Dive shop recommendation in Cozumel

[diver 85]

I've always enjoyed diving with Aldora. Really nice people. Fun and professional. I'd check them out.

ditto here....getting ready to use them the end of next month for the 4th time in a year and a half....I would email Greg and Kay @ frontdesk@aldora.com & 'talk' to them..........

 

[116fire]

I'll "third" Aldora, great people, equipment boats...I wouldn't consider diving with anyone else.

 

[bwudcock]

Thanks for all your pointers. I looked at a lot of posts on this site, which I think is great BTW. I ended up signing up with Dive with Martin. I post our experience after we get back.

Brian

 

[surfacing373]

They ripped me off by charging me more than what is stated on their price sheet. I did not find out when i was still at wyndham because they charged me in pesos, but also wrote on the customer receipt that it is usd$484. However the pesos converted into $520 and the credit card company would not dispute it.

Pool was murky, and classes were unstructured and chaotic. The instructor did not emphasize safety, pretty much deflated my BCD to "sink me" (i'm quoting him) even though I wasn't comfortable going down yet as water was getting into my snorkel mask. I couldn't balance as the weights were unevenly distributed and when i asked for help, i was told that it's ok since i wouldn't be able to balance underwater anyway.

They mixed "open certification" class with "discover scuba" and do not practice the buddy system. So unless you are already experienced, this is certainly not a dive operator i would recommend, and given that they were dishonest, even i were experienced in the future, i would never ever use them.

verdict? I decided not to continue with the class, but instead of crediting my credit card, they gave me cash refund because they said they couldn't do the credit charge. now i know why, it's because they overcharged me. consider yourself warned.

 

[Christi]

They ripped me off by charging me more than what is stated on their price sheet. I did not find out when i was still at wyndham because they charged me in pesos, but also wrote on the customer receipt that it is usd$484. However the pesos converted into $520 and the credit card company would not dispute it.

Pool was murky, and classes were unstructured and chaotic. The instructor did not emphasize safety, pretty much deflated my BCD to "sink me" (i'm quoting him) even though I wasn't comfortable going down yet as water was getting into my snorkel mask. I couldn't balance as the weights were unevenly distributed and when i asked for help, i was told that it's ok since i wouldn't be able to balance underwater anyway.

They mixed "open certification" class with "discover scuba" and do not practice the buddy system. So unless you are already experienced, this is certainly not a dive operator i would recommend, and given that they were dishonest, even i were experienced in the future, i would never ever use them.

verdict? I decided not to continue with the class, but instead of crediting my credit card, they gave me cash refund because they said they couldn't do the credit charge. now i know why, it's because they overcharged me. consider yourself warned.

So did you join just to slam Sand Dollar?

They didn't rip you off, your credit card was charged in pesos at the current exchange rate - our credit card machines here charge in pesos (the MX currency), but post prices in USD as a courtesy for the American travelers. The difference in the charge is nothing more than the difference based on the exchange rate your bank used and the exchange rate that Sand Dollar used, which was whatever the MX Banks exchange rate was, probably somewhere between 10.8 and 11.0

You have three posts, all exactly the same...slamming Sand Dollar.

 

[jkaterenchuk]

So did you join just to slam Sand Dollar?

They didn't rip you off, your credit card was charged in pesos at the current exchange rate - our credit card machines here charge in pesos (the MX currency), but post prices in USD as a courtesy for the American travelers. The difference in the charge is nothing more than the difference based on the exchange rate your bank used and the exchange rate that Sand Dollar used, which was whatever the MX Banks exchange rate was, probably somewhere between 10.8 and 11.0

You have three posts, all exactly the same...slamming Sand Dollar.

I do not blame him for posting three times. He had a bad experience and has the right to let other know about it. I do not hear you telling all the posters that praise your operation to stop talking about it. If someone does not like the service then they can and should speak up so that others can be informed and weigh their individual decisions appropriately.

It has also been my experience that vendors in Mexico utilize there own exchange rate calculation when converting to pesos. I am not saying that all do but it has been my experience that it is often the case. I also do not know if this is what Sand Dollar utilizes.

I was not there to know if Sand Dollar informed him at the time of booking that usd would be converted and charged at pesos or what the original price quoted was....however I suspect you were not present at that time either.

John

 

[Diver Kat]

Originally Posted by Christi
So did you join just to slam Sand Dollar? ....

You have three posts, all exactly the same...slamming Sand Dollar.

I do not blame him for posting three times. He had a bad experience and has the right to let other know about it.

Actually - according to SB ToS - Surfacing373 is spamming, which is a violation of SBs ToS.

Users with no prior posts who blatantly post SPAM messages to multiple forums or PM multiple users may be banned without further warning.​

Surfacign373 joined SB yesterday then posted the exact same message in three different threads within 8 minutes. That is the extent of his 'history' with SB - and so far, he/she hasn't been back.

I do not hear you telling all the posters that praise your operation to stop talking about it. If someone does not like the service then they can and should speak up so that others can be informed and weigh their individual decisions appropriately.
John

Christi has always been pretty honest around here - I think if one of her fans took a post and just spammed it on a bunch of threads, she'd be on their case as well, as it would reflect poorly on her business. As it stands, seems like she just has a lot of business from SBers, and they all like to post about their experiences with her. (Personally - I haven't met, or gone diving with her Op, so I can say I'm somewhat unbiased about her Op.)

And yes, Surfacing373 has the right to post about a bad experience, but when you sign up, copy & post the exact same thing 3 times in 8 minutes, then disappear, your not doing yourself any favors. Most will assume you're just a troll out looking for trouble.

 

[jkaterenchuk]

Well I guess I am not an expert on the Tos rules but I would point out that it was not posted in multiple forums.....only one....the Cozumel forum. It was also posted on only threads related to service from the particular dive shop in which other posters were asking for input. So I guess it would be up to one of the moderators to decide if its spaming or not. I do not see it as such.


Everyone should take what they read on here with caution both good and bad comments. They are all opinions. Often times not factual or third and fourth hand.

 

[Christi]

I do not blame him for posting three times. He had a bad experience and has the right to let other know about it. I do not hear you telling all the posters that praise your operation to stop talking about it. If someone does not like the service then they can and should speak up so that others can be informed and weigh their individual decisions appropriately.

It has also been my experience that vendors in Mexico utilize there own exchange rate calculation when converting to pesos. I am not saying that all do but it has been my experience that it is often the case. I also do not know if this is what Sand Dollar utilizes.

I was not there to know if Sand Dollar informed him at the time of booking that usd would be converted and charged at pesos or what the original price quoted was....however I suspect you were not present at that time either.

John

Didn't say he doesn't have the right to post his experiences good or bad. But IMO his posts come across more like an axe to grind than legitimately bad instructors and a bad dive shop. Yeh, he probably crossed words with someone, didn't click with his instructor or he's flat out pissed at the $36 difference in his credit card charge.

As far as the cc charge goes, I don't know SD's policies, but I do what the exchange rates are and based on the numbers he provided, it sounds like they charged the going exchange rate. Regardless, they can charge whatever exchange rate they want to. I let my customers know what the exchange rate is before they even arrive so they can choose whether to pay by credit card or not, but I'm definitely not making any extra money on cc charges...it costs us upwards of 7% to accept credit cards here....and no, I don't charge extra for cc charges either.

 

[jkaterenchuk]

Didn't say he doesn't have the right to post his experiences good or bad. But IMO his posts come across more like an axe to grind than legitimately bad instructors and a bad dive shop. Yeh, he probably crossed words with someone, didn't click with his instructor or he's flat out pissed at the $36 difference in his credit card charge.

As far as the cc charge goes, I don't know SD's policies, but I do what the exchange rates are and based on the numbers he provided, it sounds like they charged the going exchange rate. Regardless, they can charge whatever exchange rate they want to. I let my customers know what the exchange rate is before they even arrive so they can choose whether to pay by credit card or not, but I'm definitely not making any extra money on cc charges...it costs us upwards of 7% to accept credit cards here....and no, I don't charge extra for cc charges either.

Correct you did not. It was your choice of words and icons that conveyed a certain opinion about his post. None of which were supportive.

I can't tell if its a legitimately bad shop or instructor since his opinion counts as only one opinion. I suspect for most people there would need to be history and several poor comments to arrive at a well balance conclussion.

When I work thru the logic and the math on the CC charges it seem most likely that he was charge an artificially high exchange rate or the 7% cost of using a cc was passed along to him. The amount is far to high to be account for by differences between the interbank exchange rates and usually cc companies clearly indicate on a seperate line foreign transaction fees.

Additionally, you and others should not take my post as inferring that your operation does not handle CC transactions in a ethical manner. You have clarified how you do it which seem reasonable to me. If my post was taken that way I appologize. My direct experience has mostly been with car rental companies charging a artificially high exchange rate when converting there USD quotaion into peso which are charged to the credit card.

John