Socal Chartered Boat Dive Protocol

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Phillip- thanks for your reply. I don't think anyone was questioning your policy, just the application of it under the circumstances of missing the boat versus a boat leaving before departure time.
“Check in is no later than 6am, once you have checked in you need to get your gear on the boat as soon as possible as we NEVER leave later than 7am.”
Is this the same as what was on your website? If not, I am sure you can see where the confusion may have been, despite your conversation.
If you read the initial posts, and even a note from one of the moderators, I think you will see that most folks were looking for your side of this. Lacking any information other than what the OP gave us, it sure seemed like a poorly handled situation. Now we'll wait to hear from the OP.

If the facts are as you say, I'm sure most will understand your hard line on this. Question: Since you offered a credit for another trip, given that they are from Chicago, could that trip have been transferred to someone out here if they wanted? Then at least they could "resell" the trip and recoup their cost as they may not be out here again. If that was an option, I have a hard time supporting the OP on this (depsite my previous posts).

Thanks again for posting your side.
 
The facts are like this… even though the boat will hold many more, we limited the total to 18 divers and in 2007 sold spots for only $115.00, FYI in 2007 that would equate to just a little over $8.00 per person above cost. She was aware that we only sold 18 spots and that there would be no refund if she missed the boat.
Phillip

So.. the other 16 divers were there, checked in, and had their gear on the boat on time.. That says a lot right there.
I don't think Phillip gave you inaccurate info, or was out to intentionally make you miss the boat~ no dive shop wants to piss off or lose a customer (although it happens).
I'd take the free spot for 2008 if I was the OP. By selling it, at least she'd get some of her $ back.....
 
My question is, was there any attempt to contact th OP? If you knew that you were short 2 divers why not find out where they were? From my experience, I've never seen a check in time on a boat. It's always been, be on the boat with all of your gear and all of the paperwork filled out before we leave, that's it. IMO a check in time an hour before the boat's normally scheduled departure time(if that's what it is) is just going to create problems, obviously. Maybe you should switch to the normal boat protocol that has work for so many years.

My $0.005

P.S. appreciate you posting your side

Billy
 
My question is, was there any attempt to contact th OP? If you knew that you were short 2 divers why not find out where they were? From my experience, I've never seen a check in time on a boat. It's always been, be on the boat with all of your gear and all of the paperwork filled out before we leave, that's it. IMO a check in time an hour before the boat's normally scheduled departure time(if that's what it is) is just going to create problems, obviously. Maybe you should switch to the normal boat protocol that has work for so many years.

My $0.005

P.S. appreciate you posting your side

Billy

In my opinion, the store has no obligations to check where "late" divers are or are not.
My only concern in this situation is that it seemed from the original post that the boat left before the stated departure time (which is not ok if some people are not present).

With this latest info, it seems that that may not have been the case and the boat was within its rights to leave.

I think the policy was a bit complex with "check in" and "depart no later than" times, and could definitely be confusing and I could see how mixups could occur.
 
"Check in is no later than 6am, once you have checked in you need to get your gear on the boat as soon as possible as we NEVER leave later than 7am."

I am not sure how this get construed to clearly mean that we leave as soon after 6am as enough people (or everyone but you) is checked in. The only departure time mentioned was 7am. "We leave at 6:15, so be there no later than 6:00" is a clear statement.

This shop has a rather odd approach to boat departures. No one really knows when the boat will leave because it depends on when enough people have checked in to decide to get going. Would the boat have left at 6:15 if only three people had checked in by then? Would it have left at 6:01 if 15 people were checked in?

Most boats have a 6am check in time for a 7 am departure. A lot of people show up at 6 or earlier, but there are those that arrive closer to 7. This is not a problem for a simple backside Catalina run.

The price of the boat trip has little to do with any of this. I took limited load trips on the Bottom Scratcher in 2007 for less than $115 and the boat did not leave at some whimsical time. The boat always offers people the opportunity to sleep on board the night before. This shop seems to have made that a necessity with a departure policy of "When I think enough people have checked in and it is after 6:00 am, we go."
 
Question: Since you offered a credit for another trip, given that they are from Chicago, could that trip have been transferred to someone out here if they wanted? Then at least they could "resell" the trip and recoup their cost as they may not be out here again.

Answer: If she wants to resell those two spots that I have offered her, I have to problem with that. I just need to know in advance for the obvious reasons.
 
Seems reasonable to me. I hope we hear from the OP, and she takes them up on the offer. Based on the responses on this, she should have no trouble recovering some of her cost.

Again Phillip, thanks for posting your side.
 
Question: Since you offered a credit for another trip, given that they are from Chicago, could that trip have been transferred to someone out here if they wanted? Then at least they could "resell" the trip and recoup their cost as they may not be out here again.

Answer: If she wants to resell those two spots that I have offered her, I have to problem with that. I just need to know in advance for the obvious reasons.

I think that is a very fair way of handling it. Hopefully, she will get to recoup some of her money and someone will get some great Catalina diving. (Perhaps they can also be enticed to give an opinion of diving with you.)
 
"Check in is no later than 6am, once you have checked in you need to get your gear on the boat as soon as possible as we NEVER leave later than 7am."

I am not sure how this get construed to clearly mean that we leave as soon after 6am as enough people (or everyone but you) is checked in. The only departure time mentioned was 7am. "We leave at 6:15, so be there no later than 6:00" is a clear statement.

This shop has a rather odd approach to boat departures. No one really knows when the boat will leave because it depends on when enough people have checked in to decide to get going. Would the boat have left at 6:15 if only three people had checked in by then? Would it have left at 6:01 if 15 people were checked in?

Most boats have a 6am check in time for a 7 am departure. A lot of people show up at 6 or earlier, but there are those that arrive closer to 7. This is not a problem for a simple backside Catalina run.

The price of the boat trip has little to do with any of this. I took limited load trips on the Bottom Scratcher in 2007 for less than $115 and the boat did not leave at some whimsical time. The boat always offers people the opportunity to sleep on board the night before. This shop seems to have made that a necessity with a departure policy of "When I think enough people have checked in and it is after 6:00 am, we go."

1. This is exactly what I was afraid of... someone taking the words I type here as the end all of everything that was said on the phone... of course I explained to her what I meant.

2. Saying that "No one really knows when the boat will leave..." is totally unfair. IF you were one of the people on this boat, you would know that at 6am we pull the roster and do a roll call... if everyone on the roster says "here" we leave.

3. Please don't quote me as saying something I didn't say... That part about "When I think enough people have signed in...." was never said by me and shouldn't be in quotes.
 
Well, this is unfortunate. As Karen's dive partner for this trip, I was holding back from posting assuming Phillip at Scuba Center Temecula would do the right thing. His hard-line approach through 95% of this however (yes I see the offer to resell after peer pressure was applied) is most disturbing. I've been on several charters in several areas, the general protocol is as most people have stated - there is a time when you can start to check in and there is a departure time. Yes, there are those who are late for departure times but usually we wait 10 minutes to be good sports. There's no complicated double-speak to decipher, or secret drop-dead times when trips really leave despite whatever his newly-modified website says.

Yes, I too was dumb-founded to see the boat had left when Karen and I arrived at 6:30. It usually takes us all of 15 minutes to get our gear squared away on a typical boat. We're usually the ones laughing and helping others with spare o-rings or whatever. Those who know the Bottom Scratcher will know there is a bait stand right at the pier where the boat is docked. I went in and talked to the guys in there at 6:30 (ask them if you like next time you're around). They were kinda surprised the boat took off at 6:15 but that's what happened. Karen and I sat in our car and made several cells phone calls to try and find another charter operator. I'll hunt around and find a way to post that bill online if requested so everyone can see we were not lying about being there at 6:30 as Phillip makes it sound.

What's troubling is we talked to the shop the night before the trip about exact weights needed for the trip (we went diving with another operator that saturday and needed to tweak a couple things). The shop knew we were planning to show up. On Sunday, after we missed the boat, we waited for the Temecula shop to open and we called - we asked if we had screwed up the departure time as we missed the trip. The kid at the shop, Jason, said "no" - the departure time was 7am on his paperwork. So, even the shop employees didn't know about the ultra-strict time rules Phillip has for his trips! That's one of the two things that bother me about all this - I don't think everyone really knew the rules were that strict. The bottom line is Phillip made a mistake I think in assuming all were on board, and now he wants to hide behind all this flim-flam about check-in times vs. departure times vs. roll-call times or whatever. Why not just say, hey I made a mistake, my bad, here's the money or here's a trip you can resell. No, just no refund for any reason about a 100 times in a row.

The other thing that bothers me is his characterization that Karen changed the story several times to weasel some money out of the guy. The truth is we were there at 6:30, plenty of time to ensure a 7am departure, period. We did all we could beforehand to call and confirm reservations, weight and air rentals, etc. There was no need to leave early. Karen also did not say she was going trash the guy on the board or sue him or whatever. I was there - she was actually going to be too polite and forget it, thinking she had made the mistake. I said I thought we should demand a refund. What's best about her is she has a hard time being mean to anyone. I, on the other hand, have no problem working hard to ensure this guy does the right thing. There's no need to paint Karen as a flake when it's Phillip's operation that has the poor process and confusing procedures. I will guess the offer to transfer or resell the two spots will be revoked when he reads this, which is fine. I'm more interested in proving a point here than prying some money out of this guy's grubby hands. So, if the dive industry is evolving into a place where everything has to become a bare-knuckle fight just get things settled then fine, I can adapt. I will miss however the sport where people were decent and the golden rule applied.

:censored: - Rod
 

Back
Top Bottom