I booked a trip at a local lake with a guide and he cancelled on me the night before, Evidently, the captains use multiple sites for booking and he was already booked with another. My kids were so disappointed. Fishingbooker uses total amateur captains. 100% bubblegum!
Response from FishingBookerJul 4, 2022
Thanks for your review. We're really sorry to hear that you didn't have the experience you expected. Please reach out to our customer support team so that we can further look into this for you. All the best from FishingBooker.
BL
Brian L.
Terrible experience
Terrible experience, advertisement lied. Do not use fishing booker!! They take money from charters and it's a completely unneccessary service.
Response from FishingBookerMay 18, 2022
Hi Brian, we’re sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with us.
We’re not exactly sure what you found to be untrue in our advertisement, so we’d really appreciate if you could tell us more. You mentioned that the captain was great in your review on our website, so I’m assuming that your experience on the trip itself was a good one.
When it comes to your overall experience with our website, we had no direct correspondence outside of our automated booking notifications and reminders. We tried reaching out to you, but unfortunately, haven’t been able to get a reply. We’d be more than happy to help out with any issues you encountered, so please feel free to respond to the email we sent.
As far as our partnership with captains is concerned, we do keep a commission fee for successful trips only. In return, we provide our partners with expert online advertising, as well as the business tools they use to manage their trips and build their online reputation. Thousands of captains rely on FishingBooker to reach a clientele they otherwise wouldn’t.
Captains also rely on us to keep a level playing field so that they don’t need to compete with illegitimate guides for business. In that sense, we’re proud to say that we’re the world’s largest platform for finding legitimate, licensed charter guides.
Again, I’m really sorry that you had a bad experience with us. Please feel free to respond to our email and we’ll do our best to help you out. All the best from FishingBooker!
CP
Cesar P.
You took me to a person who doesn't…
You took me to a person who doesn't respect people's time.
Response from FishingBookerSep 8, 2021
Cezar, thanks for booking with us and we're really sorry to hear that your trip didn't start on time.
We understand how frustrating this misunderstanding with the captain must have been and would like to offer you credit towards a future trip as an apology. Please check your email for more information.
We hope you use this opportunity to fish with us again so we can show you a better experience!
JS
Jay S.
Be careful these folks don't even on any boats. Get trying to get commissions from owner and capt.
These folks spend a lot of money on advertising but don't own any boats.
How can they offer better prices than owner or Captains?
Stick with the locals and never go wrong
Response from FishingBookerAug 19, 2021
Hi Jay! As an online marketplace, we provide advertising for verified charter captains so they can grow their business. It can be hard for a small business to afford the level of online exposure that we provide and we offer this service for free, only taking commission on successful bookings. On top of the advertising, we also provide a secure booking system both for captains and customers, so both sides have a protected and documented way to manage all the details of the trip. Customers are also protected by our Best Price Guarantee, which means that we'll refund the difference if they find the same trip with the same captain advertised for less elsewhere. It's true that we spend money on advertising – this is how our partnership with captains works. It means that they get more customers and have more time to focus on taking people fishing!
We hope that clears up your questions. Tight lines! :)
DA
Daemon
Bad website that removes bad reviews
Bad website. The website removed the bad review that I wrote regarding my previous fishing experience. Not recommended. My review was approved my fishing booker on Aug 2, 2020, 22:10 but was not published. I just wrote that the the person in charge was not behaving appropriately and was rude with the anglers.
Response from FishingBookerJul 29, 2021
Hi Daemon, thanks for getting in touch and for sharing information about your review.
I just wanted to confirm that we have now fixed this issue with you directly. The review hadn't published properly as it was too long – now this has been fixed, it's publicly visible on the website. Please let us know if there's anything else we can help you with!
AD
Adam
The captain sent me a text just before…
On June 28th the captain sent me a text just before 6am telling me he had bad gas and needed to have his boat towed in. I called him and said we were already on our way and would see him at the dock. He sent an immediate text after contradicting himself by saying he was on the way to the mechanic. Gave him the benefit of the doubt when he rescheduled us for later in the week. The morning of the second trip (Friday July 2nd) he sent a text saying he'd been hit by a drunk drive and cancelled a second time. He cancelled the reservation on his end and I received an email from FB on July 2nd at 5:25 AM saying my booking had been cancelled. FB is saying it was an informal cancellation between us but that's simply not true considering I got an email from FB about the cancelleation on 7/2.
Thought about it for a few weeks after the trip and then responded to the request from FB for a review. Wrote a long review detailing everything that happened. It went through their verification process and then posted to the site. Not long after the captain wrote his response to the review upset that I'd called him out.
A few days later the review is taken down and when I reached out to FB to ask about it they said since the trip didn't happen I couldn't leave a review. Contradicted themselves a few times in the response and in general didn't seem to know their own policies or timelines. Regardless, on their website it says if the captain cancels there will be a notification on their reviews so that prospective customers will know it's happened. When I asked about this policy they stopped responding to me and to date, there is no such mark against the captain.
In response to their reply below, I find it VERY hard to believe that the boat got bad gas the morning of the first trip and was hit by a drunk driver the morning of the second trip. I think it's much more likely that the captain was offered more money to take out a different group and made up excuses to cancel. The fact is that FB doesn't hold their captains accountable to the services they've agreed to and doesn't even follow their own rules and guidelines.
Response from FishingBookerJul 26, 2021
Adam, we're very sorry you and your family didn't get to fish this time!
As you mentioned, it's only possible to review a charter once you've been fishing with them. That's because the reviews are for the fishing experience provided by the captain.
The reason you were able to leave a review to begin with is that the initial trip change didn't happen through our system, but was agreed upon informally between you and the captain. This meant you received an automated review invitation that gets sent after fishing trips are due to have been completed. When our team learned that the trip hadn't happened, the review got removed because of our policy. We're sorry that it wasn't clear why this was happening every step of the way and understand why this could have looked contradictory! We'll definitely look into how we can make this clearer in the future.
Unfortunately, the situations that led to your trip not going ahead were completely out of your captain's control – no one can help being hit by a drunk driver. This is why there's no cancellation review like the one you mentioned on his listing. Instead, that review will show up if a captain lets a customer down due to something avoidable, like outdated availability. We do track cancellations closely though, and you can be sure that if it looks like a captain is deliberately canceling in the way you suggested, we won't allow that listing to continue to be booked.
I hope this shed some light on your experience and explained some of your questions. If you'd like any further information or need help getting out on the water in the future, please don't hesitate to get in touch!
SC
Steven C.
cancelled trip but no refund
Had a deep sea fishing trip booked with Miller fishing out of Pensacola Florida and they cancelled two times because of waves then won't refund my money. won't even respond to my calls or emails.
Response from FishingBookerJul 2, 2021
Hi Steven. I've reported your booking and someone from our team should reach out to you soon. We offer full bad weather protection, so your deposit should be on its way – it may just be taking a few days for the bank to process it. Still, we'd like to make sure everything's OK.
You're also more than welcome to contact us here (when you're logged in, you'll have a direct line to our support team) https://fishingbooker.com/contact.
I'm sorry you didn't get to fish this time and hope we can help you get out on the water soon!
MH
Mike H.
Fishingbooker has terrible customer service
We booked a Florida Gulf Coast fishing trip through Fishingbooker several months before our family vacation. Just before leaving for vacation I received an email stating the charter was cancelled. I sent a dozen emails trying to get customer service to provide me with information about the cancellation and my refund or help me find another charted and I received absolutely no response. It was then that I noticed that their website does not include a customer service phone number. So, I started Googling Fishingbooker and found hundreds of dissatisfied customers. One of the posts identified Fishingbooker as a shady company out of Belgrade, Serbia and listed this phone number - 888-395-2564. Sure enough, I spoke to a lady with poor English that said my fishing trip cancellation was not the fault of Fishingbooker it was the Charter Captain that cancelled the trip and their company takes no responsibility for the last-minute cancellation. She offered no consolation or interest in helping me find a replacement charter. Her response was for me to go back to the web site and look for another charter. Absolutely horrible customer service. My confirmation number was #572460.
Response from FishingBookerJun 30, 2021
Hi Micheal, thanks for reaching out. I understand how disappointing it must have been when your captain canceled a few weeks before the trip.
I'm sorry to hear you weren't satisfied with the support you received once the trip was canceled. We have a strict commitment to responding to emails in a timely manner, so I'll be looking into your problems with getting through to us in more detail to see what happened. In the meantime, I'd strongly recommend reaching out to us at https://fishingbooker.com/contact if you need more help – this will give you a direct line over email, and when you log in you'll also be able to access dedicated phone support.
As a global company, we're headquartered in Virginia and also have an office in Belgrade. We're proud of our diverse, international team that enables us to provide incredible fishing experiences all over the world. The team tried to help you find a replacement when you called, but unfortunately you didn't want help with this at the time.
I'm genuinely sorry that the trip didn't work out for you this time but can assure you that our support staff are here to help you when you need it.
I hope that you found a replacement charter and had a good trip in the end. Please don't hesitate to let us know if you need anything!
