USVI-On-Line

Ok. I am going to preface this by saying that this is a vent-- but one that everyone should read because chances are it will happen to you as well (just a sign o' the economic times).

So, I book a charter at the end of May for a December 1/2 day sail. At that time I am quoted a price of $70pp. I give the company my CC for a 25% ($70) deposit to secure that charter on the date specified.

I assumed that they charged my CC at that time for the deposit. Which is essentially a contract for a service at the price quoted.

Today, 6 weeks later, I receive an e-mail from the charter boat co. stating that they JUST NOW charged my credit card for $80 (not $70). They say that fuel and food costs have gone up and now they have to charge more.

Now let me just say that I am EXTREMELY sympathetic to STJ businesses especially in these toughening economic times. I know things are costing businesses more and consumers more as well.

However I am a woman of principle.

1) When you agree to provide a service to me a contracted price -- you honor that price. If the villa companies used the same logic the charter boat folks used in this instance then we'd all be getting e-mails from them saying, "Yeah, I know you booked the villa at $2000 a week, but we decided to start charging you $3,000 - so pay up."

Likewise when you buy your airline ticket at one price, they don't come back to you 6 weeks later and say, "The price has gone up $50 so we charged the credit card you used for payment. We hope that's OK with you."

Even when they started charging for checked luggage, if you bought a ticket under the old "you get one checked bag free" system, they honored that.

2) If you (as a service provider) have no other choice but to charge a higher rate you are under an obligation to notify the customer of that change in price BEFORE you charge their credit card. In this case we're only talking about $10 but it could have been $1000. As a consumer I should have the option to say "NO" BEFORE you charge me a higher price for something.

3) When someone provides you with a deposit via CC or Check -- you should charge that card or cash that check promptly. What if I had made another purchase assuming that the card had already been charged and this charge put me over my limit? I would have incurred additional penalties.

At this point I am conflicted.

On one hand it's only $10 pp. In the whole scheme of things no biggie. Quite frankly if they had said to me on the day of the charter that they were having a tough time on food and fuel costs I would have tipped them equal to or greater than the difference so they would have come out ahead. But right now I am just annoyed.

On the other hand, I feel that this outfit was disingenuous and didn't honor their contract with me to provide this service at the price quoted. And now that I called them on it the quality of our trip might suffer because they think I am being a huge bitch about $40.

So, honestly I am tempted to cancel this altogether.

This is a well known day charter that has been highly recommended by several posters on this board and I was really looking forward to doing a day sail with them. But I'm not sure what I should do at this point.

BTW I will not under any circumstances name this outfit because I don't want their business to suffer.

To be fair to them, when I e-mailed them about my concerns they did apologize and admitted they should have notfied me first. But reading between the lines they have no intention of honoring the original price they quoted me when I booked the charter at the end of May.

I really want to support folks like this who are living their dream and trying to make ends meet.

What would you do? Would you be annoyed too? Or am I being unreasonable?

I'm not sure I'd cancel on principle. It's a tough call. On one hand they did apologize and we know it takes time to make things happen on STJ, ie. a couple of months to charge your CC. On the other hand as a guy in business who gets hammered on fuel cost from my suppliers, I can see that they'd no doubt need to increase by $10.00. I'm sure during the two months fuel costs have gone way up. Should they have told you ahead of time, yep. If you cancel, they will no doubt be able to fill that space. I think you have to look at it as whether or not they did this egregiously or well, that's the way laid back business goes on the island.

Can I blame you for cancelling? No can't blame you either.

I'd give it a day or two and see how you feel.

The charter group should have notified you prior to adjusting the deposit, no ands, ifs, or buts! I would be torqued up!! Doesn't matter how much cash was involved, they reached into your pocket and then asked for permission, BUT.....I don't think they were trying to pull a fast one on you either, I think they just did things bass ackwards. It took them forever to charge your card, how organized are these folks? or were they holding onto deposits waiting to see what the economy was going to do? They should have contacted you first.

Would I cancel? If I get bent out of shape with situations like this I usually back away. I wouldn't want to think about it during the day while I was supposed to be having a good time chatting with the Captain!

Thanks for not identifying the charter, I DON'T think they were scamming you, just poor business skills.

I think you are completely justified in cancelling if they will not honor the price the service was when you booked the trip.

I went and looked at our villa's web site, and it's gone up quite a bit since we booked. They haven't called us and said "Oh we're going to charge you the new rate." That's a benefit to booking early. If it weren't, we'd all buy our plane tickets at the airport. The longer you wait, you know the rates can go up.

It's not your fault they never charged your credit card, even if they are on "island time." They quoted you a rate; you secured that rate with your Visa. Yeah, it sucks that gas has gone up, but we're all dealing with it too. Trust me, I didn't know when we booked our house four months ago that this trip was going to be so much more expensive than last year.

Imagine if when we got to STJ if Penn's or Conrad or STJ Car Rental or whoever said "My insurance went up last week," so I charged your visa another 50 bucks for your Jeep. We wouldn't stand for it, and they wouldn't do it, because even if their costs go up, we guaranteed our rate with a visa.

I think if you have respectfully asked them to honor the original rate, and they will not, then I would cancel. If enough people stand up to their really bad business practice, then they'll see that sometimes nit-picking over $40 isn't worth losing a customer (and the cost of a day's rental).

I can see both sides. If the costs went up, the rate increase may be required to survive. In any case, they should have said so before charging the account. We, on the other hand, will not be hurt too badly over $10. Would I be irritated over this? You bet I would.

I differ from the others on the disclosure of the outfit. If they knew they would be held accountable by a lot of people (forumites) they would be more responsible. This is the way things worked in small towns. If someone was not responsible or honest, word would spread and something would change. The businessman would behave differently or the customers would leave. By not holding this outfit accountable, we are telling him that there are no consequences for treating mainlanders badly. I am not interested in ruining this or any other business. I am also not interested in telling them that they are free to do as they wish and we will not react. I was treated well by an STJ company, and without telling you who they were, I have spoken very highly of them. Both my company and this one earned the treatment they get.

That's my 2 cents.

JIM

I usually favor identifying who I'm talking about if I have a complaint---or a compliment. I don't mean ranting or "calling someone out", but giving a fair, balanced review of my experience. I don't want to damage anyone's business, but neither do I want to protect their identity at the expense of informing other forum members and perhaps saving them from the unfavorable experience I had. I certainly appreciate getting specific info from forums. Another thing that can happen if I don't identify the particular business is that it can make all of the businesses in that field suspect. And I agree with JIM about the value of holding a business accountable.

I would be angry about it but I am not sure how I would handle it. I would most likely just suck it up as "island" business and move on, but you have to do what makes you comfortable.

I agree that you don't need to identify the company, It really serves no purpose at this point. If you make the decision to cancel at some point since you just can't get over it, then you be in your rights to name them if you wish. Since you have not made the decision, I think you made the right choice in keeping it unnamed.

So many charter companies, so little time. I think you'll be starting what's going to be a wonderful day (and with or without the increase you're spending some substantial money) on a sour note. Personally, I would cancel. So many folks here have gone out with so many companies and I can't recall ever hearing of anyone complaining about a terrible day. I'd go with my second choice sail company. You're on vacation, so just like a teenager, it's all about you. You just don't need the aggravation and shouldn't have to deal with being concerned about the possibility that your trip might be compromised due to this conflict. Ali~

Here's a different suggestion...and this is me poking my nose into your business.

IF you stay with them, please don't "short-tip" the crew who may have nothing to do with setting the price. I have seen people do that in the past; take it out on the messenger.

For me, it would depend on the mood I was in. Sometimes crap like this gets me going and I take it on as a crusadesque cause. I'll fight something like this to the death (especially at home). On vacation, I'm more of a "screw it" kind of person. But...I may pull the captain aside and say something because, if you don't, he/she may see this as an acceptable practice.

I fly a lot, I stay in a lot of hotels and am forced to eat out a lot. I expect consistent service. I tell people if I don't feel I have gotten it. I also reward those who provide it.

Thanks to those folks who have weighed in on this issue. I sent an e-mail this AM to the Charter Co. (see below) canceling our reseravation and requesting a credit to my account.

If they fail to refund my $80 or give me a problem about doing so, I will post the name of the operation on-line. If they come clean then I will refrain from doing so.

Quite frankly I think this was just a case of "island time business operations" and I don't think there is any malice involved. I truly think these folks are worried about the rising cost of doing business and didn't think the matter through before acting as they did.

The reason I shared this was because I wanted folks on the board to keep an eye out for this kind of stuff and be aware.

Some of you may think I went a bit overboard (excuse the pun) over such a small amount of money, but a deal is a deal and while they expect me to pay for services rendered, I expect them to play by the rules.

Here's my e-mail to company....

Hi XXXXXXXXXX,

I just checked my CC statement on-line and it looks like you did not charge me on May 28 when I gave you my authorization for the $70 deposit. So at least we’re OK there.

However, I have to be honest and tell you that I am not pleased that you:

1) increased the price of the day sail contrary to our original agreement; and
2) charged me a higher corresponding deposit without prior notice.

I appreciate your apology, but think we can all agree that it’s not good business to agree to provide a service to someone at one price and then, after the fact, change the price and charge them accordingly without giving them an option to decline before doing so.

Believe me when I say that I am extremely sympathetic to the rising cost of doing business. I started visiting the VI right after Hurricane Marilyn in 1995. A good friend of mine was an attorney on STT at the time (he later gave up the law and he managed a charter boat company for several years -- so I am familiar with the challenges that your industry faces). I have spent a great deal of time on STJ over the years and it has always been a pricey place to live and do business.

I know it’s only $40 that we’re talking about here, but quite frankly there’s a principle at stake. You quoted me a price and I made a deposit (or so I thought) based on that quote six weeks ago. Now you are essentially going back on that agreement, charging me a higher price for the deposit and the day sail in total without telling me first or giving me a right of refusal. Believe me when I say that it’s not about the money, but the way that you went about handling this.

As much as I was looking forward to doing business with you this December and doing a full day sail with you next June with our extended family of 6, I regretfully have to ask that you cancel our December 11th reservation and credit the unauthorized $80 deposit to my card immediately -- based on the fact that:

1) I have no assurance that you will not come back at a later date and change the rate again at the last minute; and
2) you charged more to my credit card than I authorized (which is illegal).

Again, I understand how difficult things may be for you right now but in my opinion you should have honored our original agreement as a matter of principle.

On the day of the sail, had you indicated that times were tough I would have gladly tipped you the difference and then some. But, quite frankly, I feel that you have violated a basic principle and I will take my business elsewhere – even if it is at a higher price in the long run.

I hope that you will be sure to contact your other future customers prior to making such a change to your business agreement and perhaps you will not lose their business as you have mine. In this case, $10 has cost you nearly $1,000 in business from me.

I wish you both well and am saddened that we will not be doing any future business together. I will look for the $80 credit to appear on my statement by the next billing cycle.

Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

Gromit

More than a fair email. I hope they come through and do the right thing ... mea culpa, you are right and honor the original rate. If not, at least you aren't putting the money out there and risking a less than great time.

Gromit,

I think you did an excellent job. I have been thinking about this (probably more than I should) and what I would've done in this situation. I think I would've handled it in the same way. If they had called me and said "I know we agreed on X dollars, but we're looking at a $10/person increase because fuel has gone up so much and we're struggling", I may have pouted, but I probably would've told them it was OK to take $80 even though we agreed on $70 -- that's still a good price. But for them to take it without asking, was not good, even if it wasn't intentional. Because honestly, I suspect they are just disorganized and saw they needed to charge your card for a deposit and didn't realize that they were supposed to it two months ago at a different rate. But, still, that's not your problem.

I am so back and forth on the whole naming the company thing. For one, I have seen people on these boards talk badly about places where I had a good experience and have felt like maybe they weren't being fair. I think you are taking the fair approach about it at this point. I try to pick my battles. There is a place that we had a bad experience last time, but I didn't really think it warranted a mention to the board as a whole because I figured that it might've have been isolated to one particular employee or incident. I don't want that person's business to suffer. However, recently I saw someone else describe a similar situation at the same place, and I wondered "If I had related my story, would they have at least been prepared to be treated the way they were?" It's hard to figure out which way to go on that, but also people have personal preferences. One of my favorite restaurants on island is a place that several people have come home and proclaimed as "so-so" or "poor." There are so many factors that come into play that two people probably aren't going to have an identical experience.