On July 18th, my party of 20+ people (including 12 under the age of 18) paid to park our car at GRC. Our agenda was to put in at Jerry's with rental and private equipment, float the river, exit at GRC, drive our car from GRC to Jerry's to retrieve our other cars, drive back to GRC and pick-up the remainder of our party. When parking at GRC, we made our agenda completely transparent to the parking attendant, who agreed to let us park there and exit the river at GRC. While waiting to be picked up, members of my party were approached numerous times by GRC employees and asked to pay a per person exit fee. One of the GRC employees was rude and aggressive; demanding we pay or he was going to call the police. We told him we already paid and he could call the police if he wanted, but we were not leaving since we had paid to be there. When the police arrived, the GRC employee told the officer that my party was being disruptive and that he wanted us off his property. My party was not being disruptive; they were standing with our equipment waiting to be picked up. The officer said GRC was private property and my party had to leave. This story ends with my party standing on the side of Gruene Road (with 2 children under 2 yrs old), in heavy traffic. It was a great day on the river with a rotten ending; an ending created by GRC employees. GRC and their employees acted unethically and put my party in danger.
Here is a copy of the FTC report I have already filed for this business:
I found a parking map on the city of New Braunfels website that showed free parking near this business. I wanted to get in the river and float back to the home we were staying in by the river. When we arrived, we confirmed that the parking was free and started walking toward the river. We were approached by employees of Gruene River Co. That were distributing inner tubes to their customers as they walked to the river. We already had our own, so we walked past them. They approached us and told us to stop. They told us that a new law passed by the city of New Braunfels required us to go up to the office (they pointed toward the Gruene River Co. building) and purchase a wristband (for a "couple bucks") if we wanted to get in the river and that the city was collecting a certain portion of the wristband sales. I questioned this, because I was not aware of any such law. I asked how many dollars the wristbands cost and they refused to answer directly. The employees then told me that there were police officers in the river that would ticket me if I did not have a wristband. They told me that there was no way that I could get into the river for free, which I now understand is an outright lie. Eventually, they realized that I was not going to pay them to get in the river and said that "it's late in the day and the police probably won't be patrolling the river so [I'd] probably be fine." These employees clearly used the threat of law enforcement to attempt to force me to purchase their services. While I refused to pay, I fear that many others would be succeptable to this kind of lie and have likely already been a victim.
That explains it pretty well. They tried to make me think I'd be breaking the law if I didn't purchase services from their business. It should be noted that a fee for using the river was proposed by the city council, but the law was struck down and never went in to effect.
Gruene River Company Reviews
On July 18th, my party of 20+ people (including 12 under the age of 18) paid to park our car at GRC. Our agenda was to put in at Jerry's with rental and private equipment, float the river, exit at GRC, drive our car from GRC to Jerry's to retrieve our other cars, drive back to GRC and pick-up the remainder of our party. When parking at GRC, we made our agenda completely transparent to the parking attendant, who agreed to let us park there and exit the river at GRC. While waiting to be picked up, members of my party were approached numerous times by GRC employees and asked to pay a per person exit fee. One of the GRC employees was rude and aggressive; demanding we pay or he was going to call the police. We told him we already paid and he could call the police if he wanted, but we were not leaving since we had paid to be there. When the police arrived, the GRC employee told the officer that my party was being disruptive and that he wanted us off his property. My party was not being disruptive; they were standing with our equipment waiting to be picked up. The officer said GRC was private property and my party had to leave. This story ends with my party standing on the side of Gruene Road (with 2 children under 2 yrs old), in heavy traffic. It was a great day on the river with a rotten ending; an ending created by GRC employees. GRC and their employees acted unethically and put my party in danger.
Here is a copy of the FTC report I have already filed for this business:
I found a parking map on the city of New Braunfels website that showed free parking near this business. I wanted to get in the river and float back to the home we were staying in by the river. When we arrived, we confirmed that the parking was free and started walking toward the river. We were approached by employees of Gruene River Co. That were distributing inner tubes to their customers as they walked to the river. We already had our own, so we walked past them. They approached us and told us to stop. They told us that a new law passed by the city of New Braunfels required us to go up to the office (they pointed toward the Gruene River Co. building) and purchase a wristband (for a "couple bucks") if we wanted to get in the river and that the city was collecting a certain portion of the wristband sales. I questioned this, because I was not aware of any such law. I asked how many dollars the wristbands cost and they refused to answer directly. The employees then told me that there were police officers in the river that would ticket me if I did not have a wristband. They told me that there was no way that I could get into the river for free, which I now understand is an outright lie. Eventually, they realized that I was not going to pay them to get in the river and said that "it's late in the day and the police probably won't be patrolling the river so [I'd] probably be fine." These employees clearly used the threat of law enforcement to attempt to force me to purchase their services. While I refused to pay, I fear that many others would be succeptable to this kind of lie and have likely already been a victim.
That explains it pretty well. They tried to make me think I'd be breaking the law if I didn't purchase services from their business. It should be noted that a fee for using the river was proposed by the city council, but the law was struck down and never went in to effect.