Kyle G. Anderson:
FERRY SCHEDULE:
DIVING BLUE XT:
I was looking forward to diving with Christi and Blue XT until I run into the schedule problem on first of 3 days I had reserved well in advance coming from the USA. First of all calling locally in Mexico as well as calling home is one of the biggest hastles you'll ever face on vacation. Arriving at our resort on the CanCun side late on Sunday before my Monday reserved dive and not able to make a call to confirm with Chrisiti at Blue XT ended up to be bite me. I thought I had plenty of time to get to the 7:00 ferry and then make it to the meeting point at 8:30 for my dive. Well, I was surprised to find out no ferry leaves at 7:00 so I had to wait until 8:00. I immediately found a phone by ferry to call phone number accross to Blue XT office and used a mans cell phone that had calling capabilities in Mexico. Just got answering machine and left a message that I'd be 30 minutes late. When I arrived at pick up point it was 8:35 a.m. Nobody there and I waited for until 9:00 and then found a local phone to call office again. Only answering machine. I then called Christi's cell phone and only got her voice mail. I waited for 2 hours on the pier after leaving a message on there office phone and her cell phone. I finally reached her on her cell phone after 10:30 and I was very disappointed to the tone of her voice that she was upset with me for not being there. I understand that she has business to run and a no show is hard to swallow. But everything I went through to book in advance and not knowing the ferry not operating on the 7:00 time was a surprise. Christi was very defensive in that she was not willing to work with me on re-scheduling but instead she told me that I would not get my money back for dive. I had reserved the 3 day dives and had to send 33% of money as a deposit and I ended up out $73.00 before I even got a chance to go diving. I was very disappointed in Blue XT. One other review I read about Blue XT is that they are the best out of all dive shops about returning your e-mails and communicating but I will say this, once you get over there things change.
I continued my diving in Cozumel through SCUBA Club Cozumel the remainder of week. Had a great time and they were willing to hold boat every day for 30 minutes to wait for me to come over on 8:00 ferry.
I wish I could give Blue XT a better review but my decisions are based on first impressions.
I do feel it appropriate for me to respond in my defense since Kyle's facts are significantly incorrect.
I will be the first to admit when I make a mistake and to accommodate customers when I have made a mistake or when otherwise appropriate; however, this case was not a "customer is always right" situation as Kyle said to me. I attempted to reason with Kyle on the phone, but he was very offensive and unwilling to recognize that there were other divers on the boat.
The dive was scheduled at 8:00, not 8:30 and I have every e-mail sent and received confirming this. The fact that Scuba Club waited for you is because the dives are scheduled later to begin with. The arrangements you made with ME were to be on the pier at 8:00. If Scuba Club waited for you to take the 8:00 ferry, those were your arrangements with THEM, not me. OUr departures are earlier, so that we get back earlier and get out to the reefs earlier.
I sent you an e-mail telling you that there was not a 7:00 ferry from Playa to Cozumel and that you should confirm this wih the hotel concierge. You claim you did not receive this e-mail, when in fact, not only do I have a "read receipt", you actually responded to the e-mail, so I know you received my message.
My cancellation policy on my website CLEARLY states that there will be no refunds for dives cancelled after 7:00 pm the night prior to the dive. There are also no refunds for no shows. You were considered a no show.
From YOUR e-mail to me dated 3/13/04:
As soon as I get settled in to our room on Sunday I'll give you a call and at least leave you a message to confirm that we made it O.K. and give you my room number. If I don't make contact with you by phone I take it you want me to be at the Plaza Las Glorias pier by 8:00 or earlier
I had my cell phone with me all day and all evening on Sunday. I received no messages Sunday afternoon or evening on the office phone. I was IN the office from 7:00 pm until 11:00 pm on Sunday evening. Had you called, I would have again informed you that there was no 7:00 ferry. I tried to call the hotel number you gave me, but they had no listing for Kyle Anderson and I did not know your room number.
The morning of the dive, I received the first message from you (when I returned to the office) time stamped at 7:06 am. I received the second message in the office time stamped at 8:56 am saying that you were here waiting for the boat and wondering if anyone was still coming. The boat left at 8:30. We waited 30 minutes, which is more than reasonable. There were other customers on the boat and you cannot honestly expect me to have them wait at the pier for an hour (not 30 minutes as you claim) for one person who failed to schedule transportation accordingly despite the warnings.
As I said on the phone, I am not in the office in the mornings. I am at the marina getting the boat loaded and on the pier in the morning making sure everyone is on the boat. I was on the pier waiting for you on Monday, just as I told you I would be. I had my cell phone and did not receive a call from you until 9:35 am on the cell phone. At that point you asked me if the boat was still coming. The divers were already in the water doing their first dive by that time, so there was no way I could even have the boat meet you further south.
I did everything I said I was going to do, and more. The fact that you missed the early ferry is not my fault nor should the other divers be expected to wait for over an hour for you, particularly when I had not even heard from you.
You claim that I was unwilling to work with you to reschedule your dives, this is also untrue. I told you on the phone that I still had you oin the schedule for Wednesday and Firday, and we would be glad to take you; however, you would have to be on the pier at 8:00 and you would not receive a credit for Monday's dive. When I spoke to you Minday morning, you said that yes, you would likt to try again on Wednesday. I called you on Tuesday in Cancun to confirm Wednesday's dives, and you said you had made other arrangements.
I am sorry that you missed your dive(s), but I did everything a reasonable business person would and could have done under the circumstances. Remember, there were 5 other divers on the boat waiting for you. Not holding the boat for you was not something I did because I was "mad" at you, I was doing my best to accommodate everyone involved.
I assure you, that no other dive shop I know would have waited for over 30 minutes past the scheduled departure time.
I am sorry that you feel I didn not do what I could to accommodate you, but I feel that you are being completely unfair and selfish not to recognize the efforts I did make. You are certainly entitled to your opinions as well. I felt the need to defend myself here since your facts were somewhat scewed from the truth.
in high places that Christi has.
