Freedom Boat Club - Palm Beach Location Chris Anders Buyer Beware Riviera Beach, Florida

I warn everyone about this establishment - not because of the concept of the boat club, but purely because of this franchise's Owner.  We had problem after problem with the boats - some minor - like radio not working, broken windlass, engines not running well, etc. to major issues - Broken AC in the middle of the summer with my elderly parents on one of the yachts, etc. - How they (Chris - the Owner) handles the issues makes it 10 times worse.  We had a yacht reserved for our Christmas holiday - 2 days before our 3-night reservation we got the call that our yacht had been damaged and they didn't have a boat for us and the other couple we were traveling with. 

Instead of being apologetic and offering some kind of concession for our Christmas plans being ruined, he was argumentative, used foul language, and when we said all we expected him to do was be a good business person and offer something (maybe a free month or two of membership) for our inconvenience, he said "I don't give a f*%K about being a good business person".  Really???  I was in shock!  He even threatened my husband when we asked to come in and sit with him to discuss the situation and our membership options at that time, as we were unhappy.  His response to that request was "Don't come in here with any kind of attitude, because it won't end well for you.  Your options are that you can cancel your membership at any time", of course losing the thousands of dollars we paid to join less than a year prior.

I even tried emailing him to come to a resolution to our dissatisfaction and all he would do was respond with excerpts from the contract..."proving" that he was not obligated under any circumstances to offer any kind of concession to a member....for ANYTHING.  

Beware....the Freedom Boat club is great in concept, and I am sure that the company-owned locations are very professional and care about their Members, but watch out for this location....don't be fooled like we were with all of the shiny bells and whistles of the "best fleet".  That might be the case, but when something doesn't go right (and it will happen) don't expect anything but grief from them.  All they care about is getting your up front money - not keeping you happy members.

We also tried a few times to get access to vessels at other locations throughout the US - Never had any luck with that either.  We had high hopes for this as a great boating solution, but were severely disappointed.