Diving a couple of days from Tikila Bar

[cvchief]

I think this guy does dives there. He is great at finding the fascinating macro stuff there I think. https://business.facebook.com/ScubaWithMario/

 

[mortenscuba]

We have come back to PdC after 4 dives with Jungle Divers over 2 days.

We contacted Jungle Divers via email and they were very helpful.
They helped us to book a room for one nigth in Albatross Suites wich is only a 5 minutes walk from the diveshop. And we booked 4 Tikila dives.

We did one duskdive and one nightdive on the first day and two dives the morning after.
We dived with Steph and he was a good diveguide and nice to talk to.
And we had some great dives finding a lot of unusual sea-life. The highlights was a viper moray posing and the biggest and probably oldest loggerhead turtle we have ever seen.

All was fine until after the first dive on the second day.
When we came back to the diveshop after that dive Stephs wife and partner was there and she was very unfriendly and grumpy. She did not want us to go in to the diveshop, and she refused my wife to use the toilet in the shop. She said she had just cleaned the floor, so she told us to stay outside, even though our dry clothes was inside. After that the mood was not the best. And it was very strange to stand outside on the pavement to wait for the next dive.
After the second dive of the day, she did not want us in the shop again, but we had to walk inside to the rinse room to rinse our equipment. I had to pack our dive-gear and camera equpment on the pavement outside the shop.
We never did or said anything to provoke. We just felt we had to get away from there.
I have dived all over the world, and never have I been treated the way I was treated there.

Too bad, because we really enjoyed diving with Steph, but we will never dive with them again.

 

[ggunn]

We have come back to PdC after 4 dives with Jungle Divers over 2 days.

We contacted Jungle Divers via email and they were very helpful.
They helped us to book a room for one nigth in Albatross Suites wich is only a 5 minutes walk from the diveshop. And we booked 4 Tikila dives.

We did one duskdive and one nightdive on the first day and two dives the morning after.
We dived with Steph and he was a good diveguide and nice to talk to.
And we had some great dives finding a lot of unusual sea-life. The highlights was a viper moray posing and the biggest and probably oldest loggerhead turtle we have ever seen.

All was fine until after the first dive on the second day.
When we came back to the diveshop after that dive Stephs wife and partner was there and she was very unfriendly and grumpy. She did not want us to go in to the diveshop, and she refused my wife to use the toilet in the shop. She said she had just cleaned the floor, so she told us to stay outside, even though our dry clothes was inside. After that the mood was not the best. And it was very strange to stand outside on the pavement to wait for the next dive.
After the second dive of the day, she did not want us in the shop again, but we had to walk inside to the rinse room to rinse our equipment. I had to pack our dive-gear and camera equpment on the pavement outside the shop.
We never did or said anything to provoke. We just felt we had to get away from there.
I have dived all over the world, and never have I been treated the way I was treated there.

Too bad, because we really enjoyed diving with Steph, but we will never dive with them again.

Did you ask Steph WTF was up with his wife? Maybe they had a fight.

 

[ReefHound]

I don't know what is strange about spending the surface interval outside, The last place I want to spend a surface interval is in an air-conditioned room. But nevertheless it's unacceptable to be so customer unfriendly. The shop is for the customers. It's nice to have a clean floor in the shop but the customers come first. Where was Steph and what was his reaction to her denying you access to the building?

 

[bassplayer]

We have come back to PdC after 4 dives with Jungle Divers over 2 days.

We contacted Jungle Divers via email and they were very helpful.
They helped us to book a room for one nigth in Albatross Suites wich is only a 5 minutes walk from the diveshop. And we booked 4 Tikila dives.

We did one duskdive and one nightdive on the first day and two dives the morning after.
We dived with Steph and he was a good diveguide and nice to talk to.
And we had some great dives finding a lot of unusual sea-life. The highlights was a viper moray posing and the biggest and probably oldest loggerhead turtle we have ever seen.

All was fine until after the first dive on the second day.
When we came back to the diveshop after that dive Stephs wife and partner was there and she was very unfriendly and grumpy. She did not want us to go in to the diveshop, and she refused my wife to use the toilet in the shop. She said she had just cleaned the floor, so she told us to stay outside, even though our dry clothes was inside. After that the mood was not the best. And it was very strange to stand outside on the pavement to wait for the next dive.
After the second dive of the day, she did not want us in the shop again, but we had to walk inside to the rinse room to rinse our equipment. I had to pack our dive-gear and camera equpment on the pavement outside the shop.
We never did or said anything to provoke. We just felt we had to get away from there.
I have dived all over the world, and never have I been treated the way I was treated there.

Too bad, because we really enjoyed diving with Steph, but we will never dive with them again.

wow, im really sorry you had that experience. apologies for steering you wrong. that didn't happen to me when i dove with them, we just dripped on the floor.

 

[mortenscuba]

S

wow, im really sorry you had that experience. apologies for steering you wrong. that didn't happen to me when i dove with them, we just dripped on the floor.

We had just the same experience as you on the first day. We walked in and out as we wanted in our divegear without any problems. We were there with Steph only.
Problems started when she was there on the second day.
Looked like Steph did not want an argument with her, so he just kept quiet.
We had some good dives, but it ended in a bad way
Too bad because we would have dived with them again on our next trip.
But the way she treats the customers, no way.

 

[Rob9876]

Sorry to hear that. Definitely not the way customers should be treated, and understand your frustration.

We didn't have any issues like that when we dove with them -- she was very nice, friendly & helpful. As for me, I'm going to assume something was going on (we all have bad days) and personally I'd be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I certainly would not keep coming back if it were habitual.

 

[DandyDon]

As for me, I'm going to assume something was going on (we all have bad days) and personally I'd be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I certainly would not keep coming back if it were habitual.

Screw that. Once would be enough. There are dozens of great Ops on the island, and the customer is king - their whole reason for being. Almost any Op could arrange for a qualified DM to meet there with tanks if you weren't allowed inside the shop.

Anyone want to invite Steph here to address this...??

 

[Jungle Diver]

Hi Everyone,

This is Alex, the "grumpy and unfriendly" Jungle Divers owner

Thank you Morten for your feedback, I am glad you had some great dives with Stef, he is the best, and the shore dives are great.

Since you named me personally, I would like to complete your review.

I arranged your trip, (hotel and diving) to Cozumel, pretty much last minute, and I think you can see in all my e-mails that I was quick to respond, professional, nice etc
The first day I was at the shop unlike you said, I welcomed you and made you fill paperwork.
On the second day, when I came into the shop, there was all your personal belongings (and it was a lot of bags, hats, shoes, shorts, empty water bottles etc) all over the sofa, on the cabinet, table, floor etc.

So I cleaned up everything, moved everything at the back of the shop, so it would look tidy, because it is an office, and we have customers and business partners coming in all the time.
A business needs to look tidy and organized, it can't look like the way it was that morning, especially since I had a business meeting at 1 PM (which was during your 2nd dive).

When you came back for the "surface interval" (which is just switching tanks), there was a wooden stool and your tanks to switch outside the shop, in order for you to be able to remove your tanks outside comfortably, without making the shop wet and full of sand.
Another reason the tanks shouldn't be removed inside the shop is because we had some broken tiles before, this is why we ask divers to use the wooden stool, which you did not seem to understand/wish to use.
You couldn't have sit on the sofa completely wet anyway so I don't really see what would be the problem, the only difference was that you were outside instead of inside.
I would like to precise that the outside of the shop is not under the sun, we have people hanging out there all the time, it is inside a plaza, right next to an Oxxo.

I told you that if you needed a bag, I would go get it for you, you asked I think 1 or 2 times for a bag/a water bottle i brought them to you, then brought them back at the back of the shop afterwards. You got some coca cola at the Oxxo next door, you (morten) went to the toilet (your wife did not ask to go, she wanted to go for a bag, which I did get her).
You switched your tanks and went for your next dive, it was probably a 15/20 mn process, and wasn't a big deal.
When you came back from the second dive, i asked you to remove your gear outside the shop on the wooden stool for the same reason I mentioned before, but you did not seem to understand. I don't know if it was the language barrier or if I wasn't clear enough, but you did not want to use the wooden stool, and you wanted to remove your tanks inside the shop. I do not understand why.

All of this is on tape, since we have cameras inside the shop.

It is rare that we do 2 shore dives in a row, so this is not a problem we usually have. Divers go for 1 dive, and come back. I guess next time this happen, I will ask the guide to do the tanks switching at Tikila instead of the shop, to avoid any misunderstanding with the customers.

So I am sorry if I looked "grumpy" or "unfriendly", it was not my intention, but you do have to understand that even if this is a dive shop -so water and sand friendly-, it is also a business, and needs to look tidy to other people/divers coming in.
I do not see what is wrong with switching or removing your tanks outside honestly, we do this all the time, and people don't take it the way you do, they do understand.

Again, sorry you took it that way, and I wish you would have discussed it with me before posting it on a public place.

Best regards,

Alex

 

[DandyDon]

Two sides to every story. Thanks, Alex.