Will never use this company again and will not recommend to anyone. The process for reserving a boat in advance is archaic at best. When you arrive at the marina, there are no clear instructions as to where the office for boat rentals is. Once you find it, there is a bunch of kids (14-18 years old?) running the office.
When my 12 person group and I got on the boat (commander series pontoon boat number 3, 14 person capacity) and started to travel, the boat barely moved through the water, nevermind trying to travel into a head wind. When travelling at anything more than about 1/3 throttle, if we would have more than three people in the front of the boat, it would dive into the water and cover the entire deck of the boat, soaking everything we had brought. The only way to stop it was to cease all forward motion and wait for the water to run off then try moving forward again. It did this every time we turned as well. No change in engine trim seemed to help. It seems that not only is this company crap, but their boats are as well.
Almost everything on the boat we were given was broken. The horn on this boat did not work (which is required on boats by Illinois state law), the voltmeter did not work, the gas gauge did not work, and the hour meter did not work. The only thing that worked on this boat is that the engine ran well, although as mentioned before it was hardly enough to push the boat against a head wind. The seats on this boat were thin and hard, and not the typical pontoon style that have storage underneath. These looked like park benches with padding.
Upon our return with the boat, we asked who we could talk to regarding all the problems. When we found the "manager" Elsie, she said she could not help us and we had to talk to the owner. So I requested the owner. Elsie did not know where the owner was. We asked her to call the owner, she did not know the owner's phone number. We asked for a time when the owner was typically around the office. Of course, she did not know that either. It was quickly becoming apparent that we were not going to be helped, our complaints would not be heard, and reparations were not going to be given.
The only reason this review received one star is because i could not give it zero.
Next holiday weekend, you may wish you had rented a boat when standing from shore, but when you're on this boat you'll wish you were on shore with your hard earned money still in your pocket. You will regret using this company. read more