bad drop: ya pay yer money and take your chances?

[String]

It seems to me that the questions you are asking are the same questions the OP is asking himself.

Who couldnt be bothered to ask the boat operator so came on here moaning instead.

 

[boulderjohn]

Who couldnt be bothered to ask the boat operator so came on here moaning instead.

Disagreeing with someone's decision is not a good reason to be insulting.

 

[boulderjohn]

I fail to see how the dive masters lack of psychic abilities entitles a diver to a refund there. Its the sea, its not a constant, things change, people no matter how experienced can misjudge. You either accept their best judgment or you do a better job yourself. By following the DM you trust his better judgment and he made a mistake. No big deal - ***** happens. Humans cant control the sea.

Boy, you should contact the dive operators who run thousands of boats a year in that area of the world that they don't know what they are doing with their expectations.

By the way, a lot of them do not use psychic powers to determine the direction of the current. There are other ways to do it.

 

[String]

There are other way of doing it and not one of them is 100% accurate. There are times when the best judge of the area that has ever existed will get it wrong. People need to accept it happens. If they cant, do it themselves and see if they can do it.

I get really sick of the constant seek to blame others attitude. People need to accept that fact that occasionally things wont be perfect and when they arent you need to accept it and move on and not look for settlement.

 

[Christi]

As a dive operator myself, here are my two pesos:

It does sound to me like the crew screwed up and missed the drop. IF that is in fact the case, then as an operator, I would offer compensation.

If on the other hand there were some extenuating circumstances and it really wasn't the "fault" of the crew, then I'd say chalk it up as a bad day/bad dive.

HOWEVER. Given the fact that you didn't even make an attempt to address this with the operator I think you need to accept part of the responsibility here. You have no idea how the operator would have handled the situation or whether they would have offered you any compensation because you didn't even give them the opportunity to resolve the issue. You can't assume the crew told the operator that they screwed up if that's what happened. So it's very likely the op thinks you had a great time and a nice dive unless you told them otherwise.

I think it's appropriate that you haven't named the op in Cancun, but I also think that complaining here without giving the op an opportunity to make things right is inappropriate.

Dive ops are not mind readers and unless the divers express their disatisfaction, they can't fix those problems...so you are not only doing yourself a disservice by not saying something, but also to future customers of that operation.

 

[Christi]

There are other way of doing it and not one of them is 100% accurate. There are times when the best judge of the area that has ever existed will get it wrong. People need to accept it happens. If they cant, do it themselves and see if they can do it.

A good crew can make drops in the correct locations and knows how to read the currents, etc. if they are familiar with the area barring unusual circumstances. So yes, the crew is at least partially to blame here.

I get really sick of the constant seek to blame others attitude. People need to accept that fact that occasionally things wont be perfect and when they arent you need to accept it and move on and not look for settlement.

I agree to a certain point. However, when you are paying a professional to do their ob, you expect that they know their job and will provide the services paid for. If that professional doesn't provide the services advertised and paid for, barring extenuating circumstances, then they owe compensation to the customer. IMPO

 

[String]

A good crew can make drops in the correct locations and knows how to read the currents, etc. if they are familiar with the area barring unusual circumstances. So yes, the crew is at least partially to blame here.

I still maintain nobody can 100% guess conditions 100% of the time. Occasionally people get it wrong.

I agree to a certain point. However, when you are paying a professional to do their ob, you expect that they know their job and will provide the services paid for. If that professional doesn't provide the services advertised and paid for, barring extenuating circumstances, then they owe compensation to the customer. IMPO

Do they advertise a 100% correct drop rate? If not you have no right to expect it. And no matter how professional someone is, sometimes they get things wrong.

 

[boulderjohn]

Do they advertise a 100% correct drop rate? If not you have no right to expect it. And no matter how professional someone is, sometimes they get things wrong.

Perhaps you missed the part where Christi mentioned that she is a dive operator. She in fact runs one of the best dive operations in Cozumel. If you go to the Cozumel forum and search for recommended dive operators, you will see that clearly.

If she expects her divemasters to make correct decisions under normal circumstances, then there is probably something to it.

 

[String]

Still doesnt excuse the fact that nobody is 100% correct 100% of the time.

Even "normal" situations can differ and people can misjudge them.

Ive yet to see a diver operator manage to hire robots or one that claims "100% of times on the wreck under normal conditions".

Its a promise nobody can keep and an unrealistic expectation for a diver.

 

[wallacm]

I had an experience like that in west palm beach. the DM kept pulling and gliding on the sand, i ended up saying screw this and surfacing. made the captain redrop me, and i landed up current on the bow and was able to drift down the rest of the wreck. was a great dive