Socorro Aggressor shut down

[edoralive]

They state the are honoring current reservations? If you want to take a chance with them.
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I believe they are honoring current prices, not reservations. As in you’d have to pay a whole new wad of cash.

 

[mcohen1021]

BAIL NOW

 

[Dan]

I don’t mind rebooking on another trip in the future, really. But the refusal to offer a refund isn’t something that would make me inclined to book with Bluewater again.

Same experience with them when our Philippines trip was canceled 2x due to pandemic and the country was closed. I rebooked on roatan aggressor and will never use bluewater again

That’s not what I have experienced with Bluewater Travel. I have booked several liveaboard trips through Tim Yeo of Bluewater Travel (Blue Manta, White Manta, Argo, Galapagos Master) and had good experiences.

During Covid, my trips were rescheduled to later dates without any additional charges. In fact I got a better deal in some of the rescheduling trips to later times.

Case 1
When Argo cancelled my September 2021 trip due to Covid, they would either fully refund me or give $1500 credit if I reschedule the trip to later time at no additional cost. I rescheduled it to September 2022 and used the $1500 credit for the Nitrox, T-shirt, tips and they wire transfer the balance of unused credits to my bank account.

Case 2
When 11 day trip on French Polynesia Master (FPM) in May 2020, got cancelled, Tim negotiated for me to get two of a week trip on Galapagos Master (GM) as FPM replacement. I paid $3250 (50% off) for FPM trip during 2019 Black Friday and received two week trip on GM as replacement that worth $12,500 .

My 5 Aggressor trips (Red Sea, Maldives, Palau, Rock Island, Okeanos 1) have been good too. In fact I was in Palau Aggressor twice. May be I have been lucky with Aggressors 6 times?

 

[SlugLife]

@edoralive @mcohen1021 i wouldn't be so quick to throw bluewater under the bus, if it is within 90 days, they would have already forwarded payment to aggressor. in that case it would be aggressor is the one only giving out a credit instead of a refund.

aggressor should be doing more to fix things, as the horror stories only serve to tarnish and devalue their brand. seems the newer franchisees added more recently are the source of 90% of the issues too, so maybe they should rethink trying to have boats in every liveaboard market and skip a market if they can't get a good franchisee in an area or running more of them directly like the caribbean ones

When someone takes my money in exchange for a good or service, there are 3 options:

• Delivering what was promised, as promised
• Delivering a full refund
• A scam.

And yes, I got scammed by several people/companies when covid hit. They claimed they needed the money more than I did, and never gave me an option about whether or not I agreed with that.

 

[Matt Clancy]

I never thought we would go on another Liveaboard after a trip on this boat. Made some awesome friends through the trauma of it. Between exhaust in the air tanks, soggy carpets, grade school quality meals, engine failure at sea, power steering fluid in the shower and no power steering… thankful we made it back and this was in 2019. Every time I read a review talking about the same issues, I got angry. Glad aggressor finally took action.

 

[drrich2]

That’s not what I have experienced with Bluewater Travel. I have booked several liveaboard trips through Tim Yeo of Bluewater Travel (Blue Manta, White Manta, Argo, Galapagos Master) and had good experiences.

Agreed. He did a fine job with 2 trips for me, one of which I just got back from, a reschedule from a trip cancellation in 2021 related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the sale price I originally booked wasn't price-protected, Master Liveaboard Fleet honored it anyway and I suspect Blue Water Dive Travel might've been a factor.

When BWDT collected money for me for deposit, interim and final payment, I believe it was to turn over to the liveaboard company (in this trip's case Master Liveaboard Fleet). In the event of a later cancellation, I don't expect BWDT to still have the money in hand to give back to me. Considering that some events leading to trip cancellation affect many people at once (e.g.: not just the pandemic; a boat breakdown can cause cancellation of the next week's trip), so there may potentially be a lot of people wanting a refund at once. I doubt a 'refund on demand' business model is viable for these companies. Especially when the travel agency doesn't have the money to refund.

Cancellations happen. I expect a rescheduled 'same type' trip, or maybe the option for a comparable experience (e.g.: to opt for a different boat in the fleet).

I've been on 3 Caribbean region Aggressor boats with excellent experiences; I've read enough accounts online to know when looking at Aggressor boats, judge on a case-by-case basis.

It'd be interesting to hear if any dive travel agency responds to a trip cancellation by refunding money they no longer have (with the expectation of fighting for reimbursement from the liveaboard operator).

From reading discussions like this in other threads, I tend to consider money I've paid for a liveaboard trip gone. I expect to ultimately receive good value for it, but I don't expect to get it back.

 

[mcohen1021]

I was told no risk. That to me obviously meant something else to Bluewater than it did to me. To me it meant exactly how it sounds - no risk and tht I could get a 100% refund in the event of any issues. It worked out but I'll never use them again.

 

[SlugLife]

I was told no risk. That to me obviously meant something else to Bluewater than it did to me. To me it meant exactly how it sounds - no risk and tht I could get a 100% refund in the event of any issues. It worked out but I'll never use them again.

It amazes me that some people are so willing to say "oh, well, they already sent the money, etc" as if that makes it all okay, and you the customer should be cool with that, and accept all the risk.

If you run a business, you have contract, guarantees, insurance, liabilities, background/reference checks, etc. If you don't, you'll QUICKLY go bankrupt. If Bluewater isn't going to hand over $25k to a dive boat that just says "we changed our mind, thanks for the money, good day!" And even if they did, that's a STRONG reason to not use them.

Again, if I'm going to buy something, and hand my money to someone .... they need to actually deliver the product. Otherwise, what am I giving them money for? A random chance I might get what I asked for? What kind of legitimate business can just decide on a whim .... it's Tuesday, we'll follow through. It's Wednesday and I'm feeling lazy, and I'm just going to keep the money. It doesn't matter if they intended to not deliver at the time they took your money, it's a scam. And If I know Aggressor frequently stiffs it's customers, and I'm just some random dude on ScubaBoard who has never used them, I guarantee Bluewater is VERY well aware of Aggressor stiffing customers. I mean, hell, they may even be working together.

The more divers that are okay or don't push back when getting scammed, the more this kind of thing goes on.

 

[tridacna]

It amazes me that some people are so willing to say "oh, well, they already sent the money, etc" as if that makes it all okay, and you the customer should be cool with that, and accept all the risk.

If you run a business, you have contract, guarantees, insurance, liabilities, background/reference checks, etc. If you don't, you'll QUICKLY go bankrupt. If Bluewater isn't going to hand over $25k to a dive boat that just says "we changed our mind, thanks for the money, good day!" And even if they did, that's a STRONG reason to not use them.

Again, if I'm going to buy something, and hand my money to someone .... they need to actually deliver the product. Otherwise, what am I giving them money for? A random chance I might get what I asked for? What kind of legitimate business can just decide on a whim .... it's Tuesday, we'll follow through. It's Wednesday and I'm feeling lazy, and I'm just going to keep the money. It doesn't matter if they intended to not deliver at the time they took your money, it's a scam. And If I know Aggressor frequently stiffs it's customers, and I'm just some random dude on ScubaBoard who has never used them, I guarantee Bluewater is VERY well aware of Aggressor stiffing customers. I mean, hell, they may even be working together.

The more divers that are okay or don't push back when getting scammed, the more this kind of thing goes on.

I agree with you with one caveat. What were the terms and conditions of the contract between the customer and vendor? If the customer agrees to this in the purchase contract, this is all moot. What does Blue Water promise in the sale?

 

[runsongas]

you inherently accept some risk when making any reservation, its not like airlines and hotels don't go bankrupt either.

if the travel agency already forwarded the money, they don't have it. good luck squeezing blood from a stone as they would just go bankrupt at that point.

i'm sure you got travel insurance and found out how quickly their exclusions for a pandemic kick in right? it would not have been any different for a business.