In a little over 2 weeks, my wife and I are going down to St. Augustine, Florida for a few days of R&R and fishing. I booked 2 full day charters.

 

One of them, I immediately paid the entire $1200 for an offshore outing. I emailed them about some of the equipment we'll be bringing along to make sure we're adequately prepared. Yes, they have rods/reels with which they can provide us, but catching fish on your own gear yields a certain satisfaction.

 

After booking the charter, I heard nothing in response. Granted, I originally booked 2 months out, but we're going during the busy season.

 

They finally responded to my initial email after having to send a follow-up "hey, did my email reach you..." 

 

It's been over a week and I've heard nothing in response to my second email.

 

The other charter captain has been very good with communication so far.

 

I feel like after paying that much $$ up front, i should be getting better communication. If things weren't so booked up, I'd almost be of a mind to cancel and schedule with someone else.

 

Am I being unreasonable?

Ditch the email and call them.  

Call them. Email is dead. 

What these guys said.

 

Those guys work ridiculous amounts of hours, typically 7 days a week.  I wouldn't check my email either.

If you're running a business - particularly one like a charter or guide service that depends entirely on happy customers - and you're not checking and responding to customer's e-mail - you'r enot running your business very well.

It only takes a a bit of time a day, even if it's 10:30 at night.

I don't expect an immediate reply, or even same day, but within a couple days is expected, and reasonable.

Unless, of course, you have so much business that you can afford to walk away from some of it, and endure poor reviews on social media...

...so I think your expectations are reasonable; I'd expect the same.

You may still have a great time, but the lack of communication is indicative of something.

Email is going the way of the dinosaur. It's a woefully inefficient means of communicating. It's useful for sending documents or other time sensitive attachments, but the lack in f security and time it takes to read and respond make it pretty useless. Never mind the total lack of nuance. There's nothing quite like a back and forth conversation. 

1 hour ago, J Francho said:

Email is going the way of the dinosaur. It's a woefully inefficient means of communicating. It's useful for sending documents or other time sensitive attachments, but the lack in f security and time it takes to read and respond make it pretty useless. Never mind the total lack of nuance. There's nothing quite like a back and forth conversation. 

I agree...mostly.  Two things:

1. It's still there, so ignoring it is unprofessional; people who don't want to use it can simply not provide an e-mail address.  Providing it implies that they check it.
2. There's significant benefit to having things in writing, even if it's just in confirmation of a conversation.

Nothing beats face to face conversation, followed closely by a phone call.  But I don't have any faith that a business that can't find time to answer an e-mail is gonna answer their phone, or return messages.

1 hour ago, Further North said:

If you're running a business - particularly one like a charter or guide service that depends entirely on happy customers - and you're not checking and responding to customer's e-mail - you'r enot running your business very well.

It only takes a a bit of time a day, even if it's 10:30 at night.

I don't expect an immediate reply, or even same day, but within a couple days is expected, and reasonable.

Unless, of course, you have so much business that you can afford to walk away from some of it, and endure poor reviews on social media...

...so I think your expectations are reasonable; I'd expect the same.

You may still have a great time, but the lack of communication is indicative of something.

 

The guy is universally well reviewed on Google and Fishingbooker. That's the main reason I'm sticking with it.

 

Any other time I've booked a charter, they've been typically more responsive than this. 

4 minutes ago, JS8588 said:

 

The guy is universally well reviewed on Google and Fishingbooker. That's the main reason I'm sticking with it.

 

Any other time I've booked a charter, they've been typically more responsive than this. 

That has to help you feel better about it.