Is this legit?

[newapti5]

I was trying to book a charter boat for a church group fishing trip during July 4th holiday,  and found this charter boat via the fishingbooker.com. It's got good reviews on the booking site, but when I contacted the captain, he told me that due to gas price, they no longer accept bookings via third party agents.  

 

So I called him directly, and he suggested booking the trip with them directly.  OK no problem, I could understand that.  But then he sent me this deposit instruction, saying due to gas price, they don't accept credit cards anymore and "have terminated our business arrangements with all third party payment processors."  I'll have to deposit $200 with personal/business check only (payable to a person, not business), and pay the rest with cash on the date of the trip. 

 

Is this normal among charter boat business now? I don't have problem paying cash later on the trip day, but I'd rather pay the $200 deposit via PayPal, even cover the 4% PayPal payment fees myself so that I have at least some payment protection.  This is the first time I deal with them. I will go with other captains if I could, but our group has 16 people and no many boat choices left for that holiday. Am I thinking too much?  Thanks!

[MN Fisher]

I'd search for a different charter - that he won't take anything other than checks...which are fairly easy to modify now-days...raises a red flag with me.

 

Did he do the same a few years ago when gas was even higher? (We're at 4.20 now - I remember when it was over 5.00 here)

[newapti5]

4 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

I'd search for a different charter - that he won't take anything other than checks...which are fairly easy to modify now-days...raises a red flag with me.

 

Did he do the same a few years ago when gas was even higher? (We're at 4.20 now - I remember when it was over 5.00 here)

 

No idea how he did business back then, but judging from the reviews and photos from the booking agent site, I think he was doing well back then. 

 

Yeah I would ask him if PayPal is doable for the deposit. The problem is, our group has 16 people, and there aren't many big boats available for that date now. Otherwise I'll contact others for sure.   

[Siebert Outdoors]

The one I booked in the Gulf last year was nothing like that.  I'm sure all of them are different but that is really shady.  I would look elsewhere. 

[newapti5]

16 minutes ago, Siebert Outdoors said:

The one I booked in the Gulf last year was nothing like that.  I'm sure all of them are different but that is really shady.  I would look elsewhere. 

 

Thanks for the advice, Mike.  Yeah, I just talked to another charter captain at the same area, and they do credit cards for sure.  Now the problem is the morning trip is already booked for that day, and we can only book the afternoon trip for striped bass fishing.  Which one is better for striped bass fishing now at the Chesapeake Bay? The morning or the afternoon/night?  If morning is much better, then I will have to ask everyone in the group to pick another date...

[Jigfishn10]

Striper seem to be more active at night in my experience, but I'm sure a good charter would put you on a good bite. 

 

Good luck and have fun.

1 hour ago, newapti5 said:

So I called him directly, and he suggested booking the trip with them directly.  OK no problem, I could understand that.  But then he sent me this deposit instruction, saying due to gas price, they don't accept credit cards anymore and "have terminated our business arrangements with all third party payment processors."  I'll have to deposit $200 with personal/business check only (payable to a person, not business), and pay the rest with cash on the date of the trip.

Wow.

I will say, the charter I took a couple of years ago in Maine, was much different. I called to reserve a date, asked them how much the deposit was..."pay in full the day you come". I thought that was odd, but, worked for me.

[padlin]

What do they consider morning? We had good luck when we went left early, like 4 or 5 am. If the boat leaves at 8am then I see little difference, morning or afternoon. If you and your crew want to sit around the boat in the sun sucking down some brews, afternoon would be best.

 

When I go for stripers from shore very early am and full dark in the evenings works best. Bit that's from shore. If the Capt has much experience, ask his opinion. Smaller charters can be very hard to book this late in the season, most of the best times are booked up to a year ahead. Kind of like shore cottage rentals. The better the Capt, the harder they are to book.

[newapti5]

48 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Striper seem to be more active at night in my experience, but I'm sure a good charter would put you on a good bite. 

 

Good luck and have fun.

Wow.

I will say, the charter I took a couple of years ago in Maine, was much different. I called to reserve a date, asked them how much the deposit was..."pay in full the day you come". I thought that was odd, but, worked for me.

 

Thanks! Yeah that charter captain may be more experienced, but I am just not very comfortable with the payment process.  So I changed to another one for afternoon fishing, and he only charges on the day of the trip as yours. 

 

33 minutes ago, padlin said:

If the Capt has much experience, ask his opinion. Smaller charters can be very hard to book this late in the season, most of the best times are booked up to a year ahead. Kind of like shore cottage rentals. The better the Capt, the harder they are to book.

 

Yes I asked, and the new captain said not much differences between early morning and night during the summer.  The early captain with the strict payment method, he may have more years of experience as he's older, but I can't take the risk of messing up the holiday trip for the whole group. Maybe I will check him out next time with a smaller group of people. 

[Bankc]

2 hours ago, newapti5 said:

...But then he sent me this deposit instruction, saying due to gas price, they don't accept credit cards anymore and "have terminated our business arrangements with all third party payment processors."  I'll have to deposit $200 with personal/business check only (payable to a person, not business), and pay the rest with cash on the date of the trip...

I know a few people with anger management issues.  This kind of behavior reminds me of them.  I'm not trying to diagnose this guy, or really say anything about him one way or the other.  I have no idea who he even is.  But the people I do know with anger management issues are always getting into fights with other people/companies, and frequently having to change how and with whom they do business due to their habit of constantly creating unnecessary feuds.  And to do business with them is always a risk.  You can often have a positive experience and usually save some money with them (as they don't like raising their own prices because they don't like change), but the chance that everything blows up and goes south on you is a lot higher with these guys than other people who are much better at rolling with the punches and adjusting to the ever-changing world we live in.  

[Deleted account]

Depending on where you want to go out of, 16 is tough, because most boats are either 6 packs or head boats (party boats). The holiday weekend is bad also, cause tourist want to go through the motions instead of going taffy, t-shirt, or shell shopping on the boardwalk, (or whatever else it is that they do)....

[newapti5]

38 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

Depending on where you want to go out of, 16 is tough, because most boats are either 6 packs or head boats (party boats). The holiday weekend is bad also, cause tourist want to go through the motions instead of going taffy, t-shirt, or shell shopping on the boardwalk, (or whatever else it is that they do)....

 

Yep. Some wives of the group members are already planning a whole shopping trip out of it. 

[looking45]

For me, two things jump off the page. You have almost Norecourse, if any, if you write a check to a person.  Second, writing the check to a person instead of the business tells me the money isn’t going to the business.  As others mentioned, you’re probably best staying away. Good luck and have a fun trip

[Sphynx]

I mean, this sounds pretty unusual by "industry standards" as it were. Now, the not taking credit cards I can understand because take it from someone who knows those folks aren't your friend, but I don't do business for my company in my name, my company writes me checks, not the other way around unless I am a customer (which has not happened to date) so I would avoid this one.

[Deleted account]

I have 3 books full of commercial fishing and charter fishing "industry standards" stories that I can't share in public. It's kind of like Disney World, the public sees the fluffy lovable characters, princesses, and fun rides, the underground garbage chutes, Stepford wives training sessions, and working conditions, not so much, It IS indeed a small world...