fireflock:
Thanks for the report. Something does not sound quite right. Did they offer to take you to a closer site (since you were an hour out anyway, maybe at least the Liberty Ship)? Maybe a trip leader from Gypsy (not someone from Cape Fear Divers) decided to call the trip?
If there is one shop in NC that I would go out of my way not to piss off, it would be Gypsy Divers. It's rare to be talking with a group of NC divers and not find at least one diver who has some association with that shop.
Maybe Jim will chime in with some reasoning and/or another perspective.
I hope the Frying Pan tower dives were worth the trip.
Rich
Hi folks--There are several inaccuracies in Keith's post.
Most importantly, WE did NOT call the dive. Our boat had absolutely no problem handling the seas. The dive was called by the group leader, who is the very experienced and widely respected owner of one of NC's best dive shops. It was a good call, but it was not ours. The boat was theirs for the weekend, so it was properly their call.
Second, in that location, there was a set of swells rolling in from the tropical storm that were in excess of 6 feet. Keith is right that the underlying seas were only 3 to 5; it was those swells that caused the concern--again not for the boat, but for the divers.
Third, our policy is like everyone else's: if WE call the dive for any reason, sea conditions or otherwise, we eat the expenses of the trip and give a full refund.
Fourth, Discovery is a great operator. I have been out with them many times. That includes trips where the dives were called by the group and i received no refund. As quoted by another in this string, their policy is: "Deposits will be refunded on any trip WE cancel due to weather or other circumstances." Note the capitalized "WE". It is my beleif that our policy is the same as Discovery's and all the other operators i know of.
Fifth, we did provide substantial perks to the divers on that boat. I gave every one a card crediting them with two dives towards the five needed to get a free day of diving with us. In addition, i authorized the group leader to send everyone an email offering them an additional 20% off their next dive. Not as good a a full refund, but i'm trying here.
Sixth, and the second most significant point, Keith did not say one word to me about being dissatisfied with the call, about wanting a refund, or anything else that was critical of the call. It seems to me that common decency requires all of us to at least speak to a person who has offended us before we take to the airwaves trashing them and trying to hurt them. I was on the boat. I personally went to Keith and expressed my condolences that we didn't get to dive. So its not like he'd have had to be super-assertive to get to me to complain. I have bent over backwards to give people refunds, discounts or whatever it took to make things right if they will only say something to me. Also, i went to extra trouble with Keith to be helpful the day before the dive day: he'd forgotten his wet suit, so i offered that we had rental wetsuits. He didn't want the kind we had (fulls instead of shorties). I went through our inventory to make sure we didn't have a shorty for him. Then i called him back with the name and address of a surf shop that would be on his way and that had wetsuits on sale. He got his replacement wetsuit there at a bargain. Not a big deal, just an indication that i am trying to be helpful, and that Keith knew i was approachable. Oh, and Keith is getting a refund, of course, for the tanks he didn't use. In the stress of dealing with a cancelled dive, it just didn't occur to me (nearly everyone brought their own tanks) to handle it on the spot, and again my oversight on that was not brought to my attention.
Finally, this call made me sad. I want to take people diving. I didn't go into this business because its a great way to make money (it isn't!!). I went into it because love diving, and i want to take people diving on our great coast, in a great boat, and give them a great experience. There's nothing worse than having a group of divers wanting to dive and not getting them wet. I was personally looking forward to the dive, also.
This is the only time we've cancelled a dive once underway. I hope it never happens again, though i know it inevitably will. It's the worst situation for a dive boat, other than injury to a diver. We have cancelled on the dock once, where it was that clear. we gave full refunds to those divers. But this day was not that easy a call. Some charter boats were staying in, some went out, some came back, some went through. If not for the that big swell, there's no question we would've done the dives. We have been out diving several times this season when the other boats (Aquatic Safaris, for example) stayed home, and it's been great. That's the advantage the big boat gives us. Unfortunately, on this particular day, the seas were such that the group leader made the decision to call the trip.
I do regret that we were not more proactive in getting everyone to verbally sign off on the turnaround decision. We'll do that next time. If this had been a boatload of random divers we would have done that this time; because it was a group, my thought process was that once the group leader calls it, that's it.
. We have on a few occasions made it out in the ocean to find it was a little rough and saw it in the divers best interest to get back to shore. When this happens there is NO charge. If the location changes the customer pays for the dive they did, not were supposed to do. We took divers to the Stone and Dredge wreck 14 miles out on Sunday and it was a little bumpy. I agree with Mel, wait to hear Jim's side, it can be a difficult decision to make.
