In the winter of 1997/1998 I had my boat winterized and stored at the Square Pond Marina in Shapleigh Me.  In the subsequent spring the marina placed my boat in the water 2 weeks before it was scheduled to be picked up.  During these 2 weeks the area received a ton of rain, specifically on June 13th and 14th 1998.  My boat was left uncovered during this time and was partially submerged at the marina.  These are facts I found out after I picked my boat up and had serious problems with it.  To this day the marina has not admitted any wrong doing.  My mission in life is to at least continually keep my plight in there face, to warn others of the bad practices this business uses, and to make me feel better.  Following is the saga as it unfolded with attached letters.

After getting no where with the marina I looked up state laws and proper course of action for consumers and decided that my first action would be to file with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Maine Attorney Generals Office for mediation.  I'll separate the two out because although the AG Office has been helpful the BBB has been a total waste of time.

A month after I submitted a claim with the BBB I got a letter from that stated "The BBB  is pleased that it has been able to be of service to you in mediating your problem. Unless we receive further written comment from you, we shall consider your case closed" "We have received the following response to your case:" "Square Pond Marina has informed the BBB that your complaint will be adjusted by 10/23/98.  If the matter is not resolved by 10/23/98 please notify the BBB in writing"  That was it!  First off I received the letter on 11/20/98, secondly what the heck did it mean?  I never heard anything else from the BBB or the Marina.  I tried to call the BBB but you can't get a human there and they never return any phone calls.

The Attorney Generals office was much more helpful and responded quickly to my complaint.  About a week after I submitted the claim I received a card with an actual telephone number of a human!  I finally hooked up with my mediator at the AG Office, we talked about my case and he went off to check it out.  A few days later he called back and stated that the marina had passed this complaint onto its Insurance company (Batchelder Brothers, Inc. and they in turn passed it onto International Marine Underwriters)  The mediator said they had sent me a claim form and I had never returned it.  I explained I never got a form to fill out.  After calls to the Insurance company I finally got the form, filled it out, and sent along the following complaint letter.  This letter will also give you a good history of events and what actually happen.

After a few weeks I received the following back from International Marine Underwriters... "Our investigation has determined that there is no record of your vessel becoming submerged while at Square Pond Marina  The marina has a policy of pumping out boats after rain storms but has no record of your vessel being one of them.   With regards to water ingress to the engine, had the water been present in the engine when the vessel was picked up on June 21st, upon attempting to start the engine, a hydro-lock would of occurred.  The engine would not have been able to run, even for an hour total run time." "In view of the above we hereby denying any and all liability and suggest you report this to your own carrier."  ( I left their typos in)

I was pissed again!  Didn't they read my letter?  I then sent this reply letter back to the Insurance company on December 18, 1998.  I also sent copies of all the correspondences to the AG Office and the BBB.  The BBB got this header letter.

On Jan 6th, 1999 I received a reply from the BBB it stated "We have received the following response to your case:" "As we indicated to you in October, the case was turned over to our insurance company.  Since they did not receive any formal reply (including a Statement of Loss), as far as we are concerned, the case is closed"  Based upon the above response to your complaint there is, unfortunately, nothing further we can do to assist you on a mediation basis.  This matter shall, of course, become a matter of file with the BBB."

ARRRRRGGGGG, my skin is crawling about now!  Again the BBB has provided no information as to what they have done.  As far as I can tell they haven't done anything.  Worse then that a check of Boston BBB's Reliability Reports on Businesses for Square Pond Marina showed the following...

Issued on: 01/07/99
Square Pond Marina
Po Box 177
Shapleigh , ME 04076
207-636-2323

According to information in the Better Business Bureau file:
This company has responded to complaint(s) brought to its attention during the past three years.
The Bureau has sent three requests for basic information to this company but has received no reply.

Doesn't this sound like my complaint was successfully resolved?  Is this going to make anyone think twice about doing business with Square Pond Marina?  I seriously doubt it!  In the past I had trusted the BBB when deciding if I should do business with a company.  I know now it is a total scam and the information they provide is useless!  I sent back the following letter to the BBB.   Not that I think it will do any good and I'm sure it will just get round filed, but at least it made me feel a little better.

As of today 1/7/99 this is were it stands.  I haven't heard back from the AG Office since I responded to the Insurance company.  I just sent the latest letter to the BBB and haven't heard anything back from them.  The Insurance company has not sent anything to me either.  Square Pond Marina has never contacted me to try and resolve this.  I will probably have to take this to small claims court.   unfortunately I will not be able to file for the total worth of the boat.  You can only file for $3000 in Maine and $2000 in Mass.

Update 1/24/99

I received the following letter from International Marine Underwriters the other day.

"We are in receipt of your letter dated December 18, 1998.

Our insured has advised that they have no record of your vessel becoming submerged, partially or totally, while the vessel was in their possession.  You state that there were witnesses to your vessel being partially submerged on June 14, 1998.  At this time we ask that you kindly provide us with statements from the witnesses who observed this."

Well, they still aren't admitting anything, but I seem to have gotten their attention.   I called my dad and got the name of the person who said they had seen the 3 boats submerged.  I was a little concerned they might not want to get involved.  After talking to this person for about an hour I'm basically without a witness statement.   He can't say he saw MY boat submerged.  Only one he remembers for sure was an orange one (mines blue).  He did mention that others had seen it but he couldn't give me any names.  He also made some other interesting comments.  He doubted I would be able to get anyone to make a statement.  He said the locals there (in Maine) are afraid of the guy.  (Rumor has it he's involved with the mafia and the marina is a money laundering operation)  Additionally, it is not a booming area and the marina is lowering their taxes and providing local jobs.  It's also interesting to note that he says on or about the date my boat was submerged the marina had a major shake up and more then half the staff was fired.  There is also something going on between the owner and his daughter.  Apparently she is sueing him for something.

So here I sit in my little world.  Another case of the little guy getting screwed.   My current plan of action is to try and track down some of the people that were let go in the shake up.  Do you know anyone???  Email me

I'll keep ya up to date. I am not the only one with problems with Square Pond Marina, let it be known that this is NOT a reputable company and I will continue to say such!

Life moves on!