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

Upon a recent google search, a friend of mine found this article with my name attached to it. The author of the complaint has pegged me as someone else so I decided a rebuttal is appropriate.  Although this incindent was over four years ago I remember it quite well.

First of all I, Jesse, was the so-called “worker” named in the complaint and the owner (not me) was the man who charged her for the rentals. Manager was my job title and I was in charge of boat rentals, retail store, and facility maintenance.  We had two rental pontoons at the time, both of which were reserved for the author of this complaint (customer-W) for the entire day.  When customer-W checked in, she and a man (customer-M) were given a briefing on the rules of the water and operation of the boats, which included information on the kill switches, then they took the boats.

Early that afternoon one of the pontoons was towed back (not rowed) to the marina by the other vessel.  Customer-M came into the marina and told me there was a problem with the boat. I asked him to explain the symptoms of the boat, then told him I would look at it as soon as I had a chance.  He asked me what they would be charged, I told him that if we could not get the boat running he would not be charged for the second half of the day and if we did get it running they would receive a discount for the boats downtime.  He agreed and told me they would be picnicking (not camping) nearby and that he would come back around 1 hour later to check on the boat.

Upon my inspection of the boat, I found that the kill switch tether had been pulled. I replaced it and the boat started right away.  Those tethers do not just fall out; it was most likely pulled by one of the many children on the boat.  The man returned to the store around 3 o’clock and asked if the problem was fixed.  I explained how the tether switch worked then he took the boat back out.

At the end of the day customer-W came in to pay for the rentals. The owner (at the time) of the marina was behind the counter and was going to charge her for the full day. Customer-W and another woman (who reeked of booze) started arguing that they didn’t want to pay for the second boat for the second half of the day. As they were discussing the matter I approached the store. After customer-W accosted me I explained to her and the owner exactly what happened and what I discussed with customer-M. She then said that the customer-M did NOT take the boat out in the afternoon, which was a flat out lie. (I watched him take it)

The owner and I determined that the ONLY downtime (less than an hour) was caused by operator error, but he still tried to work with them by crediting them for one hour. The lady was relentless in getting out of paying for the entire afternoon.  She insisted that customer-M (who had already left) did not take the boat in the afternoon. The owner and I were very polite during the entire ordeal, but when she began insulting us and calling me a liar, the owner ran her card for the amount she initially agreed to pay.

If she would have told us that she didn’t want the boat at noon when customer-M brought it in, then we would have offered the rental to someone else and credited her the amount for the time it was rented to someone else. The owner and I worked with many customers through similar situations due to weather or break-downs and we never had any issues until this lady tried skirting her bill.

This woman was obviously upset, but the story she tells is blatantly false. I don’t really appreciate having my name tagged to such calumny so I hope this entire report will be removed. Also, Ripoff Report should at least publish the author’s name so they can take some accountability for the garbage they put on the internet. 

Just wanted to say that we agree that you were treated badly. We want you and others to know that as of October 2010 the Marina is under new ownership and management. We have lots of improvements to make and, apparently, some ill-will to assuage.

Come check out the new owners and see the difference. Sheridan Lake is a GREAT place to spend a day on the water. Come let us show you how good it can be!

Thanks for reading,

Mark & PJ Ruddeforth