Resolved: VERY negative experience with Cristal Clear Char ters- Key Largo

[HilaryRN71]

Hilary just a quick hi and a

As I know you I will take your word and not dive with them. That said, I kinda like Capt Gary and Brenda anywhoozle

Hey MissD. Hugs back and I am TOTALLY hijacking my own thread...but I hear we have a mutual friend from up North (MTuntland) that wants to come down and dive! Thanks for the hugs and we'll have to get a date set up.

 

[Missdirected]

Hey MissD. Hugs back and I am TOTALLY hijacking my own thread...but I hear we have a mutual friend from up North (MTuntland) that wants to come down and dive! Thanks for the hugs and we'll have to get a date set up.

Yeppers, he mentioned the second and third weekend but I am in Costa Rica with Johnny. What do we think about the last weekend? As for March, I have a couple trips to RI, I will get the dates.

 

[Walter]

Walter...he wouldn't let me dive. I was on the boat for the second dive.

What was his reason for denying you your dive? What kind of a refund did you get?

 

[DawnBarber]

Hilary – Thank you all for your patience in my response. I have taken the liberty to speak to every employee that was on duty that day to piece together all probabilities as well as Dale Worley who was running the group that was diving that weekend so that I may have a full picture of events before responding to your post, as this was a very serious accusation. Missing a diver on a manifest is inexcusable and I understand your reason for being upset. This is the first time a diver has been left off of an official manifest and as far as I’m concerned it will never happen again. Providing a safe diving platform is our number one goal followed closely by number two…having fun.

Cristal Clear Charters does owe you an apology. You should never have been put in that situation. From the inside crew to the outside crew we are sorry to have caused you so much anguish.

No, it is not common practice with our operations to fill out only one dive release per dive weekend. It has been a universal practice with all of our locations since Joe and I opened our first dive shop in 2002 to fill out a dive release per day per diver. This has been something that is engrained in every one of our employees personally by me. These releases are filled out and signed on a daily basis unless you are part of a dive group that is under the direct supervision of a dive leader such as Dale Worley that day. You were not part of that group during this trip. You were individually paid. The group sales coordinator verified all of this for me at the shop. I believe you were initially listed on the group list and then were pulled last minute. And at some point you decided to come by yourself and called on an individual basis.

Yes, the DM/Captain should have noticed you boarding (with your gear), getting off the boat and then reboarding. The DM did recognized your face from the day before. The DM/Captain assumed you were on the manifest due to the familiarity from the previous day. This assumption should not have happened. The inside crew was watching to make sure you made it back to the boat after purchasing your shirt and believed from the actions of the DM/Captain that you made it back for roll call. The inside crew could have misunderstood what was actually happening on the boat at that time. The bottom line is that it was Cristal Clear Charters responsibility, not yours, to make sure you were on the manifest.

Typically, Captain & mate introduction, boat safety briefing, and initial roll call are done by the captain before the boat leaves the dock. After the boat leaves the dock the mate continues the briefing with boat familiarity (head, showers, camera rinse) followed by a second (non-verbal) headcount. This is the fourth place any manifest discrepancies should be caught and the boat would be turned and back at the dock in less than five minutes to fix with the front office.

The primary issue is how the Captain decided to respond once the incident occurred. The captain should never have acted that way toward anyone, male or female. Under no circumstances do we tolerate disrespect in such a way. There is no law that covers this it is common courtesy. This is something that my parents taught me long ago and I strive to pass it to every employee who comes through our doors. Always respect others. Never put yourself in a situation that would embarrass someone else, as you only embarrass yourself in the long run. There are no excuses for his behavior. None. I can say I’m personally sorry, and I will personally handle the captain in this situation. This captain has not been with us long, just six weeks, and has never shown this type of behavior in the past.

All we ask from our customers is feedback and support. Please bring this kind of stuff directly to the attention of management. This is the only way to know when something of this nature happens. I can’t say that we never have a bad day. I can’t say that other operations don’t have bad days. Everyone does. It takes an entire team working together, all having good days to make a great dive day.

Hilary once again, I’m sorry you missed your second dive and congratulations on number 200. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please contact me directly at DawnBarber@cayclubs.com. Or call me on my call anytime (305) 731-3303

Sincerely,
Dawn

 

[CheddarChick]

Dawn,
I think at the very least you ought to refund Hilary's dive cost. I think also since she seems to have been the one to bring business (group divers) to your place of business you ought to do more than that. In my world bad reviews spread so much faster than good ones. Make it right, and people are happy...

 

[The Chairman]

Cristal Clear Charters does owe you an apology. You should never have been put in that situation. From the inside crew to the outside crew we are sorry to have caused you so much anguish.

Dawn,

On behalf of the staff here and ScubaBoardians in general, THANKS for your response. This goes a LONG, LONG way to making things right. As you can tell, we like to hear from both sides of the issue, which is why you were contacted about this thread. No person or entity (including ScubaBoard) is perfect. We all make mistakes. It's how we respond when those mistakes are pointed out that seperate the pros from the wannabes. Thanks for being a pro.

BTW, have you drawn and quartered the Captain yet??? (Just kidding!)

 

[OceanObsessed]

Hilary,
Every boat uses different procedures. It is irresponsible for the captain and the DM's to assume that you know exaclty when their roll call is done. Granted you could have notified the crew that you were leaving the boat but the captain and crew should assume there are newbies on the boat that do not know their specific roll call procedures. It is ultimately the captains responsibility to make sure EVERYONE is accounted for and that came very close to failing while he was under command.

It sounds to me that he was embarrassed for having such a irresponsible mistake happen during his command and in an effort for him to "save face" he just passed the blame on to you to make it look like it was solely your fault. He sounds like a real jerk to me. If he is so concerned about his license then his first step should be to get his act together.

 

[AXL72]

Dawn,

Could you please confirm that you will at least refund half of the dive trip money to Hilary for that day.

I think this is fair, unless Hilary feels strongly and passionately that the refund should be more.

If you refund her full amount for that day, including the shirt, you could think of it as advertising here on SB. Tax right off...hello

Please do the right thing.

 

[Missdirected]

Dawn,

Could you please confirm that you will at least refund half of the dive trip money to Hilary for that day.

I think this is fair, unless Hilary feels strongly and passionately that the refund should be more.

If you refund her full amount for that day, including the shirt, you could think of it as advertising here on SB. Tax right off...hello

Please do the right thing.

Actually, I am quite shocked that was skipped. I expected to read, "You will be receiving a full refund and if you would be so kind as to offer us another opportunity, we would be happy to take you out for the day and show you what we are really about".

Advertising/publicity goes a long way, good or bad. Take this thread for instance:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=131823 Take heed, many a person uses this board to research their dive vacations and for good reason.

 

[rebelmandziukan]

I totally agree. I think a refund is in order. It's the right thing to do just to put the situation on even ground. Your captain needs to be wrote up. Also to make her happy I would give her a free dive trip. I guarentee that you wont be seeing me or my wife on your boats unless you do. by the way, your capt. is lucky that this wasnt my wife that he made cry because the result would have been quiet different.:smileysto