Ilona M

Do not book this charter company

I live in the Netherlands and went for vacation to Cape Town South Africa for 5 weeks. While there my husband and I wanted to go tuna fishing. On 10th of december 2022 I phoned Vic from Dassen Eiland Charters to talk about the possibilty. He said they have two boats, are catching lots of fish and big fish. The 4 week time frame i gave him to go out whas more than enough time to arrange a deap see fishing trip. We made the payment of R9000,00 and booked for 22th of december. After about a week we received a voucher for deepsee fishing and a comformation that we would be going out with the second boat and that the details of the time and place would be send to us a couple of days before the launch. On the 21st of december i phoned Vic, but his phone whas turned of so I send him a message through whats app, there whas a automatic response that he is not avaible and a number i should phone. the person whas another charter company. They did not know about my booking. After sending all the info to this ather charter they let me know that at that moment they didn't do any deep see charters and would not do them while we where in South Africa. He offerd me 2 trips for ins**** fishing instead of the one deep see trip. But the trips would be booked later because of avalibilty at that moment. It took us a week to plan our thist trip. On the website the ins**** fishing is promoted as Snoek and yellowtail fishing - but it turned out to be bottem fishing. After this all i went to facebook to look up Vic and dassen eiland charters aswell as the new charter company. It turned out Vic whas on holiday in AUstria and that the second company did go out on the 22th of december but just not with us... By the 9th of janury Vic whas back in SA and we did not go out for our second trip. On the 10th i called Vic to hear how all this could stil be fixed. We where leaving on the 12th of january. I told me that it wasnt going to happen and offered a refund for the remaining money. Two weeks later and stil no refund. My mother who lives in cape town messaged Vic to ask when it could be expected and he told her there would be no refund. In short, Vic wil tell you what you want to hear so you wil make the booking. And then not deliver. We specifically asked about if he could deliver in the time frame we have. He repeatedly said he could, knowing he would be on holiday. He sold our "voucher" to a different charter company without out knowledge and not even telling them about our time frame. Then he lies again about making it up to us. Do not book this charter company.