This communication is to dispute the value of the services that were provided to my husband, and me on August 13, 2006. We had contacted Bread ‘N’ Butter Charters out of Whittier Alaska to take us on a salmon fishing charter.
Their website states that they ';guarantee the ultimate fishing experience.'; We were each charged $248.50 for a total of $497. My sister also paid $248.50 for a total of $745.50 for the charter.
We were told the charter would start at 7 a.m.--it started after 10 a.m. We were told the charter usually comes back around 5:30 pm.---We were brought back around 4:15. As you can see were shorted 4 hours of the time we were paid for. But that was only the beginning or our woes.
I have paperwork that says we were to be at the Bread ‘N’ Butter office at 6:45 am originally.
I have a recorded voicemail call that cancels or postpones our charter til Monday because the steering mechanism had gone out on the boat we were supposed to go fishing on. We called back and told June(of Bread ‘N’ Butter Charters) that we would not be able to go on Monday as we were heading back to the states that day.
I have another recorded voicemail from June, timed about 15 minutes later, that says she';found a boat that wants to go silver fishing'; and to be at her office at 7:45, to take the 7:30 tunnel into Whittier because the captain wants to go out at 8 a.m.';
We were there at 7:45a.m. When we arrived at the office June called to us
as she ran by and said she would be right back, she was having trouble getting ahold of her other people that were to go on the boat with us fishing, so we stood outside her locked office in the rain for over 30 minutes
Her other clients scheduled to go fishing with our group never did show up and we waited around while she tried to scrounge up some other people, to no avail..
Then June tried to get us to pay over $380 a piece to cover the cost of the boat because her other passengers didn%26#39;t show up. We didn%26#39;t want to do that at all. It was not our fault that she had no other people to fill the boat-------
When I booked the charter I asked specifically if we need to find 3 other people to fill out the boat and was told by Dyann ';No, that is our job, you just come with your group.';
The captain finally showed up and Mary Ann, my sister, asked the captain ';So, you like to go salmon fishing?'; Three witnesses heard the captain say ';NO! I don%26#39;t fish for salmon, I run a halibut charter.'; He said this more than once.
I then asked June if it wouldn%26#39;t be better to fish for halibut since the captain actually ran a halibut charter, and she said, “no”, that this would be fine and told the captain '; you fish for salmon, remember last year when you went with ---- and ----? To which he replied, ';but I just went along, I wasn%26#39;t in charge';
When we left the office, (after 10am) I laughed and said to Captain Wes, ';you%26#39;re joking when you say you don%26#39;t fish for salmon, right?'; He said, ';No, This will be an experiment.';
On the boat he said, ';This will be a trial and error trying to get the speed right for the trolling.'; ';I borrowed this equipment from a friend of mine. ';
I suggested fishing for some other fish or going sight seeing when we weren%26#39;t catching anything and was told ';no, we (the captain and his helper) need to learn how to do this too.
The boat she put us on didn%26#39;t know how to fish for salmon, gave us very little, almost no instruction. Basically what we paid for was for someone to drive the boat. We didn%26#39;t need that, we could have taken my son,Shane%26#39;s, boat out--I know how to drive it, and we could have used Shane’s Salmon fishing gear. We were paying for someone to give us instruction and to know where the fish were, and to help us catch them.
We passed a couple of boats that were reeling in salmon, I personally saw them catch 3 when we passed them. They were trolling also, but were going much slower than we were.. We were told that you usually should troll between 2 to 2 1/2 knots, but this boat%26#39;s engine is too big and won%26#39;t idle down slower than about 3 knots, and we%26#39;re probably going 3 1/2.(knots)
The first hour or more my sister’s pink lady didn%26#39;t dive like it was supposed to, it just did constant flipflops and twirling on top of the water.If we were receiving all this instruction, I think they would have noticed that fact sooner than an hour or more later when she mentioned it. .She said several times, “Is that how my line is supposed to be?” Finally the captain changed the equipment on the line so it would sink better.
By about 1 p.m., when asking for help again, Mary Ann was told her tension was too loose so the captain gave her a different pole. She was told about 3 pm she had been ';fishing with the wrong tension set on your reel all day';, that it was too tight when her line snapped. This was after she had repeated asked if there was anything she should be doing differently. We came back in between 4:15 or 4:30
We had asked on 3 different occasions what arrangements could be made to ship any fish back home and June told us ';not to worry about that--just bring them to the office, we have a place that I’ll set you up with and they do everything.';
Between the three of us, we caught two fish. We had asked the captain how long the fish would keep, and were told that they would be good for 2 hours but not longer. When we reached Bread n Butter Charters office, where June was supposed to set us up for shipping them back home, she wasn%26#39;t at her office. When we visited with her on the phone on the 17th all she would say was, “Didn’t the captain tell you what to do? You should have asked the captain. The truth of the matter is that the captain went one way on the dock and we went the opposite way to Bread %26#39;N%26#39; Butter Charter%26#39;s office.. We had no clue where he went and did not question him because June said she would be there to instruct us when we got back. We ended up getting a garbage can and filling it with ice to keep the fish cold on the way back to Anchorage where we had to leave the fish anyway because we couldn%26#39;t take them back home with us on the airplane without them being processed.
June%26#39;s own words when questioned about this later in the week on the phone were ';I was gone right then but I am almost always there to meet the boats on the dock when they come back, around 5:30 or later , because that%26#39;s when they usually get back.” We were actually shorted 4 hours from the normal charter, if you count that along with the 3 hour late start.
She was contacted on August 17th, and told that we all three were extremely disappointed in the charter and she was made aware of all the above points. I was told she would talk to the captain, to which I stated several times that my beef was not with the captain, it was with Bread ‘N’ Butter Charters, and that I didn%26#39;t think the captain had actually wanted to go out fishing for salmon, but was doing June a favor. Bread n Butter Charters has a total of $745.50 from the three of us and we didn%26#39;t even get a salmon dinner. June offered an insulting $25 refund because we were dissatisfied.
Bread n Butter Charters in Whittier, AK big disappointment
Oh my. I%26#39;d be sorely dissapointed too. Did you pay with a credit card? Can you CC company do anything? After all, it was garunteed. Good luck.
Bread n Butter Charters in Whittier, AK big disappointment
OK here is my 2 cents and I have a feeling there are going be some posters who won%26#39;t agree with me but while traveling to Alaska one must realize that sometime activities won%26#39;t take a place if a weather won%26#39;t cooperate. Businesses in Alaska has very short season and they rely on guests so I don%26#39;t think there is any company or a person who would jeopardize its reputation and ignore or deliberately cause problems to make somebody%26#39;s trip miserable, cancel a trip or delay it for no reason. A visitor needs to be prepared that cancellation may take a place or a company may make some other arrangements. A couple times we had a bear watching trip starting 1-2 hours late because of too heavy winds. One time it was canceled because of a fog and rains. These are legitimate reasons and for our own safety. I remember a group of disappointing but also understanding people when it was announced we can%26#39;t go that day. I rather be safe and not go than get on a plane then experience turbulence, have a rough flight and eventually maybe even crash and never get home. I think the same would go for fishing trips. I know that halibut fishing trips get sometime cancel if the sea is too rough.
In this case there are many things the poster describes that went wrong but we need to remember that we have only one side of the story. I would like to hear from the company too. Further, when I see a very negative post and a poster never contributed before then I ask how this person found his or her way to this forum only to post complaints but forgot to include anything positive about a trip.
I never used Bread ‘N’ Butter Charters company and never heard of it so I have on reason to speak on their behave but sometimes things go wrong while we travel and we need to be flexible, prepare for unexpected and never plan on having a perfect trip. It must be sad to have many of these experiences the poster had but we should ask why.
Another thing, if the OP did an extensive research before this trip to Alaska then she would realize that Whittier is not really a good destination to go salmon fishing from. Also what puzzles me why would the poster not ask many and very detailed questions before the trip before and or before arriving in Alaska about arrangements for processing and shipping salmon home.
I am sorry to be so harsh but we as travelers need to take responsibilities for our own actions and relay on our own research before each trip and not expect others are going to do everything for us.
We travel annually to Alaska and sometime a trip gets cancel, maybe our accommodation is not what we expected or food is a little disappointing but we learned to focus on positive things. Sure we all wish everything is going to be perfect on every trip but that means there would be would many disappointing travelers around the world.
Happy travels
Wow, I would be ticked, too........Sport fishing companies have licenses......Don%26#39;t know which agency licenses them......Help from the experts, please.......I would print off a copy of your post here, send one to the agency with a copy to Bread and Butter.....
Places, I think that your criticism of the criticism is inappropriate and most of your comments don%26#39;t apply to what was said. The OP was promised a service (actually several services) that weren%26#39;t provided by the people she paid. I hear a lot of these sort of complaints, and have a pretty good feel for when I%26#39;m listening to a ';drama queen';, and this isn%26#39;t one of those. I think the OP deserves a substantial percentage of her money back. Or perhaps June should pay her for helping to train a new salmon-fishing captain.
Murray
Murry, thank you for your comments on my comments. I respect your opinion and appreciate it. I don%26#39;t expect everyone to agree with my position and maybe I was too critical if so I apologize to OP and for making my views so different form yours or other persons%26#39; posting here. As I said ';In this case there are many things the poster describes that went wrong but we need to remember that we have only one side of the story.'; Yes, I would like to hear another side of this sad story before making any further statements. I truly appreciate your opinion. I%26#39;ll be rereading the original post one more time.
In all fairness, the original post should help other posters on this forum to ask more questions here and do more research about this company and before booking June%26#39;s B%26amp;B in Whittier.
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