Silent World Review 11/28 - 30 With new ownership (long)

[Johnoly]

...I don't know anybody up there who would say "if the boat goes, I go, every time."

I've dove the Lake Huron area wrecks of Sandusky, Maitland, St. Andrew, Barnum, Cedarville with Capt Larry of Rec Diving Scuba. Got drysuit & will travel. Your wrecks are incredible and perfectly preserved.

 

[CajunDiva]

I don't think any of us were in Key Largo on Nov 29, so, in general, we can't say what the conditions were like.

I was there. I dove that morning. It was our last dive opportunity of this trip, so we didn't want to miss it. I was diving off of Rainbow Reef's 42' Newton. Just as the OP said, the conditions were great on the way out. We went out to Snapper Ledge, but there was another boat on the mooring ball. By that time conditions were SUBSTANTIALLY worse. I understand that wave heights are subjective. These were 4-5 with an occasional 6...IMHO. When we couldn't dive Snapper Ledge, the next choice was Molasses Reef. The seas seemed slightly calmer there, but not much. Love those Newton boats...such a joy to dive from. (Especially when you're the poster child for seasickness :tongue We had a couple of good dives and didn't have any issues getting back onto the boat. The ladder was great...wide, with sturdy handles and good steps. Of course, what made things even better was that there were two crew members there waiting for us to help us out and back to our seats

Rainbow Reef ran both of their boats that morning. The other went to the Bibb and the Duane. I was told that the seas were 6-7 ft. on those dives, but there was no current and the visibility was forever. Although the seas were rough, the DIVING conditions were superb.

We got back to the dive shop with no issues, having enjoyed our last dives. At that point, there was LOTS of checking of current conditions going on, and they were trying to make a determination of whether to go out on the afternoon trip or not...and there were divers lined up waiting to go. I don't know what the final decision was, and I don't know if the boat went out, but I DO know that their first concern was safety - not dollars.

I am particular about my diving. I want to dive with dive ops who are safe, fair and fun. And I know there are many ops out there who meet that criteria. Once I find the one that is the perfect fit for me, I am a loyal, faithful customer. I keep going back. I have no doubt that had I not felt comfortable going out that day, I would not have gotten into a battle over whether I was charged for the trip. I also know that when the seas were too rough to go out earlier in the week and RRDC called to let us know they were not taking the boats out that day, I had NO problem with that...because I trust what they told me to be true.

I guess what I'm saying is that the best you can do is to do your homework, make the best judgement call you can, and trust that others are going to do the best they can as well. Stuff happens. It's how we deal with it that counts.

 

[Tom Winters]

Well, I crawled through all this stuff. I guess the new owners of Silent World are sure learning that the adage "The customer is always right, especially if they have access to internet forums" was never truer. When I ran charters, I never wanted an unhappy customer, and I'd figure out what irked 'em and made it right. Maybe ya gotta do a little phone shmooze, maybe ya gotta throw a little refund back at 'em - and a couple shop t-shirts sure never hurt. If you're running a bidness at anything less than 100% customer satisfaction, well then sir or ma'am, you are truly an adventurous soul.
Business has always been competitive, and there are not many more open markets than Key Largo dive ops.
Now I realize that there are customers who will never be happy, and, well, a business owner will never win with them. The OP didn't sound like one of them.
These people who say if the boat goes, they go - well good for you. Clients like that are great. Tourist couples - that can take a little finesse sometimes. That was not done here.
I hope everything works out here for everyone.

 

[scubadada]

I don't think any of us were in Key Largo on Nov 29, so, in general, we can't say what the conditions were like. I know, as a landlubber, I overestimate sea conditions, both height and period. I would be very interested in knowing what other operators did that afternoon. For instance, I'm reasonably confident in the decisions made by Ocean Divers. Of course they do have larger Newtons and may be more stable in bigger seas.

I agree wholeheartedly with Johnoly, if the boat goes, I go, every time

Good diving, Craig

For what it's worth, Ocean Divers tells me they went out morning and afternoon on November 29. Their schedule on Friday is Duane/Reef in the morning and reef/feef in the afternoon.

You learn to trust your operator with time and experince. I have a few over 100 dives with OD including 20 on the Spiegel Grove and 20 on the Duane. They've cancelled a couple trips on me due to conditions and cancelled a few deep wrecks due to current. They've also gone out in moderately rough conditions when they believed it was safe. I trust their judgement and am disappointed when I can't go, but am very happy when I can.

 

[iamrushman]

thread read and noted.....

 

[Wookie]

I guess the new owners of Silent World are sure learning that the adage "The customer is always right, especially if they have access to internet forums" was never truer. When I ran charters, I never wanted an unhappy customer, and I'd figure out what irked 'em and made it right.

The customer is not always right, the customer is more frequently wrong. The customer must be educated, and the customer must leave happy.

The improper adage that the customer is always right leads to folks thinking it's all about them. In reality, it's all about safety. Had Capt Todd thrown the safety card, or had the OP thrown it first, this conversation would not be taking place.

 

[Tom Winters]

The customer is not always right, the customer is more frequently wrong. The customer must be educated, and the customer must leave happy.

The improper adage that the customer is always right leads to folks thinking it's all about them. In reality, it's all about safety. Had Capt Todd thrown the safety card, or had the OP thrown it first, this conversation would not be taking place.

I'm scratching my head a little over this one. Last time I checked, customers provided various and sundry inputs of capital that enabled a business to operate. If a given business has a monopoly, well hell,
that company can do whatever they want and make money. In a tight market like Key largo dive ops, one po'ed customer who can write a cogent, reasonable-in-tone diatribe is going to get his or her negative point across to a lot more people than stacks of stacks of kudo posts, a lot of which most people kinda discount to begin with.

Now by "customer", I hope you realize that I am referring to the collective use of the word. Now as to folks "thinking that it's all about them" - well, it is all about them and their expectations. But hey, I'm long out of the dive bidness and there are probably new ways of dealing with people that I never even imagined.

 

[flots am]

The improper adage that the customer is always right leads to folks thinking it's all about them. In reality, it's all about safety. Had Capt Todd thrown the safety card, or had the OP thrown it first, this conversation would not be taking place.

Either party can "not go", but it's sort of a poker game, since if the Dive Operator cancels, it's free, but if the customer cancels it isn't.

The captain of the Joseph Simon once told me "I'll go out if you want to, but I don't think you're going to have a good time." It's a 48' steel boat that I believe used to be a commercial fishing boat or possibly a tug, and he was an old guy who had been on the lake forever.

I said "thanks", turned around and went to a restaurant for a nice long breakfast. It was the best $75 I ever lost.

The other guys came back looking like they were going to need a hospital. They had spent the last 3-4 hours puking over the side of the boat. I don't find any honor or pleasure in going out when the conditions are bad, just to make the dive.

flots.

 

[herbdb]

A recreational dive operator's boat will tolerate much worse weather than divers can endure. This Capt screwed you and laughed as you walked away. I hope you never booked with him again.

 

[flots am]

A recreational dive operator's boat will tolerate much worse weather than divers can endure. This Capt screwed you and laughed as you walked away.

The captain screwed me? How does that work? The other guys went diving and puked their guts out all morning and felt horrible for the rest of the day.

He drove the boat and they went along.

I did a nice shore dive. Sounds like a bargain in my book.

flots.