look very closely before joining the Freedom Boat Club.
I almost forgot about the $2500 deductable members are responsible to pay for any damage they do to the boats. This means, the only real maintenance you get to avoid is... Oil changes?
Company: Freedom Boat Club
Country: USA
State: Florida
City: Pensacola
Address: 14050 Canal A Way