Surf City Marina — Attraction in Surf City

I will begin by acknowledging the great review I posted late in 2024 regarding our experience when we purchased our second boat from Surf City Marina. We dealt directly with Doug who is always professional and a pleasure. We purchased our first boat from them in 2019 and have religiously had our boats serviced and winterized exclusively by them. Winterization and Spring service always runs between $1,800 - $2,400. Therefore, not that it should be relevant, between boat and regular fuel purchases as well as service, it is fair to say we have contributed to Surf City Marina revenue in excess of $190,000. We can honestly say that "service with a smile" has never been a strong area for the team at the Marina (this does not include Doug.) But sadly, it was progressively worse when the receptionist, Sydney joined the team. Every single time we had to deal with her it was extremely unpleasant and un-welcoming. Sadly it has to be that way when it should be the opposite. It should an exciting and happy time when getting ready for summer and related activities. Well, this Spring was a whole new level of disappointment. This May we dropped the boat off for service and to have it placed in the water. We did it early to avoid getting the snarky comments about bringing it in when they get "busy." Hours after dropping off the boat, we get a call from the consistently unpleasant Sydney asking if we took our batteries. After much back and forth over two days and us confirming that they kept our batteries when they winterized like they did every year for the last 6 years, we were told they did not have our batteries and they were going to have to charge us another $300 for new batteries!! Please note the batteries were newer at the time of winterization. So you can imagine the frustration on our side. We explained to Sydney that we did not want to pay for new batteries as a result of them losing our newer batteries and asked to speak with Kenny. Sydney's response? "Kenny is the one who said to charge you." Sydney also proceeded to accuse us of being "rude." She obviously is too naive to recognize the difference between rude and frustrated. It is also surprising that she accused us of being rude when she is never pleasant or welcoming on the phone or in person and is actually rude herself! After hours of waiting for a return call so that the issue could be discussed and resolved, Kenny calls and the first words out of his mouth are "Alex, I'm done. Do not ever talk to my employees like that. I will give you the batteries and I will put your boat back on your trailer. I'm not putting it in the water for you. Come pick up your [EXPLICITIVE] boat after hours tonight and take it up to North Jersey where you can talk to those people like that up there. I don't want you to ever step foot on my property again. Have your service and warranty repairs done somewhere else." We were left speechless. No one should ever be cursed at the way he did, especially since we NEVER spoke that way to him or any of his employees!! His employee obviously was not truthful in her communication with him and furthermore, they did not want to accept responsibility for losing our batteries. His reference to North Jersey is also disappointing. Sounds like he does not appreciate his customer base nor does he have any respect for them. It is not an issue for us that he won't deal with us anymore, particulary for the fact that we were not going to go back to him since we could no longer trust him. They lost our batteries and tried to push the blame on us. That's sad. There are many options for fuel and boat servicing in the area. We look forward to working with people who are respectful, appreciate the business and are pleasant...

July 5th 2025 we ventured on our jet skis we purchased in 2018 from Surf City from Parkertown Dock all the way up to Bay Head and back. About a mile north of Surf City my wife’s ski bogged down all of a sudden and wouldn’t restart. I towed her to Surf City about 4pm. I tied to there pier was stepping up onto the pier the attendant was letting the mechanic know that we had a mechanical issue. I kid you not with in 10 minutes they had grabbed a jump pack to try to restart her ski and then brought another rental ski over to tow hers to the spot where they lift out boats and take them to the shop. They installed a new battery and let me see the old battery which was extremely hot from just shorting out for whatever reason. They did a water flush and test run on the stand and we were back in the water in well less then an hour!!

This dealers service people...

Incredible sales and service! Wow was really blown away by my experiences with this marina. During the sales process, Doug, could not have been nicer, more courteous or more knowledgeable/professional! We visited the showroom multiple times with multiple peoples and every time he took the time to explain and to re-explain. He also did a great job of politely greeting and working with all customers as needed so no one had to wait! On to delivery/pickup and service. Marina was kind enough to store for us for an entire off season and were extremely helpful and knowledgeable, polite and professional when picking up and going over our new SeaDoo. I highly recommend this marina. If you are on LBI zero reason to go...