Complaint Review: Rock Harbor Marina - Key Largo Florida

First of all, I had one of Sam's yard crew on my boat supposedly directing me in through the so called proper channel and we went hard aground.  Sam finally came out on his power boat to break me loose and tow me in.  There was a lot of confusion as to where the actual deeper water was between Sam and his yard crew.  But the problems and damage really occurred inside his boat basin when I hit some underwater rocks or concrete footings for his dock.  I can tell you there was no 5' of water depth that day and that was at high tide!



Second, you don't say if Sam charged you for both storage and workdays when you worked on your boat?  I think you'd have a different opinion if you were being charged an additional $65/day on top of the storage.  Sam also charged the sub doing the fiberglass work 10% of the bill which the sub then added onto his bill and charged me.  I have no problem with that except being charged both fees was his method of ripping me off.  If the sub walked by my boat to just inspect the previous day's work, I was charged for a workday!



The fact that you occasionally helped Sam do some of his yard work in the marina, really taints and puts into question the validy of your  comments.  As far as I know, Sam does not allow people to do work in the marina that are not employees and covered by his insurance or subs that have provided that they are insured?



The picture of the Spreader tip shows how they sawed off part of the fitting rather than simply unscrewing it from the spreader.  Whoever in the yard that was doing the work really didn't know what they were doing.  They never told me what they had done and I didn't find out that had happened until I started re-rigging the mast.  The fittings are no longer manufactured and I thought I was have to get some custom made.  Fortunately after a lot of phone calls I found a rigger that had some.  All told the damage to my boat from their preparing the boat for loading on the truck cost me $1,000 in unnecessay expenses.  This does include the fees charged by Sam to repair the damage to my keel when coming into the marina in the first place.



Obviously Sam put you up to this?????

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I am surprised to read this report as I had a very different experience at Rock Harbor.

I looked at a few places and spoke to Sam Stoia and chose Rock Harbor to haul my 27" Cruiser for repairs and maintenance.

I agreed a deal with Sam which was good value for me. I helped Sam out a little when the yard was busy and he let me do my own work on my boat. I got to know the yard guys a little and agreed a good value rate with Sam for the work I needed to contract in from his guys, or outside. I found that Sam was always open to negotiation and doing a 'deal'. He was commercial and reasonable.

I was at the yard every day for 3 months and I did not see any situations like the ones described here. I had a good time and enjoyed the rapport of a friendly, slightly dusty, slightly 'rustic' boat yard - just what I was looking for. I did not see anyone get 'ripped off' or charged for damage they did not make. I saw plenty of boat renters hit the sandbar on the way out, even though they had been clearly told the route (some people just don't listen). A few of them came back and denied it and did argue but there were always plenty of other people who had seen what had happened to stand as witnesses. Some boat renters did get upset at the cost of the damage they had caused but you can see that at any boat rental place. It's not the yard's fault if they blew the lower unit and a new one is expensive - they should have thought of that before they hit the reef.

I guess I am saying that it sounds like a small number of 'disgruntled' customers to me. You will get those in any business.

My advice is check the place out for yourself and make up your own mind. Hopefully you will get a good deal, and have a great experience, like I did.

I had to sell my boat last year, but when I get my next boat I would be happy to take it to Rock Harbor again.

JG

I have all the invoices so I know what I was charged and paid. The $404.55 was a refund of the $1,000 cash deposit that was required for loading the boat on the trailer.  I had to e-mail and call to get  my refund check finally 3-4 weeks later.  

Sam, the owner states in his comments that he gave me an initial estimate of $6,000.  That is a  total fabrication.  I think that in his head that's what he planned to initially scam me for.  At the last moment he had even tried to raise the cash deposit to $1,500 to load the boat.  

The boat did have a lot of bird poop on the deck when I brought her in as unfortunately my boat had been singled out by a group of sea birds and there was nothing that I could do to keep them off the boat.  I paid for pressure washing the boat bottom and deck.  I didn't complain when he over charged me @ $65/hr for the pressure washing job  when he had quoted me that was to be the amount for the first hour only, then $45/hr. 

I was told by Sam that the channel coming into his Marina had a 5' depth which was not true.  My boat is a shoal draft keel and draws less than  5' but of course I ran hard aground both in the channel and inside his Marina.  While I was aground and was about to leave and go to another Marina.  He sent out his power boat to guide/pull me in.  What a joke.  The efforts to pull my boat in with his power boat resulted in damage to my winged keel from the rocks and obstructions.  Sam later charged me nearly $800 to repair the keel saying that the keel was previously damaged which was not true.  (He claimed on the invoice that he gave me a 50% discount?)

Fortunately, the boat was loaded on the trailer without incident (I provided the padding and tape to the driver).  However, after the boat arrived at its destination is where I discovered how much more hidden damage they had done to my boat in dropping the mast and removing the rigging.  Granted there were some fittings that were frozen from corroresion with the salt air.  But they had sawed the spreader tips off/open rather that simply unscrewing the allen screws that held them into the spreader to release them.  (Fortunately I was able to find replacement tips for $200+.) They bent/ruin my roller reefing gear because they did not know how to release and raise the lower roller assembly properly in order to take out the clevis pin securing the forestay. (Replacement parts and labor cost $500)  They broke my deck light on the mast.  (Cost $75 + labor.) My radar reflector attached to the rigging turned up missing/stolen (Cost $100.). Other removed parts were missing.  The total cost was nearly a $1,000 in unnecessary parts and labor to replace these items.

For the process of removing the davits and radar arch, Sam charged me for requiring the use of his front loader to hold them supposely because of their weight (two separate charges) which was BS.  The davits are made of aluminum and my wife and I easily carried them into my garage after the boat was relocated.  The radar arch although stainless steel tubing and slightly heavy, could be lifted and carried by two men.  It remained on the deck where it was strapped down for the ride on the truck. 

I could go on and on with other things, but what's the point.  Just learn from my experience and the other reports!  (Do a search for AAAA Boats or some of his other AKA's on this website.)

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Summer 2010 customer e-mails yard.  Terms and conditions agreed.  Boat is towed into yard.

The boat was recovered from a Hurricane and has been a bird post for years.  Covered with bird droppings, like a peanut butter sandwich with a boat for bread.  E-mailed photos to owner. 

The rest of the boat is like the boat topping.  Corrosion, frozen bolts, stripped bolts, etc.  Photos of all avaialbe. 

Mast is 65 plus feet long and is heavy.  Best comment from owner e-mail to demonstrate how  educated this owner is. This part of the e-mail is about the trucker and requirements.

He has equipment on his trailer to support the boat, hold the mast and other equipment, as well as carpeting for padding where necessary.  Thus you do not need to tape and pad. ( of course the truck did not have any tape or padding), but moving to the next sentence.

He will probably need some MINOR MANUAL ASSISTANCE loading the arch, davits, etc on his trailer.  I don't see the need for your forklift.

The response of this e-mail was.

Minor manual assistance is quite an understatement.  Your mast requires 4 men to pick up.  Radar arch 2 to pick up and maybe 3 men depending on where and how high it gets placed on truck or boat, same for wind vane takes 2 people to pick up and davit assemble takes 3 people and a fork lift.

The customers name and e-mail address, which he should have published is

Don Hadyk
680 Camino Garden Blvd.
Boca Raton, Fl  33486
[email protected]

561 213 3857

I published this because customers like this no business needs or should experience.  The bill was reduced $404.55 and chek mailed to customer after the boat left the yard because of his crying about lack of money, even after he was told of all expenses before any service was started and advised of all problems.  His Wife was most likely the poster of this report.

Should any one have any questions please go to our website and contact us.  We will provide a complete service with e-mails and photos as progress goes along on any boat.

PS The final bill was $5,797.08 with a refund mailed of $404.55,

$5,392.53 with refund. This quite below the $8,000.00  listed in the report.  Estimate before work started was in the $6,000.00 range.







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