Sheridan Lake Marina Jesse Rhoden Over charged for pontoon rental shady business practices Rapid City, South Dakota

We rented two pontoon boats from this company on 7-24-09. We had decided on renting the two boats for a full day which was from 8AM to 8PM. At around 12PM we couldn't get one of the boats started. We rowed back to the marina and had one of the workers look at the boat. The worker was unable to get the boat started and couldn't find anything wrong with the boat. We told the worker we did not want the boat for the full day since it was giving us problems. We did not want the boat to not start if we were miles away from the marina. The worker agreed and said he would charge us $100 for the time we used the boat (approximately 8-12, which would be a half day). We still kept the second boat, which was working fine and we continued to use the one boat to fish. The other boat that could not be started stayed in the marina from noon to 8PM unused. At 8PM we brought the other boat back and went to pay, expecting to pay the rental of one boat for a full day and the $100 for the other boat as the worker had told us. The manager of the business, a Mr. Jesse Rhoden, told us we needed to pay for both boats for the full days rental. He stated after we agreed on paying the $100 for the boat that has having problems and we had left, they found out that the problem was the kill switch on the boat. He said it had been pulled out and that is why the boat did not start. None of us knew what a kill switch was and I still don't know if that really was the problem or not. Neither Jesse Rhoden, or the worker that had helped us when the boat was having problems bother to tell us the boat was fine and that we could take it out. The boat sat in that marina from noon to 8PM unused. We argued with the manager for several minutes and he kept saying we had agreed to rent both pf the boats for a full day. Just then, the worker who had helped us walked into the marina store we were at and we asked him to verify what had happened. The worker corroborated our story and said he told us since he couldn't get the boat started he had told us we would only get charged $100 for that boat. Even after the worker verified what we were saying, he refused to honor what we were told. He also stated that someone claiming to be from our party had taken the boat out for a few minutes after we had left, which is not true. Aside from that, I cannot understand how someone would release a boat that is rented to anyone who walks up to the marina saying they are part of a group. After some more arguing, Mr. Rhoden went ahead and charged my visa credit card the full amount of $483. We told him this was not over and that we would pursue this matter further and he stated, " it doesn't matter, I charged the card already , your not getting that money back"

We go camping every year at lake sheridan and that was our first time renting from them. Never again will we rent from them.

Be careful if youplan to rent from these people. They are shady and will stick it to you if givent he chance.