Nautic Share (AKA Sailtime) Kevin Kaiser Beware of this comapny major Rip off, Internet
I made the mistake of signing up with this unethical company owned by Kevin Kaiser. At first it seemed like a great idea, their slogan is seriously easy boating, well it turned out to not be easy at all. I made the mistake of paying for a full years membership upfront, after my initial week of training, I booked my first outing, I didnt feel comfortable alone, so I asked the trainer(Daniel) to accompany me, he agreed, I notice that there was a slight vibration on the port side of the vessel. Daniel informed me that another member had picked up a tow rope on the prop, but it had been removed and just needed to be re-aligned. So we continued our outing, once we returned I noted on my check in sheet that there was a vibration, suprisingly the next morning I recieved a call from Kevin Kaiser informing me that I damaged the boat and would be held responsible for it, after arguing with him for almost an hour and calling Daniel who informed him that the vibration was allready there, he said ok he would eat it, I later found out that the person that actually did the damage was an employee and he was just trying to get me to pay for it.
Two months later I scheduled another outing, when I arrived I notice that there was scratches and scuff marks all over the boat, I imediatley went to the office to notify someone, the person on duty was Kevins brother Kieth Kaiser, his reply was yeah we know, another new member took the boat to galveston and caused lots of damage, well his exact words were "he f***ed it all up, but it was ok to take", I went out and when I returned Kevin was at the dock waiting on me, he immediately got on the boat and took off saying im not getting f***ed again, the next day I recieved a suprising phone call stating that yes there was damage to the boat, but not the propeller and that I must have hit something and needed to pay $2500 or my membership would be cancelled, at that point I understood what he was doing. After speaking with several other members I found out that most people pay month to month, yes now you get the picture, I refused to pay so he cancelled my membership, refused to give a refund and filled my spot with a new member. During my outing, we hit nothing, I had a member of the US Coast Guard on board to verify, but he didnt want to hear it, he allready had my money. Common since will tell you if I can afford to pay for a full membership up front, I could also afford to pay for damge if I caused it, I just refused to be taken advantage off. I am currently dealing with an attourney and will be filing suit for a refund of my membership fees.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
KarimB
houston,Texas,
United States of America
Questionable Complaint
#5Consumer Comment
Tue, April 20, 2010
I have been a member for more than a year now. 99% of the time my boat is clean and practically ready for a show room!!! Always in perfect conditions for sailing either for a day sail or for a long weekend adventuring away. Rarely you will find problems and if you are a sailor, then you know that there are always good probabilities for glitches or small malfunctions on board, but every time I have addressed an issue with the boat, this has been resolved within a week, normally within a couple of days. The team is extremely professional, truly client and service orientedYou can test them (I did it) and the response is beyond expectations. The management put special attention not only in the hiring but also on keeping a happy staff which is the best way to guarantee that the customers will be well treated.and it is clear to me that they know how to do it, they do it well and my experience is absolutely positive. They truly are passionate about their fleet, their staff and their members/clients. Based on my experience and speaking for the rest of my family and close friends, we all recommend both Nautic Share and Kevin and Keith Kaiser as a trustworthy management team who will ensure a successful outcome for your experience whether it is as an investor or as a member. Even when my boat has been seriously dammaged by another vessel skippered by a "distracted boater", I had little to explain, we immediatly received attention and all the hassle of the situation has been taken care of by Nautic Share, although they had no legal obligation to assume all the headaches from that incident. By the way....how could such an unexperienced sailor, ( unexperienced to the point that he needed tutoring for an outing in such place like a bay) notice and distinguish a normal vibration from a abnormal one??? How are the odds for a confessed unexperienced sailor to damage a vessel on his first outings without a tutor/instructor??? For all the above factes and questions I express serious doubts about the authenticity/legitimacy of the complaint posted against Nautic Share.
Lance
Houston,Texas,
United States of America
American Express
#5Author of original report
Mon, April 19, 2010
Kevin is right AMEX did refuse to refund my money, however he is lying again about why, I disputed the charge 4 months after the initial purchase was made, there policy is disputes must be made within 90 days of purchase made, therefore it was impossible for AMEX to credit me unless it was due to identity theft, if you would like to verrify you can reach AMEX at 800-327-2177. This guy is rediculous, I have names and telephone #s of several people that have had the same types of run-ins with nautic share, reply to this add and ill contact you with there contact info. Do not buy this fast talking salesman's line of bs. One of the other members that had a simular problem, had the service mgr from endevor, which is one of Kemah's largest marina and boat storage's was aboard when he supposidly damaged the same boat, this person who is very boat savy gave up after arguing with this guy for several minutes. This happened a few weeks after my membership was cancelled (yes Kevin I have his contact info also) I will not allow you to continue to steal people's money. I will do whatever I can in my power to stop you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kevin Kaiser
Kemah,Texas,
United States of America
NauticShare
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, April 19, 2010
Since 2002, I have had the pleasure of providing access to boats and yachts to hundreds of members in Kemah Texas. We currently have over 140 members on both power boats and sailboats.
The former member Lance Provost posting this report is simply a disgruntled former member; we were forced to remove him from our membership program.
Like a country club, a gym or any private club, we have certain rules and regulations to ensure our members have a great boat and great experience each time aboard. Lance had repeatily defaulted on our member agreement throughout his membership in several ways, however in the case listed on this report, not only was he in breach of contract, his credit card company, American Express took our side in his case against us.
Each member knows, when you take a boat out, certain things can go wrong, including running a boat in shallow water, thus causing a bent or damaged prop. Before Lance took the boat out, our I actually refueled the boat and did the weekly system check, all was running smooth. I normally do not do this, however since we had issues with Lance in the past, I wanted to be 100% on any issues.
In addtion, it is stated on the check in and out form and known by all that if you take any of our boats our and have ANY issues, vibrations or any engine issues, you are to call us and bring the boat back right away. We will put you on another boat in this case. Each member has 15 minutes of open engine run time to notice anything and report issues.
Lance took the boat out around 6pm on the date reported, and brought the boat back around 2am that morning, running the engines for over 2.5 hours, well above the 15 minute grace period. Throughout the night, he was actually having an Air Conditioner issues and texted us several times through out the night, somewhat bellegerent (there were 10 guys on the boat that night) clearly a "party" going on.
Lance made no reports or comments of any vibrations or engine issues until he got off the boat the following morning to say, "by the way there is vibaration". In addtion, we cleared out the GPS before he boarded, to track where he took the boat. I will leave that at that...
This happened back in August of 2009, again, his credit card company, American Express took our side after serveral chargeback attempts, the facts are the facts.
If you take a boat out, damage it and refuse to pay the damage, NauticShare has the right to terminate your membership. That is all we did.
If anyone has any issues or concerns about our service I recommend visiting us at The Kemah Boardwalk Marina, walk the docks, talk to our members.
NauticShare
George
Annapolis,Maryland,
United States of America
Nauticshare IS NOT SailTime in any way!
#5General Comment
Thu, April 01, 2010
I would like to speak to the person that filed this report directly to get the full details of the story and can be reached at george@sailtime.com.