RR
Ryan Robbins
Oct 3, 2025
My father-in-law has been a loyal customer of Safe Harbor Oxford Marina for over 14 years, fueling his boats with gasoline countless times without issue. On September 28th, he clearly asked for gasoline, but was handed a diesel pump by Safe Harbor staff. When the error was discovered, instead of taking responsibility, the local GM, Graham Norbury, blamed him, bullied him, and charged him thousands of dollars for Safe Harbor’s mistake.
The charges included:
$188.88 for the wrong fuel he never requested.
$2,755.57 for a “pump-out” fee that was grossly inflated. the essentially held his boat hostage an coerced him into paying the fee to get is boat back.
An $80 credit card surcharge.
Another $194.87 for additional fuel just to move the boat.
In total, Safe Harbor extracted $3,139.25 from a senior citizen customer who had done nothing wrong. When I called Mr. Norbury to resolve this, he was hostile, hung up on me, and claimed he had “no boss.”
This behavior reflects not only negligence but deceptive and coercive practices. It mirrors allegations already raised in lawsuits against Safe Harbor in other states — inflated fees, hidden surcharges, and pressure tactics to force payment.
Safe Harbor’s corporate leadership has been contacted. If this is how they treat long-standing customers, I strongly warn others to proceed with caution.
Update 11/7/25
Following my original review, Safe Harbor’s corporate office replied publicly and asked that we email them. My father-in-law, the actual customer affected did exactly that and spoke directly with Jason at Safe Harbor corporate on October 28, after sharing what happened. Jason said he would follow up, but no one from Safe Harbor has contacted us since.
It’s now clear that Safe Harbor’s approach to “customer service” is to post polite replies online for appearances, then disappear once the attention dies down.
The facts remain unchanged:
A Safe Harbor employee handed my father-in-law the wrong fuel (diesel instead of gasoline).
The marina blamed him, charged him over $3,100, and profited from fixing their own mistake.
When we tried to resolve the issue, the local GM was hostile and corporate stopped responding.
Safe Harbor had every opportunity to make this right and chose not to. After 14 years of loyalty, this is how they treat their customers. Be warned if they make a mistake, you’ll pay for it, and no one will return your calls.
You can't imagine how great this marina used to be, years ago, before the safe harbor corporation stepped in.
..we've had our boat at kings point marina, NC for well almost a quarter century. As you know, safeharbor bought the marina a few years ago. The policies are ruthless and pricing increases are exploitative. We paid our boat fees last season all up front, as required, in the very beginning of the season. The boat was damaged and was not used for the remainder of the season after 1 use. Repair people on our lake were unavailable. We moved the boat from the marina toward the end of 3/2023, because the high fees have become unaffordable at almost $3000/year for dry dock at lake.
Safeharbor happily charged almost $800 for less than 30 days..$30/day, that's outrageous pricing for a retired veteran. Requesting reconsideration.