Did you not have an emergency recall system?
Yes. I'd signaled them to ascend, before I made my own ascent. Then we 'hit the ladder' for a recall. Then we sent down the boat boy on breath-hold. Then we sent him down again. They weren't coming up.... they still "had air".
Encountered another similar event when I was in Thailand, but thankfully not an emergency. I was managing a dive shop there and my DM came back to the shop, post-dive, furious. He explained that two customers had 'flicked him the bird' when he instructed for an ascent. I then spoke to the customers, to get their side of the story. That basically consisted of "we had air left, so f&*% him". Those customers were typical 'vacation material' - no dive computers, no timing device.. follow the DM in a herd. After several deepish repetitive dives, the DM knew they were deep and short on NDL... hence the instruction to ascend. When asked about their deco status, the customers gave blank looks. When explained about their deco status... still blank looks. My decision was that they could take a scuba review, or cease diving.
A scuba review??? Because they didn't know/remember what a no-deco limit was?!?! Absurd and outrageous!!! They ceased diving, which pleased my staff immensely.
Plan the dive - dive the plan. If a scuba operator provides a plan, then you either discuss/negotiate a variation or you agree to abide by it. From my experience, with several years in the scuba industry, there's normally a 'second story' behind many of these reports from 'dissatisfied divers'.
Sitting on a dive boat and nodding your head throughout a DM briefing - and then making a decision to ignore that briefing is both dishonest and dangerous. Nodding your head throughout a DM briefing...doing the dive... and then whining about it afterwards might also be seen as disingenuous.
Many divers use 'cattle boats'... primarily because they offer cheap(er) diving. To book onto a cattle boat and expect the flexibility and service of a 'private guided tour' is short-sighted and a serious failure of realistic expectation. I don't... I won't use cattle boat type services for my own pleasure diving.... I understand what that service provides...and I choose to pay more for a better quality dive that suits my specific needs. In the same manner, I won't go into McDonalds and expect a fine t-bone steak. I'll go to a steakhouse....
Customer service is one thing - how you deal with an issue/complaint from a customer - a case of diplomacy and tact. That doesn't detract from the fact that some complaints are unjustified and that some customers are a danger to themselves or others. Willfully deviating from an agreed plan, ignoring ascent signals and recalls or simply forgetting why there may be a scheduled plan in the first place.... are all issues that evoke very little sympathy from the dive op perspective.
Dive Ops make rules, and follow agency recommendations, for a number of good reasons; they may be obligated to do so through agency affiliation and, most importantly, because they have a duty-of-care. The duty-of-care is not
just to the individual customer, but
all customers on the boat.... and the staff who supervise them.