Owner Zana is polite and friendly to your face but don't do business with her. She told me last week dock fees going up $400 this year - no prior notice given. New fee is $1,500. She says her property taxes went up - not my problem. I asked her what "winterization" includes, besides the $150 charge. She told me she doesn't know. She collects the money, is only face I see but she can't or won't answer the simple question. I asked her to accept same dock fee $1,100 for this year due to no notice of increase. She rejected that idea without hesitating, just as if she is entitled to extra money. Now it's too late to find other dock space in time for season. Anybody have a dock to rent? Let me know. read more

The owner here at Sandy Beach, Jim, is the rudest, most arrogant businessman with whom I have ever dealt. On July 14th I stopped in to get a price on a pontoon boat lift. He offered me a great price on a lift that was the last of its model line and I told him I would buy it. In fact I offered to put money down to hold it but he said not to worry. He suggested I get the permit first. Four weeks later I called him to say that I had the permit and wanted to schedule the installation. It was then that he told me they were too busy to install it any time in 2017. It took another three weeks to find an installer who was gracious enough to work on a lift which he had not sold through his own marina. (See my separate review of Kelly's Marine at Lake Milton). I called Sandy Beach to let them know I had found someone to install it and the woman at the phone, who I believe is Jim's wife, said "Great, come on in". On September 2nd I walked into the Sandy Beach office with my checkbook in hand. When I saw Jim I said, "OK Jim let's get rolling on this" and stuck out my hand to shake his. He walked right past me gruffly exclaiming that he didn't want to sell it anymore and that he had given me too good a deal on it. I was shocked. Jim is building a new restaurant beside the marina. I won't be eating there! read more

Hands down the worst establishment on Portage Lakes to dock your boat. The owners, Jim and Zana, need to take classes in customer service. They are miserable, rude, unreliable, careless, scamming, horrendous human beings. I went to pay the remainder of my dock fees and found my boat FINALLY in the water but of course uncovered (not how I left it) with the key in the ignition. Who knows how long it had been this way but thankfully it wasn't stolen. After attempting to put the cover back on in my dress clothes from work, I kindly asked Zana if someone would replace the cover before the rainstorm that night. Her arrogant husband chimed in to say "I own 6 businesses and don't have time to accommodate customers like you making the requests you're making." He then told his wife to give me my check back so they don't have to deal with me all summer and that I was to have my boat out of their dock space immediately. All because of a simple, easy request? And expectation to get my boat back how I left it? Mind you I pay $1,100 in dock fees, $700 to winterize the boat and other misc charges they add on to "service" the boat when no service is being done (i.e I paid $200 for them to clean the pontoons....NEVER touched them...our boat also had a huge dent in it that wasn't there before winterization). I know their goal of kicking me out of my spot was to ruin our boating season but it actually worked in our favor. We found a dock space that is significantly cheaper, more durable, in a better location, and run by someone who respects their customers! Most importantly I won't be giving them ANOTHER PENNY. Also, getting gas at this marina is nothing short of a hassle. You have to walk all the way up the dock to their building, half the time to find the door locked because they are never open during their advertised hours of operation. Expect an attitude and to feel like a COMPLETE inconvenience. Also you'll have to walk all the way back up to the building to make your payment. Get your gas at Dusty's!! Hopefully these monsters go bankrupt on their half ass run businesses so someone new can take over Sandy Beach. It's a shame angry individuals like them own a business on such a beautiful, peaceful lake. read more

If I could give this place a negative star I would. We were boating on Portage Lakes and ran out of gas, a fellow boater paid it forward and gave us a tow to Sandy Beach Marine to fill up. During the tow we had a little five year old girl that couldn't hold her potty anymore, we came up with her peeing in a trash bag. Once we were docked at Sandy Beach Marine, my buddy the boat owner went to see about gas and I looked for a dumpster to throw away the pee bag. I had two choices getting off the dock, go right into a restaurant with a bag of pee or left up a hill that was completely overgrown and the buildings looked worn down. Thought there had to be a dumpster to the left somewhere, so went left. Really I could have just throw the bag of piss onto the ground and no one would have noticed. But I walked for a bit till I hear a scream. I turn around and Jim the owner of both marine and the restaurant was walking towards me. First words were what the F I was doing back there. I explained the boat running out of gas, the little girl needing to pee, and I was just looking for a dumpster. Didn't matter to this piece of sh*t, heard many you don't know who your fu*king with, Ill beat your ass, I own everything around here, heard that one a couple of times, like I cared. The only thing I said in return that could have been taking as confrontational was, I'm just looking for a place to get rid of this bag of piss, I still have it and haven't dumped it, and held it up, this was after getting cussed at and I was frustrated. I really wanted to smack the side of his head with it. I get if I was in an area I wasn't supposed to be. But a simple may I help you asked firmly would have told me that. We were planning on eating somewhere, if you weren't such a dick you would have had eight people dine at your restaurant that night, money in your pocket. I would avoid the Marine and the restaurant like the plague, this man doesn't deserve to have a business on such a beautiful lake. Oh, and he said his gas man wasn't there that day, but looking at the pump on the dock, looks like it hasn't been touched in a decade. So if you're needing gas I wouldn't look here, sneaking suspicion that the gas man is always not going to be there. Other places on the lake to fill up, and with better outstanding customer service. read more

I have had multiple great transactions over the years at Sandy Beach. I stopped in the other day to pickup Bumpers/Rope for my boat and Jim Jr. dropped what he was doing to come out and help. read more