Buyer Beware!!! Do not deal with Bobby Cooler or Sea Island Marine!
Sea Island Marine, 1105 Rodgers St. Beaufort, SC 29902 is owned by a gentleman (and I use that term loosely) named Bobby Cooler. This man is a thief and an opportunist. Deal with him at your own peril!!!
In my particular situation. I had purchased a Grady white 180. The previous owner of the boat had contacted several brokers, including Sea Island Marine to sell his boat. The boat was parked at Sea Island Marine. I'm guessing that when another broker sold the boat this did not sit well with Mr. Cooler as he was not making commission.
During my first contact with Mr. Cooler I could tell that he wanted to extort money from me by indicating the trailer was in poor condition and should be checked out (by Sea Island Marine of course). I knew the trailer was in excellent condition. I made arrangements with a transport company and they indicated they would check things out for me when they picked up the boat.
My next contact with Mr. Cooler was two days before the scheduled transport. I wanted to inform him that the boat would be picked up on Wednesday. He indicated that would be fine.
The first problem came that Wednesday when my transport company was about an hour away from picking up the boat. They tell me they contacted Mr. Cooler who wasn't going to release the boat until he is paid $450. I called Mr. Cooler to find out what he's talking about and he indicates that he wants $45 per day times 10 days for storage fees. As a side note, $45 per day is $1350 per month. This is an outrageous amount of money to charge to park a 18 foot boat on its own trailer on a lot! Anyway, I told him we never agreed on this. He says, that my telling him I was picking the boat up on Wednesday implies that I want him to store it for him!
I told him, in my world we use things like contracts or at a very minimum he should have told me when I called on Monday that this was going to be $450 at pickup. He said nothing like this. Money was never mentioned of any type. I didn't even know the man 10 days prior. My first contact was 6 days prior to pick up!
Regardless, he wants his money or he's not going to release the boat. I have few options because my transport company will be there in 45 minutes. I tell him I'll go ahead and pay, what would you like? MasterCard, Visa, American Express? He says, none of the above. Cash or a cashiers check only. I tell him I'm 1000 miles away, there's no way I can do this in 45 minutes. He won't budge. He wants cash at pickup. He won't trust me to send him the cash. Cash only right now or you don't get your boat! On another side note, I wonder why he wants cash? Could it be this money is going straight into his thiefing pocket?
Thank God my transport people were able to, out of the goodness of their hearts, pay this money in cash to Mr. cooler in order to pick up the boat and trust me to pay them back upon delivery.
I would recommend to anyone who is thinking about having dealings with this criminal to think again and take your business elsewhere. He is not trustworthy and a shady character to say the least. read more
