testing customers

Just the other day I had a charter out chasing tuna here in N.Z. now to start with all we managed was a small albacore.
The fishing was hard. One reason being that the yellowfin tuna hadn't started their annual run at the time. Making them a little hard to catch. Now once i got home and unloaded the charter party. I set about cleaning the boat. I had done my best for the crew and seen as no one else had caught anything either didn't think much more of it. Thats is until i get home and recive a call from the owner of the boat i run saying that the guys want their money back. Well you could of guessed what my reaction was. "what the hell do they want it back for".
then all of a sudden a big list was put my way.
here it goes:
1: The skipper wasn't prepared to try anything to help catch fish
2: There wasn't enough food
3: Some light gear should of been provided
4: There wasn't enough bait
5: The lures should of been different
6: the food when there was some was burn't

And the list goes on and on!

Right now I must state that i am a young skipper and i will always get the usaual crap that i don't know what i'm doing. as in this guys case i'd say. All i can say is that i was raised around the fishing industry and have fished from my home port as a deckhand and skipper for over 10 years. this guy had never fished here in N.Z before in his life so how could he know how to fish here. Infact he kept going on about how they fished in Narooma Aus. thats not N.Z? or is it. I did what was best at this time of the year to try and catch a fish that wasn't there anyway.
Now the food, i was told by the booking agent that two guys where coming. Imagine my surprise when four stepped onto the boat. Guess what i had only bought food for two.
The booking agent also only rung me at 5.30 the night before the trip and the shops had closed. he also didn't help by telling these guys that there was tuna being caught left right and centre, bloody liar!
To make matters worse the guy told me he could see tuna on my finder. what it looked like to me was i had the gain up to much. but no this guy knew it all. Then if this was the case how come he didn't even know what the I.G.F.A was. He almost had a punch-up onboard with his employee because he didn't like him to join in and have a say on the argument this guy was having to himself. Which happened to be about how the U.S has stuff up Serbia (bosnia).

Now i could go on, but i won't. What do you guys reckon? Do i give the guy his money back?
this is the first time this has happened to me so let me know if something like this has happened to you.

Cheers Andrew

Just the other day I had a charter out chasing tuna here in N.Z. now to start with all we managed was a small albacore.
The fishing was hard. One reason being that the yellowfin tuna hadn't started their annual run at the time. Making them a little hard to catch. Now once i got home and unloaded the charter party. I set about cleaning the boat. I had done my best for the crew and seen as no one else had caught anything either didn't think much more of it. Thats is until i get home and recive a call from the owner of the boat i run saying that the guys want their money back. Well you could of guessed what my reaction was. "what the hell do they want it back for".
then all of a sudden a big list was put my way.
here it goes:
1: The skipper wasn't prepared to try anything to help catch fish
2: There wasn't enough food
3: Some light gear should of been provided
4: There wasn't enough bait
5: The lures should of been different
6: the food when there was some was burn't

And the list goes on and on!

Right now I must state that i am a young skipper and i will always get the usaual crap that i don't know what i'm doing. as in this guys case i'd say. All i can say is that i was raised around the fishing industry and have fished from my home port as a deckhand and skipper for over 10 years. this guy had never fished here in N.Z before in his life so how could he know how to fish here. Infact he kept going on about how they fished in Narooma Aus. thats not N.Z? or is it. I did what was best at this time of the year to try and catch a fish that wasn't there anyway.
Now the food, i was told by the booking agent that two guys where coming. Imagine my surprise when four stepped onto the boat. Guess what i had only bought food for two.
The booking agent also only rung me at 5.30 the night before the trip and the shops had closed. he also didn't help by telling these guys that there was tuna being caught left right and centre, bloody liar!
To make matters worse the guy told me he could see tuna on my finder. what it looked like to me was i had the gain up to much. but no this guy knew it all. Then if this was the case how come he didn't even know what the I.G.F.A was. He almost had a punch-up onboard with his employee because he didn't like him to join in and have a say on the argument this guy was having to himself. Which happened to be about how the U.S has stuff up Serbia (bosnia).

Now i could go on, but i won't. What do you guys reckon? Do i give the guy his money back?
this is the first time this has happened to me so let me know if something like this has happened to you.

Cheers Andrew

[crusty]

some people are never happy

don't worry about it - they are not going to come back and fish with you again , so in a couple of charters time they will be a distant memory

I've had a few "charters from hell" (1 alby in 4 days was the worst and after a while you can have a laugh about it. Don't let it get to you and definitely don't give them their money back !

Narooma is 10 Nm north of us here in Bermi and I doubt you'd would have caught much more here recently

[crusty]

some people are never happy

don't worry about it - they are not going to come back and fish with you again , so in a couple of charters time they will be a distant memory

I've had a few "charters from hell" (1 alby in 4 days was the worst and after a while you can have a laugh about it. Don't let it get to you and definitely don't give them their money back !

Narooma is 10 Nm north of us here in Bermi and I doubt you'd would have caught much more here recently

[Capt. Bart Miller]

Aloha and happy holidays Andrew,
I wanted to reach out to you an old timer in the business of taking people fishing. First of all congratulations on your choice of professions, what a great life you must be living!

Now back to the question should you give the WHANKERS you took
out back their money?

"I SAY F-EMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM"

Breathe deep, sip a cool one, only you know the truth, if you gave it your best then you don't owe any one anything.

Aloha Capt. Great fishing. Capt. Bart

[Capt. Bart Miller]

Aloha and happy holidays Andrew,
I wanted to reach out to you an old timer in the business of taking people fishing. First of all congratulations on your choice of professions, what a great life you must be living!

Now back to the question should you give the WHANKERS you took
out back their money?

"I SAY F-EMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM"

Breathe deep, sip a cool one, only you know the truth, if you gave it your best then you don't owe any one anything.

Aloha Capt. Great fishing. Capt. Bart

[Joe Singer]

i'm sorry about what your going throught. maybe my sharing a little with you, might help put things in perspective.

i charter boats all over the world. sometimes i have done my homework well, and get a top boat. other times i am not so lucky. sometimes i ask for certain things like lever drag reels, rollar guide rods, good lures, how often the line is changed, etc. i then expect nothing, and bring a huge amount of my own equitment no matter what i am told.

recently, i was on a trip that cost about $10,000 US for a week. i had asked all the "right questions", and was very disapointed in what i received. the equitment was for sh_t, the know how missing, in fact, they didn't even know how to bridle. they had rusty hooks, chaffed leaders, and dropped my favoriate old gradner candy - cracking the head! and after being told that they had an expensive color machine, i found an old cheap back and white machine, so i was fishing blind! however, i had brought a lot of my own equitment, reels, rods, lures, leader material, etc.

i grew up working as a commercial fisherman. i understand how hard it is for fisherman to make a living. let alone to buy first class equitment. and their access to fishing knowledge may not be great, compared to my globe traveling fishing with the best.

so we worked together. we learned from each other, and made the best of it. we caught (released a few nice fish), and lost more then we should have. however, i got to be on the water instead of in my office, and i was fishing :). when the week was over, i thanked them, and gave then a generous tip.

additionally, i had a awful one day charter several years ago, where i believed that the crew was lazy and didn't care. i still thanked and tipped them well, maybe i was incorrect about the crew and they did try hard?

virtually all crews work hard. they fish days on end, and still try. fishing is a difficult life, and not easy to make money at. and most customers know nothing about what your doing or about fishing. if someone like me know knows a little something and still pays and tips after awful charters, then these guys should too. they probably knew zero about fishing, they have no right to say anything about your charter.

and we call it "fishing" not "catching" for a good reason.

only you know the truth. but if you worked to get them fish, gave then a full day on the water, do not return ANY money. you did your job, the customer is an ass.

joe singer

[Joe Singer]

i'm sorry about what your going throught. maybe my sharing a little with you, might help put things in perspective.

i charter boats all over the world. sometimes i have done my homework well, and get a top boat. other times i am not so lucky. sometimes i ask for certain things like lever drag reels, rollar guide rods, good lures, how often the line is changed, etc. i then expect nothing, and bring a huge amount of my own equitment no matter what i am told.

recently, i was on a trip that cost about $10,000 US for a week. i had asked all the "right questions", and was very disapointed in what i received. the equitment was for sh_t, the know how missing, in fact, they didn't even know how to bridle. they had rusty hooks, chaffed leaders, and dropped my favoriate old gradner candy - cracking the head! and after being told that they had an expensive color machine, i found an old cheap back and white machine, so i was fishing blind! however, i had brought a lot of my own equitment, reels, rods, lures, leader material, etc.

i grew up working as a commercial fisherman. i understand how hard it is for fisherman to make a living. let alone to buy first class equitment. and their access to fishing knowledge may not be great, compared to my globe traveling fishing with the best.

so we worked together. we learned from each other, and made the best of it. we caught (released a few nice fish), and lost more then we should have. however, i got to be on the water instead of in my office, and i was fishing :). when the week was over, i thanked them, and gave then a generous tip.

additionally, i had a awful one day charter several years ago, where i believed that the crew was lazy and didn't care. i still thanked and tipped them well, maybe i was incorrect about the crew and they did try hard?

virtually all crews work hard. they fish days on end, and still try. fishing is a difficult life, and not easy to make money at. and most customers know nothing about what your doing or about fishing. if someone like me know knows a little something and still pays and tips after awful charters, then these guys should too. they probably knew zero about fishing, they have no right to say anything about your charter.

and we call it "fishing" not "catching" for a good reason.

only you know the truth. but if you worked to get them fish, gave then a full day on the water, do not return ANY money. you did your job, the customer is an ass.

joe singer

[rjakana]

Aloha Andrew,
I read your "situation" and read Capt. Bart and Joe's reply.....I AGREE WITH THEM 100%! I don't have any "charter" experience but speak based on what you've stated.

Why don't you counter the "list" that they presented with the reasons that you mentioned (and don't give them any $ back) and use this experience as a lesson for the future. You don't need that kind of customer anyway......Good luck to you!
Aloha,
ron

[rjakana]

Aloha Andrew,
I read your "situation" and read Capt. Bart and Joe's reply.....I AGREE WITH THEM 100%! I don't have any "charter" experience but speak based on what you've stated.

Why don't you counter the "list" that they presented with the reasons that you mentioned (and don't give them any $ back) and use this experience as a lesson for the future. You don't need that kind of customer anyway......Good luck to you!
Aloha,
ron