Have been renting boats from this place for years and have to say, this past time will be our last. Although the boat was nice and the price was fair for a day of rental, the staff just did us in.
When arriving to pick up the boat in the morning, the woman was rude. We brushed it off being that it was early and I can understand not everyone is a morning person. Got our boat, had a wonderful day enjoying the water.
Got stuck in a crazy storm in the late afternoon where the gulf and bay meet towards the siesta key side. When we got through the storm, we had plenty of time to make it back to the Marina at normal speed. However, going back through the bay side between Sarasota and Longboat Key, there are extremely low areas when you turn off of the channel. We were never given specific maps of the low areas (just a general map of where the marina was) or instructed on how to go through these. Literally 1.5 feet of water. Obviously we slowed to nearly idle speed to get through these as to not harm the prop.
About 15 minutes prior to 5:00 (time we had to return our boat), we knew that we would be pushing it at this speed so we called to let them know we were possibly running late. When we got into the marina at 5:15 (going idle speed per instructions in the marina), they charged us $100 for being late. $100 on a $400 boat rental for being 15 minutes late, even with a phone call. They accused us of taking our time when getting off the boat (my mom took a picture of a rainbow... didn't know that was offensive to anyone) and told us they were watching us come in and we "didn't even try to go fast to get through the marina". Duh - you told us not to!!
We asked that they try to accommodate us on the $100 - it's not even about the money but the principal behind it. Front desk lady was again, EXTREMELY rude. I run a business and have to say that if I had an employee like that, wow - she would be gone (but I guess it's Florida in the summertime so you don't have your pick of the litter when it comes to great employees). She basically threw our receipt in my face and said "nothing I can do about it now, it's paid". She also told me she didn't care if she was rude, she was just being blunt.
Ultimately, I spoke with someone who appeared to be a manager (said he was not the owner) - said he knew my husband and family since he was a little boy coming in. I let him know I thought the owner would probably prefer that he try to accommodate his customers - especially long time customers. He said the owner would prefer we were charged for keeping them on overtime to bring our boat in. Again, we could care less about the $100, but the principal was the big thing. Ultimately, no one at Cannons cared enough to give us the time of day. I finally gave up talking to these people and when I walked out the door I noticed what the hours were: they are open until 5:30pm. HA!!!! And you told me you were getting paid OVERTIME when you were still open? Laughable.
I consider myself an extremely reasonable person because I run a business where we deal with the public and difficult circumstances every day. I employ people to take care of customers, even through challenging situations, and I give them the authority to do what they need to in order to make sure people feel they are treated fairly. Giving people this authority to take care of your customers is really priceless - it enables them to make decisions (like, "Sure, we appreciate you guys trying to bring the boat back safely through 1.5' deep water and a idle speed marina - we know these areas are a little troublesome for people not familiar with them. You've been a long time customer so we'd be happy to waive the late fee. We look forward to seeing you guys again next year"). Anyway, the staff here failed and ultimately, that $100 is the last amount they'll receive from us instead of continued repeat business generating much more...
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