Socorro Aggressor shut down

[ontdiver]

Buyers beware, the aggressor company has taken a turn for the worse! I have had customer service issues with the main office recently.

What kind of issues did you experience? Others are curious as well.

 

[Scared Silly]

From what they were saying the boat was not up to the Aggressor standards, and Aggressor cut ties as they didn't want there name dragged down by a sub-standard boat.

Fortunately, there are a lot of boats where the Aggressor is not up to their standards and do not want their name dragged down by a sub-standard booking agency.

 

[SlugLife]

Fortunately, there are a lot of boats where the Aggressor is not up to their standards and do not want their name dragged down by a sub-standard booking agency.

Right. This particular incident appears to be BOTH a sub-standard boat and sub-standard booking agency, and it sounds like despite whatever terminations of business-relationships may have occurred, everyone involved decided to stick the customers with the bill and keep their funds locked up as "credit."

My vague reading of this and other situations, is that Aggressor is plenty happy to work with sub-standard corner-cutting boats. However, this particular boat was SOOOOO bad, that even by Aggressor's low standards, they had to terminate the relationship.

My current #1 dive-buddy's former #1 dive buddy (a little closer than friend-of-a-friend) died in a liveaboard accident where the liveaboard caught fire. So, I don't exactly have much sympathy for corner-cutting dive-boats, and it's that much worse when lapses in fire-safety are also on that list. "We fixed it!" Yeah, whatever, don't care.

 

[Luca Brasi]

My personal issues involved aggressor customer service not returning calls and emails. I was dealing with the main office in Atlanta.I have taken over ten trips with them . The person I was dealing with stopped responding to my email and phone calls. I emailed the owner, no response! I also noticed a many of the boats not being up to a minimum level of comfort. The Costa Rica boat leaked water on the dining table, as an example .

 

[ontdiver]

My personal issues involved aggressor customer service not returning calls and emails. I was dealing with the main office in Atlanta.I have taken over ten trips with them . The person I was dealing with stopped responding to my email and phone calls. I emailed the owner, no response! I also noticed a many of the boats not being up to a minimum level of comfort. The Costa Rica boat leaked water on the dining table, as an example .

Customer service according to wide raging media reports has taken a real hit over the last couple of years, primarily due to COVID related issues, including lay offs, staff turnover, loss of corporate memory, lack of training etc. While this may be a convenient excuse for some, I think the vast majority of businesses are doing their best.

The dive industry was particularly hard hit and it is not surprising that operators big and small are still in catch up mode. They need to acknowledge and communicate this, however, and setting up simple bounce back messages re delays should have been easy enough to do.

Hopefully the good folks at Aggressor are following this thread and will find the right words to clear the air.

 

[SlugLife]

Hopefully the good folks at Aggressor are following this thread and will find the right words to clear the air.

If there's a genuine problem, "finding the right words" would just be a PR distraction, but the problem would remain. Unless those words are "your full refund is on it's way, we promise this will never happen again."

 

[ontdiver]

If there's a genuine problem, "finding the right words" would just be a PR distraction, but the problem would remain. Unless those words are "your full refund is on it's way, we promise this will never happen again."

Agreed. Providing an explanation for lapses in communication is one thing, but problems relating to refunds is clearly on a different level.

 

[jaredworkman]

My two cents -
I was booked on a cancelled trip. I booked directly through the parent company. They have been quite responsive and I've already received a refund check. I have nothing but positive things to say about how Agressor handled the situation.

Additionally, I always book through the parent company to avoid hassles with refunds through second party schedulers.