Conference unifix::sailing

2087.0. "Cape Yacht Charters" by BGSDEV::MORRIS (Tom Morris - Multimedia Engineering) Wed Sep 22 1993 21:54

    I recently had a disconcerting experience with Cape Yacht Charters and
    am trying to decide whether I had unreasonable expectations of them.
    
    I talked to them last week to find out what kind of boats they had
    available, what the prices were, whether they were available for the
    time periods that I was interested in, etc.  I put off booking anything
    because it was around the time that we had frost at night with rain
    forecast for the next few days, so I wanted to see how the weather
    would develop.
    
    On Tuesday, it looked like the weather had a reasonable chance of being
    good, so I called back, reconfirmed that the boat I was interested in
    was still available, and asked to book it for three days.  They said
    they would check with the owner and call me Tuesday night.  They also
    asked for my fax number to fax a charter application to me.  By
    Wednesday afternoon I still hadn't heard from them, so I called back. 
    (I was in meetings all day Wednesday, so wasn't able to call earlier). 
    They said that they had left a message for the owner, but they hadn't
    called back, so they hadn't called me.  They then went on to explain
    how it had been a fantastic charter season and that this was a possible
    reason that the owner just hadn't bothered to call back because they
    had done so well.
    
    Despite this I decided to press on and see if I could line up an
    alternative boat that we had discussed before.  I was told that it
    definitely wouldn't be possible for this weekend because it normally
    took them more than a week to arrange things.  If I was really
    interested for next week, they could try to convince that owner to take
    on the charter, but reiterated that it had been a really good season
    and in addition this owner had just gotten back from Alaska, so they
    might not be interested.
    
    The entire goal seemed to be to discourage me from chartering, so at
    this point I acquiesced and said that I didn't really feel comfortable
    insisting that the owner take my money or, for that matter, that they
    take my commission at which point they hung up on me without further
    ado.
    
    I know that we are talking 'only' a $600-$800 charter here, but do they
    really get so many 2 week cruises on 65 footers booked a year in
    advance that they can afford to treat the 'little people' like this? 
    Or, was I just expecting too much from this charter broker?  Is there a
    better way to charter boats on the Cape?
    
    Tom

You need to understand the process:

1) You call charter company

2) Charter company calls owner about availability

3) Charter company faxes you an application

4) You fax charter application back, maybe send deposit

5) Charter company faxes application to owner and/or owner's insurance company

6) Insurance company approves charter to owner

7) owner approves charter to charter agency

8) charter agency confirms booking to you

Obviously, this process can encounter some delays. If you make sure that
the charter company has your application on file, the process can go a
bit quicker.

--RS