I entered into a lease agreement with Freedom Boat Club of Jax (also known as Florida Boat Club, LLC) Beware, many of the Freedom Boat Clubs are Franchised (and they are LLC's) the Corporation, Freedom Boat Club does not stand behind the franchises. Not their problem... So beware!
The club was looking for boats for their second location in Julington Creek and approached me with an offer to lease my boat to use in their club. I would receive a monthly payment and have unlimited access to any of the Freedom Boat Club locations.
This appeared a to be a good deal as I wanted to fish and not maintain a boat plus the payment allowed me to pay two payments on my boat.
Since the boat was close by, I could check at any time. I saw some damage occur which I expected and was assured it would be all repaired in August as the boating would slow down. I also asked about the maintenance and found from one of the workers that only the oil was changed and not even the filter. I was assured this also would be done correctly as required by the manufacturer.
In September I received an e-mail with an attached letter that they were reducing their operations and my boat was no longer needed. This sounded funny as the boats were always in use so I contacted one of the owners who made the lease agreement. I found that their franchise was removed by Freedom Boat Club and they were being sued.
I went to pick up my boat and found additional damage and contacted the owener to get the repairs made before I would accept the boat back. I was offered to have my boat taken to their other location in Charleston to continue the lease and have the boat repaired and maintained. I declined as they did not do this with my boat only four miles away.
They then tried to have Aqua Direct try to look at my boat and said they would send their mechanic from Charleston but never did. The marina was paid to the end of September so I had to finally remove my boat and take it to the dealership and have it repaired correctly resulting in an $1800 dollar bill.
I was also out one month lease payment and the engine hours were over the agreed amount by 100 hours at $5 per hour.
I went to the local news who reported on it but did not discuss the boat clubs response before airing the piece. If the documents would have been checked the media would have seen the responses were not correct from Freedom Boat Club or Florida Boat Club.
I threatened to go to the Charleston media but was threatened with a lawsuit. I am still looking into this but want to make sure all statements are backed by documents to back them up as I do not have a lot of money to throw at a lawyer.
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