Broads Boat Holiday Con?

dogshome

Hi All - Anyone got experience of hiring a Broads Cruiser from Richardsons?
I booked a boat online, or rather attempted to, filled in all the screens to the point of card payment and found a notice that whilst Debit Card transactions were free, Credit Card transactions attracted a fee of £9
.
No problem, so I began to enter my D/Card details, which immediately brought up a sub-window that I was doing this on an insecure Link. Faced with this I did the sensible thing and rang the phone number on the sub-window, the phone was answered very quickly and the service desk lady could access my web booking so I gave her my D/Card details, to which after a moments silence she replied that the transaction was being refused by my bank - at this time I knew that there was more than 20 times the value of the hire cost sitting in my current account and I regularly use my D/card for higher value transactions - but up a gum tree I gave my C/card details and paid the £9 fee

Until I got to the boatyard I thought this was nothing but an online glitch. However the Americans have the expression 'Nickel & Diming' to describe the routine of adding little bits to what the customer thought was the final price, and I found Richardsons were experts.
1) The navigation notes which are a vital safety item and have always been on board
every boat I have ever hired - at least 15 - were an 'optional' extra at £2 for a
single A3 sheet of paper
2) Whilst the boat is almost entirely wired with 12volt electrics there was no
car-charger type fitting for a mobile phone, but as an 'optional' extra I could hire
small 3pin caravan type plug that had a car-charger fitting wired into it.

These small expenses were just minor annoyances, but I got to thinking was that Link I was about to enter my D/card details into really insecure, and did in fact my bank refuse the D/card Transaction?
Any one else had a similar experience ?

tired_mum

Hi we hired from a different co on the broads at wroxham and they were a nightmare pm me and i will tell you who but there boats broke down others had loads of things werent working and all we heard was complaints not a cheap holiday either .
We moored up at richardsons yard and they were deffinatly a better option there boat driving tuition was excellant as we watched them showing people round there parking was good where you left your car. Friends of ours used them and found them to be good
I think they all charge for extras ours charged to park your car which i thought was poor as how else are you supposed to get there