Crap Charter - Gold Coast

[TimiBoy]

Smithy is on my list. He was on IFish the other day, and I've heard from other sources too that he's the go. He's an Ausfisher as well, goes by that name. Small, effective charter from what I've heard. 2-3 people, reasonable cost.

I will be coming for you soon, Smithy!

Cheers,

Tim

[disorderly]

So, is there a lack of fair dinkum fishing charters, that offer what yer average Ausfisher would call value for ones' hard-earned on the Goldie?
Cheers.

Like nigel..I'm somewhat in the dark as well when it comes to these charters as well...

By going out on a charter from the gold coast on a big boat with a whole bunch of other line tanglers, would an experienced ausfisher actually think they were going to have a day worthy of photographic captures.......???

BTW it was a very funny story and the rebuttal was very amateurish to say the least...not surprising that the service was the same...

But my skepticism remains...what sort of bag would one expect off the inshore Gold coast from a big cat with 25 fishers on board (sorrryy..make that 22..) ????

Scott

[disorderly]

Smithy is on my list. He was on IFish the other day, and I've heard from other sources too that he's the go. He's an Ausfisher as well, goes by that name. Small, effective charter from what I've heard. 2-3 people, reasonable cost.

I will be coming for you soon, Smithy!

Cheers,

Tim

Yeah tim saw the Ifish episode as well....apparently Smithy is now Paul's "new best friend "...

He put them onto the fish and you cant get better advertising then that..well done Smithy...top effort.

[OldManRiver]

As far as I'am concerned, 22 is a ridiculous number of people to take on a 9 hour charter out of a place with as much fishing pressure as the Gold Coast. If this clown thinks he is offering value for money then were in trouble. Even charters to Swains don't take that many for a week's fishing. RIPOFF.

Cheers Phil

[Black_Rat]

I'll put this out there at the risk of getting told where to go ! (and not directed towards anyone that has replied, just my view on things )

I've been on around 20 day charters from the Gold Coast to Sunshine Coast with about 10 different operators over the years and can honestly say that i'd only go back to 2 operators. Having owned a boat and have mates on board it is hard to raise a scale and keep them satisfied. It would be a hard job running a charter giving the way fishing is "Hit & Miss"

I guess fishing charters and going to a new restaurant are similar You go there with high expectations expecting the best for what you have outlaid. Some of those expections (allbeit minor) don't get meet and all of a sudden there is someone demanding a new meal (or the manager).

As has been previously said if the service isn't up to scratch then go elsewhere.


Word of mouth is a powerful thing

[TimiBoy]

I guess fishing charters and going to a new restaurant are similar You go there with high expectations expecting the best for what you have outlaid. Some of those expections (allbeit minor) don't get meet and all of a sudden there is someone demanding a new meal (or the manager).

New show coming - Hell's Charter with Gordon Ramsey? Little Gordon maybe?

Sounds fun...

Cheers,

Tim

[wilcara]

Crikey I'd love to see Gordon Ramsay do a show on this mob!!!!

"WELL YA F$%&IN" CALL THAT F$%^%&*IN" BACON MY F$%^^&&IN" PATHETIC ARSE!!! WADDYA F$%^IN" MEN NO F$%IN" SERVIETTES for f%$K sake ya f$67in" tosser!!!!"



"FRESH F$%67IN" FROM THE F%$67IN FREEZER!????"

[rollie]

mate thanks for the great laugh, i pissed myself.

Sorry about the bad bad time you guys had.

Thanks for the story.
Rollie

[craigie]

Black Rat,

Who were the 2 good charters ?

Will save me weeding through the truck load that don't deliver (I don't just mean lots of fish either).

The best ones I've been on are as follows - Mono was excellent down at Brunswick heads. Small group, live baits for everyone. Even slow days produced quality fish !
Half day charters out of the Tweed are good value around $100 ? Always took home a feed and had a good time. Troll for pelagics between fishing locations.
SEQ charters with Smithy, never stops trying and gets results, live bait, game fishing with a small group !
John Gooding, exceptional ! Small group again, superb boat. Live bait, troll. Qualty fish !! Hard to get a booking but worth the wait !!!
"Keely Rose" or "Baitrunner" out of Rainbow beach, worth the drive and you will catch quality fish !! Both boats fish up to 10 people.
In my opinion forget the"Cattle Car" style charter unless you just want a day on the water, too many people !!!

Craigie.



There you go, pick one of them !

[Nic]

I agree, small operators are a safer bet. The alternative, i.e. fishing shoulder-to-shoulder with a stack of people who don't know what they're doing, can be pretty painful. I think big charters are more suited to people who don't normally wet a line.

With regard to customer service in general, if a business owner is faced with a customer whose expectations were not met, surely the best course of action is to apologise and ask the customer how he thinks the service could be improved? And in future I would be very explicit about the services provided, so potential customers don't have to fill in the gaps with assumptions.

That's just me though...

[bluefin59]

The thing i have found with charters is that unless you hire the whole boat and make it a mates only thing it becomes a bit of a lottery as far as expectations go . I am lucky that every R.D.O my mate organises a mixed charter with other construction workers and others to make up the numbers but GAV from SEA PROBE always puts us on fish, as which makes for a good day as we have a repore with him . There are other good operators as well ,blokes like ross Mc cubin has a great rep as well and i am sure there are many others who do well ,the problem with most of the charters stems from so many holiday makers looking for a one off experience so you end up with 10 or so punters just out to fill in the day . If you want a charter to do something specific you need to hire the boat for the day and fill it wiyh fisherpeople who like to fish a particular style and have clearly spoken to the company about what you as a group want to do ,if you do what braddles did and just jump on and expect what you have had with other companies i believe you are kidding your self . I also used to use another company 6-8 yr ago on the goldie that has a fairly average name for itself but when me and my mate went on for our R.D.O charter we always had a great day because we had a repore with that particular bloke ,it might not be wright but thats how it goes . Book the whole boat or have a regular thing with a particular operater and your days will be much better but having said that sometimes no matter what bad days fishing happen no matter WHO they are ...matt

[Black_Rat]

Black Rat,

Who were the 2 good charters ?

Will save me weeding through the truck load that don't deliver (I don't just mean lots of fish either).

The best ones I've been on are as follows - Mono was excellent down at Brunswick heads. Small group, live baits for everyone. Even slow days produced quality fish !
Half day charters out of the Tweed are good value around $100 ? Always took home a feed and had a good time. Troll for pelagics between fishing locations.
SEQ charters with Smithy, never stops trying and gets results, live bait, game fishing with a small group !
John Gooding, exceptional ! Small group again, superb boat. Live bait, troll. Qualty fish !! Hard to get a booking but worth the wait !!!
"Keely Rose" or "Baitrunner" out of Rainbow beach, worth the drive and you will catch quality fish !! Both boats fish up to 10 people.
In my opinion forget the"Cattle Car" style charter unless you just want a day on the water, too many people !!!

Craigie.



There you go, pick one of them !

Fishing Offshore Noosa - Trekka 1 and Trekka 2. I believe they can now go much further of DI for the extended trips. On our last 2 trips in 2007 & 2008 always done well.

Nitro - with John Paloma, had 2 trips out 1 with good numbers of fish and the other one a couple of keepers. Would go back because you could clearly see John was trying everything to get you a feed.

[Braddles]

Sorry for my delayed final comment - I have been busy studying for up and coming medical school exams which start next week..... so I have been scarse on the forum of late

Firstly - thanks to the moderator for handling this so well. If I had a business and someone defamed it - I would want a chance at a response. There is always two sides to every story (and some say 3, mine, theirs, and the mid ground truth)... This was facilitated independant of me, by Ausfish moderator, and posted here.

I will say - WHAT A CHILDISH RESPONSE! I think his response as someone said in the pages above, was one of panic and I am happy this response, although lengthier than my personal response from the company, was just as inadequate as mine, and very unprofessional. For the record, I did email the company and I recieved a one liner from "Ann" - which stated " Thank you for your feedback, we will take it onboard". That was it! So I fail to see what relevance my posting here of the disasterous experience prior to contacting them would have done? I guess the truth hurts.

Which brings me to my next point. OK - I got the roll call wrong, there were 22 fisherman, not 25 as I quoted.... My bad.... I think the charter missed the point here though... its not the academics of being able to count 22 (or 25) passangers, its the fact that they can not provide a level of service for this number of persons, on this day.

I am first to admit my account was perhaps written with emotion and lacked objectivity at times. But I wanted to make it fun... It was never meant to be a professional letter of constructive criticism. WHat my letter was though, is a fair account of what was offered, and what happened that day.

A couple asked why did I go fishing on a boat like that in the first place? I am a bloody idiot primarily - but when it comes to fishing - I am like a kid in a toy shop. Its so hard to coordinate days off together with my mates and still staff the unit we work in safely. On our rostered day off which we all coordinated (we can only do 6 weeks in advance of the date max due to rostering) - our normal charter company was booked - and so deciding to wait another 6 weeks, or go fishinging on that day? Being keen fishos - we jumped at the chance!

If I can save one person from paying 200.00 to go on this crap charter - I will be happy.

As for his response - I have copied it and posted it in the unit we work in so the other crew I was with can read it - and its really getting some hackles up. So much so, once exams are finished, and time is again on our side, We vow to collate our few pics of the day, showing over crowded, shoulder to shoulder fishing, the massive tangles, the standard of food hygiene (black finger nails preparing "food" etc), and an then there is the sexual harrassment to **** *****, a female nurse that was in our group, the professional skipper communicating about his passengers to other vessels on the two way, in our ear shot, about the hot bitch on the front deck with nice tities" and it went on thoughout the day... we are going to take this to the charter fishing association and one of the wives is a lawyer with a large firm in the CBD, who has offered to assisting us to prepare affidavits of the event for consideration of taking on the matter.

This ###### is NOT going to get away with this. And a simple "We are really sorry" would have been all it would have taken to remedy the situation, and perhaps the ausfish mod to close the "case" (chat)...

Regards,

Brad.

(Edited to remove the nurses name at 10:40pm)

[Braddles]

There is pages of reading about a disasterous charter on another brisbane website with this same mob, I heard they got a refund and went again and caught heaps so everyone has there off days.

Troy

hey mate - could you PM me the link, or even email me this link to bradleywilliams@bigpond.com as I would like to collect as much info about this mob as I can. Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Brad.

[greenleader]

i just read all 5 pages in one sitting.

phew.


as a small business owner myself, i have only one thing to say.

"the customer is always right"


(unless you happen to be an old telecom operator)