Eco Dive Center customer (don't) care????

[TrojanCatMan]

I have had miss advertised prices happen often while shopping. Most businesses are cool about it. Just tell them the price advertised and they will honor it at the time of payment. Noticing/Waiting until after the fact leaves you in a position where you have to be confrontational. If you dont notice until after the fact avoid blame and handle the situation carefully in a friendly manor. It hard to say no to somebody that is being nice. The last place you want to be dealing with the problem is through the creditors. I cant imagine a shop saying no to that... especially since the few bucks isnt much compared to how much we spend on gear and travel.

As for the Mr. C. Its almost always a packed boat. If you want room to streach out... Dive the Sea Bass. They never come close to capacity because the captain limits the amount of divers.

 

[shoupart]

I liked Eco Dive Center- I won a free trip on the Spectre through them, and both times I've been on the store, they've been nice and cool to deal with.

But I guess we all make mistakes... I don't know why they wouldn't refund the $10, printing mistake or no printing mistake. If it's advertised, they should honor that. If I were in your shoes I would just dispute the $10 difference with the credit card companies and let them tangle it out. It's always worked for me.

 

[JMdiver]

The Spectre is always well organized no matter who's chartering them.

Happy Diving
John

 

[wth]

If Eco Dive Center is located on Sepulveda, then I did have bad experience with them. So bad that I promised myself not to return there again even though my work is only 5 mins away. It was a long story, but it was really bad one. Its seemed like they don't really care for anybody else, but their OW students.

 

[DivevetsDan]

You can see by the number of posts that I've never posted my thoughts or opinions on this board. But for our group (Divevets), Eco Dive Center has been very supportive with discount boat prices and discounts to our members on gear purchases. If you had a bad experience contact the owners, Beth or Ron. We are not associated or employed by Eco or any other shop but Eco by far has been the biggest supporter of our group. Whenever owners of dive shops love to dive, regularly dive local waters and encourage new students to continue diving (like Ken Kurtis as an example) you'll normally have a great shop. This is my experience with Eco.

 

[SeekNCritters]

I was trying out the Mr C. again as I had used it a few years ago booked thru Pacific Wilderness, and I was trying Eco Divers for the first time as an experiment (since the price was so good). The result - Looks like Eco-Divers lost a customer for life...

In addition, the boat was run very, very badly. I do not blame the Mr C. crew, the Eco-Divers DMs were not very clear in the briefings and didn't set any "be back" or "gate" times. This caused lots of frustration on the boat as some divers would get in the water late, then do a 1.5 hour shallow dive while everyone else was on the boat waiting for them. This resulted in the last dive of the day being waaaaay to short and there were lots of PO'd divers, we were the first in the water at the last spot and they told us to be back in 30 minutes !

Other gripes about the way the boat was run...
- Boat was way overcrowded. 20-22 divers would be the max for this boat (it's pretty small), but they had almost 30. It was a mess when it was time to try and get in the water.
- No camera rinse tank, they just had a 5 gallon bucket (my video camera wouldn't of fit in it even if there werern't already 4 or 5 point and shoot cameras in there. Forget a system with strobes.
- No rope to lower larger cameras down to the divers after jumping in.
- The way they do fills on this boat is weird... You have to bungee your tank around the fill station (maybe holds 8 BCs and tanks) and after it is filled a crewmember would move your rig back to the sides of the boat, but not your original spot. So after fills you had to "find" your tank and BC on an already overcrouded boat.

I don't think i will be recommending Eco-Divers to anyone any day soon.

- MikeT

Mike, I was also on this boat, but had a completely different experience. I believe there were only 20-22 divers on the roster - how did you count 30?. Sunday's boat was relaxed, had plenty of room and it never felt crowded. I've been on Mr. C when it's had 30+, now that was crowded. It really didn't seem a mess trying to get in the water - I've seen so much worse on other boats.

I didn't see or hear any frustrated people complaining about not having gate times (where were the "lots of PO'd divers). Even if they did have gate times, I've been on boats where on the last dive they say to be back in 30 minutes. I doubt it would have made a difference.

The camera rinse bucket was small, but there were only two cameras on the boat (I had one of them). I'm sure if you brought your video camera they would have accomodated you. Perhaps they would have used the the mask rinse tub as the camera rinse and the 5 gallon bucket as the mask rinse. I just had the impression that since there were only two cameras, they used the bucket. After I entered the water, the DM handed me down my camera, no problem...

The way they do the fills on the boat is different, yes, but I usually watch for when the tank is done and make sure the scuba unit was put back in its proper place, and the tank is full, ready to go for the next dive. They have several whips that are filling tanks all at the same time, and while it's awkward, at least it's efficient in terms of getting all the tanks filled in a timely manner.

Mr. C is not be the fanciest boat available, but you can usually get good deals. If the boat isn't comfortable for you, then you shouldn't go on it again, but I don't think Eco Dive Center should be blamed for your discomfort with the features of the boat.

 

[randog]

Okay, its my turn. I' had been going into Eco since it opened a year ago February. At first, I was really excited to have a well stocked dive shop close to home. At that time I was OW certified with my own BC and snorkel gear. I took many boat trips with them, got my AOW cert. with them, spent over $2000 there on a computer, 2 wetsuits, a regulator, gloves, a hooded vest, booties, 2 snorkels, and many tank fills, plus other miscellaneous small items. At first everything seemed great, they let me post my pictures and videos on their website, they gave me good deals on gear and rentals and all seemed rosy. Then about a year or so later things changed. Following a tank rental for a boat trip I was accused of dropping a tank and bending a valve. I discussed it briefly with Ron, but I swore to him I had not done it, yet he insisted on me paying for it. Nothing happened at the time but a few days later, there was a $47.00 charge on my credit card which I was not informed of previously. My wife couldn't identify the charge, so she reversed it. I eventually paid the charge, even though I didn't feel good about, just to try to keep from ruining a previously good thing. That's when it all started going downhill. Shortly after that I noticed my pictures and videos were missing from the website. I was told that it was because I didn't post often enough. Huh?...
I sent him the pictures at least 3 times and even hand delivered a CD but apparently the honeymoon was over. On one incident, I went in after work to check out computers and was quoted a really good price on a computer. About $50 more than leisure pro. Being the quick thinker I am, I put $100 down to hold it for later. I came in the next day to pick it up and Ron was there, but the employee wasn't. I told Ron I came in to pick up the computer and he was shocked that his employee had quoted me such a low price. He said, "Why did _________ quote you such a low price?" I replied, "I don't know, he's your employee". When I even mentioned the price on Leisure pro, this made him really angry. After some haggling, I finally ended up paying $30 more than I was quoted, because I wanted it so bad. I bought a brand new PST HP100 tank on the internet and brought it in to Eco for a fill. Ron said "Why don't you take it to where you bought it for a fill?" I replied that "Florida was too far away." I don't want to be dissed just because I'm only spending $5 on a fill. Ron seems to have forgotten the first rule of business. Do something good for someone, and they may tell one or two people. Treat someone badly and they will tell everyone. Can we say ________ Chalet?:shakehead

 

[miket]

Mike, I was also on this boat, but had a completely different experience. I believe there were only 20-22 divers on the roster - how did you count 30?. Sunday's boat was relaxed, had plenty of room and it never felt crowded. I've been on Mr. C when it's had 30+, now that was crowded. It really didn't seem a mess trying to get in the water - I've seen so much worse on other boats.

Well, the roster was filled up to numbers 27 or 28, and the boat seemed so full I figured there were 27 or 28 divers on board. Maybe I was wrong and there were names on the roster that were not diving... I did ask before we left port how many divers there were and they did tell me 22.

I didn't see or hear any frustrated people complaining about not having gate times (where were the "lots of PO'd divers). Even if they did have gate times, I've been on boats where on the last dive they say to be back in 30 minutes. I doubt it would have made a difference.

The three people I was diving with were not too happy about the last dives short time limit (we almost wish we didn't follow it, as nobody else did, people who got in the water after us took hour dives). There were at least two other people I talked to that also were not too happy with how short they were told the last dive had to be. Ok, so maybe "lots of POd divers" was too much... but there were at least 5 or 6.

The camera rinse bucket was small, but there were only two cameras on the boat (I had one of them). I'm sure if you brought your video camera they would have accomodated you. Perhaps they would have used the the mask rinse tub as the camera rinse and the 5 gallon bucket as the mask rinse. I just had the impression that since there were only two cameras, they used the bucket. After I entered the water, the DM handed me down my camera, no problem...

I did have my video camera, I asked the boat before it left port if they had a rinse tank with my huge video camera in hand. I was surprised to find my camera in the salt water game tank (at the fill station) when I got on board after handing it up at the swim step.

The whole trip just felt un-organized and overcrouded. I am used to the Cee Ray, Magician and Great Escape (with Reefseekers) and Open boats on Spectre, Pacific Star, and Aquatica.

With the exception of a Sport Chalet charter I went on with the Cee Ray, every other experience on any SoCal dive boat was better than my Eco-Divers experience on the Mr C.

I had been on the MrC previously on a Pacific Wilderness charter and I remember it being much better organized, but that was 3 years ago.

- MikeT

 

[Dive California]

You can see by the number of posts that I've never posted my thoughts or opinions on this board. ...

Unbelievable..."DivevetsDan"



Shame on you...yeah you only have one post...YOU JUST JOINED...what, just so you could respond to this thread...are you kidding...attempting to sound as if you are independant...unattached...are you the owner of Eco...if so just come out and say it...or are you a dear friend? If so, again, just come out and say it.

As YOU can see I truely don't make lots of post...but felt I could not past this up...you should be ashame of yourself...:no

 

[JMdiver]

SeekNCritters is also a first time post defending Eco Dive & Mr C makes you think.

Happy Diving
John