River City Boat Rentals

Review posted in error, meant for Chicago Watercraft, which is not affiliated with this company.

If I could give negative stars for this company I would do so. I had a voucher from River City rentals from October of last year, closed early due to bad weather– no problem. They said they would contact me to reschedule for the next season– ok. over the winter they sold to Corporate Tailgate and the new company is worthless. I emailed trying to check on availability to use my voucher, found the company had ben sold, emailed the new company– no response. Called, no answer. Got a call back only to have to argue with jerk telling me it wasn’t his responsibility. I didn’t pay him and he wasn’t responsible for the weather. He never even offered anything — no I can’t honor that, but I can offer… nothing, just argued with me. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! I would definitely recommend using Electric Boat Rentals near La Salle for much better experience. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!

Used Joe Brown’s so called yatch for a girlfriends bachelorlette party. The yatch was run down and old. Nothing worked on board no air, no fridge and no generator for music hook up. Joe was also late to the dock. The boat was also not clean with stuff everywhere. Joe was very rude and had an excuse for everything. If I had my choice I would not use this company again!

I used this company because of a Livingsocial deal and thought I would show my parents a good time when they cam to visit the city. I was also trying to take them out with my best friend and her parents, but that never happened…
Some of the difficulties:
1. BOOKING: Computer booking system did not work. I emailed several times and no one ever got back to me. I called repeatedly over about 3 weeks and left voicemails but no one ever returned my calls. Imagine my surprise when a person actually picked up the phone one day!!! And all of the appointment times were taken by then. The only time I could even book in the 5 days my parents would be in town was an even ride, which didn’t work for my friend’s parents. The other problem we ran into was that the deal said 8 people on the boat and I invited that many people, but then I was told that the coast guard set new regulations and only 7 people were allowed. So I had to un-​invite someone. Awwwkkkwardd.
2. LOCATION: The location is really hard to find and kind of dark and sketchy at night. We were just walking around the back of some building, in the dark, no clear signs or path… I’m amazed we found the place.
3. THE BOAT: The livingsocial deal promised an ipod hookup and a cooler for drinks. The hookup was broken and there was no cooler.
4. CUSTOMER SERVICE: The check-​in process was a bit disorganized but the guy was nice enough.
5. EXPERIENCE: When we got to actually being on the boat, the experience was fun… it was a warm Chicago night, city lights, and people I loved… and warm cheese and wine. :)
Overall, I felt like the entire process, customer service and experience was MUCH MUCH more enjoyable with Chicago Electric Boat Company, so I would probably use them if I ever rented a boat again.

The owner of this operation is by far the worst business owner I’ve ever encountered. I had a terrible experience the day of my boat rental, it was for the BYOB Electric boat rental. I had an appointment at 3:00 which they called to confirm. We showed up on time and they told us immediately that we wouldn’t have a boat for 2 hours due to equipment malfunctions. Annoying, but we had some wine so we waited it out. No boats came back and it was 5:30 so we cut our losses. I called the owner and he said to send him information, which I did including his worker on the dock and the worker’s phone number to call to confirm our story. Heard no word and send multiple reminders throughout a month. Called the owner again and was yelled at over the phone that I was lying and refused to give me a refund. He’s an absolute idiot and obviously not mentally capable of running his business.
STEER CLEAR of this company, their service is terrible and owner is an incompetent idiot.

You know how lousy customer service ruins what could be a very good thing? That’s this place. They have VERY nice boats — and LOUSY customer service! I bought a You Swoop for renting a small pontoon boat for a 2 hour rental. I attempted to schedule online but their website is terrible. Then I called the phone number on the site and that got sent to the voice mail for something called Tailgate something. Presumably these people have more than one business. I called the phone number two more times, and finally someone answered it and I was able to get scheduled. The woman who answered was nice.
Yesterday it was time to go and we went to River City to pick up the boat. First, there is no signage whatsoever, and for that matter no people and there were no boats of theirs there that we could see. Not a good sign. I called the number again and again got their voice mail for the tailgate company. It did say «for faster service, text». I texted and said I was looking for their location at River City and he said «go to the back of the building, look for water.» Really? Your answer to a customer inquiry is a snarky text message? Ass.
Things did improve though — right at our appointed time, a nice guy came outside from River City and helped us get settled out — the boat we were waiting for was 20 minutes late, so we got to keep our boat the full two hours and turn it in 20 minutes after the time we were supposed to have it back. And as I said, the boat was nice — ours was gas powered, could have used more engine, but I understand why it didn’t have it — had a nice Infiinity stereo with bluetooth to play our tunes and we were able to bring a cooler onboard and enjoy snacks and libations.
But that said, unless they start treating customers like customers, I won’t be back. I don’t need snide, jerk treatment from a person who is obviously the business owner. If I treated my customers like that, I’d be out of work tomorrow.

I have to say that this company has provided the absolutely worst customer service I have ever experienced. I got a Groupon for $ ⁸⁹⁄₂ hours and was looking forward to taking my parents on a boat tour around Chicago. I booked a boat about a week in advance via the website and received a call from them a day prior to the tour saying that they won’t be able to provide a boat due to a scheduling conflict. They refused to refund the money and forced me to reschedule for an inconvenient time slot. I called the office at the time of the reservation (8:00AM) trying to find the building — the person (I assume, the owner) on the other side of the phone told me he was driving and would not be able to help, adding that even a 10 year old can find the place. I did not appreciate being talked down but swallowed the insult. When I found the place, there was no one in sight. I called the number back and was given a number of the person who was supposed to get us on the boat. The person showed up 30 minutes late, reeking of alcohol and refused to apologize for being late. After multiple insults I decided to leave and get a refund from Groupon — the owner refused to issue one.
Please save your money and DO NOT make your life miserable trying to deal with River City Boat Rentals.

I have to write a review to defend River City Boat Rentals here. Me and 6 friends rented one of their boats yesterday. Based on reading these reviews I was expecting a super shady and sketchy operation. Instead I was pleasantly surprised.
There were 2 nice guys working. They gave our group a choice — either take a boat without a canopy at our scheduled time, or wait an hour to take a gas boat with a canopy. We waited and just chilled out by the water watching the boats and had a drink while we waited. Our boat came in right on schedule, and we took it down the river for the full 2 hours.
The guys working were really nice and helpful. It was a very chill laid-​back operation, which is possibly where some of these negative reviews stemmed from? Me and my friends had a great time and have no complaints.

This was a difficult review to write because we had such a great time but the company needs a lot of work!!!
I also bought an online deal via Groupon in preparation for some out of town visitors. The Groupon indicated the boat could fit 8 people. I wanted to show my guests the same type of hospitality that they had shown me when I went to visit them so I thought a boat ride down the river would be awesome!
I bought the deal probably in May and booked online right away for our July date. Due to the timing of flights etc, I needed to move my reservation time out one hour. Here is my advice — book it right THE FIRST TIME because trying to get someone on the phone was painful. You may have to wait about 20 – 30 mins before getting in touch with someone.
Our rental was for Friday night. Come Wednesday of the week we were scheduled to have our rental, the forecast indicated possible thunderstorms. I called and waited an lengthy amount of time before I got a hold of someone. I wanted to know what the cancellation or schedule policy was. BUT WAIT…
STAFF AT RIVER CITY SAYS, «Oh, we won’t have a boat for you. The coast guard pulled all our boats for inspection so we don’t have the boats back until Sunday». and… the boats now only fit 7 due to rules from the Coast guard. WHAT!!!
Before I even had a chance to rip someone’s head off for not even calling me, she said that the owner felt very bad about this and would like captain his yacht and invite my friends on a boat ride down the river but I could only choose certain times and only a couple of weekends to choose from. In addition, I could still use my Groupon for another time.
Ok good. I felt that was a very generous offer.
Our boat ride was scheduled for 9am of the Saturday following the original booking date of Friday. My friends were already here — why not take them anyway.
We were told to show up at 8:45. There were no signs when we arrived. Just what looked like a very quiet dock. We didn’t know which one was the yacht. Finally, we see a couple of guys near the electric boats. You could tell that both of them had a rough night because it was a hot day and I could smell the alcohol coming off his shirtless skin.
The Yacht was also a hot mess. There were beer cans, cocktail cups, etc everywhere. They were also pumping the boat out which took a long time as well. Finally they got it cleaned up and we didn’t get rolling on the boat until 9:50. We waited patiently as they got their shit together.
Luckily no one was in a rush to go anywhere.
We enjoyed a nice 90 min cruise up and down the river.
I’ll save this review and write an «update» for the electric boat rental experience.

My father in law booked our reservation through Living Social before we had a chance to look into the company. After reading the reviews we were prepared for the worst, so we showed up about a half hour early thinking that if he double booked we would be the first out. Thank goodness we did, one of the boats had broken down earlier in the day and there was a group before us that had to wait an hour for a different boat to show up and group that showed up just after us did not get out for a while as we passed them when we were returning.
We got out about 15 min after our reservation, but we were just happy to be out. The boat we had actually had a gas motor and after hearing the horror stories about the electric ones we were probably better off. However there was no awning, nor the cooler and table we requested. Again just happy to have a boat.
As for the service, the owner is an obvious alcoholic and still looked a bit drunk. His filing system is the embankment next to the dock and his safety briefing was a joke. Fortunately I am familiar with running a boat, because it literally consisted of forward, reverse, wheel, uh stay to the sides of the river, uh. We had to ask where or if there were life jackets, which there were (amazing).
We did have a good time, but I would caution you before booking with them. In the future we are going to heed others advice and go with Chicago Electric Boat Company.

We bought two living social deals (each for 2 hours of electric boat rental) for a company event. (I am part of the monthly company event planning team.) We made our reservation and the reservation was confirmed via phone the day before.
Our reservation was for 8pm. We got there at 8:05 thinking we were late, but someone had screwed up their schedule. One boat was charging (the electric one) and another was out with another group (it worked on gas). We didn’t get out on the water until 9:20pm. The guy there apologized said it wasn’t his fault and that we’d still get our full two hours, however the lack of consideration on scheduling was awful.
The electric boat was painfully slow and we were told not to take it above 50% power in order to make sure we got back okay.
I would never use this company again.

great experience, but the guys in charge are dumb as rocks. Guy was doing reservations w pen and paper, obviously lost our reservation. we flew in from boston, went down to this shady spot (even cabbie said dont get out, this is weird) and had to haggle with a 17yr old kid to use his boat instead. a half assed operation is about where I grade this.

The experience is nice, but good luck getting a reservation. I wanted to rent a boat for my birthday, so I bought a YouSwoop and spent the next 3 weeks attempting to get a return phone call from the customer service number on their site. By the time I finally got in touch with someone the entire week of my birthday was sold out, even though it was totally open when I first tried to make a reservation.
The person I spoke with made a weak excuse and didn’t seem to care at all how much their lack of customer service inconvenienced me. Give it a shot, but at your own risk.

I booked my reservation online with no issues about three weeks prior to our boating date.
After reading the reviews I was getting scared about my reservation. Got the Groupon and had 7 of my friends meet me at the marina. They did double book us and we had to sit around and wait for two hours to get our boat. BUT — the pontoon came in and we went out at 8 and stayed out till 10:30. We had a blast. In fact, I’m glad we got to wait because then we got to see the skyline at night. Also, one of the guys let us use a cooler and filled it with ice because we had to wait.
It was annoying to wait but I had my friends, some booze, and food to waste away the time and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.
The boat was awesome and I’d do it again.
Be prepared — There are no public bathrooms at River City so make sure you go before the boat. The guy in the little store in the basement will open the bathroom but only if you buy something. He’s super nice and has a good selection of snacks.

This company is terrible. Good luck trying to make a reservation. Their website is terrible and when you attempt to call to make a reservation, you sit on hold for about 25 minutes only to then be transferred to their voicemail. NOT TO MENTION, the Groupon I purchased was advertised as being for 8 people, which was later recalled (after purchase) for only 7 people. Terrible business. I am hoping Groupon will refund my money.

I specifically created this Unilocal account to write a review of this horrible company. If you are reading this, PLEASE DO NOT give them your business. They are horrible! I bought a voucher through Groupon, and although I made a reservation a month in advance over the phone with the owner (Joe), and called a week before to confirm, on the day of my reservation I was told they did not have any reservation under my name. I was so upset! What got me even more upset is that I called the owner Joe and he denied ever making my reservation and confirming it. The River City employee who was there said he (Joe) does this all the time and that he had already turned away a few groups today. If you don’t want to waste your time, do not use this company. They are a joke!
Thankfully Groupon was very understanding and refunded my money without any problem.
ZERO STARS!

My experience:
I bought the Groupon for the River City Boat Rental and when online to make my reservation. The reservation site was having issues and not letting me book. So I called the number on the website — someone called me back and told me to text their tech guy. I did so but did not receive any response. The next day I tried booking again online but encountered the same issue. I called the guy who had called me the day before — told him the date and time I wanted and he said he would get back to me in a few hours. Two days later I still had not heard anything so I called again. The guy said I was book for the time I wanted and that he was just so busy with all the calls that he did not get back to me.
I specifically chose that July 17^th for the rental because my sister would be in from Michigan helping me with numerous wedding preparations (I’m getting married on Aug. 3) and I wanted to provide something fun. I also invited my brother, his wife and two small children (2 and 5) to drive in from Minooka, IL (that is over an hour drive plus traffic) and my 67 year old mother from Aurora (a hour drive).
Imagine my surprise when we show up and the boats are there however no River City Rental person is in sight. Eventually someone from another boat rental company came over and told us that River City has not been around for 3 days.
I called and called and even texted the number I had booked through (541) 730‑9154 — no one responded. I left messages, no one called me back.
Eventually another family group came saying that they were stood up by River City the night before but were promised a personal yacht ride tonight by some guy named Joe. We waited with them… and waited… and waited… — have you ever waited with 2 young kids by water and boats, and a 67 year old mother with two bad knees who cannot stand for long periods of time? It is not fun.
Finally 3 men came, they walked behind us in the parking lot — got back into their truck and left. We were later to find out that one of those men was in dead the infamous Joe we had been waiting for. They came back about 15 minutes later with fast food bags — evidently they had to go get dinner. Why they did not say anything to us, or tell us who they were or that they would be back — I don’t know.
Meanwhile ANOTHER group came with lots of people and food. They said that they just happened to call River City that morning to confirm get the right address and were told ‘oh by the way our boats are not going out today’ so they offered them the yacht too.
Eventually when Joe and the other men came back Joe went to get the yacht (we had to figure this out on our own because he still did not say anything to us). I approached the other gentleman and asked him what was going on. He said that he did not know but that we were welcome to go out on the yacht too. I expressed concern over the amount of people who could fin — he said no problem, the yacht could fit 30 to 40 people.
When Joe pulled the yacht up it was clear that there was NO WAY we were all going to fit on the boat — unless we all wanted to sit together on the bed below… and it was not a kid-​friendly boat at all. As we were standing there, waiting for the elusive Joe more people came that were promised this yacht!
Joe gets off the boat and says — very meanly — «there is no way all you people will fit on this boat.» My mother, who is by this time really hurting, says «we are supposed to be on those boats over there.» She was still hoping we could take out the boat we had already PAID FOR. He looks at her and goes off on my 67 year old mother! He threatens to kick her off — what I am not sure because at this point no one has stepped on a boat — he goes on for over a minute about how he is doing us a favor, how he does not need any complaints, and how we all need to just stop complaining, how he does not need any of this. My mother is standing there, feeling very embarrassed and degraded.
Needless to say we left.
It is now almost a week later and we have yet to hear anything from River City — when I call the massage says it is closed.

I purchased a YouSwoop for this boat rental service and have tried to contact the company to set up an appointment three times and have received no response. I should have checked here first. I’m asking YouSwoop for a refund or credit of some sort.

I don’t know why I didn’t read these before booking. Hope you are smarter and do not waste your money. Purchased a living social deal. I made a reservation with this company, showed up and found out that it was double booked and there were no boats available. The man working on the dock told me that this happens all the time and that the company is very unreliable. I called the number from my confirmation email and the man told me he was 40 mins away from the city and couldn’t do anything about it. We waited around for about an hour because the dock worker said another boat may come back early and in which case he would let us take it but that did not happen.

We booked an electric boat with River City Boat Rentals through a Swoop deal for Saturday, July 13, 2013. We were in Chicago for a few days on a high school reunion trip with friends and their families and thought it would be a fun way to spend the afternoon. We had four adults and one 4 year old with us. Our reservation was at 3pm– we arrived at 2:45 and no one from River City was there. Another boat company employee meeting their customers told us one of the River City boats had sunk that morning with customers on it and that they canceled the other trips that afternoon. We never received any calls about canceling or a sunken boat, so we waited. After 15 minutes we called Joe at the number given on the reservation. After 6 tries, Joe answered. He said he was on a bigger yacht with 25 people on the river and couldn’t come back. Where were his other employees? Taking care of the sunken boat. What about our reservation? Well there was nothing he could do about it– then proceeded to tell us what a bad day he was having. Seriously???
He said if we could wait 30 – 45 min, he would send someone else to the dock to meet us. We agreed– we were really looking forward to this trip and had packed food and drinks for the boat ride and had told the 4 year old we were going out on the water– didn’t want to disappoint him. At 5pm still no one showed up– we called Joe again to tell him we were leaving. No response.
After talking to some other employees on the pier– they notified us that River City is notorious for standing up customers. Obviously the bigger yacht was more important than our small group and they do not care about any customer service what so ever. Please do not make the same mistake we did and book a charter through this company– there are several more reputable companies at the same pier that will actually deliver what they promise.
When I posted on their Facebook page, they said they would give us a free charter and that’s it– not really useful when we don’t live in town.