Island Watersports — Attraction in Fenwick Island

We rented a pontoon on 6/12/17 for 3 days keeping it at their docks. We were going to do a one day at first and we were told we are getting a brand new boat. We switched to a 3 day rental over the phone. since we had a 3 day rental now we asked if we had the boat from daylight to dusk even though we were docking it at their facility, the woman on the phone had to ask someone then the answer was yes. On the day of the rental we arrived and did paperwork bought prop insurance etc, it went smooth but we were told we could have the boat from 9am-7pm "issue #1" We went out to the boat with the dock hand to go over the boat and the boat we were assigned was a old boat "issue #2" When asked the dock hand says they give old boats to 3/5 day renters. We complained to him and he said he will work on it for day 2.. ok we were on our way, boat was slow, it raddled and shook. Speed was a issue. Understanding we had 11 ppl and gear on board we could not get over 6mph and rpm was low at wot. "Issue #3". We had Fun, but could not cover the ground we wanted to due to speed issues. At 3:56 pm we were heading to the rt 90 bridge and we lost all power " throttle and gear". We threw anchor and called for assistance. "Issue #4" A while later the dock hand showed up in a get ski to try to fix it after a few attempts he got the boats throttle and gears rigged to get us back to their facility. At 6:30pm we arrived back at the dock and said we were getting the SAME boat on Tuesday and the throttle cable would be fixed. Understanding we were not happy , we had only 7 hrs of functional boat time that day. We decided to try to cancel the next two days . We were told no refunds but they did refund the 2 days but still charged us for a 10 hour rental $652.98 "issue #5" .The dock hand "red head" was awesome and we have no complaints about him. We rent boats every year in oc from another facility and decided to switch to this place because of the NEW boat rental in all the advertising they do. I'm not asking for a free ride but customer service could have been alot better. Not a good experience. Dennis

Update: 6/14/17 No one tried to reach out to us but after reading the response from the management we reached out to them we were not offered a one day rental as stated in the response, they offered to wave the $45 fuel surcharge on our next rental we pay in full.

As far as the new boat thing, as I stated above we first booked a 1 day and we were told we were getting a new boat. The thing is when we switched to a 3 day we were not told our boat would be downgraded to a old boat until we were ready to board the boat. We also were never told that they were waiving a $50 a night transient fee since we were keeping their boat at their dock until the response in this review.

As far as the new interior thing. All I can say it was probably new 10 years ago but that was not an issue with us. None of the gauges worked either but I will say that is standard in most rental places in oc.

Yes we did return back to the facility under power after the throttle cable was temporarily rigged with zip ties after a few attempts. We were told we had to return so it could be fixed properly. So in ending we had 7 hours of boat time and 3 hours of down time and we paid For a 10 hr rental. If not for the oversight on their part and not attempting to make it right at the counter before we cancelled the rest of our rental we would be out on a pontoon...

Just like other family members before, we had an absolutely terrible experience with Island Watersports that ruined our day. We rented a pontoon boat for 11 people for 4 hours. Signing and orientation went fine, they were helpful enough but we had no idea the trap that was set for us. They gave us a very crude map that had no legend so it was very difficult to determine which areas of the bay are off-limits. This was intentional. We stayed in open water and not close to any land or island. We were almost at low tide and all of a sudden we hit a shallow area so we stopped and raised the motor. After a call, they came and towed us back to the dock but told us to wait until the boat was checked out. After only a few minutes, they told us we owed them $1615 for damage. Have you ever heard of a rental place that could diagnose "severe" damage in 15 minutes??? They said they saw us on GPS that we had been in an area that wasn't 100 yards from land or islands so it was our fault that we hit a shallow area even though there was no land or island anywhere close to where we stopped. We understand that part of this is because of the shallow waters of this bay. But the fact that the map had no legend or warnings about this possibility and that we even talked about going to the Bayside restaurant dock (off-limits) which she circled on the map is further proof that this is a trap. It gets worse. When I said we took insurance that they said would avoid damage disputes, only then did they offer to take $650 off the charges. They would not credit any of the $500+ we paid up front. Because they require ridiculously long waiver documents to be signed by every passenger that no one could possibly digest, and their statement that their lawyers will take us to court if we didn't pay now, we had to settle on an amount that was still very unreasonable to avoid the potential for further losses and long travel times to court. This exact same thing happened to friends/family at Island Watersports a few years back. They said this might happen twice a year but we know that isn't true. They will respond that this was all our fault and they were within their legal rights to charge us for damage. But there is no transparency here with the potential for damage. The map is ridiculously vague and hard to interpret with no warning except the 100 yards (you are never outside of 100 years when going in and out or when stopping at Secrets or when going under the bridge). While they will spend 30 minutes on waivers and having you purchase insurance (misleading), they spend 1 minute on the map with no warnings about what the map shows and that you really can't go anywhere other than down the middle of the Assawoman Bay. It is clear this is a trap, they think it is in their best interest to be vague and know they are covered legally. Now that family members are zero for two at Island Watersports, we will never ever go back and will make sure none of our family or friends will either. It is just too risky with the combination of shallow waters and Island...

Today we rented a pontoon boat from Island Watersports. It was a HORRIBLE experience.

The check in process was so chaotic and took 40 minutes. The employees were too busy to even assist us with putting life vests on our children. We finally departed 15 minutes after our rental began. The employee who briefed us on operation of the boat rushed through his presentation. As soon as we pulled away from the dock, we noticed that the gas gauge was on empty. We immediately notified an employee and were told not to worry about it because the gas gauge was broken. I found that discouraging considering Island talks up how wonderful their boats are. We were out for about 3 hrs when we accidentally became stuck on a sandbar. The sandbar was not visible under the murky waters. Employees had not warned us to stay away from that area. After 2 passengers tried unsuccessfully to push the boat off of the sandbar, we called Island for help. They first sent a jet ski to assist us with the 13 passenger pontoon boat. When that (obviously) didn't work, we waited another 40 min for a boat to arrive. Upon their arrival, Mike and his employee instructed me to swim approximately 40 yards to their boat to retrieve a rope. I then had to swim it back to our rental and attach it. They then ordered all passengers off the boat (including 4 young children). They instructed us to leave the children on a sandbar about 35 yards away from our stuck pontoon. Mike then had all of the adults (including a senior citizen) come back to the stuck pontoon and ordered us to push the boat while he tried to tow us off the sandbar. Once the boat was loose, we had to retrieve the children from the sandbar and then swim back to the pontoon. Once we tried to board the boat, we realized that Island had rented us a boat with a broken ladder. We had to take turns hoisting the children and each other up onto the boat. Please keep in mind that at no time did Mike or his employee step foot off of their boat to help us. We returned to the dock sore, bruised and exhausted. My mother-in-law was then informed that she would be charged a tow fee of $350. She was exhausted, had a bloody knee (from trying to get back on the boat with a broken ladder) and just wanted to go home so she reluctantly paid the fee. I completely understand Mike charging a tow fee but $350 seems downright ridiculous. We were less than 10 minutes from their dock and did not cause any damage to the boat. Not to mention the fact that they simply towed us behind them with a rope. Not once did they get off their boat to help push or assist us in any way. To me, that is equivalent to a tow truck driver requiring you to push your own car up the loading ramp. It shouldn't happen.

Take our misfortune as a warning. Do NOT rent from Island Watersports. There is a reason that they have such poor...