TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Discount or refund for non-operational dinghy davit?

Hello all...we recently chartered in the BVIs and on the third day our dinghy davit failed. After attempts to have it fixed the part needed was not available. Our argument is we chartered a power cat so that we would have just that, power and speed. However, towing a dinghy we weren't able to go very fast as the ropes we had weren't as long as they should have been. When addressing this with the charter company they informed us that no charter company would provide a refund on any portion of this trip for the inconvenience. We hoped that at least they could come good for some of our fuel. No luck, which is fine. Just wondering if anyone has experienced this and if the charter company did anything for the customer. Thanks!

I'm surprised they didn't charge you more for the fuel you didn't burn by traveling slower. Technically, they saved you money...

Bummer about the davit, but I suspect they are right. Most charter companies wouldn't consider this a big issue.

I would write a nice email to the company headquarters and ask for a one or two day credit against a future charter. I know some companies will give a credit.
G

Standard wording is if the equipment failure prevents the yacht from functioning then a refund of some sort might be forth coming. Davits did not prevent the yacht from functioning. Things that might qualify for a refund of some sort are engine, rigging, transmission, battery etc.
As George says you might get some satisfaction with a letter. Good luck

You obviously didn’t name charter outfit.
Reason?
First or second tier charter company?

How many M's in their name? One or two?

Nice job of posting question without naming names. Allows OP to try to determine whether they actually should be fighting a battle with company.

I agree with others in that boat likely met all criteria per contract. An email requesting some credit on future charter is possible to positive result.

Nothing to lose by requesting a credit. The davit issue seems like a minor problem that would not prevent continuation of your vacation. I frequently have some problem with the boat. I try to enjoy my time in the BVI as much as possible and adapt, overcome any issues along the way. Looking forward to February trip on Event Horizon!

Received a one day credit. No expiry. Happy with that. Thanks all for your comments.

Seems like a reasonable resolution to me. Glad that you're happy with it.

We lost the use of the generator on the 2nd day of a 10 day charter. Since the charter company was told when we booked that AC was an issue for us I thought the charterer would offer some compensation. They didn't and we didn't ask. That is the nature of the business-things go wrong.

I'd expect more from a loss of a generator or A/C in general. We had the A/C go when we were on the Moorings 5800 a number of years ago - they couldn't fix it but did offer to swap us out to another boat - a 48. Would have still fit our group, but we opted to just stick with the 58 as we only had 2 nights left. As an owner, I knew we weren't getting any credit or anything - If we had paid, I would have expected something - and that something is usually in the form of credit on a future trip, which would be fine.

The Moorings gave us a two day credit 10 years ago when the prop spun on our dinghy outboard. We were in North Sound and waited 2 days for the prop to arrive on the ferry. It was frustrating that they didn't send a chase boat. With typical island time due diligence the prop missed the ferry several times. What should have been a half day problem dragged out to two days. They did make it right with the credit.