Alex L.
Stay Away
Captain accepts an order, then there was no communication from his. We tried contacting days before, then day before a trip, still nothing. Then on day of trip we show up at Marina and captain was missing. Talked to people at Marina and they asked to see a name and boat. Here we got fully scared as per their words that captain does not have commercial license and does not belong to that Marina and if we did not pay yet we are lucky because this guy scam many people in past. But we never heard from “captain”. He pretend have business in MA but his number is NJ. So in two words Stay Away”
Response from FishingBookerDec 16, 2022
We're terribly sorry that your experience turned out like this. The absence of communication on the captain's end, and on top of that, not showing up for the trip is unacceptable, and we completely understand how frustrating this must've been. When you reported this to our Customer Service, we tried contacting the captain but, sadly, couldn't reach him. We refunded your deposit and launched an internal procedure to prevent this captain from getting bookings from us until further notice. Regarding the captain's credentials, we know how important it is for your guide to be licensed. This is why every captain on FishingBooker has to prove their legitimacy by uploading their ID and captain's license. This is what we call a "Basic check" – without it, the captains can't advertise their trips with us. This includes your captain. On top of Basic checks, we are collecting additional credentials like insurance policies, boat registration certificates, and other documents as part of our "Enhanced check." This isn't a mandatory step for captains, but we make sure to show which captains have passed which checks on each captain's listing page. We're sorry if this wasn't communicated clearly enough to you. We're constantly looking for ways to improve our licensing rules and the way we communicate them. Your review will help us do that, so thank you again for sharing your experience. When it comes to captains' phone numbers, we don't have any strict rules regarding area codes. This is because there are captains who offer trips from various departure points, and this sometimes includes different states. What we do insist on is that the departure points are clearly communicated on each captain's listing. Once again, thank you for sharing your experience. If you decide again to cast a line, we would be happy to help you organize a memorable fishing experience. All the best from FishingBooker.