Now accepting apologies

[bamadave]

Re: Now accepting apologies

Let's play devils advocate. You're the boat owner. you have 6 reservations for the boat for 1 hour each. Each of the renters are 10 minutes late=1 hour he loses on rentals. Fair to him or call it inconsideration on the renters part not leaving in time to be just a few minutes early? I am a member of a flying club. If I reserve the plane and arrive late, I still have to pay for the tardiness, rules say allow for traffic, loading, fueling, etc. Plus, I better not be late returning it. Someone else may have it rented. Allow for weather, etc., for returning.<br /> Did you have a good time boating, if so, why ruin a good memory with something so petty anyway? Realize how lucky you are to be able to experience the wonderful times we have when boating. I'm sure theres someone out there that dreams about being able to enjoy what you did.

 

[mothradave]

Re: Now accepting apologies

I see your point bama, but in my case no one was behind us as we were renting until the end of the day, and there were plenty of extra boats to rent out. upinsmoke, the limo analogy seems pretty close and I can see why the price would start running at the beginning. But your other example was the equipment rental and like you said, there you pay upon checking it out and you quit paying when you return it. That's what we were asking for. The other thing about the marina's policy is to charge you the whole time even if you return it early and even if you have to come in early due to storms! Basically, you pay for the entire time regardless of events both within and outside of your control.<br /><br />It may seem petty, but I'm just asking to find out the norm. Like I said, overall the experience was a great one.<br /><br />Next time we'll show up at least 20 minutes early, or heck just buy a boat of our own!

 

[bamadave]

Re: Now accepting apologies

Out of curiosity, what do they charge to rent the pontoon?<br /><br />I'm glad to see the experience was great. Hopefully the beginning of a lot of good memories.

 

[mothradave]

Re: Now accepting apologies

$60/hr.

 

[Purduebarry]

Re: Now accepting apologies

I'm only confused about one thing..if they "Gave away" your boat, what did you end up renting?

 

[mothradave]

Re: Now accepting apologies

Exactly. He was lying. He was trying to strengthen his case that he had been seriously inconvenienced by our 10 minute tardiness by saying they had to give it away, but of course he hadn't given it away. And in so arguing, he undermined his own reasoning that he had lost money by us being late.

 

[wileecoyote985]

Re: Now accepting apologies

Maybe you caught the rental guy on a bad day. That doesn't excuse his bad behavior, but being late is also rude. <br /><br />There are way too many folks that think it's OK to show up whenever, when they have an appointment. I'm willing to bet that you and your party were not the only "irons in the fire" for the rental guy. Maybe you made him late for something???

 

[BF]

Re: Now accepting apologies

In these parts, when you have it booked, it's yours from the time your booking starts whether you're there using it or not.<br /><br />I've seen disclaimers that there are either no cancellations, or they require 24hr notice etc etc... and reservations are often held by pre-paying with credit card. That way if you decide not to show up, or are late or whatever... you pay anyway and they're not out of pocket.<br /><br />For renting cabins, I've seen where you have to acknowledge in the contract that the rental fees are non-refundable, but that a portion of your fees would be refunded, if they are able to re-book the cabin for the dates that you originally had booked.<br /><br />Basically I think it's the same logic... they have high demand rental items with relatively few hour/rental slots/days available in the season. So, the vendor makes sure that your changes in plans don't cost them money. It's not whether someone was there in the 10 minutes you were late to take your boat, it's how many people phoned in the days before who would have rented the boat but were turned away because they were all booked up. Seems reasonable to me.<br /><br />Where your rental guy went wrong was not spelling it out for you when you made the booking. If you knew the clock was already running, you probably wouldn't have been late... But really, you missed what 15 or 20 min's out of a whole day rental? If the few bucks that cost you bothers you, you'd probably be wise not to get too hooked on boating, 'cause it can expensive quickly. If you get your own equipment, either be prepared to be handy or get the checkbook out. The cost of getting an OB serviced can make getting work done at a car dealership look downright reasonable in comparison.