www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I have spoken to the Angry Marlin at length and he paints a very different picture that what was portrayed here. It is one of the reasons I prefer Customer Service issues of this nature be resolved between the parties before taking something public. I am not siding with any one party as both give very different accounts of the events, in some cases not even remotely close. His response was professional and forthcoming.

I would like to suggest that both parties speak to each other at this point to resolve their differences and will make it a point in the next newsletter to ask that members with a particular problem with a sponsor / event / anything as it pertains to CRT please contact the proprietor directly to try to resolve their differences before taking something like this public.

We have a very powerful tool here, this board, and forum, one bad article can ruin a reputation that can take much to get back. I have heard from many members now who have used Jose without problems so I'm caught between two sides where I don't like to be.

Please speak to the proprietor first if then you do not get satisfaction, resolution etc, than you may than post your story but its like two different fishing trips from different parties here.

_________________
Thank you for supporting CRT!

To all CRT members who have been following this thread, I’m Capt.Jose the proud American owner of Angry Marlin Sportfishing here in Costa Rica.

When we first decided to sponsor CRT we knew and fully expected its members publicly share both positive and negative experiences with our company on this site. We were just expecting these posts to be legitimate, fair, factual and based in truth! Instead what this member has posted here is just a venting of anger full of baseless lies and slanderous language. His hope was to destroy our company’s good name and reputation.

Why would he do this?

Well simply put, he’s really just upset with us because we could not extend to him the 15% ($120.00) discount in this case on his trip! That’s it! We gave all members of CRT who booked their trips DIRECTLY with us ONLINE or by PHONE this discount. But this guy was denied the discount for his charter because he used a local tour broker at a hotel to book his trip and then ONLY WHILE ON THE BOAT did he informed us that he was a CRT member and asked for the CRT discount.

We had to explain to him that because he booked with a broker we have to pay a commission to them and therefore we cannot both extend the discount and pay the commission. He looked for any and all reasons, all day long to renegotiate the price of his trip. That is what all of this slander is about and why he now labels me as a CON MAN here, on this site.

His whole posting is a venting of rage and anger over a few bucks! That’s all!

We feel that allowing this kind of unfair posting and subsequent defamation only rewards the bad behavior of an angry person with an axe to grind and hurts all members and otherwise good businesses who honestly take risks, invest and provide jobs for others.

This practice of online venting absent the accepting of responsibility for ones words is destructive to all of us. We would ask that the moderator (Admin1) reexamine his rules and employ a more constructive model designed to help with the resolution of conflict when it arises, by elevating the dialog and facilitating release of the truth to protect the interests of all.

If you have a negative experience with our company, it’s fair game to post an HONEST negative report. Being disingenuous and telling out right lies about any business is not only unfair but destructive to the business and the many people that business employs, it’s also un American!

When has it become acceptable for us as AMERICANS to just slander others in total anonymity online destroying someone’s business without a fair and balanced presentation of both sides of the issue. It is not acceptable to destroy a man’s hard work and business along with his personal reputation just because you’re angry. Would you want this kind of treatment? In this case, judgment and penalty were issued before we were ever given a chance to respond. When asked to we did so quickly and in a professional and forthright manner telling the truth to Thomas (Admin1).

If this guy was honest and felt he was handled unfairly his post would have simply stated the truth of his complaint absent all the slander and name calling. He would have demanded some kind of response or action from us. His post does not ask us to do anything! It only slanders us and seeks to harm our reputation!

Many of you whom I have had the privilege to get to know on our boats over the past 5 years, know us and know that we work very hard to offer a quality service for a fair price. I challenge you to find some other fishing company here that offers the same complete total package for less!

We are sad that CRT has chosen not to allow us the opportunity to present our side of this story and defend our hard earned reputation for providing a great time fishing! Context matters! Having a full honest picture is what we all want when we make decisions to buy products or services. That said, we have video and photos of this guy onboard our boat. Because we were not allowed to present our videos and photos to you here on this site (we did send our response including video and photos to Admin1) you are left with an unfair view of the events as this member describes.


There are several other points this CRT member makes in his disingenuous posting. I’m not going to address all of them because he clearly has a chip on his shoulder. We saved him $200.00 by recommending that he not go offshore that particular day for sailfish because the weather was very poor, swells were large and it’s not the most optimal time and conditions for sails. Had we been less than honest we could have just booked the trip as an offshore trip and taken the $1000.00 knowing the possibility of catching sails was low that day. That said we still took them offshore a ways so they could see for themselves the conditions and so we could try to get some Mahi Mahi for them, but the conditions were just too rough and one of his buddies got sick!

This guy states that all 5 of our boats are a “POS” (I think he really means Professionally Operated Sportfishers). Why would he say that? He was only on one. The boat he was on did not experience ANY kind of problems (mechanical or otherwise) on his trip. It was reliable, safe and seaworthy! All systems worked perfectly from tip to stern, including bilge pumps, bait well, and radios! Motors ran like champs! The boat did not sink, so why is it a POS?

He mentioned the trim tabs, humm... Could 4 guys constantly moving around on a 27 foot boat while the boat is running cause the captain to have to make slight trim adjustments to keep the boat trimmed all the time? Yes Absolutely!!!! Ok, so now we know the trim tabs work just fine as well!

The important question is, did he and his buddies have a fun day on the water fishing? In his post he claims that they only caught one little 12” inch fish and that saved us from having to honor our “No Skunk Guarantee”. Really? Hummmmm

Take a look and judge for yourself in our NEW VIDEO PROMO called A BAD DAY FISHING starring this guy and all his buddies on his charter that day. He looks like he’s really having a GREAT TIME fighting plenty of fish, drinking plenty of beer, joking around and having fun with his buddies, our deckhand and myself! After having such a fun time that day, shame on him for only tipping the deckhand $5.00. His actions on our boat speaks so much louder than his lies here in this forum to all of you! I guess he forgot we were video taping!

In this business one day you’re a hero, the next day your a zero. It’s generally the fish that determined your fate from day to day and that’s understood by most of my clients. Knowing this, we really try very hard too make each trip a wonderful experience especially when fish are not biting! And when they don’t we will take you out free another day! That’s our no skunk guarantee and we are always happy to honor it! We are the only company in all of Central America that does this! We hope you'll continue to support us the next time you are looking for a fun fishing adventure here in Costa Rica.

To see our new company promo starring this guy and his buddies please go to our youtube site at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9DRbU-lH2k

And thanks dude, for the cool promo, it turned out better than we hoped!

Usually the truth lies somewhere in the middle, Jetman has been a member over a year and a half and has only one post- the one starting this thread so it's not like he has any credibility around here. On the other hand Angry Marlin has one post as well but has been a sponsor for a while, as far as I can tell this is the only review ever posted of his service, has anyone else from CRT fished with him?

It's always refreshing to hear both sides of the story.
Salty Joe, nicely written first post... do you moonlight as an attorney, too.

_________________
Blue Devil

Pura Vida...enjoying life to the fullest...

Let me be fist say that I take offense to Salty Jose's reference that I did not allow him to post his side as at no time during this incident did I ever state that he could not post his side of the story in fact in was the complete opposite as I asked him for a different perspective on what went down and his version. I certainly am allowing him to voice his side here on CRT and welcome any response from sponsors on customer service issues, or specific incidents.

Secondly I also stated the truth probably lied somewhere in between or as I stated a happy medium, and was rebuked as there is no happy medium. Well there you go! Again I stated earlier in this thread I had contacted the proprietor and stated there was more than one side to the story and that in the future that before making a post of this nature that the person should contact the sponsor themselves try to work out any issues they may have amongst themselves prior to posting here as our forum has the ability to do great harm or provide great feedback whichever the case and any posts should be made with caution.

Last but not least I will state for the record PLEASE ATTEMPT TO RESOLVE CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUES DIRECTLY FIRST WITH THE PROPRIETOR. There is usually some sort of middle ground than can be reached. Instead we end up with two sides of a the coin, an angry member, a lost CRT Sponsor and we are no closer to the truth than we were before. I also encourage you if the issues are not responded to, "Ignored" not resolved in a professional manner than you can give your account of the issue, but please before throwing anyone under the bus you realize the power of the media we present and how much damage can be done by making statements.

Thank you.

_________________
Thank you for supporting CRT!

Yo!:




Salty Jose: If it was over only "...a few bucks...."....why didn't ya take the high road and just write/right it off? I mean YOU YOURSELF write it was only a FEW BUCKS, right? That's a FEW BUCKS.....

Next, we have this:



Is that you brotherman?

As for your YouTube....you post ONE video after joining YouTube on July 12, 2010 and you shut off the ability to make comments about the posted video. Looks like my 2nd question already got answered. Funny shit~!! Also, did you secure a RELEASE from them guys to be videoed and then have the video posted on youtube? Slippery slope, but consistent with a huckster (that's if that ripoffreport thingy IS YOU).

PS: SHAME ON YOU for NOT paying your deck hand a living wage and compelling him to beg for a living. Ugly American......hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

PPSS: Oh yeah.....you note:

How you know this as fact? You been everywhere there is in "Central America"?!!! Again....FUNNY SHITTTT...comin' from a very probable huckster....

Oh yeah....slander is spoken....LIBEL is written.....try to be accurate.....just a little......

_________________
"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 16

Respectfully,
You have no idea how hard our deckhands work, our deckhands and Captains gets paid living wages so you don't know what your talking about. But they also expect fair tips as well, thats an industry norm.

As for your question about taking the highroad- We did take the high road! As mentioned the client wanted an offshore trip but only paid for an inshore trip. We still took the client offshore fishing until the rough seas made one of his buddies sick. Then we went back inshore and resumed our fishing. This cost us substantial extra fuel and fuel is very expensive.

This is a very small business and it has to make a profit in order to succeed. We run on very thin margins, therefore we do not have the luxury of 'eating' our fuel and commission expenses on a trip.

As for the Rip off reports, this is very old news and the court files tell the REAL truth not the angry venting of a man I had to sue in a court of law and won!

Humm....

I could continue on but my main points have been made. If there is anything new regarding this post, I am more than happy to address it but for now we have spent enough time one this.

Oh and thanks for the education on Slander and libel. I'm not an attorney nor am I a public relations person. I'm just a simple Captain trying to run a fair, honest fishing business earning a living, doing something I enjoy.

No business can please every customer every single time, they can only try. We are no exception. It is only human nature for people to be disappointed when one aspect of a trip does not turn out as they envisioned it might.

As a Captain, I have control over a small aspect of the total trip. I am responsible for the safety of my passengers, the preparedness and reliability of our equipment and the fulfillment of promises to our clients. But if the fish or the weather or any other number of uncontrollable influences are not on board, I can only do my best as I do each and every time.

I apologize for being slightly off-topic, but who and how much should you tip after a half-day or full-day fishing charter?

I tried to reply to Admin1's second post, but it doesn't look like it was successful. So I'll try again.

Admin1, I am sorry. It was not my intention to offend you. As you know I first became aware of this situation from your email to me asking for a response, which I did quickly. I assumed that you would be fielding this and that this is how you wanted to handle this issue. From the first moment I received your email, it never dawned on me to go online in the forum and post my response there. I have never used this forum and had totally forgotten that I even had an account on it. I had to dig around for the user name and pw. I assumed that my reply to your email request was what you were looking for, I had no idea at the time that the source of this accusation was a post on your forum. After that email I received your reply informing me that you had decided to discontinue our sponsorship. I felt as though we had just been tried and convicted without having a fair trial. Subsequently when I actually did remember that I had an account on the forum it was after you had canceled our sponsorship. So I logged in and discovered this post and its threads and saw that none of the information I sent to you in my emails had been posted. To me this came across as though I was being denied the opportunity to have my side of the story shared. At this point I decided that this could not go unanswered and since I now had access to the forum I drafted my first post on your forum responding to this member's accusation.

Again it was not my intention to in anyway offend or accuse you of any wrong doing. You have been fair and generous regarding your services. We harbor no ill feelings. Sorry.

Our guys average 10-15% but it is really up to the client.

I have fished from Alaska to Venezuela for 25 years and the best single answer I have found is - $50 per day per angler. I prefer to give it to the captain in front of the mate with the comment that the captain is to take care of the mate as arrangements between the two vary. I tip a little extra for an outstanding performance such as great boat handling on an ultralight tackle fight, or having great live baits in quantity on board when we leave the dock.

_________________
Play Safe

"Tipping" is a North American practice; Tico's don't tip; Europeans don't "tip"....either in Europe or elsewhere, blah, blah, blah....I basically do not tip outside of the USA UNLESS it's above and beyond the call of duty. Above and beyond....and I'm the one who makes that decision.

Where there is smoke there is fire.....so....you ARE the person noted in the ripoffreports report; there was MORE than one person involved; and it just seems like you keep getting into one legal like fracas after another. Perhaps you MIGHT want to look at how on earth such a swell guy as yourself keeps finding himself in these jams?

There are a TON of "real estate types" from North America who migrated to Costa Rica and other points SOUTH of the USA following the yanking of their real estate credentials for one transgression after another. Given CR has little if any regulatory practices in real estate as well as being a "sea captain"....well...what can I say. Then we have all the jive about being a pilot; having been in the USA military FLYING; American Airlines employment; blah, blah, blah. *shrug*



And, PS: I did hear in the YouTube video your comments to the guy about how difficult they were to be pleased....seemingly complaining about one thing after another; seeing their images on the video was amusing....I don't understand why guys "like that" need to use the services of birds of the night in CR. I, personally, do NOT see your operation as a "bad egg"; there is always room for misunderstanding and out and out lying....and it's a two way street and how. Concluding, I'm always amused how guys get on boats that pitch and roll out in the open water; consume beer and then get sick.....doesn't one follow the other>!!!! hahahahahahahahahaahahha....again....FUNNY SHITTTTTT to me!!

_________________
"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 16

What was the confusion here? Your website states Los Suenos . This point alone could and would be a BIG point in contention and should not be eluded. Someone staying at Los Suenos could save an hour’s sleep or be on the water an hour earlier by departing from Los Suenos rather than another dock . And in this case departing directly from Los Suenos would have prevented an hours drive and and 90 minute wait at a restaurant.

In addition, all other things being equal, this would be a big selling feature between different charter companies.

How long does it take you to drive from Los Suenos to “Punta Arenas”?

If you knew weather was not perfect that day and getting worse hour by hour, why wouldn’t you have bait ready to get straight to the water?

What time do you normally have your passengers in the water for a “Full Day Inshore” when as you stated you know the weather is going to be rough ?

It has been my experience that boat captains always insist on an early start and directs everyone else as such.

Couldn’t you have avoided ‘being tied up at that fatal pedestrian-vehicle collision’ if you were already in the water with your passengers and not going for bait?


Why does more than one report about you on the internet state you ask customers to pay for incidentals, such as bait, that are supposed to be included in the fishing package?




Unfortunately, just the conjecture of the above statement is quite telling. You didn’t “save” him any money by not offering an undeliverable product. Simply you, as the captain of the boat, advised what the probabilities were for that day. This is an expectation and should not be an exception. Just as having the boat ready with bait may be an expectation since that is something promised on the website as well.




Here you are promising a beautiful picture not one of hunting bait or getting stranded at a restaurant on the way to an isolate dock . I can see how some clients would lose confidence minute by minute driving past the dock to another location and then waiting at a restaurant for over an hour. Everything else would become suspect as to Pilot tells and boat safety.

_________________
* These are the "Good Ole Days". Enjoy Them.

* RENT but, "Don't Buy a Home in Costa Rica" until you have lived here for THREE years.

Let me add to this. I went to Costa Rica with all four of these guys. I've know 3 of the 4 for 15 years plus, the fourth for around 4 years. I chose not to go fishing on this trip as I have gone many times down there and here with and without them. We all are very experienced anglers, I've been fishing the The Gulf of Mexico since I was 6 years old and diving it since I was 11 from here in the SWFL area to The Tortugas, The Keys, Colombia and CR. They know what they are doing and then some. They are all stand up guys, they all have great careers, we get together all the time and I can tell you that what they went through they did not deserve, nobody does. Captain Jose ought to be ashamed of himself. And as others have said, should have just given the discount, should not have taken them on a wild goose chase, film them and put it on Youtube,(can't wait to tell them about that in the morning) and on and on and on. I had a beer earlier this evening with one of the guys, I didn't bring it up but he did and they are all still pissed and I don't blame them. It's not the money, hell they wouldn't let me pay for a lot of my drinks and picked up my dinner the first and last night of the trip at La Esquina de Buenos Aires. It's about the feeling you get when you have been scammed and having little or no recourse. Well, the guy messed with the wrong people and if he want's to keep running his mouth, he'll do nothing more than eventually run himself straight out of Costa Rica. I never asked for any favors from some of the legal and politically high profile close friends that I have there but I'm very tempted at this point. If he had any decency he would offer a public apology and if he can afford it, a full refund and offer of a free trip next time down.
And as for the friend who got sick, he has had for along time an inner ear disorder and can barely hear out of the side that causes balance problems. He gets sick in calm seas but he's a trooper and likes to go fishing.

_________________
______________________
Go Dolphins!!!

I just checked out the Youtube and it's not even of my friends. Watched it twice.

_________________
______________________
Go Dolphins!!!