What would you do? AITA?

[boulderjohn]

As a customer, my expectation would be that I would eat it, and I wouldn't pursue anything.

If I were the operator, I would offer some sort of compensation, probably a credit. Years ago I used an operator that on two separate occasions gave me a full refund because of problems on a dive. I didn't ask for it--it was just given to me. Something similar happened just a couple years ago because of glitches on a guided cave dive--I was offered a partial refund without asking for it. I very much appreciated that customer service, and I have both used those operators again and recommended them to others.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I'd eat it too.

 

[SouthernSharktoothDiver]

The amount of people saying "eat it" here is surprising to me. You paid for a service, which you did not fully receive through no fault of your own. You're entitled to get some of what you paid back. IMO, the "right thing" for the dive shop to do would be to either return your payment in full or offer credit for the full price of the trip, but obviously they have expenses and at least some such shops don't have the margins for that, but bare minimum a half refund would be expected.

Now, obviously, there are practical considerations. If this is the only dive shop in a location you like to visit often, maybe you don't wanna piss them off. Or maybe you know this place is struggling, financially, and don't wanna put any more strain on them. Or whatever. But in general, I'd have a chat with the boat captain, privately, when I got back, and just say "you know, I understand circumstances were outside y'all's control, but we paid for two dives and only got one. Is there anything y'all care to do about that?"

Not saying I'd push them on it, but I definitely wouldn't just eat it without asking. You paid for a service and you didn't get it.

 

[Zef]

All you folks who say you would or that others should eat the expense and not expect compensation, lets look at this through a slightly different lens:

You book a flight on a major airline. As you pull away from the terminal in preparation to take off, a fellow passenger has a heart attack. Your airplane returns to the terminal so the passenger with the heart attack can be off-boarded to awaiting emergency medical personnel. The pilot comes over the intercom and announces "thanks for booking with us folks, but this flight will no longer take place today due to the circumstances".

Will you just eat the expense of your flight? Or are you going to advocate that the airline needs to book you on the next flight to your destination?

If you are not willing to "eat the expense" of the flight situation but claim you would eat the expense of the dive situation (or suggest others to do so), then you are completely disingenuous.

-Z

 

[Kahuna.]

If you are not willing to "eat the expense" of the flight situation but claim you would eat the expense of the dive situation (or suggest others to do so), then you are completely disengenious.

That's not equivalent at all.

Airlines have thousands of flights and millions of customers over which to spread their risk. They operate bucket pricing to jack prices up for poeple who don't have flexibility or to improve profitability. In many cases it is not a luxury purchase but non-voluntary travel. Try flying to the opposite hemisphere for your dead father's funeral within 24 hours and tell me how you get on. They overbook flights and happily leave you stranded. And finally when airline incompetence and poor management makes them insolvent, tax payers end up digging them out.

Dive boats on the other hand are usually small businesses running on the edge of solvency as the owners do it for love as much as money. A couple of zero revenue launches could be the difference between them going under or keeping going for another year. If they go under we are sometimes left with routes and sites that no longer have any service whatsoever. I have never operated a dive business but having dealt with insurance for decades I would be surprised if a medical emergency would pay out on a terminated dive trip. Happy to be corrected here if I am wrong.

Personally, I am willing to help fund diving optionality by eating a trip or two over my lifetime in the case of a medical emergency. I would also be happy to receive a free trip if the dive operator offered it, either because they can afford it or insurance paid out.

When was the last time you tipped your airline/desk agent/captain/steward/ess for their service? You didn't? That's completely disingenuous of you.

 

[Zef]

That's not equivalent at all.

Airlines have thousands of flights and millions of customers over which to spread their risk. They operate bucket pricing to jack prices up for poeple who don't have flexibility or to improve profitability. In many cases it is not a luxury purchase but non-voluntary travel. Try flying to the opposite hemisphere for your dead father's funeral within 24 hours and tell me how you get on. They overbook flights and happily leave you stranded. And finally when airline incompetence and poor management makes them insolvent, tax payers end up digging them out.

Dive boats on the other hand are usually small businesses running on the edge of solvency as the owners do it for love as much as money. A couple of zero revenue launches could be the difference between them going under or keeping going for another year. If they go under we are sometimes left with routes and sites that no longer have any service whatsoever. I have never operated a dive business but having dealt with insurance for decades I would be surprised if a medical emergency would pay out on a terminated dive trip. Happy to be corrected here if I am wrong.

Personally, I am willing to help fund diving optionality by eating a trip or two over my lifetime in the case of a medical emergency. I would also be happy to receive a free trip if the dive operator offered it, either because they can afford it or insurance paid out.

When was the last time you tipped your airline/desk agent/captain/steward/ess for their service? You didn't? That's completely disingenuous of you.

Your post reads like its "not equivalent" because it doesn't fit your narrative.

My post is a parallel example, meant to take the scenario to a bit of an extreme to make a comparison and a point.

Your response basically says that its not ok for a big corporate entity to take advantage of its customers in a similar scenario as the dive-op, because of the volume of an airline's business and whatnot....but its ok for dive-op to do so because their margins are tighter and they can't afford to not screw their customer(s)...so the customer should just grin and bear it.

Its as if good customer service doesn't pay the operation any dividends, and the only way a dive-op can be profitable or even exist at all is at the expense of their customers no matter what. Sounds like bullsh!t, doesn't it?

Also, I am not sure at all what parallel you are tenuously trying draw with your statement about tipping, but calling me out as being disingenuous for it is a bit of a laugh, especially if you really knew me and what my values are., but thats ok...we are all disingenuous about something, I guess. You attempting to call me out on something so unrelated smacks a bit of ad-hominem though and doesn't make for a strong argument on your part.

Hey, at least you tried.

-Z

 

[Wookie]

Your post reads like its "not equivalent" because it doesn't fit your narrative.

Your post is the not equivalent.

Say the dive boat pax has a heart attack between dive 1 and dive 2. The equivalency would be the airliner having left Chicago an hour ago and an hour left to Houston and turns around. Airliners don’t do that, they land wherever they can, then continue the trip because the plane needs to be in the next place. In your equivalency experiment, the same would be that the boat never gets out of the marina, and turns around, and no dives are completed. The boat hasn’t burned any fuel, and the crew then has to eat it.

 

[happy-diver]

Ha ha ha ha ha so who's bleeding over the missed dive ha ha ha ha ha!

 

[Kahuna.]

Your post reads like its "not equivalent" because it doesn't fit your narrative.

My post is a parallel example, meant to take the scenario to a bit of an extreme to make a comparison and a point.

Your response basically says that its not ok for a big corporate entity to take advantage of its customers in a similar scenario as the dive-op, because of the volume of an airline's business and whatnot....but its ok for dive-op to do so because their margins are tighter and they can't afford to not screw their customer(s)...so the customer should just grin and bear it.

Its as if good customer service doesn't pay the operation any dividends, and the only way a dive-op can be profitable or even exist at all is at the expense of their customers no matter what. Sounds like bullsh!t, doesn't it?

Also, I am not sure at all what parallel you are tenuously trying draw with your statement about tipping, but calling me out as being disingenuous for it is a bit of a laugh, especially if you really knew me and what my values are., but thats ok...we are all disingenuous about something, I guess. You attempting to call me out on something so unrelated smacks a bit of ad-hominem though and doesn't make for a strong argument on your part.

Hey, at least you tried.

-Z

No one is saying that dive ops can only be profitable by ripping off customers. No one is saying they are happy about a missed dive. No one is saying they dont deserve some sort of refund. No one is saying it is great customer service to not make the customer whole. You are 100% factually correct in that you are paying for something and not getting what you paid for. To me context is important and impacts my narrative and how I react to the situation. That doesn't invalidate your narrative. I was literally playing back your example, language and narrative to you so don't have a cow. Let's hope none of us have to miss any dives!

Question... (conceptually at least) shouldn't we be looking to the victim's insurance for recompense rather than the dive op?

 

[Sascha314]

Interesting I thought about medical in a flight. In that instance airlines are not entitled to compensate.

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Of course it would be nice and sucks. But if a company would have to cover all possible risks they need re calculate their prices and thats just mostly bot reasonable.