What would you do? AITA?

[fullytek]

I would request a refund even if someone died.

And you should not be diving

 

[Still Kicking]

I was working a boat once (actually diving on a personal day but agreed to guide a passenger who needed extra attention). While we were under another passenger had a medical issue and died.

The captain told everyone they would get a full refund and was ordered by CG to return to port for paperwork.

The guy I was guiding could not understand why we couldn't keep diving.

When we got back early he didn't have a ride home (his mom was going to collect him). I gave him a ride and he threw up in my car. Didn't offer to clean up. Yeah it was a **** day.

 

[USdiver1]

I was working a boat once (actually diving on a personal day but agreed to guide a passenger who needed extra attention). While we were under another passenger had a medical issue and died.

The captain told everyone they would get a full refund and was ordered by CG to return to port for paperwork.

The guy I was guiding could not understand why we couldn't keep diving.

When we got back early he didn't have a ride home (his mom was going to collect him). I gave him a ride and he threw up in my car. Didn't offer to clean up. Yeah it was a **** day.

No good deed goes unpunished.

If I ever run a charter boat, I am putting up PT Barnum’s saying for all to see:

“Ya pays ya money, and ya takes ya chances’

Y’all are on notice if you want to dive from my vessel.

 

[gamon]

And you should not be diving

Me? I'm good. I show up, I do the dives I paid for, I don't ruin anyone's day.

The divers that mess up and get hurt or worse, THEY shouldn't have been diving.

Those who think it's ok to pocket the funds of their fellow divers and not provide the services they paid for shouldn't be running a dive boat.

 

[CathyE]

Did the charter operator bring you to the dive site and back safely? Yes or no?

Did the customer pay for a pleasure cruise or a dive? Yes or no?

Maybe I look at this differently than most as we don't really do charters for the money. Well it is for the money but it’s not how we make our living. If my objective was to make money I would go into my shop on a Saturday and probably make more money by lunch time than I would all weekend on the boat.

With that established, we have a short summer and run small boats to unique destinations.
We are divers and have a young fiamily so we have better things to do than spend a weekend with some entitled Karen.

We have a good book of busness that are mostly repeat coustomers. And the only new clients we pick up are throughly vetted and ofter come with a referral from another operator or client.

If you want to dive some of our more advanced sites you need to come dive our less challenging dive sites first. This practice allows us to varify your ability and allows our clients to build trust in our ability to safely provide our services.

We have refused our services to clubs, shops, and divers who lack the inwater skills or personal conduct standards we require.

You pay us for the boat ride . If we get blown out you get a credit.

We rarely have an issues with medical distress because we are picky about who we allow on or vessels.

Our weekends are to valuable to spend with people we don't like .

And your safety is more valuable than your money or your feelings

It so sweet that you have a young family, and totally irrelevant. It’s unfortunate for divers in your area that they have so few options and have to put up with your arrogance.

There's no such thing as lost charter revenue insurance.​

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The operator brought them to the dive site and back safely. They spent the time , burned the fuel, houred up the engines and assumed the tremendous liability. Maybe mercury credit will give them a brake on there outboard payments because they didn't make any money that day. Maybe loyds will give them free insurance. Maybe the dock space will be free.​

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Asking for a refund when someone may have been hurt is in poor taste and makes you an awful person.​

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The dive industry is in massive decline. As profits in the industry are scarce. You got one of 2 planned dives in you returned safely.​

Be thankful that there's an operator willing to take you out in the first place.​

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Stop being so selfish.​

Stop being so entitled, if you can’t provide the contracted service you need to make it up to your customer. People pay for a dive charter to go diving, a pleasure cruise is a different excursion.

And you should not be diving

Good thing that’s not your call.

 

[brsnow]

It would have never entered my mind to consider a refund.

 

[TMHeimer]

I admit not reading all the posts. I would see what your contract says and act accordingly. Assuming you signed something.

 

[JMarc]

In the OP case, I'd not have asked nor expected a refund.


For the general discussion, I find some are expressing opinions which are lacking of nuances. For me, expecting or not a refund for dives not done depend quite a lot of the specific of the services provided by the operator, the reason for the cancellation and perhaps also local customs. Two extremes of things which may be called charter (at least that's my understanding as a non native speaker) where my expectation is different for a no-departure due to weather case.

- booking for a buddy and me in a shop which operate with random clients, starting from the port twice a day. I expect not to pay if the weather prevent to leave the port.

- booking the whole boat for a group and agree to start from another port to go to a specific wreck rarely dived, so the boat has to be moved before the diving day and then back later. Weather prevent the departure from the rendez-vous port. I expect to pay something, and that could be a sizable part of the total, but I also expect that to be specified in the contract and a weather check with go/no-go decision a reasonable time before the planned dive.


See also this related discussion.

 

[gamon]

I wonder how many customers Greg has lost to his competitors for unreasonable policies that he considers to be fair because it's "sharing the risk". Not surprisingly, there are no listed cancelation policies on his commercial website which hasn't been updated since 2024. It says nothing about his charters other than "email to book", and has a huge "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" banner on it, nor is there any stated policies on the FB page which has only about a 1/2 dozen posts in the past year and only a small handful of replies.

From a scuba diving charter in the same general area as @fullytek

For local charters, a deposit is required to hold your spot, and the full amount is due 2 weeks before the charter date. All charters are non-refundable. Please let us know if you are unable to go. If we are able to fill your spot, you will receive a store credit for your charter fee. If the charter is cancelled by Dirty Adventures Scuba or the boat operator due to unforeseeable circumstances, a full refund will be provided.

Policies | Dirty Adventures

The boring (but unfortunately important) fine print for our scuba diving classes, charters, trips, and more.

www.dirtyadventures.ca

 

[NothingClever]

2. Every one I know will be told of the crappy policy, Reviews on yelp, trip advisor, Reddit, Scubaboard, etc.

Glad you made your position clear. That’ll whip those recalcitrant dive operations into shape.