Cozumel Trip Report, Late May – Early June 2017

[Ironborn]

Also, he was NEVER denied a night dive on Wednesday or Saturday when we guaranty night dives regardless of load. He was denied a night dive on one "non-guaranteed" night because others were not interested. I just don't understand how he came up with those items.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Your above statement is false. I was denied a night dive on a Saturday night, one of the two nights for Aldora's "guaranteed" night dives. I still have a copy of the email correspondence documenting my booking for a night dive on that Saturday night, and Aldora's guarantee that it would occur regardless of demand (or lack thereof) from other divers. When I showed up for that dive, Aldora informed me that they had canceled it due to a lack of demand from other divers.

 

[BDSC]

Would you mind sharing those emails on this thread? That way we can see who is telling the truth.

 

[Ironborn]

Would you mind sharing those emails on this thread? That way we can see who is telling the truth.

Gladly. Here is a screen shot of one of those emails, in which Aldora confirmed my reservation for that "guaranteed" night dive on a Saturday night. When I showed up for that dive, I learned that they had canceled it due to a lack of interest from other divers.

To be clear: I did also request two-tank twilight trips or any other one-tank afternoon or night dives that they might have on any other afternoons or nights. They did not have any, due to lack of demand from other divers. I understood and respected their inability to accommodate me on those other afternoons/evenings, they were up front with me about it, and I cannot fault them for it. I just went to other operators for those afternoons and evenings. I do, however, have a problem with false advertising and guarantees that do not materialize.

 

[Ironborn]

Would you mind sharing those emails on this thread? That way we can see who is telling the truth.

Also, please see this text message from Saturday, May 27, in which I noted Aldora's cancellation of the "guaranteed" Saturday night dive. The time zone settings on my phone, now that I am back home in New York, show a time stamp of 7:16 PM EST, so I sent this text message at 6:16 PM CST on a Saturday.

I had learned that 3P also had a night dive that night, so I just went down the street to their office instead, and we had a great night dive at Paradise Reef.

 

[BDSC]

Thanks.

It does appear from your first link that they had you signed up for a night dive on one of their guaranteed nights. Not sure why Dave said you were not. Maybe he will explain.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

I am trying to figure it out but obviously I was not there at the time…but since 1992 all of my staff has known that we do not deny a Wednesday or Saturday night, even if only one person. Could there be a misunderstand on either side, I suppose so and will find out.

I also hope the poster now understands why an air integrated dive computer failure (giving no indication of air supply at depth) could require extreme caution and I'd never send such person up alone.

Dave

PS Is it possible that the staff did not expect a night dive that night (which would have needed your input earlier in the day). Sure, we guaranty night dives but don't set up boats and crew unless we are sure someone is going. You said you just "showed up" and maybe we were not expecting you. Communication can be bad in any language.

 

[Ironborn]

I am trying to figure it out but obviously I was not there at the time…but since 1992 all of my staff has known that we do not deny a Wednesday or Saturday night, even if only one person. Could there be a misunderstand on either side, I suppose so and will find out.

Dave

PS Is it possible that the staff did not expect a night dive that night (which would have needed your input earlier in the day). Sure, we guaranty night dives but don't set up boats and crew unless we are sure someone is going. You said you just "showed up" and maybe we were not expecting you. Communication can be bad in any language.

I booked that Saturday night dive, along with my other two-tank morning trips, in February 2017, so Aldora had plenty of advance notice. I also reconfirmed it a few days before via email, as indicated in the email screen shot that I shared above, which I will post here again. Aldora's email response indicates that they were clearly aware of my request and had put me on the schedule for that dive. When I showed up at the designated time, Aldora indicated that they were aware of my booking and had been expecting me, but they would not honor my "guaranteed" booking because they did not have any other divers. So your proposed explanations above do not hold water.

 

[BDSC]

You are right Ironborn. It is clear from the email you provided that they had you down for one of the guaranteed days for a night dive. Dave seems to be just making excuses for their screw-up. How he comes up with the idea that you just came strolling in off the cuff is beyond me when it is CLEAR when they had you down for a night dive. Someone just didn't feel like getting wet that night.

 

[robint]

Here is MY opinion...... miscommunications happen, and sometimes a bad impression is made on BOTH sides. I think that is what happened here. Just my opinion.

We have all done it....
I personally take full responsibility for doing similar thing back in 2009 with our first trip to ScubaClub.
We arrived mid-week...our mistake, not realizing that most people do Sat-Sat and the boat assignments are setup and people are used to who is on their boat, from other divers to DMs, it just starts things off wrong.
We didn't realize that we had to sign up on a signup sheet every single day for diving. Makes sense, but we just didn't know to do it...so we rubbed the Dive shop workers wrong when we complained the first day we weren't on the board. Just a little thing, but they began to add up. We wanted to do a night dive, but they have a minimum, and no others had signed up...we complained about it, and they put out a sheet for sign up, people signed up and we got to go. But we had been annoying about it, so another strike against us.

Then we asked about an afternoon boat dive, were told they didn't have one set up for that day...then we came back a little later from walking to the store and discovered a boat was sitting out front and people were bringing gear. We asked why we couldn't go on it. We were told it was a group doing a 2-tank. We complained very loudly, and they finally told us we could go on it. We ran and got our gear then got on a boat with a dive group who didn't know us..it worked out okay, but we were definitely the "odd guy out".

By the last day, I think the guys working in the dive shop went running when they saw us walking up....LOL No kidding.
The diving was fantastic, the shore dive was everything we had hoped for, and the hotel and food was perfect. But...We got home from this trip, fuming mad that we didn't like SCC and would never go there again.

But after a few months, and going back throug our dive logs and photos, we changed our minds. We had a fantastic dive trip overall. We realized we had probably not handled things the best and decided to go back.

We booked to arrive on Saturday this time, and it was like NIGHT and DAY from the previous trip. We got assigned to a boat and a DM for the week, and the dive shop system was not new to us any longer. We signed up as we needed, and the dive shop workers loved us. Seriously, it was a complete turn around...... all because the first trip we got off on the wrong foot, and it all built up and we both irritated each other at every turn. We didn't understand THEIR system, and it made us look like aholes and the dive shop look like aholes. Neither of us were...it was all a communication problem from the word go. They have a well-oiled machine there at SCC and we now wouldn't think of going anywhere else now.

communication....it goes both ways.

robin

 

[Christi]

Blue XT~Sea will guarantee any two-tank dive with a 2 diver minimum.

We do require a minimum of 4 divers for a single tank dive either in the afternoon or evening.