AE
Danette Soriano’s Dismissive Handling of My Boat Trader Complaint
I paid a substantial fee to advertise my boat through Boat Trader. My complaint is not simply that the boat did not sell. Boat Trader’s malfunctioning website prevented me from lowering the asking price before my listing expired. Had I been able to lower the price as intended, the boat might have attracted more interest or sold. I repeatedly tried to contact Boat Trader through its official online support system, but it did not work. I eventually had to contact the company through social media just to obtain assistance. By the time anyone responded, valuable listing time had been lost while my boat remained advertised at the wrong price. Danette Soriano was the Boat Trader customer service representative assigned to handle my complaint after I finally received a response. I repeatedly explained the website failure, my unsuccessful attempts to obtain support, the lost listing time, and why I believed my original listing fee should be refunded. Instead of meaningfully engaging with those concerns, Danette repeatedly responded in a cold, dismissive, and defensive manner. This was not one unhelpful reply or a simple misunderstanding. I tried multiple times to explain the situation, request a refund, and obtain an actual resolution, but she continued to avoid or dismiss the substance of my complaint. When I specifically requested that the matter be escalated to a supervisor or manager, that request was ignored. Danette then stopped responding entirely. No one apologized for the broken website, the nonfunctioning support system, the lengthy delay, or the fact that I was prevented from changing an important part of my paid advertisement. Boat Trader charges premium prices but did not provide a functional website or reasonable customer support. I am still requesting a full refund of my original listing fee, a written apology, and management review of how Danette Soriano handled and ultimately ignored my complaint.
Response from Boat TraderAug 3, 2026
Thank you for sharing this. We're sorry your experience wasn't smoother. We were able to locate your account and we'd welcome the chance to go over what happened. Please note that our social media channels are not an official support line, so messages sent there can take longer to reach our team. However, support is a priority for us so as soon as we saw your message, we made sure it was routed to our internal customer service channels immediately so we could connect you with the right person to help, but attempted to assist in the mean time. From there, our team, including Danette, followed up with you directly by phone and email, and we know it took a bit longer than it should have for that outreach to come through consistently on our end, for that, we apologize. Based on our conversations, the concern you raised with us was about the level of interest your listing was receiving, not in regards to changing your price. We want you to know that we're always happy to look into any specific issues with your account or listing directly, including changing the price, if there was anything else going on, we'd genuinely welcome the chance to hear about it and help resolve it. As part of addressing your concern, we issued a refund for your renewal charge. We also let you know that we weren't able to refund the initial listing fee, since that service had already been active and rendered by the time the refund was requested. We didn't hear back from you again until now. We'd still love the opportunity to talk directly and make sure we've answered all of your concerns.