Paying 2 times for 1 dive trip due to illness !?!?!

[beachit]

Need some opinions please! My two girls are taking dive class together (ages 12 and 17). My husband and I also paid to go on the dive boat with them... looking forward to some family fun time. They were set to go on their check out dives last week end when the oldest; Megan, was up all night vomiting the night before the trip. I called the instructor at 5:00am the morning of the trip to let him know that she was not well. He stated that if the girls don't dive the first day they cannot go on the boat next day and would have to reschedule. OK...well then we obviously have to reschedule. Being that my 12 YO is dive buddies with her sister she is out as well. The instructor did state that we "might" have to pay a "little more" seeing that he already made reservations for the boat but we would discuss later because he might be able to move some people around. Now for the problem... we were told a few days later that we would have to pay the full amount for 3 of us to dive seeing that only 1 was actually vomiting. WHAT! So I called the dive BOAT and asked what their policy was. I was told that we could give them 24 hour notice (which we did) without a problem. That they understand unexpected things happen and we could reschedule the dive at a later time without penalty. When I called the dive shop where the kids took the lessons and spoke to the owner...they stated to bad so sad that we would have to re-pay. Not that it makes a difference, but we also bought ALL the kids gear from that shop. So we have A LOT of money already invested. Is this common with dive shops? Edit: Sorry....First day was a lake dive; ...the boat dive was the next day.

 

[theduckguru]

Your post is not clear. You state you called the instructor the day of the dive at 5am to advise of the illness and later state you gave 24 hours notice.

 

[weitodive]

I would say you get a voucher from the dive boat operator. Have them charge the shop. If the boat operator doesnt want to, be cal and rxplain your situation. Once your daughters finish their course, you can cut ties with the shop if you like.

 

[weitodive]

I assume they were talking about the second day of the training.

 

[t4e]

Your post is not clear. You state you called the instructor the day of the dive at 5am to advise of the illness and later state you gave 24 hours notice.

i am wondering the same thing but from the way the post is formulated sounds to me that the checkout dives were not off the boat, and the boat trip was going to happen the next day

 

[redacted]

Welcome to the world of scuba. When I reserve a slot and cancel I do not expect the dive op to absorb all the loss. When I get sick, I may cancel but my buddy will dive rather than unnecessarily incur the loss also. Most dive shops and ops are very small operations and not readily able to simply write off last minute cancellations.

That said, I sounds like you need to talk to your shop about day 2.

 

[Chris Brown Tech]

Need some opinions please! My two girls are taking dive class together (ages 12 and 17). My husband and I also paid to go on the dive boat with them... looking forward to some family fun time. They were set to go on their check out dives last week end when the oldest; Megan, was up all night vomiting the night before the trip. I called the instructor at 5:00am the morning of the trip to let him know that she was not well. He stated that if the girls don't dive the first day they cannot go on the boat next day and would have to reschedule. OK...well then we obviously have to reschedule. Being that my 12 YO is dive buddies with her sister she is out as well. The instructor did state that we "might" have to pay a "little more" seeing that he already made reservations for the boat but we would discuss later because he might be able to move some people around. Now for the problem... we were told a few days later that we would have to pay the full amount for 3 of us to dive seeing that only 1 was actually vomiting. WHAT! So I called the dive BOAT and asked what their policy was. I was told that we could give them 24 hour notice (which we did) without a problem. That they understand unexpected things happen and we could reschedule the dive at a later time without penalty. When I called the dive shop where the kids took the lessons and spoke to the owner...they stated to bad so sad that we would have to re-pay. Not that it makes a difference, but we also bought ALL the kids gear from that shop. So we have A LOT of money already invested. Is this common with dive shops?

Its a difficult call without knowing all the details, but it does sound like the boat was down 2, possibly 3 spaces?? On a big cattle boat thats not such a big deal, but on a small operators boats on a holiday weekend it could be 25% of the trip revenue.

Personally, in these situations I never charge the extra - Id look to reschedule at no further cost to me, say on another trip that was already running perhaps with an instructor that was already teaching. If not, Id probably just eat the loss. However, I schedule 3 - 3.5 days for OW as opposed to many shops 2.5, so that gives me a bit of wiggle room.

One point worth mentioning. In Florida, on a $500 OW class, or say a $350 ish referral, theres is hardly ANY margin. Thats the sad reality of the situation. So you will often see bargain airline style policies, I.e. - no show, no refund.

You might also want to check your trip insurance as you may be covered for the loss due to sickness.

 

[mathauck0814]

Boat operators are not getting fabulously wealthy running charters. In most cases the boats need to operate at a minimum capacity in order to break even on the overhead + fuel + crew costs. For that reason, most boats have cancellation policies that give them the ability to try to sell your seat. If you called your instructor at 5am the morning of the trip that would not give them enough notice to sell the seats and so you were charged. This is the way boats work.

On a separate note, it's best to take a longer view of things when it comes to diving. This is a very, very expensive activity. If you're going to get bent out of shape every time a few hundred dollars doesn't go your way, you're going to get very, very frustrated very, very quickly.

 

[beachit]

Lake dive was on Saturday; boat dive was on Sunday. Thanks for your replies!

 

[mathauck0814]

Lake dive was on Saturday; boat dive was on Sunday. Thanks for your replies!

Got it - it's entirely possible that at 5am, your instructor wasn't able to get ahold of the charter and they didn't find out about the cancellation until they got back from their Saturday trip - which would put you in the 24h window. Not sure if calling the boat directly would have helped you in this case. In general a 24 hour window is very generous. Many boats we dive have 7+ day policies.