Jet ski Tours of Miami — Attraction in Miami Beach

My husband brought me to Miami beach for my birthday this past weekend. With only 3 days in Miami, all that I wanted to do was go on a jet ski tour. On Sunday morning around 10am, I called this company to see if they had any availability at all for same day, and asked I could reserve via phone. The represenative for this company that I spoke with on the phone said yes, either 2:00 or 4:00. Just show up about 45 minutes prior to whichever time you choose to get all set up. Great! So my husband and I waited around all morning at the hotel and took a 30 minute Uber ride and arrived to your marina at exactly 1:20pm. There was no one at the gate entrance, but eventually one of your guides/represenatives showed up. He then tells me that the 2:00 is sold out. How could it be sold out?? I spoke with someone on the phone 3 hours prior and they told me it's walk-up, just come by 45 mins prior to get set up! He told me that they have the 4pm slot open, but encouraged us to walk across the highway across the double intersection to visit their competition!! My husband and I were discussing since 4:00 was like 3 hours from then, and walked away for literally 1 minute. I decided I wanted to go on THIS tour as they take you to different spots, we came back 1 minute later ready to pay via debit card and he tells me that within that 1 minute, a man showed up and booked 4 jet skis for the 4pm slot and there was no longer any room for us (This man was literally beside us when we were talking to the guy, but within 1 minute it went from available, to not available - a completely different story that it was "walk up" when I called to reserve literally ANY TIME that day, earlier in the morning). The rep also said that it was CASH ONLY. At that point I was upset for wasting my morning, waiting around for 1:00 to call an uber for the supposed 2pm jet ski tour that was "walk up, just come by" to now, having no jet ski opportunity in Miami. He again encouraged us to walk across the highway to visit their competition, that was not even doing tours. This was the most unprofessional tour company that I have...

We booked the "early bird tour" at 10am for $139 where we were supposed to, as it is mentioned on the website, do the visit of 6 islands + 2 periods of free ride + a swim in Biscayne bay. When we began our tour, the guide showed us real quick Star Island and then told us that we can have a free ride. Once our ride was done, we came back at the dock and the visit was over : this is clearly not what we've paid for. Once again, the details on the website mention clearly that the visit is comprised of a tour of several islands which we did not see. We had an amazing experience with them six years ago, when we decided to go back to Miami we wanted to do it again with this company because we were sure to not be disappointed, unfortunately we felt tricked and the price we've paid was not worth it, at all. We chose this option to live an experience, to visit and we only had a free ride before returning to the dock. I completely understand that if you pay more you get a chance to see more and have another experience but we just trusted the website so, to us, this is basically a false advertising they are promoting and a serious abuse of tourists to take advantage of their money. We use to go very often in Miami and we will make sure next time to do jet-ski with another company which will be, I hope, more honest than them.

Also, there's a certification to get : on their website it's mentioned that we can do it online for free or a fee of $3 will be charged by them if you come 30min before, they can provide the course : this is wrong, this option doesn't exists, the skipper asked you to go to a website where you're charged for $10 to pass the exam.

It's a lot for only one...

I’ve had a few jet skiing experiences and based on my experience with this company as compared to others, I would NOT recommend this place. I tried them out on a whim while visiting Miami. Similar to other reviews, it was difficult to find, there was not stand, no sign, nothing. I almost left. When I finally did find someone, the lady rushed me through some paperwork to sign and said she had to physically hold onto my credit card until after I finished the excursion, which I was skeptical about – she said she’d lock it up. I’ve never heard of anyone having to physically hold on to a credit card, so that was extremely sketchy. At this point, I did not have time to look for and book another company so I went ahead. Secondly, the accessibility is questionable. If you are a person with a disability and/or you have physical limitations, I would not suggest this place. It was not noted anywhere that I would have to climb down an unstable ladder to get onto the dock where the jet skis were located. That was extremely physically challenging and dangerous for me. The jet skis themselves had some maintenance issues and I could see there they had broken mirrors and were taped in some areas. That was concerning because I felt they could easily blame me and charge my credit card. There is no way to do an inspection of the jet skis (as you do when renting a rental car) and check off issues that you notice. The guy who took me out was supposed to take photos. He took a few that were far away and not very close up and they all looked exactly the same. Overall, I would not book...