Nekton (Bad News)

[divengolf]

I'd kill to have a shipyard bill of only $89,000. Of course, he owns the shipyard, and his crew were labor for much of the overhaul. My shipyard bill for 2008 was on the order of $155,000. I expect it to be higher in Florida.

But Frank, you actually FIXED things on the Spree. It doesn't appear that Nekton fixed much of anything.

Harry

 

[divengolf]

I will not justify Nekton's behavior in taking deposits when it appeared the company was having severe financial troubles. There is no excusing this behavior and I feel great sympathy for the many people who may have lost their hard earned dollars and their upcoming cruises. I know what it is like to scrimp and save, plan time off work, book flights, only to lose it all because of some unfortunate incident. I think that things could/should have been handled in a much more professional manner. The lack of open and honest communication on Nekton's part is inexcusable.

That being said, there are some serious "human" events that deserve to be mentioned in this thread. There are many long term Nekton employees (office staff, shipyard workers, etc.) who now count themselves as some of the nation's millions of unemployed. These people had families, mortgages, credit card bills, car payments, health insurance, etc. but now they are jobless in a time when jobs are not easy to come by. While John Dixon has been painted as a devil on this board (and once again I am not defending his behavior) please remember that he has a wife and three young children. Imagine the toll the demise of Nekton has on these folks.

It is clearly understandable to be upset about the loss of trips, deposits, etc. I would be pissed too. I think it is also important to remember that when a company goes out of business, there is more too it than the losses of the affected consumers. Some people lost companies, careers, assets, and homes.

Before we get too teary-eyed about John Dixon, let's remember that HE RAN THE COMPANY INTO THE GROUND. HE WAS THE BOSS. He made the decisions about what did and did not get fixed. He decided not to be honest with his customers (and maybe employees as well). Anyone working at Nekton with half a brain had to see this coming. It was just a matter of time. If I were there, I would have been looking for another job months ago. But still I feel for the employees and customers. They are the unfortunate victims. But not John Dixon, no way. My guess is that his bank account is fat and happy right now. Maybe in a Cayman bank.

 

[catalase]

The thing that ticks me off even more than losing my money is that the Nekton is NOT telling us about it. We have received NOTHING from them. Had one of my dive buddies not just happened to visit the Nekton webpage, we would still not know. None of us frequents scuba board, so we would not have seen it here. 4 of us had flights booked from Indianapolis to Ft Lauderdale, and we WOULD have gotten on them. And when we landed on June 12, we would have called the Nekton for pick up. No one would have answered. We would have been standing at the airport, trying to figure out what happened. We would have finally found the truth, and then realized that we were stuck in Ft Lauderdale with no place to stay. We would have had to find lodging for at least one night, and we would have had to change our return trip, losing money there too, plus pay for a new flight.

Yeah, THAT is the worst thing about this: no notification by mail or phone. We can be a little sympathetic that someone goes out of business in a dive industry plagued with the current financial disasters world-wide. But to not notify us personally, ASAP, so we can minimize our loss and inconvenience, well, that is inexcusable.

 

[mike_s]

I'd kill to have a shipyard bill of only $89,000. Of course, he owns the shipyard, and his crew were labor for much of the overhaul. My shipyard bill for 2008 was on the order of $155,000. I expect it to be higher in Florida.

Yeah Frank... but you actually did a huge overhaul of the sides of your hull, upgrades, etc...

Nekton hasn't been doing maintenance to their boats.... and it finally caught up with them.

Probably not beneficial but a quick google turned up this and this.

I ran across those a few weeks ago. He's got several tax liens against those companies also. It appears that he's not good at paying his bills at all his companies....

what if they are showing a loss to get in line for some BP monies?

Don't think they'd qualify as they didn't operate in the "affected areas".

While John Dixon has been painted as a devil on this board (and once again I am not defending his behavior) please remember that he has a wife and three young children..

Times might get tough on him. poor bastard.....

He might have to sell that new Mercedes he got.

(when he wasn't paying his crews salaries and other bills. I heard his employee's just LOVED seeing him drive up to the dock with that after they hadn't gotten paid.... )

 

[Capt Scotty]

The thing that ticks me off even more than losing my money is that the Nekton is NOT telling us about it. We have received NOTHING from them. Had one of my dive buddies not just happened to visit the Nekton webpage, we would still not know. None of us frequents scuba board, so we would not have seen it here. 4 of us had flights booked from Indianapolis to Ft Lauderdale, and we WOULD have gotten on them. And when we landed on June 12, we would have called the Nekton for pick up. No one would have answered. We would have been standing at the airport, trying to figure out what happened. We would have finally found the truth, and then realized that we were stuck in Ft Lauderdale with no place to stay. We would have had to find lodging for at least one night, and we would have had to change our return trip, losing money there too, plus pay for a new flight.

Yeah, THAT is the worst thing about this: no notification by mail or phone. We can be a little sympathetic that someone goes out of business in a dive industry plagued with the current financial disasters world-wide. But to not notify us personally, ASAP, so we can minimize our loss and inconvenience, well, that is inexcusable.

Catalase has the right to be upset, everyone of us would be if we where in their shoes. As dive operator's we get pissed if we have a "no call - no show". This is the samething only with the shoe on the other foot.

 

[cappyjon431]

The thing that ticks me off even more than losing my money is that the Nekton is NOT telling us about it. We have received NOTHING from them. Had one of my dive buddies not just happened to visit the Nekton webpage, we would still not know. None of us frequents scuba board, so we would not have seen it here. 4 of us had flights booked from Indianapolis to Ft Lauderdale, and we WOULD have gotten on them. And when we landed on June 12, we would have called the Nekton for pick up. No one would have answered. We would have been standing at the airport, trying to figure out what happened. We would have finally found the truth, and then realized that we were stuck in Ft Lauderdale with no place to stay. We would have had to find lodging for at least one night, and we would have had to change our return trip, losing money there too, plus pay for a new flight.

Yeah, THAT is the worst thing about this: no notification by mail or phone. We can be a little sympathetic that someone goes out of business in a dive industry plagued with the current financial disasters world-wide. But to not notify us personally, ASAP, so we can minimize our loss and inconvenience, well, that is inexcusable.

There is no doubt in my mind that this situation could and should have been handled in a more professional/ethical manner. It was ABSOLUTELY wrong to not give people timely notification of what was going on. There is no justification for the lack of communication.

 

[cappyjon431]

Before we get too teary-eyed about John Dixon, let's remember that HE RAN THE COMPANY INTO THE GROUND. HE WAS THE BOSS. He made the decisions about what did and did not get fixed. He decided not to be honest with his customers (and maybe employees as well). Anyone working at Nekton with half a brain had to see this coming. It was just a matter of time. If I were there, I would have been looking for another job months ago. But still I feel for the employees and customers. They are the unfortunate victims. But not John Dixon, no way. My guess is that his bank account is fat and happy right now. Maybe in a Cayman bank.

No one is suggesting that anyone should be "teary-eyed" for JD. It is evident that somewhere along the way he made some bad business decisions. He also dropped the ball about not contacting those who lost deposits/cruises due to the company's demise.

You are correct, if I was an employee and I saw the writing on the wall, I probably would have gotten the hell out while the getting was good. On the other hand, there are not a lot of jobs out there right now so in some cases this might not have been an option. Others might have stayed out of loyalty or due to a belief that the company might survive its current problems. Whatever the reasons, there are many who suffered as a result of Nekton's demise--customers and employees.

Your "guess" that his bank account is fat and happy sitting in the Caymans is simply that, a guess. You don't know (nor do I) about what his financial situation is right now. I could also "guess" that he might be losing his income, his home, his cars, and a company that at one time was one of the best operations out there. It is all conjecture at this point. I feel for his family as I feel for hundreds of thousands of other families out there who have been devastated by our stagnant economy. Many businesses have gone belly-up in the last few years, and while many of us take a cursory note of business failures around the country it appears that sometimes we forget about the human toll these business failures take on our fellow citizens. As divers this business failure is front and center because it actually impacts members of our community. This one hits home because many of us have been directly affected by it, losing deposits or trips. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you feel compassion for others who have lost jobs because of business failures around the country it would be somewhat hypocritical not to feel the same type of compassion for those who were affected in this failure. Just because this failure happened to be in the dive industry does not make it any more or less tragic than any other business failure in this country.

 

[diverdoug1]

Because I dive a number of liveaboards every year, I am now trying to look at the clues I saw that Nekton was going to fail. I plan on learning something from Nekton's demise, so that I can watch out for these warning signs in other liveaboards I use. Here are some of the things I experienced with Nekton that I feel are red flags for a liveaboard.

1. Poor / inconsistent comunications from the bussiness office. The Office at Nekton were frquently poorly informed about logistics of the boat, and when/where to meet it. I think this would indicate that things shipside are in a state of flux.

2. Poor physical appearance of the ship. As time went by, the Nekton ships got dirtier and dirtier. It was obvious that very little effort was made to even cursory cleaning of the boat. This showed a laissez-faire attitude about even simple maintenance.

3. Frequent cruise cancellations due to mechanical problems (obviously secondary to red flag #2)

4. When services not provided, company tries to not refund cash, but tries to only give future credit. When I paid for Nitrox, and it was unavailable on my last Pilot cruise, the office initially refused to refund my money, but said I could use it against the crew tip on the next trip I did with them. I asked Mr. Dixon if he was in the habit of floating unsecured, interest free loans. When he said "no", I told him neither was I and demanded my money back (I finally got it). I also knew that the crew would have never seen that money.

5. Hearing the crew is not getting paid promptly (shows a serious cash flow problem or mismanagement or unscrupulous bussiness practices).

Please add any others you can think of. I am not suggesting that someone never use an operator if one of these situations arrises, just that they are red flags.

 

[cappyjon431]

Because I dive a number of liveaboards every year, I am now trying to look at the clues I saw that Nekton was going to fail. I plan on lerning something from Nekton's demise, so that I can watch out for these warning signs in other liveaboards I use. Here are some of the things I experienceed with Nekton that I feel are red flags for a liveaboard.

1. Poor / inconsistent comunications from the bussiness office. The Office at Nekton were frquently poorly informed about logistics of the boat, and when/where to meet it. I think this would indicate that things shipside are in a state of flux.

2. Poor physical appearance of the ship. As time went by, the Nekton ships got dirtier and dirtier. It was obvious that very little effort was made to even cursory cleaning of the boat. This showed a laissez-faire attitude about even simple maintenance.

3. Frequent cruise cancellations due to mechanical problems (obviously secondary to red flag #2)

4. When services not provided, company tries to not refund cash, but tries to only give future credit. When I paid for Nitrox, and it was unavailable on my last Pilot cruise, the office initially refused to refund my money, but said I could use it against the crew trip on the next trip I did with them. I asked Mr. Dixon if he was in the habit of floating unsecured, interest free loans. When he said "no", I told him neither was I and demanded my money back (I finally got it). I also knew that the crew would have never seen that money.

5. Hearing the crew is not getting paid promptly (shows a serious cash flow problem or mismanagement or unscrupulous bussiness practices).

Please add any others you can think of. I am not suggesting that someone never use an operator if one of these situations arrises, just that they are red flags.

Doug, I think you got most of the important ones, but there is one other that I might suggest. If consumers hear about long term employees leaving, this could also signal a potential problem. While in general the liveaboard industry suffers from huge employee turnover, there are usually "fixtures" that stay with the company an insure that guests get a quality cruise. Captain Ephey was with the company for over ten years, but he left. I was with Nekton for eight years before moving on. Chris and Paula, Mikey C., Nelson, were all with the company for over four years and they left. None of these folks have been with Nekton for the past couple of years. Experience and leadership are crucial for the success of any company and when the most experienced members of a team leave, it is similar to a ship being without a rudder. Experienced crews make sure the boat is properly cleaned and maintained and bring problems to the attention of management BEFORE the problems become exacerbated.

You raise an important point about the office staff not being well informed of logistics. For many years office staff were required to go out periodically throughout the year to get a "feel" for the boat and the operation. The last time i visited the Nekton office, I was somewhat shocked to see so many employees shoreside. The staff was significantly bigger than it had ever been (lots of marketing and sales people), but I don't believe any of them had spent significant time on the boats. While I cannot be certain, it seems as if the cross-training which had been so important in years past was not practiced over the past couple of years. One of the reasons I moved from the boat to the office (aside from going back to school) was so that I could assist the office staff with answering questions about the boats, itineraries, logistics etc.

 

[BDSC]

I've been following this thread with interest because I almost booked a trip with Nekton recently and am now so glad I didn't.

As far as I'm concerned, in a situation like this, when a company takes money from a customer knowing that the business is headed for failure, it's no different than stealing. No way could a person believe that the entire time they were taking deposits from folks they thought they would be able to deliver. I don't feel sorry in the least little bit for the owner and hope he does have to sell much of his personal property to pay back the people he owes and it appears to be quite a few.