Bo's Landing — Local services in New Madrid

Under New Management/ Typically a good thing...Should have turned away the moment we arrived. I will give the new owner a chance not to charge us full price before sharing pictures and how we were treated.

Update: Response to the owner from my husband who dealt directly with him.

Let me clarify a few things as previously posted to add some context. We had a group of 5 going out on a multi day fishing trip, so we needed a boat large enough to accommodate 5 including a double-amputee military veteran in a wheelchair. The employee said no problem, and they even offered the pontoon at a jon boat price, great, so it was booked. This is the only boat on the lake large enough to handle our needs.

After traveling 7 hours we arrived and spoke to Chris, it was then mentioned that the girl taking the reservation no longer worked there and was a "meth head" and gave us the wrong price but would honor it anyway. Chris proceeded to explain that the previous renters destroyed the boat and we could take a look at it and see if we still wanted to use it. To be clear, there was no call ahead of time to tell us that the boat was destroyed or in bad shape. So at this point, literally the only boat large enough to be rented on the lake was now destroyed, for a 5 day fishing trip, what options did we have?

The pontoon was not up to any standard or as promised, probably shouldn't have even been in service. Chris was right about one thing, the boat was destroyed: none of controls for the boat worked...NONE! I will say, the one thing that did work was the anchor, it was tied to the boat and all we had to do was drop it in the water. (surprised the rope didn't break)

We had the boat reserved for a total of 5 days, the day we wanted to use it, it was not there. Yes we had it reserved for all 5 days. Called Chris and let him know the boat was not there for us to use. We waited around and turns out one of his employees was out using it. 🤐

We took the boat out for the first time and not a single button for the boat worked, so I called Chris and asked how to turn the motor off while fishing, his response was that I needed to unhook the gas line from the motor to turn it off. HUH?!?! Yep, had to unhook the gas line from the outboard to turn the engine off and let it run out of fuel! 🤷‍♂️ There was no motor cowling (cover), no way to stop the motor, gauges didn't work, steering was like steering a 79 Buick without power steering, the boat was in bad shape.

None of this was told to us, we had to find out by using the boat. As the frustrations mounted and my double leg amputee father in law waited in the car, my mother in law questioned the charges, Chris proceeded to call her an A$$hole and that he deals with "Your kind" all the time. None the less, the trip was cut short and losses were cut.

To be clear, we are very familiar with boats, we have pleasure boats, jon boats and fishing boats, we do know a thing or two about boats, I guess we just have different standards for customer service expectations?!?!

To top it off, the owner's child was throwing rocks in the parking lot and threw a rock right at one of our vehicles leaving a nice dent in the hood. So I guess park at your own risk too?!?!

You can make your own judgements and conclusions, but this was our...

My friend and I booked a package deal with Boyette's Resort to stay there for 3 days and get a boat to take out each day from Bo's Landing. The first day we get there we check in, drop off our bags, and then headed to the landing to get a boat to fish. We got there at 2:30pm and the lady who greeted us asked, "You're just now getting here?" I asked if that was a problem, and she told us that they closed at 6:30pm. I thought that 4 hours was plenty of time, so I told her that we would be sure to be back by 6:30pm. We then went outside with her to get a boat. There were 2 there. One was a 3 seater, the other was a 2 seater. Neither were ready to be taken out.

The 3 seater had several gallons of water in the back that had to be bailed out. I don't think they had a pump, because the lady was using a 16oz styrofoam cup to try and do the job. She walked over to the other boat and radioed someone inside asking if it was ready. I heard someone reply back that it was. She looked down into it and said out loud "This one hasn't even been cleaned out from the last trip!". Remembering the comment she made at the start about it being late in the day, I told her that we'd just come back the next day and try again, no worries.

The next morning (5-26-24) there were tornado warnings/sirens from around 7am until 9am. There were heavy thunderstorms from 9am until around 1:30pm. Remembering the comment the lady made the day before about the time, I didn't think it would be a good idea to try and rush them again. I went to the resort office to ask if we could just cancel the boat from the package and bank fish, since that's what we had to do the day before on account of the boat not being ready. She said that was news to her, since in her agreement with them they should ALWAYS have a boat ready for her guests for the day, regardless of when they showed up. She said she'd call them and ask if we could get a refund for the boat and just not use it.

We went bank fishing at a nearby park and I got a text at around 2pm. It was the lady from Bo's Landing asking if we were planning on taking the boat out today. "No ma'am. It's a little late in the day". I didn't hear anything back. I then went back to the office at Boyette's Resort to ask if she was able to talk to them about the refund. She said that Bo's Landing wouldn't issue us any refunds, and the lady told Boyette's Resort the only thing left to do the day before to hand the boat over to us was for her to start it up. That was a bald faced lie. After them being dishonest to Boyette's about the events the day prior, we decided to leave that evening after we were finished bank fishing and to not return to Bo's Landing at all. I am not sure what the cost of the boat was, but we were never able to take it out at all, and still had to pay for it. Bad...

The lady up front (presumed to be one of the owners) and the boat handler (never got any names) were both pretty friendly. The pit bull behind the counter was not friendly and aggressively barked at everyone that walked in (I was told she's protective, but why have her where she's going to bark at all your customers?). The other gentleman (presumed to be the other owner) seemed to have a staring problem and was dismissive of any questions asked, honestly just seemed rude overall. Couldn't get any solid fishing advice from anybody, we had never fished Reelfoot lake before and hoped to get a few tips of where to start and what to watch out for. The Jon boat was fine for a Jon Boat, would be senseless to have anything else on this stumped up lake. Only a few feet of rope provided for a 5lb anchor the size of a footlong corn dog which was absolutely useless. Of all the lakes I've fished, a 6 o'clock curfew for boat return is by far the earliest and most ridiculous. And why could we only have the boat for 8 hours a day when you're open from 7-6? If I returned to Reelfoot, I...