Am in Coz now, had my Dive Op cancel due to lack of bookings

[firstdive2005]

I will never recommend a dive operator anywhere that wont take a diver out that has reserved a spot. I dont care who it is.
In this case the op had a dive buddy cancel. That took Tony somewhat off the hook. That is if he only found out the day reidlowe showed up.
Not all vacationers and dive people are on this board. What happens to them if they get dropped. This is not the first time this has happened. Many times I have been sitting at Villa Blanca and a lone diver comes up to say- I need a dive shop to take me out. So, yes it may happen more now, but it has happened in the past too. The last time that happened to me down there was the last I hope.
I'm happy that Reidlowe got out, nothing worse than hearing of a bad dive experience on this island. Nice that it all worked out. Now the guardians can rest.

 

[loudives]

I dive with an owner/operator one small boat. Many the time I am the only diver reserved with him. I realize the expense involved with taking the boat out, so even though he will take me out, I ask him to check around to other dive ops that may have room. On most occasions he finds an acceptable Op that will take us both! I still dive with my Dive Op just getting a ride on a different boat. It is hard to take a loss and I for one would not do that to an OP if there was an alternative.

This has allowed me to meet other Dive Ops and make many new friends over the last 15 years. All these Ops cooperate and that's healthy.

Thanks to:

Raul-- Bottom Time Divers
Michaella--Liquid Blue Divers
Christi-- BlueXTsea Divers
Jeremy-- Living Underwater
Alison-- Dive with Alison

 

[olphart]

I never seem to see Pelagic Ventures mentioned. I've always had great times with Troy, and his DM, Alex, is outstanding. He also made sure I got my night dive when he couldn't do it on his boat.

 

[reidlowe]

Gordon--I realize that he wasn't abandoned. I would still feel slighted, though.

Definitely don't feel sleighted, we dove 1:1 on Sunday, I went out with his DM yesterday and we dove Cedras and Dalila, both were awesome, saw some great lobsters a couple crabs including one that could/should have been a King...got some nice video of that.

He called me last night to line up today and has a tentative setup for the next day with some folks, that will help fill my dance card. So the adhocs are doing well at the last minute and Tony is doing an amazing job keeping me in the water after flying down for the ten days.

Nothing but praise from me, as I noted at the top, was wondering who to call and what to do...seems in this situation, I'm in the best of hands, which is a rarity these days.

Bubbles below,

Reid

 

[kmurray719]

I will never recommend a dive operator anywhere that wont take a diver out that has reserved a spot. I dont care who it is.
In this case the op had a dive buddy cancel. That took Tony somewhat off the hook.

IMO, the buddy cancelling makes a huge difference if the scenario were as the thread title suggested (which, with the information that has been added, seems to be quite misleading). If the situation were as it was presented (dive op actually cancelling instead of accommodating the customer) the "agreement" between the dive op and customer was two divers at $X for X days. If the customer changes that agreement at the last minute, cutting the dive ops revenue for those days by 50%, why should anyone expect to get the same service while only paying 1/2 as much as they agreed to? That's like booking a hotel room, then showing up and saying "Gee, my friend can no longer come, I'd like to pay you 1/2 of the rate I booked for and still have the same room, okay?" I doubt anyone would expect that or think it was reasonable.

FWIW, I have booked diving as a single customer, and have been taken out as the only person on the boat. Had I known that in advance I would have insisted that not happen. My day of diving is just not important enough for someone (other than me!) to take a financial hit for. It's diving, and as long as I get to blow bubbles and have decent pleasant service I'm happy. I liken it to diving at home; while I generally prefer to dive with my usual buddies, with whom I know what to expect, and it's easy and comfortable, I'm always happy to dive with a new buddy and have a new experience too.

 

[DandyDon]

I flew to St.Marteen a day early for a Windjammer cruise when I was new to scuba, after making local dive reservations there, overnighted at a hotel, took a cab to the shop - where they told me that they didn't have anyone else to go so couldn't take me. I politely but sternly admonished them for not giving me any warnings about the possibility nor contacting me the day before so I could make other arrangements, so - they decided to put me on a boat with a class, add a DM to dive with me, and it worked out well.

Really, if they'd sent me out as the only diver with a DM & Captain on a boat, I would have felt bad for them. I regret that I didn't tip the DM well enough but hell I didn't know then.​

Another time I booked with a Playa del Carmen Op telling him I'd have 4 divers, but later told him that it'd be just the 2 of us and I hoped he could fill the space okay. I was a little irritated that he waited until I arrived to tell us we had to pay for a private boat, but in reviewing our email exchanges accepted that I had taken a lot of his time and caused confusions so we paid & dived.

On group trips I used to sponsor (don't! no good deed goes unpunished!), I got first hand experience in trying to match divers to boats - minimums, maximums, similar experience levels, people changing their minds & plans, etc - and it is a challenge to be sure.

This thread was much ado about nothing I think, altho I certainly understand and appreciate Reidlowe's feelings. Glad it was a manageable problem that could and was resolved, rather than a norther blow-out, hurricane evacuation, motor failure, boat sinking or any other real problem. I've been thru some of those real ones.

It's been an interesting exchange of views and information tho, SB style...

 

[ggunn]

IMO, the buddy cancelling makes a huge difference if the scenario were as the thread title suggested (which, with the information that has been added, seems to be quite misleading). If the situation were as it was presented (dive op actually cancelling instead of accommodating the customer) the "agreement" between the dive op and customer was two divers at $X for X days. If the customer changes that agreement at the last minute, cutting the dive ops revenue for those days by 50%, why should anyone expect to get the same service while only paying 1/2 as much as they agreed to? That's like booking a hotel room, then showing up and saying "Gee, my friend can no longer come, I'd like to pay you 1/2 of the rate I booked for and still have the same room, okay?" I doubt anyone would expect that or think it was reasonable.

I thought the same as well. It wasn't just the op changing things.

ButI think it's unreasonable to expect the op to take a loss by taking me out alone, regardless of how the situation arose. As I have said, I think it's fine that some ops can afford to do it and no doubt it's great customer service, but I would not feel right about holding an op's feet to the fire over it. If they move me to another boat with similar service, that's fine with me. It's better that one op show a profit and another break even than they both take a loss. Putting on my "greenie" hat for a moment, it's wasteful and more polluting for multiple boats to go out with single divers when one boat could take out multiple divers.

 

[judydivescoz]

sorry...self deletion

 

[Jackie]

I tend to avoid posts that are in the least negative, because it does not seem to be worth the trouble to be jumped on by those who have had a different experience.
On the other hand, the problem referred to by the OP who was also treading very carefully also pointed to my experience.
I had booked well in advance, including a making deposit with Tony. We had the times set in advance for my partners OW dives. A few things happened some within our control others not.
Tony also took our discover scuba people from a cruiseship at the same time. The instruction for the discover scuba took place on the boat in the harbor prior to our departure. As one might imagine this took a lot of time and also one of the people was very frightened which took even longer..Tony was pretty critical of my set up, especially my wetsuit. Hey I get cold if the water is below my body temperature. Its just the way I am and yes it is a hassle to need the extra weight but I prefer being cozy and warm, which is why I have a dry suit for the northeast. The drag for me was trying to stay negative in a 3/5mm wetsuit(that was not wet or compressed from a previous dive) in 8 ft of water for the discover scuba folks who were struggling. .We eventually did end up in 20' of water to do the O/W skills.We did not do a safety stop on this dive as it was so shallow (I had never heard of this and I made it as far as DM candidate).

We finished dive one, we had to go back to the dock with the cruise ship people. Once back out on the water, there was a terrible thunderstorm complete with lightning, winds with pelting rain. At this point, we were doing surface tows and such on the surface as well as the usual dive 2 skills at 20-25 ft according to my computer... This was not a good first experience for my partner. Oh and again no safety stop.

Our next two dives were scheduled for the following day. Tony only had one other client booked. Unfortunately, that night my friend developed terrible pain and we ended up at the medical clinic in the morning where he was hooked up on IV's given pain meds and antibiotics for what was tentatively diagnosed as diverticulitis (not diving related). However, this did make following our dive schedule impossible and we ended up returning home two days later. Tony was very upset that I did not dive with him as scheduled that morning (when I was at the climic) as now he was left with one diver with a promise to take him to the southern most reefs. Again as mentioned an unfortunate loss for the business. He also was pretty unhappy that we would not be diving with him as planned and our meeting to exchange the phone and the return of my dive equipment was tense and unpleasant.
I do think that on a better day we would have had a different experience. I also believe that Tony caters best to the very new diver (although not in our specific instance), which is perhaps why he gets such glowing reviews.
It is clear that this is a very hard time for the operators, and perhaps this does not bring out the best, when the plan does not work.

 

[firstdive2005]

Wow what a sad visit. Sorry that you did not get to have what you dreamt about. I had what your friend is going through. I had 6 inches of intestine removed 2 yrs ago. I'm a new man now. It took years of suffering when the episodes happened. They are excruciatingly painful. I sure hope you two can get back. And your right as many people there are, there are circumstances of distress in travel that are unavoidable. Usually they happen at the wrong time for both parties.
I can see him being shook up over loosing money but not a call for being rude if he knew of your situation. It's probably a 'not another one' call that he has had lately. Tough times.
It's also strange about being mad about your wetsuit choice. Must be more there.