Payments to Belize / Ambregris Caye dive shops

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Makes sense I guess. Emeliano is a stand up guy. He runs a very tight ship, all the DMS are professional and respectful. I actually didn’t realize their rates we’re the lowest. I’d dive with them if they were the highest the turneff/blue hole is always a ‘minimum numbers’ unfortunately as it’s a boat/captain and 2 dive masters minimum.

I would be amazed if they dinged you of your flight was delayed though, as long as you gave notice. Try to dive with Dimas/Brandon/Gio. All the DMS are good, dimas and Brandon are the best.

Make sure your pickup some jerk chicken from Robins and grab a coconut cream burrito from waraguma at some point.

DM me if you have any other questions.

 

[StaceyLC]

Hi all,

I'm going to be diving in Belize March 2nd - 9th, and tentatively decided on Belize Pro Dive Center based on good feedback on this forum and Trip Advisor reviews.

However, their payment request is funky. First they sent me a "credit card authorization" document asking me to provide them my credit card info via email. That's not a secure way to be sending your credit card info around. When I objected to that, they asked me to call in my credit card info. That's a bit better, but I figure they are going to write my credit card info on a piece of paper that will be laying around somewhere in their office. Also not super great.

Is that pretty normal for the Belize/ AC shops to run payments like that? I don't really feel comfortable giving them all of my credit card details rather than making a payment via a secure web site or via a credit card terminal in their shop. If that's pretty much what all other shops do, I have no choice I guess.

I'd love to hear what your experiences were as far as the payment goes.

Thanks,
Alex

I'm so glad that you asked this question. I'm running into the same thing. I'm going to Belize March 16 and do NOT want to email them my credit card

 

[_Alex_]

Hi all,

Thank you again for all the replies. Here now and already did a local 2-tank dive with them yesterday.

@Ministryofgiraffes - thanks for the all the good info, dove with Dimas yesterday and I agree, he's a great DM, possibly the best one I ever dove with. Haven't met Brandon or Gio yet. If you remember any of the dive sites you particularly liked, please share

@StaceyLC - yeah, it seems to be a pretty common thing here on the island though. Tried renting a golf cart, and got the same "email credit card authorization" request from them as well. Anyway, Emeliano gave me an option to call in the credit cad info, but I had trouble reaching him via Skype or WhatsApp (probably my fault). So they ended up just letting me pay here before I dove. They actually ended up letting me do my first dive before they even took my credit card info. I'm pretty sure they did just write it down in their payment journal They don't charge your card until you "settle the tab". So you either trust them or you don't. So far they've been exceptional to work with, so I ended up just deciding not to worry about it. They have their stuff together and it seems to be a really well ran dive shop.

 

[kelemvor]

Hey guys,

This is exactly the sort of problem (there are a few others) that a travel agent / travel agency solves. I use Bay Adventures for all my international travel in the Caribbean. Bay Adventures | Dive Adventures and Island Vacations You pay an American company (they're in Miami, FL) and the travel agency gets the money to the shady third world country. That way you get any protections your cc company provides, regular litigation options should you need them etc.

In my experience, they've charged me regular prices when I book trips. I'm not sure exactly how they're making their money. I assume they negotiated an actual rate lower than the published price for a dive shop or resort and keep the difference.

At Bay Adventures, the guys names you want to talk to are Al and Felix. Their number is 888-599-3483 or 305-892-4280

They're the only agency I've ever used for international travel. I got hooked up with them because scubaboard uses them for the bi-annual trips that they do (if the trip is in the Caribbean).

That said, my guess is that ANY travel agency would provide this same benefit. Hook up with a travel agency.

 

[ReefHound]

So you either trust them or you don't. So far they've been exceptional to work with, so I ended up just deciding not to worry about it. They have their stuff together and it seems to be a really well ran dive shop.

It's not a matter of "trust them or you don't". It's about having a security discipline and not wanting to send cc info over open email or phone call, regardless of who is on the other end or how awesome they are in person. The threat isn't a dive shop employee misusing your card info but a thief targeting the dive shop because of it's known vulnerabilities. Seems to me a "well ran dive shop" would just take a minute and get a paypal account and be done with these logistical issues on payments once and for all.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Sea Life DC2000

@Ministryofgiraffes - thanks for the all the good info, dove with Dimas yesterday and I agree, he's a great DM, possibly the best one I ever dove with. Haven't met Brandon or Gio yet. If you remember any of the dive sites you particularly liked, please share

Yeah, Dimas is the best. I've been diving with him for years. I love that dude. ref divesites, I love them all for different reasons, mainly because i shoot macro i like a lot of the 'gardens' dives....but i love esmarelda, victoria canyons, tackle box, any really...i'm not that picky because my face is usually stuck in coral get out to turneffe if you can. its a great trip. i have a couple of good snaps of dimas on my instafeed if you want to check them out. My handle is 'ministryofgiraffes'

 

[_Alex_]

OK, wanted to follow up after the trip. Unfortunately after the good first experience things went downhill and I ended up stopping my diving with shop not on a great note.

Wrote an honest review of my experience on tripadvisor. Wouldn't you know, my honest experience got "flagged" by someone as violating trip advisor guidelines. I overlooked tripadvisor email in a bunch of other junk email in my inbox, and TripAdvisor deleted my review after just 24 hours! I am now emailing them trying to get that review recovered.

Now it make sense to me how that dive shop has only 5 star reviews. Anything that's not 5 star gets flagged daily by the dive shop owner as "inappropriate", and tripadvisor deletes the review. That's crazy. Din't realize it was possible. I'm trying to get TripAdvisor to review my review. I will definitely post full experience here. If TripAdvisor can't recover my review, I fortunately have a draft saved. I'll make sure to post full review here (either restored from TripAdvisor or restored from my draft). It was fairly long and detailed. I'll post a separate "Beware" thread on that dive shop. Didn't realize the owner was that kind of a person... He did seemed like a decent guy at first.

 

[ReefHound]

Sorry to hear that. I'm not a fan of TripAdvisor and have not trusted their reviews for anything - especially scuba - for many years. I will sometimes read some reviews if I can't find any alternate sources but take them with a grain of salt. Their ratings are so manipulated. I can look at the top rated shops in a location I know well and many in the top ten I'll have never heard of while some I know are top notch will be like number 50. Some places pimp for ratings and some don't even mention it. I remember awhile back some guys did an experiment and managed to get a mythical restaurant the top rated restaurant in the area.

Found it. The Shed becomes the number one rated restaurant in London.

 

[_Alex_]

Thanks ReefHoud. I guess I've been placing too much trust in TripAdvisor. I did get burnt a couple of times before, but most of the time they seemed to come through.

Seems that many review sites are either dishonest or can be manipulated these days. I used to trust Cruise Critic for cruise reviews. My positive reviews from several cruises posted just fine. However, when I tried to post my first negative review on a Carnival Cruise earlier this year, Cruise Critic rejected it for "not having enough details about all aspects of my cruise.". I tried modifying my review to satisfy their request, and it still got rejected because it wasn't positive enough! I guess I know now who their sponsor is...

Oh well. That's why we have these boards where people can just talk and you have a hope to separate BS from actual facts. Not always, but there is hope.

 

[ReefHound]

I prefer forums like this one for information and reviews precisely because it is a multi-directional platform. You can ask questions or clarify info with the person who gave it. And while you can't believe everything you read, if someone says anything blatantly stupid or wrong there will soon enough be plenty of others to set things straight.