The Better Business Bureau rates this company F, reports 64 complaints the business failed to respond to, and has made an express finding that it “failed to resolve underlying cause(s) of a pattern of complaints.”
Across 120 public Google and Yelp reviews, 79 are one or two stars. Customers repeatedly describe the same sequence: a credit card taken at booking, a technician dispatched, a large same-day charge for a “diagnostic” that resolved nothing, no itemized invoice, and no response afterward.
If you have already been charged, you may be able to get the money back. A billing dispute with your card issuer is the fastest route, and a term in the company’s contract telling you not to dispute the charge does not override your federal right to do so. There are step-by-step instructions on this page.
Every claim here is sourced to a public record or a publicly posted review, and every source is linked so you can verify it yourself.
Poseidon Marine Mechanics, LLC — trading as Poseidon Marine, Poseidon Marine FL-Orlando and Poseidon Marine – Orlando — operates as a mobile marine repair service across Florida. Its public complaint record is among the worst in the trade, and the complaints describe the same mechanism over and over again.
Compiled from Better Business Bureau records and 120 publicly posted customer reviews. All sources linked below.
Customers do recover this money, and the route is a billing dispute with the card issuer. The strongest evidence is almost always the company’s own paperwork — if the written report they sent you says the problem was not resolved, or that no parts were installed, that is the entire case in one line.
Move quickly. The Fair Credit Billing Act generally gives you about 60 days from the statement that shows the charge. If you are already past that, still call — many issuers will take the dispute anyway — and see the state options further down this page.
Why this matters beyond your own money. Payment processors monitor the rate at which a merchant’s charges are disputed, and can restrict or terminate a merchant account under their own agreement. Every dispute that gets filed rather than abandoned is counted. Customers who give up are the reason a pattern like this can continue.
If they re-bill you or send it to collections. Losing a dispute sometimes prompts a merchant to treat the invoice as unpaid. Dispute the debt in writing with the collector within 30 days of their first notice, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and keep a copy.
If they threaten a lien on your boat. Several customers report this. Under Fla. Stat. § 713.58(3), a repairer’s possessory lien on personal property is “released, relinquished, and lost by the removal of such property” — so a mobile repairer who never had your vessel in their possession has no possessory lien to assert.
If you are outside the dispute window. Florida’s Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services mediates consumer complaints directly with businesses and is the best remaining route to an actual refund: fdacs.gov or 1-800-HELP-FLA.
Each item below reflects a practice customers describe repeatedly in public reviews. None of it is exotic — it is simply what a careful customer should insist on before a technician is dispatched.
Customers repeatedly report being quoted an hourly rate and refused a total. Insist on a written estimate with a hard dollar cap, and written confirmation that no work beyond that cap proceeds without your approval.
“Diagnostic” time is where the bills grow. Agree in writing how many hours are authorized for diagnosis, and what happens if no diagnosis is reached in that time.
Read the terms of service on the repair order before you give a card. Customers report being charged in full the same day, without seeing an itemized invoice first, on a card given as a “deposit.”
A small booking fee — commonly reported as roughly $19.97 to $30 — may enroll you in a monthly subscription. Ask the monthly amount, how to cancel, and whether there is an early-cancellation fee.
Modern outboards report faults through a manufacturer diagnostic interface. If a technician arrives without one for your engine, the visit may produce no answer — and you may still be billed for the hours.
Note when the technician arrives and leaves, and keep the texts confirming it. Multiple customers report billed hours exceeding time actually on site, and one reports being told hours are “assigned” per job.
Watch for an “EPA fee” — there is no federal or Florida EPA levy on marine repair invoices, so a line by that name is a shop charge, not a government one. Also check sales tax: Florida generally does not tax services, and repair labor becomes taxable when the shop supplies parts. An invoice showing $0.00 in parts and $0.00 in shop supplies that still charges sales tax is worth questioning.
Terms requiring you to waive the right to dispute a card charge do not override the Fair Credit Billing Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1666 et seq. Your right to raise a billing error with your card issuer is federal and cannot be contracted away.
The quotations below are excerpts from reviews posted publicly on Google and Yelp by named reviewers. They are reproduced as published, and are grouped by the practice they describe. Follow the review links at the foot of this page to read them in full and in context.
A card is taken at booking, described as a deposit or a hold. Customers report the full amount being taken afterwards without an itemized invoice or a call.
“He was here for about 1.5 hours and I got charged $1,002 without my consent or notification. They say they need a credit card for a deposit but this is a scam to simply charge whatever they want without permission or any sort of breakdown of charges.”Don S. — Yelp, 27 July 2026
“They will over bill you and then charge even without your consent… Never allow this company to take any deposit before any work is done they will charge without your consent.”Bob C. — Yelp, 1 August 2026
“I was explicitly told they could not provide availability unless I signed an order form and provided a credit card — even though no service was authorized… Despite this, the company charged over $650…”Ryan P. — Yelp, 28 January 2026
The most common single complaint: a technician attends, bills several hours, identifies nothing, and leaves the fault exactly as found.
“So a DIAGNOSTIC review of my boat cost 800 dollars. 800 dollars for someone to look at my boat and say it needs work.”Chris Kempf — Google, 1 May 2026
“They grossly overstated the time that they spent working the problem, and left not having resolved it.”Luke P. — Yelp, 27 April 2026
“didn’t fix anything when they finally got here, just diagnosed the problem and left. then charged me $430 service fee and labor… I already knew what the problem was, I needed it fixed.”Alan Brandle — Google, 2 July 2025
“Your coordinator and field technicians are trained to drag out and prolong their diagnosis, and recommendation is not in the customer’s best interest… they charged me 796.00 and didn’t fix one thing.”Earl Braxton — Google, 31 July 2025
“I specifically asked them for a DDC to hook up to the engine in order to more accurately and quickly diagnose the condition. The technician did not bring the DDC as requested and charged extra hours that were unnecessary.”Mike Blair — Google, 1 January 2026
Customers describe being unable to obtain a total in advance, and then receiving invoices with no breakdown of hours or tasks.
“They would not give me an estimate (no idea why I did not see that red flag) so I did not know the cost until my card was charged.”George Ruwisch — Google, 4 January 2026
“asked for an est. they will only give you hours not cost, don’t bring all the parts they need so the can come back and charge you for another trip.”Tammy K. — Yelp, 29 March 2026
“they never provided an estimate upfront, and instead issued an exorbitant invoice after the fact—claiming eight hours for an inspection alone.”Fabio Cardoso — Google, 9 May 2025
“They are not up front about the pricing… he was told that it would be $400. Imagine our surprise when we got the bill today and it’s $1,200.”Emma Webb — Google, 12 August 2026
Several customers tracked the technician’s time themselves and compared it to the invoice.
“The tech did work for 5.5 hours on the boat but I was charged for 7.33 hours and the service fee was not waved.”Heather Blagg — Google, 20 March 2026
“The mechanic came out, was here for 2 1/2 hours. I was charged for 3 1/2 hours of service. He got here at 8:05 am and left at 10:25 am.”Debbie Heusner — Google, 14 August 2026
“I made note of the start and finish times and upon seeing my invoice I contacted the company and was given the explanation each job is assigned/required so many hours. Well you don’t charge for service time you didn’t perform.”Frank Sanders — Google, 23 April 2026
“they require their techs to spend at minimum 7 hours a job even if the repair or service doesn’t take that long or else they get in trouble.”Parker Ellis — Google, 20 October 2025
“I was billed for 2.5 hours where no actual repair work was being performed — it was simply waiting time.”Doug B. — Yelp, 15 February 2026
A small fee at booking is reported to become an ongoing monthly debit, in some accounts appearing under an unfamiliar merchant name.
“They charge you 19 for appointment fee. But when they take that they put a reoccuring fee on you bank account. That way they can take more money without authorization.”Jef B. — Yelp, 14 May 2026
“Stay away, will enroll you in a monthly subscription without mentioning it.”Corey A. — Yelp, 16 May 2026
“It took me 4 months to figure out what that $19.97 charge was because for the first three months the vendor making the charge showed differently.”Jay G. — Yelp, 19 July 2026
Customers describe asking for one specific thing and being billed for a broad inspection they did not authorize.
“I asked for a diagnostic of my batteries… they came over and spent 11 hours doing a full inspection of the boat without my approval. they didn’t fix ANYTHING!”JOHN PALMISANO — Google, 2 October 2025
“The mechanic who came out spent 5 HOURS on my boat without identifying or even seriously attempting to diagnose the ACTUAL ISSUE.”Thaliton Alves — Google, 2 July 2025
Several customers report being told a lien would be placed on their vessel. Note that under Florida law a repairer’s possessory lien on personal property is lost when the property leaves the repairer’s possession — Fla. Stat. § 713.58(3).
“they sent me a $1,000 bill for this so-called ‘SERVICE’ and are now THREATENING to place a LIEN on my boat. This is not just BAD SERVICE—this feels PREDATORY.”Thaliton Alves — Google, 2 July 2025
“He was EXTREMELY RUDE, threatened to put a lien on my jet ski and take me to court if I did not pay immediately.”Stephanie Johnson — Google, 19 February 2026
“Received our bill and in less than 24 hours get a threatening text message to turn us into authorities…”Tammy K. — Yelp, 29 March 2026
The BBB’s finding of 64 unanswered complaints is echoed directly in the reviews.
“The company was responsive to all requests until the charge was taken. Now they are non-existent…”Jay T. — Yelp, 8 August 2025
“have called and emailed numerous times and no one returns calls or emails.. disputing the charge with our credit card company.”Tammy A. — Yelp, 3 July 2026
Poseidon’s automated post-service text message, sent to customers on the day of service, includes the following, in capitals as transmitted:
“THERE IS STILL A CHANCE TO GET MORE OUT OF YOUR SERVICE. A 5 STAR GOOGLE REVIEW SHOWN TO YOUR SERVICE ADVISOR COULD GET YOU MORE DISCOUNTS ON TODAYS SERVICE. SO HEAD OVER TO GOOGLE HIT THAT 5 STAR AND GET MORE DISCOUNTS TODAY! DON’T WAIT!”
Offering compensation conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment is prohibited by the Federal Trade Commission’s Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 C.F.R. § 465.4, which makes it an unfair or deceptive act to “provide compensation or other incentives in exchange for, or conditioned expressly or by implication on, the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative.”
This may explain the unusual shape of the company’s Google profile, which is sharply bimodal: 52 one-star reviews against 34 five-star, with only 7 reviews anywhere in between. If you were offered a discount for a five-star review, the FTC accepts reports at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Nothing on this page is an opinion about what the company intended. Every figure comes from one of these sources, all of which are free and public.
Recovering your own payment ends your problem. It does not end the pattern. These filings cost nothing but time, they work in parallel, and they are what builds a record that eventually matters to someone with the authority to act.
These are the questions people search for most often before booking a mobile marine repair, or immediately after seeing a charge they did not expect.
Poseidon Marine Mechanics, LLC is a real, operating mobile marine repair company in Florida. The question raised by its public record is not whether it exists but how it bills.
The Better Business Bureau rates it F, reports 64 complaints the business failed to respond to, and has made an express finding that it “failed to resolve underlying cause(s) of a pattern of complaints.” Of 120 public Google and Yelp reviews compiled here, 79 are one or two stars.
The company’s automated post-service text message offers customers a discount in exchange for posting a five-star Google review. Offering compensation conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment is prohibited by the FTC’s Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 C.F.R. § 465.4.
The effect shows in the numbers: the Google profile is sharply bimodal — 52 one-star reviews against 34 five-star, with only 7 anywhere in between. Genuine review distributions rarely look like that.
File a billing dispute with your card issuer, in writing, and frame it as services not as described rather than as a price complaint. Attach the invoice and any written service report the company sent you — if their own paperwork says the problem was not resolved or that no parts were installed, that is the case.
The Fair Credit Billing Act generally allows about 60 days from the statement showing the charge, so move quickly. Full instructions are near the top of this page.
No. A consumer cannot contract away the billing-error rights conferred by the Fair Credit Billing Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1666 et seq. A merchant’s terms of service do not override a federal right, and the presence of such a clause tells you something about the merchant.
There is no federal or Florida EPA levy on marine repair invoices. A line item by that name is a shop charge, not a government charge. It is worth questioning generally, and particularly on a visit where nothing was disposed of and no parts were installed.
While you are looking: Florida generally does not tax services, and repair labor becomes taxable when the shop furnishes parts. An invoice showing $0.00 in parts and $0.00 in shop supplies that still charges sales tax is worth a question — and a report to the Florida Department of Revenue.
Numerous customers report that a small booking fee — commonly around $19.97 to $30 — enrolled them in a recurring monthly membership they say was never clearly disclosed. Several report the charge appearing under an unfamiliar merchant name and taking months to identify. Some report an early-cancellation fee on top.
Check your statements going back several months, and dispute any charge you did not knowingly authorize.
Several customers report being threatened with one when they questioned a bill. Under Fla. Stat. § 713.58(3), a repairer’s possessory lien on personal property is “released, relinquished, and lost by the removal of such property.” A mobile repairer that never had your vessel in its possession has no possessory lien to assert.
Customers repeatedly report being quoted an hourly rate but refused a total in advance, and then receiving an invoice with no breakdown of hours or tasks. One reviewer states they were told hours are “assigned” per job rather than billed as worked.
Before booking any mobile marine work — with this company or any other — get a written estimate with a hard dollar cap, and written confirmation that no work beyond that cap proceeds without your approval.