San Diego Electric Boat Rentals — Local services in San Diego

This was a special occasion for my best friend. His fiance planned this as a surprise for his birthday.

So we arrive and park and headed over to the gate. My lady wanted to go to the restroom before we set sail. Shawn/Sean shows up and immediately we felt an unwelcoming feeling, as if we were putting him out and inconveniencing him. This was not good start.

After we lightened our load. Then we all board the Duffy and I happened to be appointed the captain. He goes over his briefing and rules then attempts to shove us on our way. In the mean while I am trying to connect the bluetooth to my phone so we could have some boating ambiance. I wasn't having any luck connecting. Shawn/Sean just stood three with an impatient demeanor and continued to rush us on our way. He could of nicely come in to assist but he couldn't bother to. Finally it works, he continues to let us know he has another group that he needs to burn and turn. Customer service is definitely not his strong point. Finally we take off on our 90 minute tour. This was a great experience putting around 4 knots=5 miles an hour around the bay. Great weather and spectacular company. As we return to dock, the charm and great customer service continues (SARCASM). He just didn't care about us. All he cared about was burning and turning as many groups as possible. (At least do it with a kind and friendly attitude)

At the end I pulled him aside and nicely gave him my feedback, but unfortunately he said he was indifferent and that's just the way he is.

I have been in hospitality and tourism for over 20 years and unfortunately Shawn/Sean just doesn't enjoy what he's doing, therefore, he treats his customers the way he feels about his job. I did leave him a tip, but definitely not as much as I would if we were treated with kindness. If you all can ignore horrible customer service/relations then take a duffy out at this place. Maybe there are other companies that rent these Duffy's that we can rent from...

So our whole experience was absolutely fantastic until... we were coming back and having issues finding the dock because our original instructor assumed we have ridden a boat before and explained all of the directions very quickly. Because of this we were 20 minutes late and while we were trying to find our way back we were on the phone with Ashely, while she was trying to give us directions. When we got back the original instructor (Ashley refused to give up his name) was very rude about the fact that we were late and we couldn’t comprehend his quick direction, and when I tried to explain this to him he proceeded to tell me that “we all speak English” mind you, we are foreigners. And after we made that statement he proceeded to inform us that we now owe $50 dollars for a late fee. After this terrible experience a different guy by the name of Dustin told us that he understood what we were feeling and to call Ashley to hash out our issues. When we called Ashley, after talking to her with much respect and explaing our side of the story, she then began to have an attitude after she clearly took the word of the original instructor and reinstated that we were late (after we talked to her while we were lost) and that we were being rude to her employee and basically had everything flipped on us (the paying customer who returned the boat in perfect and clean condition) and on top of everything this was our first time on the waters, that is why we rented in the first place. We should not be expected to be experts and we certainly should not be expected to but up with horrible service and be charged a late fee on top of that. Ashley also refused to give us the owners number after hanging up in our faces...

I have my boat license and am confident in navigating almost any situation. We rented a boat with Duffy when we had family in town this past weekend. Sadly, our boat was broken. If it were anyone else driving, that boat would have been an expensive insurance nightmare. The Forward would only work half the time, and only at full speed. The other half, it would go in reverse when clearly in Fwd. In reverse, it would randomly go forward, or just stop. I figured it out for most the route, and even had to drive in reverse for quite awhile. When we got back, it was a problem making it back to the dock. The inconsistency with the throttle had me fearing hitting one of the many multi million dollar yachts between the dock and the opening to the marina. Fidel, who is WONDERFUL at his job, enthusiastically came out on another boat and towed us in through the marina back to the dock. Earlier, he was incredible at preparing the groups to hit the bay and explaining everything in great detail, too. So, despite my frustrations, I need to make sure to shout-out the Videl. The owner walked us out afterwards. He admitted it's a wiring issue that comes with the electric boat territory, but then just.. walked away. We figured he was going to refund us or provide at least a discount for another time. Nope. He just let the next groups of folks in the gate after us. We spent hundreds of dollars to have a broken boat. They/we are lucky that no one was hurt or anyone else's property wasn't damaged. It's a unique experience, and I'm sure a really great business model when the boat isn't broken. Sadly, we...