French Polynesian Master ran aground

[Michael Jastrzebski]

Just returned from Truk Master, 10-day trip, I could not say anything bad about their operations, first class.

 

[outofofficebrb]

In your situation, I hope you used credit cards for the initial booking and any subsequent charges. I would contact them to see what your options are. Sounds like you got royally screwed. I would try my best to return the favor. Good luck!

I'm taking this from another post I made on this forum in another thread as it relates to credit cards. Another reason why I often times don't book direct if it's bank transfer/wire only and will go through an agent. The agent can help step in and/or I can always claim a chargeback/dispute with the credit card company. Below applies to Visa outside of Europe taken from their website. I've bolded the 2 bullet points that might apply to this incident.

You can also look at what compensation travel insurance can provide as well. Trip interruption/cancellation would apply and at the very least pro-rated.

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Section 13.1 Merchandise/Services Not Received - Dispute Time Limit

For ALL countries except Europe:

If applicable, before initiating a dispute, an issuer must wait

• 15 calendar days from either the transaction date, if the date the services were expected or the delivery date for the merchandise is not specified
• The date the cardholder returned or attempted to return the merchandise, if the merchandise was returned due to late delivery.

A dispute must be processed no later than either

• 120 calendar days from the transaction processing date
• 120 calendar days from the last date that the cardholder expected to receive the merchandise or services The maximum allowed time is not to exceed 540 calendar days from the transaction processing date.

For ALL countries except Europe, the dispute documentation includes:

Certification of any of the following, as applicable:

• Services were not rendered by the expected date/time
• Merchandise was not received by the expected date/time
• merchandise was not received at the agreed location (issuer must specify the address of the agreed location
• cardholder attempted to resolve with merchant
• the date the merchandise was returned

A detailed description of the merchandise or services purchased, unless prohibited by applicable laws or regulations. The description must contain additional information beyond the data required in the Clearing Record.

A cardholder letter, if both:

• the cardholder has disputed 3 or more transaction for non-receipt of merchandise or services at the same merchant
• the disputed transactions all occurred within the same 30 day calendar day period

I've lost count of how many accidents this company has had.

I will not step foot on Siren fleet for this reason. It is beyond bad luck or lightning striking twice based on how many significant safety issues they have had to their fleet (and total losses) over a consecutive number of years. Undercurrent did an article about this a couple of years back and that was even before the Fiji Siren went.

 

[eedive]

Bummer to hear of your experience. Especially that they have not been as helpful as one would expect. The Siren Fleet has had a series of unfortunate incidents over the past 10 years or so. However, to my knowledge the company has made people whole in those incidents. (Which has not been the case with the Dancer/Aggressor Fleet).

FYI Worldwide Dive and Sail Fleet (WWDAS) encompasses the Siren Fleet, Master Liveaboards, blue o two, The Junk & The Phinisi.

As a follow up, Master has said they will refund our boat trip cost (not the airfare) and offered us 50% off another French Polynesia trip. I think that is fair

 

[eedive]

I am happy to report Master is refunding our boat portion of the trip. As for giving them the benefit of the doubt re the accident, the boat clearly went on the wrong side of the channel marker. It was a substitute captain since the regular captain was on vacation. Two regular crew members said the accident would not have happened if they had been in the wheelhouse with him.

 

[Joneill]

As a follow up, Master has said they will refund our boat trip cost (not the airfare) and offered us 50% off another French Polynesia trip. I think that is fair

Seems very fair - glad to see they are stepping up and trying to make things right.

I was in Rangiroa in October and the boat was there for a few days. We spoke to a group of 8 Australian snorkelers (not divers) that were on the boat and had come ashore and they absolutely loved the boat and the trip and had seen a ton of stuff just snorkeling! I didn’t realize groups of snorkelers would be on a Liveaboard like that - but they were having a blast!

 

[outofofficebrb]

I'm glad to hear that they are cooperating, though I would have hoped that they would have offered you another trip for free. Essentially, you aren't getting your airfare back which, if I had to guess, might be as much as 1/3 the cost of the liveaboard trip. Most people don't have unlimited vacation and need to accrue vacation. The time you took off that you essentially can't get back and have to accrue is "worth" something, as well, as it had an opportunity cost, in a sense. You could have been on another boat that didn't run aground, you could have saved that for a different trip, whatever it may be. Factoring that in, but primarily the airfare, 50% off for an error that could have been avoided - wrong side of channel markers - would not be enough for me but I acknowledge it is better than nothing and is something.

For perspective, I recently had issues on a liveaboard where I could not stay in the room and I chose not to shower in the room due to safety reasons. I ended up sleeping in the restaurant for 10 nights and the trip went on as planned. They ended up offering me either 1/3 of my money back in cash or they offered 50% off on a return trip. 50% off on a return trip for something like that seems fair, but not for something that I had to essentially abandon the ship for.

 

[landesjm]

My wife and I were scheduled on a Master French Polynesia charter that was supposed to start on 26-Feb. We received an email notice on 6-Feb that the charter was cancelled due to the Coronavirus. We scrambled to get accommodations and diving setup to replace the charter. I reached out to friends who were on the Master FP in November 2019 to get opinions on other islands, which is how I learned of the wrecked ship.

There has been no mention of the wreck in communications from Master. They did provide a FULL refund for the charter.

Anyone else that had their Master FP charter cancelled? Just curious about the reasoning.

 

[outofofficebrb]

My wife and I were scheduled on a Master French Polynesia charter that was supposed to start on 26-Feb. We received an email notice on 6-Feb that the charter was cancelled due to the Coronavirus. We scrambled to get accommodations and diving setup to replace the charter. I reached out to friends who were on the Master FP in November 2019 to get opinions on other islands, which is how I learned of the wrecked ship.

There has been no mention of the wreck in communications from Master. They did provide a FULL refund for the charter.

Anyone else that had their Master FP charter cancelled? Just curious about the reasoning.

I wonder if they are using coronavirus as a convenient front/cover. Also, with only 3 weeks lead time, most if not all people would have all their flights, hotels, plans made, much of it not being refundable.That’s awful. Travel insurance wouldn’t cover those sunk costs due to the liveaboard canceling for that reason, to my knowledge. It would take a government authority to issue a travel ban/warning, usually.

 

[landesjm]

I wonder if they are using coronavirus as a convenient front/cover. Also, with only 3 weeks lead time, most if not all people would have all their flights, hotels, plans made, much of it not being refundable.That’s awful. Travel insurance wouldn’t cover those sunk costs due to the liveaboard canceling for that reason, to my knowledge. It would take a government authority to issue a travel ban/warning, usually.

It definitely was a mad scramble but we were able to adjust our pension on Rangiroa, add a pension in Fakarava, add some nights in Moorea and adjust our Air Tahiti flights with minimal change fess. It was nerve racking trying to orchestrate the changes, but nothing left to do but go diving.

 

[Liv O]

D

Seems very fair - glad to see they are stepping up and trying to make things right.

I was in Rangiroa in October and the boat was there for a few days. We spoke to a group of 8 Australian snorkelers (not divers) that were on the boat and had come ashore and they absolutely loved the boat and the trip and had seen a ton of stuff just snorkeling! I didn’t realize groups of snorkelers would be on a Liveaboard like that - but they were having a blast!

Dude, that was me, I’m one of the 8 Aussies!!!!!! Crazy small world! How have you been?! How was the rest of your trip?
Actually such an amazing trip on that liveaboard. All the divers paid us out for being snorkelers but didn’t realise half of us could scuba dive just chose not to