Island Watersports

Just like other family members before, we had an absolutely terrible experience with Island Watersports that ruined our day. We rented a pontoon boat for 11 people for 4 hours. Signing and orientation went fine, they were helpful enough but we had no idea the trap that was set for us. They gave us a very crude map that had no legend so it was very difficult to determine which areas of the bay are off-limits. This was intentional. We stayed in open water and not close to any land or island. We were almost at low tide and all of a sudden we hit a shallow area so we stopped and raised the motor. After a call, they came and towed us back to the dock but told us to wait until the boat was checked out. After only a few minutes, they told us we owed them $1615 for damage. Have you ever heard of a rental place that could diagnose "severe" damage in 15 minutes??? They said they saw us on GPS that we had been in an area that wasn't 100 yards from land or islands so it was our fault that we hit a shallow area even though there was no land or island anywhere close to where we stopped. We understand that part of this is because of the shallow waters of this bay. But the fact that the map had no legend or warnings about this possibility and that we even talked about going to the Bayside restaurant dock (off-limits) which she circled on the map is further proof that this is a trap. It gets worse. When I said we took insurance that they said would avoid damage disputes, only then did they offer to take $650 off the charges. They would not credit any of the $500+ we paid up front. Because they require ridiculously long waiver documents to be signed by every passenger that no one could possibly digest, and their statement that their lawyers will take us to court if we didn't pay now, we had to settle on an amount that was still very unreasonable to avoid the potential for further losses and long travel times to court. This exact same thing happened to friends/family at Island Watersports a few years back. They said this might happen twice a year but we know that isn't true. They will respond that this was all our fault and they were within their legal rights to charge us for damage. But there is no transparency here with the potential for damage. The map is ridiculously vague and hard to interpret with no warning except the 100 yards (you are never outside of 100 years when going in and out or when stopping at Secrets or when going under the bridge). While they will spend 30 minutes on waivers and having you purchase insurance (misleading), they spend 1 minute on the map with no warnings about what the map shows and that you really can't go anywhere other than down the middle of the Assawoman Bay. It is clear this is a trap, they think it is in their best interest to be vague and know they are covered legally. Now that family members are zero for two at Island Watersports, we will never ever go back and will make sure none of our family or friends will either. It is just too risky with the combination of shallow waters and Island Watersports policies.

So this is the second time renting here. First time; we went out on a boat and didn’t even make it past the harbor. The horn switch broke and was going off non-stop. Turned around and they gave us crap and switch us to a pontoon - no credit and didn’t extend the time.

This year, we got a call about 40 minutes from our rental time - boats out of commission. Last person sucked up a tow rope and we have to reschedule you. Weather the rest of the week didn’t really allow us to. I asked if we could switch our 2 hour jet boat rental to a pontoon rental - was told no, we don’t rent pontoons for two hours.

I suggest a refund and the girl said they could get it back to my card today, she just needs to ask permission… I could already tell this was going to be a headache.

Since we were in our way, we just went right there. Immediately I asked for a refund, the owner came out and said - no, your boats ready, we’re not refunding you without a cancellation charge of $75. I said that’s bs because you canceled on us… do we get a $75 cancel refund?

After going back and forth a bit they gave us a 3 hours pontoon rental. We would have went else where but it is our annual thing to rent a boat, and this was the only day we could do it… finding a last minute rental was impossible.

Pontoon boat was nice, nothing crazy. We fished and came back. I would steer away personally.

This our 3rd time renting from Island Watersports. The boats are always clean and well equipped. The staff is friendly and courteous. Love renting from these guys.