Liveaboard delays and unresponsive owner--what to do?

[AlliCats]

Hello,
Sorry if this has been covered but I've not found it in my searches.

We are in Thailand after much travel from the US for the first of two cruises I booked on the same liveaboard boat. After dinner we found out from another guest that after much prodding he'd just found out the boat was having engine problems and they planned to shift the trip by one day.

We were told we'd know something by breakfast but it was not until after 11am (11am was scheduled departure time) that the boat owner/divemaster showed up and was very evasive to our questions but agreed the trip would be shortened by one day (several have flights to make) but assured us no dives would be lost. He said he would be in contact in a couple of hours and finally about 10 hours later, at 10:30pm he sent a text that said "2pm tomorrow" and doesn't respond to questions from any of us. (Side note, we were offered nitrox, which we just found out is "broken" and has been unavailable for weeks+).

The owner was both aggressive and evasive in a bit of a threatening way (I'm pretty tolerant of gruffness but I was nervous and had to actively try to calm him down) today when telling us and answering our questions. My partner wants no part of this operation anymore and I really don't want to do the second cruise with this guy, which will be on my own, without my partner. I'm devastated to miss out on the dives but this situation seems like a disaster all the way.

Any advice? We booked through Liveaboard and have gotten no response from emails to them earlier in the day.

 

[KathyV]

Do you have trip insurance? If so I would contact them immediately. Frankly, I would be afraid to trust my life to this operation because they are evasive, unresponsive, and dishonest. Any chance of canceling the LOB trips and getting some kind of refund and doing shore-based diving locally? I have never been to Thailand but I usually hear about LOB trips there, so I don't know if that's an option.

Did you take the time difference into account regarding your emails to the vacation vendor? Depending on where they are located they may not have gotten them yet.

If they fix the LOB and you do decide to dive with them, any chance of buying a reliable CO monitor locally? I don't mean to alarm you but they just don't sound trustworthy or competent.

If you can share the name of the LOB and the booking agent, someone here on SB may have had experiences with them and be better able to advise you.

@Wookie owned and operated a LOB dive boat for years so maybe he can give you some advice?

So sorry that you have been disappointed by such a dream trip, good luck!

 

[outofofficebrb]

Certain Trip insurance coverage (Liveaboard rider!) and policies would cover the missed dives since this is due to a mechanical failure and any pre-paid costs that would not be refunded by the operator. It is possible your group won’t miss out on any dives. Most LOBs don’t usually dive on the first day you embark. They can catch up by diving the same day you embark. Depending on the dive schedule you could do night dives or an extra day dive across multiple days to make them up.

As for cancelling and getting your money back by way of trip insurance, if the OP and partner decide to drop out voluntarily and not go on the trip, unfortunately, that would not be covered. Trip cancellation generally doesn’t cover something like this. If that is the desire, the best course of action is to speak with @LiveaboardCom and express your concerns and drum up the safety issue.. I understand that you have not been able to reach them successfully. I would also try calling - they are more responsive on the phone. (I booked with them and used them before.) It may not be entirely up to them if you will be able to get a refund and not go on the trip because I’m sure a lot depends on what they can get back from the operator. I do think it’s important, at the very least, they know what is happening. Perhaps that will sway whether they want to sell trips on this vessel in the future.

Are you comfortable sharing which vessel it is?

Mechanical issues are tough. I’m sure the operator and owner is annoyed it is happening. While it does happen, it is also tough for you to have to field how they are presenting it and responding to customer concerns about it.

As an aside, this is also one of the reasons why I switched to PADI Travel, formerly Diviac. 24 hour customer service which was important for me for intl liveaboards in various time zones - super easy to talk with through chat if you want. It’s very convenient when in a foreign country. They have agents in Europe and the US always around.)

Please keep us posted.

 

[KathyV]

I understand why the boat owner/divemaster is hesitant, he is under a lot of pressure and may not be sure if they really can fix it soon. But the lack of communication (you had to find out about the delay from another guest!) Along with the failure to follow-up when promised, and also failing to inform you about the broken Nitrox - it just doesn't sound very good.

I hope that they get things fixed quickly and my fears are totally unfounded!

 

[KeithG]

A couple of things to consider:
1) cultural differences - you are not in NA anymore. We just returned from a trip in Vietnam Cambodia and Thailand. Confrontation is to be avoided at all costs. When things go wrong you will likely find it very difficult to get a straight answer as that would be an admission of fault or failure.

2) Learn more about trip insurance. If you already have it, is your product "good enough"? If not can you justify the price of adequate trip insurance? Some people can not and choose to self insure and just eat the cost when things go wrong.

 

[Wookie]

Can't help. I never missed a trip due to a mechanical failure, and they are pesky. You might think that a repair that should take 4 hours ends up taking 4 days. And I'm sure parts need to come from halfway around the world. Dealing with that myself today (the mechanic called and we need parts from Germany). But whoever said 'if the op cancels because they don't feel comfortable with the op eats the trip' is correct. Insurance will do nothing in that case. Far better to sit and let it play out to see how it goes.

Words to live by, "life is not the way the brochure said". Or as I say, I came here for an adventure....

 

[cephalopod2]

...it was not until after 11am (11am was scheduled departure time) that the boat owner/divemaster showed up and was very evasive to our questions.

I have not experienced a liveaboard where the owner was also the DM/cruise director. This obviously gives him a lot greater ability to impact the quality of your time on the boat and underwater. Do you know for certain that he is coming on your cruises?

(Side note, we were offered nitrox, which we just found out is "broken" and has been unavailable for weeks+).

This won't help you for this trip but perhaps something to consider for your next one. One of the reasons I personally prefer to book direct, especially for remote areas or small dive ops, is because you can ask directly about e.g. Nitrox and dive time limits and should be able to get accurate info more quickly on any problems, policies, etc. You also have written information directly from the dive op on what is supposed to happen on your trip. If an op is bad or evasive on email, it's a good forewarning of their approach to customer service. Some of the situations I've seen come up with horrible dive ops aren't covered by trip insurance or would require an incredible amount of scarce vacation time to fight to improve.

I have twice had liveaboards tell me there would be no Nitrox when I had pre-booked Nitrox. One (Aggressor Fleet) emailed me in advance. Too close to the trip date to remedy the situation, but at least I had a chance to ask if there was anything I could do to help. The other informed me after I landed in Sorong and the owner (on board) knew the system had a problem for weeks. Especially on liveaboards, not having Nitrox is a real issue and affects your diving across the board if the dive sites have any sort of depth and you're doing 4-5 dives a day.

Since the owner is so difficult to deal with, hopefully the large booking agency might be able to intervene promptly on your behalf. I've never used a booking agency that large, but hopefully they either have a personal relationship with this operator or send enough clients there (or care enough) to participate in your struggle for fair and good quality service. While it could be that the exact mechanical problems make it difficult to know when the boat will be fully repaired, there is no excuse for not updating stranded divers in a cordial manner.

Please consider posting a trip report / follow up in the Thailand or Liveaboards and Charter Boats forums. I am sure many readers here will be interested in the outcome.

Really hope things have improved since your original post.

 

[AlliCats]

I'll address of few things y'all have mentioned.

Mostly I'm stuck somewhere I don't love kind of in limbo waiting for this guy to get back to us and feeling heartbroken that my one chance at a dive trip this year might be ruined (we're trying to find something else to do within a reasonable car ride or flight but we can't find accomodations for our dates....).

I booked through Liveaboard this time (and have in the past) because the company's website/booking methods were not working, which could be a warning flag but in the past I've found that things went just fine doing this. As one of you mentioned, some things work differently in other countries.

The owner is German not Thai, and we're not 100% sure he's the owner but his girlfriend, who owns the hostel/meeting point, said some things that made us think he is all things (and when the divers all got concerned and started asking questions, she got rough and disappeared). We know he operates things and goes out on the boats as a dive guide.

I would be mildly annoyed by a delay if we were kept in the loop and were not chastised by the operator and blatantly lied to (some now confirmed by Liveaboard). We think they knew possibly days before we arrived about the delay, meaning we could have stayed longer where we were enjoying ourselves instead of being stuck here at their barebones hostel.

Our credit card company is pretty good and it seems like if we want to abort, might take care of it all.

Liveaboard is working to help us with this also, but also say the operator hasn't been responding to them and just let them know of issues.

 

[AlliCats]

Also, once this is done, I will definitely be posting about what company it was and how they handle it. I travel a lot and spend a lot of time reading reviews so like to pass it on by reviewing places myself.

 

[AlliCats]

If anybody is supposed to be taking a boat out of Ranong anytime soon, message me to see if it's this one.