Poett Nook Marina

We are quite disgusted and shocked at our treatment from staff at Poett Nook Marina this past Sunday, Aug. 23rd. This is a little long but I think the explanation is important to understand what happened. A few days earlier I had spoken to Amanda at the office by phone regarding seasonal camping there. She explained I’d have to write an email to get on a wait list because they didn’t know at this time what would be available for April 1, 2027. I did send an email and gave a description of our RV and that we’d be looking for a campsite and moorage seasonally. I also said we would be by in a few days in our 39 foot boat that we’d anchor and come in on our tender to ask more questions. Sunday we did just that. We took our 8 foot tender and tied it at the very far end of the loading zone, mostly in front of another boat at the end so that we wouldn’t take up any space for a large boat coming in to use the loading zone. We looked around and didn’t see any signs about loading zone time limits or any cost. We waited about 10 minutes outside the office while Amanda was helping another customer who had fish to freeze. When she came back I introduced myself and said I was the one who had written about seasonal camping, did she get my email? She said “I get a ton of emails.” So I said we were anchored out in our large boat and had questions about the camping and to look at sites. I asked what happens in March when the derby is going on - do seasonal campers get to stay in their sites for that? She said she didn’t know about any derby in March but that she had only just started in May. I said it was held the first weekend in March and tickets for it sell out fast, and that maybe someone in management should tell her about it. I asked about cost of garbage - $5 a bag and I said we’d have two but decided we’d come back in the morning with it and I’d bring $10 cash. Then I checked to see cost of coin showers but they no longer take coins. So I went back to find out that a shower would be $10 each. I said we’d pass on that but we’d be back tomorrow with garbage. There was no mention of us having to pay to be at or near the loading dock. We checked out the sites and after about 30 minutes, we went back to our boat on anchor. About 40 minutes later, a fellow came out on a small boat and started yelling at my husband - “you have to go back to the office right now and pay for using our loading zone!”. Ron said we were going back in the morning with garbage. He said no, you have to go pay right now! I had Ron phone the office to say, what the heck? We were only there to see about spending possibly thousands of dollars on seasonal camping and moorage. The attitude of Amanada changed and she said that they are a private campground and marina and anyone using it that isn’t registered to camp there must pay to use it. She didn’t quote what the charge would be but that we must pay it and my husband said no, we’re not paying. (We’ve been there many times over the years - using the loading zone with our 39 foot boat, to buy supplies from the store or to pay to take up garbage, and never were we charged a loading dock fee.) I phoned Amanda back and said that all we had done was go to ask questions and there was never a mention of us having to pay for a loading dock fee. She again said that they were a private resort and therefore we had to pay the fee. I asked could they not be reasonable about it this one time and she said no, we had to pay. If we didn’t, we would never be welcome there again. I asked her to remove us from the wait list then and she said fine, you’re off it and don’t come back here ever again. Then the fellow who came out earlier yelled at us from the dock “You’re never welcome to come back here ever again!” To which my husband replied, don’t worry, we’ll never be back. Unbelievable! We were in shock for a long time at how this all unfolded. If they had been polite about it and said when you come to bring your garbage tomorrow, there will be a fee for using the loading zone but we’ll overlook it for today. Then we would have considered that. They never did say what the fee was and we never saw one sign anywhere. Wouldn’t it make sense to just have a sign posted at the loading zone? We looked at the top of the dock ramp where there were a number of signs about park use and there wasn’t one about the loading zone. We were told by Amanda they were posted all over the place like the doors to the washrooms. The only sign I quickly observed there when I went to see how much showers would cost, was a “Camp Rules” sign with all kinds of little blocks of what was allowed an wasn’t. Since I wasn’t camping there, I didn’t pay attention to it and I would have needed my glasses to read it anyway. If we had run back in to pay as that fellow demanded we do, would we then have been charged a 2nd loading zone fee just to pay the first fee? We’ll never find out because honestly, who wants to go back to a business run like this. We have often gone in the March derby but trust me, we won’t be doing that again either. I asked in writing for the manager’s name and contact information so I could advise them of what happened but as expected, I never got the information returned to me.