Sea Ray "Rental" program?

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Lazy Daze

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Apr 21, 2009
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Did anyone else get the questionnaire/survey about a program Sea Ray is thinking about? I got this email as a Sea Ray Owner's Club member, not from working at a dealership. The insurance part seems particularly interesting. Below is from the first page of the survey:

As part of our commitment to explore ways to enhance our Sea Ray Owner’s Club boating experience, we wanted to ask your opinion about a potential new program just for you. As part of this new program, you would have the option to be a part of a national on-line boat sharing and rental concept that would allow you, at your discretion, to 1) rent your boat to another Sea Ray member / owner or boating enthusiast or 2) rent someone else’s boat. In this unique program, comprehensive damage and liability insurance will be provided to safeguard both you as a boat owner and/or as a renter, regarding any property damage or liability associated with the rental. In addition, a towing service will be provided, at no additional cost, for any issues that may arise during the rental period. The boat owner will be responsible, through an easy to use online marketplace, for the coordination, orientation and handoff of the boat to rent. All renters would be subject to a thorough background check and must prove competence on the boat to be rented before being granted command of the vessel. The boat owner will determine the availability of the boat for rentals, the price of the rentals and have full control over approving or rejecting rental applicants. Thank you for your input. Your perspective is extremely valuable to us as we explore exciting new benefits for our Sea Ray Owner's Club members.
 
Yes... got it.

I went through the survey. I basically indicated that I would not rent mine but might be interested in renting 40' class Sea Rays out of Miami or USVI.
 
I got it and went through the survey.

I know of two nationwide companies that have this type of program. I've spoken to them at length about the issues.

Where this concept falls apart for me is how you control or determine abuse. How do you know if your boat is run at 80%-100% WOT? Do you think a failure is going to just happen while in their custody? I don't see any way to factor for this unless you use a licensed captain that you know to run the boat.

I think this type of program is geared more for smaller outboards, etc....
 
I took the survey and basically indicated I would not rent my boat but would be interested in renting on large lakes or the coast. I am pleased they are trying to think out of the box but I don't see how that program could ever work effectively for a number of reasons- Liability, wear/tear, Insurance and upkeep expectations from all owners in the program are just a few.

Personally, if they are trying to improve SROC I think they need to go back and read the thread they started and go from there. They got far more constructive, straightforward advice directly from their owners in that thread than they will from these surveys. http://clubsearay.com/showthread.ph...er-s-Club-from-scratch-they-should-definitely
 
I got the survey but have yet to fill it out. I will though.
I can't imagine letting my boat go to just anyone. Scott - I promise not to smoke, poop or pork on your boat, but I've gotta leave the dock. We'll consider it an extended pre purchase sea trial.
 
Just read this to my husband while he was finishing his dinner, and he nearly choked. He agreed 200% with Scott!
 
I don't share well with others. I would rent someone else's boat on vacation if available. But, would be reluctant to rent my boat out to very few people.
 
This question has been visited before on this forum and the overwhelming response was a resounding "NO"!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Todd
 
Jason,

For what it's worth, this is completely separate and apart from the SROC, however because of corporate policies and partnerships the SROC list was one channel used to gather feedback about such a program. We appreciate everyone's time and candor in addressing the survey. As for the SROC revamp, it's one of our top priorities for 2014 (bonuses will depend on it) , but the program evolution turned out to be slower than we thought as we address a legal liability of "points" that have been accrued under the current program and related contracts.

As always, this place is unparalleled for direct, insightful feedback. Thanks to all! -- Matt
 
Where's the incentive for letting some stranger defile your boat. Who cleans the mud and sand everyone tracks in. We all know how people drive rental cars. Even responsible people aren't as kind to a rental anything than they are to their own property.

Its difficult enough to trust a close friend or family member. There's no way a passionate boater would let a stranger operate their boat. Maybe this program might benefit the twice a year crowd though.

I want nothing to do with it either way.
 
sfergson727 said:
I told them no way, unless there was a strict no pooping clause, no smoking, no porking (no pigs onboard), and no leaving the dock.....somehow I don't think mine will qualify.
Click to expand...

I filled it out and told them I wanted to rent a:

Boat:Sea Ray
Details:'07 340 DA, E80, Vessel View, Soft Top '12 Boston Whaler 15 Montauk
Engine(s):8.1 Mercruiser V-Drives, Mercury 60 HP Bigfoot
Posts:9,793

that I could poop in.
 
SeaRayCorporate said:
Jason,

For what it's worth, this is completely separate and apart from the SROC, however because of corporate policies and partnerships the SROC list was one channel used to gather feedback about such a program. We appreciate everyone's time and candor in addressing the survey. As for the SROC revamp, it's one of our top priorities for 2014 (bonuses will depend on it) , but the program evolution turned out to be slower than we thought as we address a legal liability of "points" that have been accrued under the current program and related contracts.

As always, this place is unparalleled for direct, insightful feedback. Thanks to all! -- Matt
Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing that up Matt. The way the email invitation itself was worded, it seemed like the "new potential boater to boater rental program for [SROC] club members" was linked to or a proposed product of SROC.

It is good to hear you guys are planning some changes for 2014. As to the legal liability; I am no attorney but it would seem to me that any kind of points program such as this could be modified, restructured or eliminated at the discretion of SROC or Sea Ray. I have to think there is some fine print somewhere covering this. Thanks for the information though!
 
I think that I might actually be interested in it - both from a renter and rentee standpoint. There would have to be some type of "checks and balances" as to the renter's qualifications or references. But IF that could happen... IF being the key word... to a credible enough level, then yes, I could see renting my boat. However, with a cruiser that is used for family outings and has a lot of our "stuff" on board, I'm not sure how feasible that would be. I think I would have to remove some of our stuff and I'm not sure I'd want to be doing that every time it gets rented. I dunno - I'm up in the air about it.
 
Matt,

You can put this in the round file for all the good it seems to do with regard to SROC..........No matter how many times I join Sea Ray Owner's Club, I get a single (one!) issue of Sea Ray Living and then seem to be summarily dropped from the membership roles. I get no further communication about anything and when I call the number on the back of the membership card to inquire about it, I am treated like I'm from a 3rd world country and speak a dialect unknown to Sea Ray..............when, in fact, I am one of your most ardent supporters and have, in the past, worked hard to further the interests of your employer. I assume my input isn't needed or wanted as I heard nothing about any survey and I've given up on ever seeing another Sea Ray Living.
 
I took the survey - thought there should have been some additional questions asked. THought the way they setup some of the topics could have been better.

Got excited about it when I first saw it. We have been renting bare boats ( FL, Chesapeake, and Maine ) for several ( 5+) years. Finding a decent boat in the 40+ range is getting difficult. Only thing out there are "tugs" and "tanks". Would be all over it - if it was decent boats.

Wonder how this is going to be more successful than the bare boat business. 3 -4 years ago you had your pick of nice boats in south florida. Now they are just are just not there.
 
Wow.
Matt, might I suggest that you not use "the round file" but rather put that note (post #18) on top of your in box.

I too have missed a few issues and I actually love having it around. But, well, I've overstepped already.
 
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fwebster said:
Matt,

You can put this in the round file for all the good it seems to do with regard to SROC..........No matter how many times I join Sea Ray Owner's Club, I get a single (one!) issue of Sea Ray Living and then seem to be summarily dropped from the membership roles. I get no further communication about anything and when I call the number on the back of the membership card to inquire about it, I am treated like I'm from a 3rd world country and speak a dialect unknown to Sea Ray..............when, in fact, I am one of your most ardent supporters and have, in the past, worked hard to further the interests of your employer. I assume my input isn't needed or wanted as I heard nothing about any survey and I've given up on ever seeing another Sea Ray Living.
Click to expand...

Frank (and everyone),

It's good feedback and I'm sorry for the experience you've had. Ironically, one of the initial big selling points of the SROC program (the administration has been outsourced to another company since the beginning) was that they had better database technology at the time than Sea Ray did, so they were supposed to be better with this kind of thing (distribution/enrollment list maintenance). The thinking went something like this "You guys are good at selling boats, not keeping up with addresses and used boat sales etc. Let's start a magazine and other perks that will incentivize people to keep in touch with us, and we can do a better job managing your list of owners for you." Obviously that doesn't seem to have worked too well. Now, that was the historical context.

As you know, I've only been with Sea Ray marketing for a year. However, we now have a new issue related to distribution of the magazine: money. Over the last few months we've been in the process of making Sea Ray Living a truly world-class high end publication (bigger size, better paper, fewer sketchy ads). That costs money, and SRL is certainly expensive. For example, it costs me $1 to mail each issue (x 100,000 distribution x 4 times a year). And that's just to SHIP the magazine. Forget photographers, writers, travel costs, etc. We made the decision late this year to narrow down the mailed distribution of Sea Ray Living to customers who purchased a Cruiser, Sport Yacht or Yacht from us in the last 10 years or a sport boat in the last 5 years. That helps me on both shipping and printing costs. Sea Ray Living is always/has always been available online (http://www.searay.com/Page.aspx/pageId/13712/Sea-Ray-Living.aspx) and will soon be available for free on iTunes and Google Play for tablets and phones. On a related note, we're also in the process of installing a world-class Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution (SalesForce) in 2014, that will allow us to stop depending on others to manage our owner data for us. The revamped Sea Ray Owners Club will be administered through a management system that we'll have internal responsibility and accountability for.

None of these actions fixes the experience you had. In fact, they corroborate it. I know that's not OK and we're trying to put in place people, programs and systems to fix some of our shortcomings. I will follow-up to ensure you ALWAYS get Sea Ray Living, and I'd be happy to do the same for anyone on CSR with a mailing address in the US or Canada who doesn't meet the criteria above who would like to receive the magazine. Please put in the subject line: "Sea Ray Living Club Sea Ray Subscription" Please type that exactly in the subject line and include your contact info and mailing address in the email body and I'll personally see you're added to the list. I'm at matt.guilford@brunswick.com. A new issue is scheduled to go out next week, in fact. I'd welcome any feedback about the magazines you receive.

Thanks for taking the time to write about a painful experience, Frank. I sincerely appreciate it and trust that we'll be better for it. -- Matt
 
Matt, I took the survey but was a bit disappointed in the options allowed in many of the (later on in the survey) answer options.

First of all, there's absolutely no way I would ever rent my boat out to someone. I don't care how well qualified they are or how much experience they have, there's no way I would let a stranger take my boat.

As to the questions that I was disappointed in, there were not answers available for "No, I'd never do that" or "No, that's not a priority" or, well, you get my drift.

On a related note, I enjoy reading SR Living. I've been a SR owner since 1992 (I'm on my third) and love the brand. I'm not too crazy about the direction the new designs are heading but then, I'm a fan of more traditional lines. Euro designs leave me cold as do the new boat interiors from many manufacturers. The cabinetry looks like it was picked up at the local Home Depot or Lowe's. Everything looks like it belongs in a low priced, inner-city apartment somewhere. The interiors look cold, harsh and uninviting. Whatever happened to rounded corners and light colors (not all the blacks and dark browns in the current boats from many boat makers).

So there's my opinions. Everyone knows what opinions are worth, but you now have mine. I am a dyed-in-the-wool SR fan. Always have been and most likely always will be.

Mike
AKA GFC
 
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