Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

[Expidia]

Just a heads up if you stop there for gas like I made the mistake of doing TWICE! Actually 3 times because I got gas there the day before too!

This Marina is located below the Southern side of the Tappan Zee bridge

This just ain't right . . .

So I only have a 6.5 gal tank. I pulled up to their pumps to top off before heading towards Manhattan. They said they first need my credit card before I can pump gas. I can under stand that cause a big boat can just leave without paying. What "they don't tell you" is that they are putting a $250 hold on your card.

So on the trip back I pulled in again (stupid me) and filled up for $18.

They next day I look at my bank account and see $500 pending (yikes). And my balance is now about $980 with an outstanding check floating out there for $925 plus my restaurant tabs over the holiday weekend

At $35 a bounced check, the banks eat this stuff up!

So I called the marina to rant and spoke to a clueless girl at the marina who answered the phone and she said this is commonplace for them to put a hold on your account for $250 for each fill up. And it should come off in 24-48 hours. I asked her in the mean time, since my balance is down to zero because you just stole $500 out of my account without notifying me . . . who is going to pay for any bounced checks that this might cause me? And who can I speak to about this?

She said it's owned by a conglomerate that owns 15 marinas, so there is no one to complain to.

What a nice way to run a business, all they had to do was say if you are going to use a debit or a credit card we put a $250 hold on your account.

If they had the courtesy of saying that I would have just handed them the cash!

I know Motels pull this crap all the time, so they can protect themselves from any room damage.

But a $500 hold on two 6.5 gallon fill ups is total Bullsh*t and this should be against the law to do without prior notification.

Clearly what this marina is doing is picking up a 2 day float on your money for any sucker that buys gas from them and uses a credit or debit card!

Just a warning . . . I'm just so tired of companies that give bad customer service!

 

[ziggy]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

thanks for the warning.

that's why i hardly every use my cc. as far as i'm concerned. the cc company's are out there to rape us of our money.... i only use mine for on line purchase and emergency use only (which boat fuel could be one)... i hate cc's and wouldn't have one except for the security net that i have by having one.. + the few criminal stores that only accept cc's... those i do my best to not shop there too...

i hate cc's.. oh, i said that...

 

[idrownworms]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Sounds like you got eaten by the bear
The rest is to politically inflammatory and would get this thread locked

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

thanks for the warning.

that's why i hardly every use my cc. as far as i'm concerned. the cc company's are out there to rape us of our money.... i only use mine for on line purchase and emergency use only (which boat fuel could be one)... i hate cc's and wouldn't have one except for the security net that i have by having one.. + the few criminal stores that only accept cc's... those i do my best to not shop there too...

i hate cc's.. oh, i said that...

Banks have been raping us for years and the government allows them to get away with this abuse.

Problem is if you use a debit card for online purchases a thief can drain your checking account and the bank will take their sweet time putting fraudulent stolen money back into your account (usually many months).

But if you use a credit card where they are charging the vendor fees for you using that card they will reverse the charge very fast.

Woe be the person who has their checking account drained by identity theft when they used a debit card on the web. How does one eat and pay the rent when this occurs. The bank does not care about those issues. They only want to know how to increase your fees.

Don't want to get political here, but look where we are now courtesy of all these well run banks. When are people going to get it that banks are not your friends!

Over my 43 year career in the business world the two worst run business's have always been the Banks and the Airlines.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Sounds like you got eaten by the bear
The rest is to politically inflammatory and would get this thread locked

Ya, the bear ate me "this time" all righty
But you F with the BULL and you get the HORNS (snort)

But I don't get mad I get even. Years ago when we were unhappy with customer service we told 12 other people (like a bad experience at a restaurant).

Now through the magic of the web we can rant to 100's of thousands of people and out to millions!

I've posted this here and also copied it to the Hulltruth.com who also claims to have 100 thousand boating members. This is called target marketing . . . or in this case target market complaining and alerting.

I've also posted my experience to complaints.com. One can reach millions through posting a free complaint at this site.

Once you file a complaint online at complaints.com, they send a copy of it to the Marina owner too and eventually (it takes a few weeks to reach Google) But they ask you to post 3 key words. So I used Tarrytown, Marina and Gas.

So whenever someone is searching the web with any of the keywords the complaints.com article can come up when drilling down through the links. Sometimes it's the first article in the search (cool).

Funny, sometimes when I'm searching out boating articles on Google some of my old posts pop up in iBoats threads. iBoats has an amazing scope in Google. They must use programmers that when we key in certain words you are directed to an Iboats thread (now that's marketing)

I posted a complaint about a parking lot that damaged my car and denied they did it. So I had to bring them to small claims court and it took 6 months, but I finally collected.

That complaint is still out there floating on the web when I key in the name of the parking lot realty company 5 years later when entering a Google search.

Gotta Luv the web. Years ago filing complaint with the Attorney Generals office was great but it's pretty ineffective now a days because some kid out of school handles your letter now and they are useless.

Complaining on the web is much more effective.

What a country

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

This is why you DO NOT EVER use a debit card at any gas pumps, hotels, rental etc. Any place where a hold might be placed. I had it happen to be many years ago with a hotel in DC. Basically we had no spending money for our trip because the hotel put a hold on like $300.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

This is why you DO NOT EVER use a debit card at any gas pumps, hotels, rental etc. Any place where a hold might be placed. I had it happen to be many years ago with a hotel in DC. Basically we had no spending money for our trip because the hotel put a hold on like $300.

yep, same experience here. When my kids were young I remember when we took a trip to disney world and found out the hard way that business's along the way were all putting holds on my account and all of a sudden one night when I went to pay for dinner the card was declined even though I thought there was like $1000 in my checking account.

It's amazing how fast you can aquire a taste for "catfood" while you are
on vacation and your funds run out

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Here is the email Complaints.com has already sent to Tarrytown Marina letting them know of the consumer complaint and posting.

Dear Tarrytown Marina;

A consumer has posted a complaint about Tarrytown Marina on Complaints.com:
http://browse.complaints.com/redirect.php?entry_id=208770

Complaints.com is an open public forum for consumers to complain about businesses and products, and for responses from businesses.

You can publicly respond or possibly contact the consumer via the above URL.

All posts and emails sent to Complaints.com are subject to the Terms:
http://www.complaints.com/terms_privacy.htm

--
Complaints.com - consumers in control

Note: Damn, I forgot to let Tarrytown Marina know in my complaint that I also already posted this complaint at the two biggest online boating sites. I'll correct that once it's posted on the complaints.com site. They allow you to do editing and posting of follow up messages.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Is this sweet or what . . . try this yourself . . .

Go into Google and put the word "Tarrytown Marina" in (no quotes).

Scroll down about 8 links and looks what's already there . . . my thread at Thehulltruth.com already shows up in Google!

Yesiree . . . Power to the consumer . . . Damn the Torpedos . . . Full speed ahead

 

[joed]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

I am a bit confused. Is this a credit card or a debit card. A hold on your credit card will not withdraw money from your account and make checks bounce. It will reduce the credit limit available on the card.
If this is a debit card how can legally take more money than you spent. You have some crazy laws in the US. They might be the simlar in Canada but I have not heard of it.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

I am a bit confused. Is this a credit card or a debit card. A hold on your credit card will not withdraw money from your account and make checks bounce. It will reduce the credit limit available on the card.
If this is a debit card how can legally take more money than you spent. You have some crazy laws in the US. They might be the simlar in Canada but I have not heard of it.

It's a debit card. So when they put that $500 hold on my account it dropped my available checking account balance to where incoming checks would have caused them to bounce.

I luckily spotted what they did and ran down to my bank the next morning to add funds to my account. The manager also noted my account in case checks and debit transactions were presented before Tarrytown Marina's hold came off my account.

Pretty sad that I had to go through all of these steps and headaches so the marina can shave a few bucks in interest on us unsuspecting consumers.

Yes, indeed, we have bad rules here in the U. S. One can blame the politicians for letting the banks run rampant in the U. S. all these years. But the politicians are the voice of the people and we keep electing the same ones year after year . . . Go figure.

I remember 20 years ago when it was said that the U.S. had over 14,000 banks in this country and at the same time Canada had 8.

Market forces are reducing the numbers of poorly run banks very quickly.

We can't really discuss non boating issues here though . . . . So I won't comment any more other than to ask if anyone would like to guess how many banks are left in the U. S. 20 years later from 14,000?

 

[lowkee]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

It is not the business which does this, it is the bank. When a business does a pre-authorize (funds check is what it really is), the bank puts a hold on that money for up to 72 hours (I think this time limit is the bank's discretion, but I may be wrong) in order to ensure the business is able to get paid when the actually bill comes due. The marina, in this case, is clearly out of its mind by putting a $250 pre-authorize on your card when you pull up in a small craft. You should expect a minimum $50 pre-auth, though, and that amount is chosen by the bank. This hold also happens at fuel stations when you insert your debit card at the pump.

I've worked for some pretty shady financial firms, one (now defunct) with an internal motto of "Rape and pilliage", and they will do whatever they can to get fees. Banks no longer want customers who save, they want customers who spend more than they have. 80% of income of most banks today is fee driven (this figure is easy to obtain, their earning statements must include it). Wealthy people are not their focus, medium earning spenders are. Lacking enough of those, they create a means to simulate them (3 day delays on transfers, delayed check clearing, fund clearing delays after stock sales). It was once necessary for these delays to happen, as banks once relied on the mail system to notify other banks of check clearing, transfers, etc. This is no longer the case. They now have electronic clearinghouses which transfer funds instantly (ACH), check clearing is now digital and instant (if you have even seen a check scanner at a grocery store, some don't even keep the paper check anymore), and stock clearing has been instant for years, yet they have yet to remove the 3 day hold of funds after a stock sale. Humorously, the SEC has considered lowering the stock sale delay to 24 hours, even though they know it is instant and has been for years.

The obvious reason for these delays to continue.. less available balance for you equals higher probability of fees and the float from these holds is in the trillions each and every day.

As a side note, to anyone who calls their credit card company or bank on the phone and speaks to a human, many companies now have a (very lucrative) tactic to have the operator tell you they are adding a service to your account and if you do not object, you are considered giving consent (opt-out services). These services are normally completely free and sound very appealing. What you are doing by remaining silent is renegotiating your terms of service, which gives the company the right to change interest rates, limits and fee structures. It is a big deal nowadays, since the time of 2.4% interest rates on a credit card are long over and the companies need a way to increase those rates without losing a customer. They will happily notify you of these rate changes via the fine print on the back of a mundane looking account statement mailing or a flyer advertising what you did not opt out of.

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Around the Boston area, they have notices pasted on the gas pumps that reads:

Attention debit card users: if you do not select DEBIT and enter your PIN, the transaction will be CREDIT and your bank may place a credit hold up to $75 on your card. To avoid this possibility, be sure to select DEBIT and enter your PIN.

If you think about the automotive gas pump example, they do not know how much gas you will be buying when you first start the transaction. So, they ask for $75 (the maximum anticipated sale amount) and get authorization. When the sale is complete, they cancel the $75 transaction and apply the actual amount. Why credit cannot be handled in this same timely fashion is beyond me.

Debit cards replaced written checks for the most part. In the old days, when you wrote a check, they didn't ask for an additional $250 to hold onto for 2 days, did they? And they weren't even sure you HAD the money to begin with. Today, if you write a check, it goes through the same verification process as debit and so why don't they apply additional funds holds on written checks too?

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

It is not the business which does this, it is the bank. When a business does a pre-authorize (funds check is what it really is), the bank puts a hold on that money for up to 72 hours (I think this time limit is the bank's discretion, but I may be wrong) in order to ensure the business is able to get paid when the actually bill comes due. The marina, in this case, is clearly out of its mind by putting a $250 pre-authorize on your card when you pull up in a small craft. You should expect a minimum $50 pre-auth, though, and that amount is chosen by the bank. This hold also happens at fuel stations when you insert your debit card at the pump.

I've worked for some pretty shady financial firms, one (now defunct) with an internal motto of "Rape and pilliage", and they will do whatever they can to get fees. Banks no longer want customers who save, they want customers who spend more than they have. 80% of income of most banks today is fee driven (this figure is easy to obtain, their earning statements must include it). Wealthy people are not their focus, medium earning spenders are. Lacking enough of those, they create a means to simulate them (3 day delays on transfers, delayed check clearing, fund clearing delays after stock sales). It was once necessary for these delays to happen, as banks once relied on the mail system to notify other banks of check clearing, transfers, etc. This is no longer the case. They now have electronic clearinghouses which transfer funds instantly (ACH), check clearing is now digital and instant (if you have even seen a check scanner at a grocery store, some don't even keep the paper check anymore), and stock clearing has been instant for years, yet they have yet to remove the 3 day hold of funds after a stock sale. Humorously, the SEC has considered lowering the stock sale delay to 24 hours, even though they know it is instant and has been for years.

The obvious reason for these delays to continue.. less available balance for you equals higher probability of fees and the float from these holds is in the trillions each and every day.

As a side note, to anyone who calls their credit card company or bank on the phone and speaks to a human, many companies now have a (very lucrative) tactic to have the operator tell you they are adding a service to your account and if you do not object, you are considered giving consent (opt-out services). These services are normally completely free and sound very appealing. What you are doing by remaining silent is renegotiating your terms of service, which gives the company the right to change interest rates, limits and fee structures. It is a big deal nowadays, since the time of 2.4% interest rates on a credit card are long over and the companies need a way to increase those rates without losing a customer. They will happily notify you of these rate changes via the fine print on the back of a mundane looking account statement mailing or a flyer advertising what you did not opt out of.

Wow Lowkee, you're good! You really have a handle of what goes on in the financial service industry. Everything you say here is right on the money.

Remember when banks used to put a 10 day hold on your account when you deposited an out of state check. Yet, your deposit was and instant credit to the banks own account.

I'm reading this over lunch at a tavern in my town on my 3 lb Netbook. If I pay for my bill with my debit card I can watch it come out of my account, before I finish my last sip of wine . . . How fast is that? And the tavern is not putting a $250 hold on my $10 lunch.

I certainly don't blame the Marina for putting a hold on a cruiser that pulls up for 700 gallons, but for a 6.5 gal tank and an $18 sale it's just just thievery IMO. It doesn't matter to me who is at fault. Ultimately, it's the marinas problem, not mine. To me it's called stealing when they don't alert you to the fact that they are putting a $250 hold on your account.

To bad more consumers are not as aware of the games the banks play as you are.

Note: check this out . . . 07/07/2009 SIGNED PURCHASE *** RESTAURANT\\ALBAN POS $7.20

That's the line is right off my checking account on my computer showing my lunch was already posted to my account and I'm still here and have 1/2 glass of wine left.

It used to be that you had a float on the use of that money for 1-2 weeks before it hit your account. Not only do the banks continue to raise fees they figure ways to take any float away from you or you can use their credit card so they can charge the business you are at the high fees.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Around the Boston area, they have notices pasted on the gas pumps that reads:

Attention debit card users: if you do not select DEBIT and enter your PIN, the transaction will be CREDIT and your bank may place a credit hold up to $75 on your card. To avoid this possibility, be sure to select DEBIT and enter your PIN.

If you think about the automotive gas pump example, they do not know how much gas you will be buying when you first start the transaction. So, they ask for $75 (the maximum anticipated sale amount) and get authorization. When the sale is complete, they cancel the $75 transaction and apply the actual amount. Why credit cannot be handled in this same timely fashion is beyond me.

Debit cards replaced written checks for the most part. In the old days, when you wrote a check, they didn't ask for an additional $250 to hold onto for 2 days, did they? And they weren't even sure you HAD the money to begin with. Today, if you write a check, it goes through the same verification process as debit and so why don't they apply additional funds holds on written checks too?

Those signs went up when gas rose from $2.00 a gal last year to $4.00 when filling up and car or SUV started costing $100. At least they posted it.

The gas station wants you to choose debit because the banks charge them a larger fee for a credit transaction.

On another vein . . . why is it that only some gas pumps ask you to punch in your zip code after you swipe your card. Shouldn't ALL of them require this simple step. You would think banks would require this because if it's a stolen credit card they are on the hook for it. But they don't care if it's stolen. They would rather have the sale go through than worry about protecting you security.

I noticed last night on the back of my Daughters Chase credit card instead of signing it she wrote "see ID". She said it doesn't matter anyway, no one ever looks. . . . Amazing isn't it. Banks just don't care about theft, they never have. Bad charges are just another write off to them against their out of control profits from fees.

 

[Viking...]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Sometimes it's the first article in the search (cool).

Funny, sometimes when I'm searching out boating articles on Google some of my old posts pop up in iBoats threads. iBoats has an amazing scope in Google. They must use programmers that when we key in certain words you are directed to an Iboats thread (now that's marketing)

Internet search engines may not be as random as you think.

The bulk of the work is done by "spiders" that crawl the net and accumulate information ahead of time in order to deliver results as fast as possible.

Browser history and cookies (among other things), will skew results towards areas and sites of interest that a particular computer user has frequented.

It is exactly what you suggest, a marketing tool.

 

[joed]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

I work for a credit card company in the maintenance dept so I don't know all of how it works.
But it sounds like they swipe the debit before the sale to verify funds available and this is what puts the hold on the funds. Once the bank approves the funds available they have to reserve them for that sale if it goes through. I don't think they actually remove the funds from your account and you lose the interest on them though. If you pay after the sale they only need to withdraw the actual amount of the sale.
I use a credit card as it give me up to 60 days of interest before I have pay it.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

I work for a credit card company in the maintenance dept so I don't know all of how it works.
But it sounds like they swipe the debit before the sale to verify funds available and this is what puts the hold on the funds. Once the bank approves the funds available they have to reserve them for that sale if it goes through. I don't think they actually remove the funds from your account and you lose the interest on them though. If you pay after the sale they only need to withdraw the actual amount of the sale.
I use a credit card as it give me up to 60 days of interest before I have pay it.

Thx for your reply! In any case as soon as they put a hold on $500 it causes any other checks that are presented to bounce if there is not enough available funds. This was confirmed by my banks branch manager.
Just plain bad business in my opinion.

 

[Expidia]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Internet search engines may not be as random as you think.

The bulk of the work is done by "spiders" that crawl the net and accumulate information ahead of time in order to deliver results as fast as possible.

Browser history and cookies (among other things), will skew results towards areas and sites of interest that a particular computer user has frequented.

It is exactly what you suggest, a marketing tool.

Maybe so but I just put in Tarrytown Marina in google from my home laptop and my post in the Hulltruth.com comes up by scrolling down 8 links and there it is for all to view. Gotta Luv It

The Complaints.com link takes a week to appear. They need to review it first.

 

[cribber]

Re: Tarrytown Marina (NY) BEWARE

Best thing to do is use your debit card locally where you know what local pitstop puts holds onto your account... better the devil you know. When I travel outside my normal commute, I alway use my credit card just for that reason. I'm not gonna let you collect interest off money in my accounts.