Upper Chesapeake Bay Charters

I had a scheduled charter trip planned for Father’s Day on Aug 16^th. I was emailed the day before and told that his boat had broken down and he needed to reschedule our trip. I promptly emailed him with some alternative dates as he requested. Its’ been two weeks and I’ve heard nothing back from him. I am beginning to wonder if this is a scam company? When you call the number you are directed to email him… no one ever answers the phone. I was going to purchase this trip through groupon so I had emailed him to ask about availability through the Groupon website. he asked me to pay him directly by cash and to not go through Groupon. I feel like an idiot that I did that and now am out my money and a trip. DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY!!! Horrible service.

I’ve been waiting for Capt. Rob to email me back since July 31^st to confirm a date he said was available. It has been 3 weeks and the date I wanted to go on is in 5 days. I’ve emailed him 4 times since and called once, but his voicemail was full at that time.
I tried to contact him again today, but just decided to just call Livingsocial and get a refund instead. It was too hard to get a hold of him and couldn’t keep waiting for him to respond.
I was really looking forward to fishing with this company.
Hope others have a better experience.

DO NOT WORK WITH THIS COMPANY. I have literally never left a negative review until now. We purchased this charter as a Groupon for $ 99. After purchasing in the spring of 2014, we were informed (after emailing multiple times to get a response) that the only available charter date was December 13^th. Reluctantly, we booked the charter and were excited to go out. The day before the charter, I took it upon myself to email and confirm that we were still on, only to find out that the charter had been cancelled and there were no more openings until 2015. I have emailed 4 – 5 times trying to reschedule to no avail. This morning, I emailed to try and set a charter date for 2015 and found out that EVERY weekend was booked. I expressed that I was upset about this and asked if there was anything that we could do and received this response from Capt. Rob:
«You are certainly not my only customer, and it is not my job to contact you for a service from me. You must follow up to reschedule. Weather is no factor of my doing, and if you were going in December then you waited until last minute to schedule anyway. You are one of 1500 customers. Nobody is given priority and everyone must book the same way. It is subject to availability and there are only so many weekends in a season regardless.»
There is enough said here and I would strongly advise anyone who is considering booking to take heed of the massive amounts of negative reviews because I would imagine that they are all 100% accurate.

I bought a Groupon and attempted to schedule a trip with the merchant beginning in August 2014. After it was clear that he had little space left in the 2014 season, the merchant instructed me to contact him in early December to book a trip for spring 2015. Following his instructions, I contacted him in December and continued to follow up with him. He repeatedly asserted that he is unable to book a spring trip because the Maryland DNR has not set the creel limits. In February, however, the 2015 season dates were established and other charters began taking reservations. I think that he will only book a Groupon trip during his slow periods. In the final email from the merchant, he informed me that I should contact Groupon for a refund and that he wants to breach his contract.

After confirming via email (phone number was unresponsive and it just points you to the website), we showed up this am but no captain! Should have heeded the other reviews. Stay away from this one. We will be contacting Groupon to let them know.

Not even worth the $ 99 Groupon. A deal is worthless if you can’t ever use it. Were told Sunday at 4pm that our trip for Monday at 2pm was cancelled. After getting a group of six together to take off work for the afternoon we are no longer able to enjoy an afternoon of fishing we had planned on. The only accommodation captain Rob was able to offer was Wednesday afternoon… meaning we’d have to take off more time from work last minute. When we brought this up the response was to ask groupon for a refund. After emails and phone calls asking for another option we never even heard back. Not sure how the fishing is but based off the awful and unaccomadating customer service I will NEVER use or recommend this company to anyone.

I’ve never left a negative review until today. My team and I booked a trip in May for this Monday at 2:00p and at 6:00pm on Sunday they cancelled it. We took off work and change our calendars. They only alternative they offered us was to go out on a Wednesday. We can’t change our entire schedule like that. They were rude and not accommodating. They gave us less than a 24 hour notice and ruined the very little down time we get. We are doctors and nurse but this would upset anyone’s plans. We are truly upset and were really looking forward to this event. Going at 2:30 we truly were not excepting to catch any thing crazy but wanted to have good time. In the end I would ever refers or recommend them. I am disappointed in there professionalize captain Rob hunter is a disappointment.
I have the email from Rob stating that his boat did not work. The weather was fine.

terrible awful service!!! do not go on this boat!!! look for something else! Very unprofessional people and trashy folks if you catch my drift. I wouldn’t give it one star. Book with someone else and don’t waste your money!

I saw this come up again on Groupon today, so I figured Id share my experience. Purchased in May 2 years ago, had an august date the same year. Cancelled for weather. Fair enough. After 10 or 12 calls to reschedule, they finally answered, but the season was over. Called many times in early spring to schedule, was given July. A little late, but oh well. Capt Rob cancelled the morning of with a «broken boat», when I asked to reschedule, I was told to call back to do so. After at least 20 more calls and emails, tried to reschedule. I got one voicemail from Heather to reschedule, which went to voicemail. Called another 15 – 20 times, no answer, no callback. My last voicemail was asking for my $ 99 back. Of course, no answer. Ill be writing to Groupon to get my cash back. I dont know how it is to fish with them, but doing business with them needs serious work.

We booked a 3 hr fishing trip this past weekend through groupon and did experience a lot of the issues other groupon users experienced including having a hard time booking. We got lucky and a spot opened up on Sunday and our party of 5 jumped on. Capt Rob was very quick to answer emails and respond to my emails. Within 2 hrs of initial email contact for the trip, we were booked and ready.
We proceeded to head to the bay outside Baltimore and actually caught a nice striped bass. Overall a fun trip despite the slight wind.
I have this 3 stars because I felt that the mate did all of the work (other than driving the boat). Capt Rob never left his chair to greet us as other charters I have used. He wasn’t friendly at all including failing to acknowledge me, the person who was email back and forth for the last days. We had no safety brief. We had no «hi my name is rob and this is heather…» We had to welcome aboard. Zero. It was like we came on and got a ride from a taxi.
Keep in mind, we are a fun bunch and weren’t rowdy but it seemed he was having a bad day. If the service were improved I think this would be a great charter as heather, the mate, was absolutely wonderful as reflected in her tip.

BUYERS BEWARE: Leave it to a Fellow Dundalk Company to stick it to you. I try to use local business to help support them but this was a doozy of a mistake.
**Thanks ROB HUNTER you are the «CAPTAIN» ok !!! just sayin.***
I bought a Groupon: Upper Chesapeake Bay Charters
Purchased: May 2, 2012 expired October 30, 2012
I couldn’t get a date last year using email or phone calls. October rolls around… no return calls or emails. Unable to schedule. This year I call again and on June 26^th 2013 they said they would honor the Groupon for September 24, 2013. I was appreciative since Carl was shot that is about all he can do– so understand the value this charter held for me.
I have been calling since this morning. no confirmation nothing! We go down there and WOW Rob, the Captain let us have it good. Real professionals that UPPER CHESAPEAKE BAY CHARTERS COMPANY!!! I know Cussing is easy for us Dundalkians becasue we are a loaded weapon with bad word but now I understand why Essex thinks they are better than us.(wink Rob Hunter its all about you!)
For coupon that doesn’t expire until used was redeemed for $ 99
***View order detailsUpper Chesapeake Bay Charters ***Redeemed ***

I cant tell you much about the boat, because we never got to go. We bought 2 of the groupons. When we called to redeem we were told they were booked up solid for 5 months. So they booked us two consecutive weekdays five months down the road.
When the morning came, we entered the docks to find not a single light on in the whole place. We started calling Captain Rob, and was not getting an answer. About 20 minutes later, the lady called me back, clearly still half asleep and in bed, and said that they had canceled our appointment for that day and the next week too, because she never got the Groupon numbers that I have proof that I sent her. She didn’t care that I had proof that I sent the numbers and said that both days bookings were already given out to other parties. When another boat owner showed up at the dock he pointed out Captain Rob’s boat to us, which was obviously not booked, because it was sitting unmanned with not a piece of gear on it. The other captain also laughed and said that Captain Rob has that reputation with his Groupon people, and informed us that the guy is a joke in the captain business. The girl offered to reschedule us but said once again that they were booked for the next 2 months, but that they could try to take us in December or that they would still honor our Groupons NEXT season! Thankfully groupon refunded the money when they heard, and the groupon representative said they’d been getting a lot of complaints about that specific groupon offer. Stay away, very unprofessional.

I’m writing this now bc I know he reads them — captain Rob just kicked us off his boat AFTER we got all the way out on the water, all bc he found an earlier bad review on here that our friend had written (all of which was true, you can read it on here). A good captain would have shown us a good time and been professional in hopes of getting the said review revoked. But that’s not what Captain Rob does — which is why he is getting yet another bad review. From the looks of this site, we aren’t the only ones who had a bad experience here. Don’t use this charter.

this was my first and not my last fishing trip two weeks ago on a bright sunny friday afternoon from 4pm-​6pm. They were right on time to pick us up and take us back to the dock (starting point).
Great boat ride and fish to take home, the staff is lovely, friendly, and very attentive.
After a 15 minute boat ride out to the middle of the river, we began fishing, the instructor prepped all the fish hooks for us (6ppl) and then taught us how to fish, so easy and so much fun. From the moment my hook reached the water, I caught two fish immediately. Awesome catch of croaker, spot, and white perch, though they were quite small, I didnt mind since we caught so many, that each one of us got to take a big bag home.
The experience is a must, the staff does everything for you from prepping the fish to take home to making sure you are always refilled with bait on your fish hook. I want to go back every month to catch more fish, but I know they get booked up quickly because i had to reserve two months in advance to get a place.