FREEDOM BOAT CLUB |
Freedom Boat Club Freedom Boat Club of Lake Lanier, GA - No boats, rude, thieves who will gouge you any way they can. Buford, GA 30518, Georgia |
26th of Jun, 2011 by User688456 |
This place is one bad experience after another. The owner is as much of a jerk as you can be and his people follow suit. They abuse you verbally, in your pocket book, and with poorly maintained boats. No matter what they sell you when you get there...
You will never get a boat with a working fuel gauge as this is one way they rip you off. You will never get a boat without other operating issues because it's cheaper for them to keep crappy, loose maintenance, and buy more used boats opportunistically. You will never be able to book a boat when you want because there are too many members to boats. You will not be able to understand the dock staff unless you speak spanish. They will change how you reserve a boat constantly and make this process very difficult. You will feel like you're being abused. You will find things like dirty diapers, beer cans and other trash on your boat because they do not maintain their boats. If you let them refil the boat with fuel you will get ripped off again. Do not expect calls back after you join. They want your money and do not care if you ever enjoy a minute of boat use. If you want to rent from one of the other 60 locations you must go through this club and they will manage to *uck it up. I will say that the other clubs we've tried have been much better. We don't know anyone from the franchise HQ as they too are not possible to reach. Like any business it's about the leadership and HQ may be a few greedy jerks like this clubs owner for all we know. Either way, they've got your money and you're screwed. You've been warned
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I guess everyone has their own opinions, but after 2 years with the club our experience is exactly opposite.
If you want to avoid the fuel issues, replace the gas you used yourself like you're supposed to in the first place. Send a copy of the receipt and all will be fine. If you don't, you leave them no choice but to approximate what you used. How else would you do it? Boat gas gauges are not an exact science and your boat or theirs, if you were out you'd still have to pay for gas.
We did have an issue or two mechanically, but we also owned our own boats for 15+ years and had the same mechanical issues. I doubt they are purposely causing the issues, but 'stuff' will happen. Its a boat after all.
Ironically enough, each of the Spanish speaking employees (who all speak English quite well by the way), are amazingly great people. Super courteous and always nice! There is one rude kid, but since you went there I'll point out that he is the "white" kid. I haven't seen him recently so maybe they finally parted ways?
They changed the reservation process once. From email/calls last year to 100% online this year.
We have never had a dirty boat. I guess its possible that some other member left some 'beer cans' as you say from an earlier reservation and on a busy weekend day, the staff may have overlooked it as the window to turn the boat around is small. Personally, I blame that on the member who left the cans, not the staff.
It's not the same as owning a boat. That is true. BUT in our opinion, the pro's outweigh the cons...and for sure the costs savings are HUGE compared with boat ownership. Where else can you captain a late model 34' boat for $299 per month? Dockage alone on a boat that size would be close to $400 per month. The cost or renting 1 boat for the day would pay for several months of membership.
BTW - I am just a member. I have no obligation to the club, but I did feel it was important to offer a rebuttal from our perspective. |
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