When a liveaboard trip is cancelled the day you arrive....

[outofofficebrb]

Unfortunately, the Aggressor Fleet is known to be quiet when anything negative happens. That’s how they’ve been dealing with it, and I don’t think they’re going to change that policy.

Understandably so...I don't blame them for having that policy, especially if it's something negative. The last thing you'd want is for it to spiral out of control on a public forum! If I were a business owner, I'd want to deal with that in private and hopefully have a positive outcome. Should the customer feel the desire to share the positive outcome, that would obviously be welcome. I don't know - is it worse that nothing is said here at all by them and better if they came to post and just said, we are speaking to the customer directly? I dunno..Tough.

 

[Dogbowl]

Understandably so...I don't blame them for having that policy, especially if it's something negative. The last thing you'd want is for it to spiral out of control on a public forum! If I were a business owner, I'd want to deal with that in private and hopefully have a positive outcome. Should the customer feel the desire to share the positive outcome, that would obviously be welcome. I don't know - is it worse that nothing is said here at all by them and better if they came to post and just said, we are speaking to the customer directly? I dunno..Tough.

In this day and age of social media, I think people expect transparency. In at least 2 cases mentioned above ( “Death threat” and “Worse experience ever”), the dive shop owners came here and told their side of the story, and it ended positively for those shops, showing the OP allegations to be false or just over the top.

Based on Aggressor’s past trend of how they treat customers after something goes wrong, OP’s experience does not seem to be out of the ordinary. It seems to be well-known that Aggressor’s policy is to remain quiet and offer their customers $500 gift certificates on a future cruise that the customer most likely cannot use due to circumstances or have short expiry dates.

Just to be transparent, I’m booked on an Aggressor trip this spring and I’m hoping nothing goes sideways!

 

[richmonddiver]

The Dolphin House one was the exact one I was thinking about when I typed up my reply about understanding your message about maintaining a modicum of skepticism. What a great coincidence you linked to that one. Ha!

But, to be fair to the OP, her post and tone is and was very different to the ones you linked to...Thankfully!

Thumbs Down provides good, mindless entertainment about one per month. The Dolphin House one is a Thumbs Down classic. In a bad way, though.

 

[Dogbowl]

Thumbs Down provides good, mindless entertainment about one per month. The Dolphin House one is a Thumbs Down classic. In a bad way, though.

I liked that one, quite interesting and let me play detective!

OMG! Just realized what a pathetic life I must lead! I must stop coming here so often.

 

[richmonddiver]

I liked that one, quite interesting and let me play

OMG! Just realized what a pathetic life I must lead! I must stop coming here so often.

I liked that one, quite interesting and let me play detective!

OMG! Just realized what a pathetic life I must lead! I must stop coming here so often.

I still respect you. Just don't buy a place in Coz!!!

 

[Erica Watson]

You are correct- I did join the forum the day I posted- I was directed here by another diver that said this would be a place that would be knowledgeable and would be able to give me advice. Please note- I used my whole name as I am not trying to hide who i am or what is happening.
As for your other statements- I just don't have time to address them. I am looking for guidance and am happy to answer questions for clarification but I do take what you are saying personally and I don't care for it as it is far more negative than it is neutral. As I stated before, I understand skepticism but as someone else mentioned- its hard to provide facts in this case - I just don't know what to provide you. I have a voucher awarded to me, a confirmation 7 days out that the trip is going and a phone call conversation cancelling it. That is it.
What I really want to know is has this happened to someone else and what is reasonable to ask Aggressor for. I won the trip- my stance would be much clearer if I had paid, but I understand I won it and I don't want to be unreasonable in a request I make.

So instead of debating if I am telling the truth or not- treat it as hypothetical and tell me how you would handle the situation if you were in my shoes.

Because I could tell them about the excellent customer service, facilities and variety of diving offered by the best liveaboard fleet in history. Seriously though, I think you missed the point.


The OP joined Scubaboard the day she made her first post. The only content on Scubaboard from the OP is this thread. Aren't you a little curious that there might be another side to the story?
Anyway, I never said that the OP made the story up. The OP might believe what she said is true, but is factually incorrect. The OP might be honest and correct. The OP might be lying. I don't know. I only tried to remind people to be cautious about believing the story either way. Sometimes people are not working with all of the facts. Sometimes reasonable people disagree on the facts. Sometimes people are just crazy. I'll let the Thumbs Down forum speak for itself:

Disagreement on facts:
Gigglin Marlin Dive shop in Houston - STAY AWAY

Just plain weird:
Death threat

Just Bitter:
The worst experience ever

Just Crazy:
Insta-buddy dangers when women take dive trips unaccompanied


Maybe something financial? A better deal on a future trip? I don't know because there are no substantiated facts.


If you want to prove anything to anyone, you have to place something on the table. How do you think things are proven? Allegations are allegations. Facts are Facts. One proves things, one does not.

You believe the story word for word because you know the Agressor fleet is a shell of its former self? It sounds like you want believe any negative claim against Agressor, irregardless of the facts.

 

[John Bantin]

People who use their real names on forums are usually genuine and can be easily traced to ensure they are! If you book your dive travel via a European agency, under EU Law they must be ATOL bonded to sell a vacation with more than one element (eg travel & accommodation) so consumers are protected. The US is a free country and Americans are freely ripped off! Europeans are gob-smacked by these stories!

 

[Schwob]

Interesing & bunch o'questions (just if you happen to know):

Do you know if that is so (the EU travel agencies part) if they sell to non EU residents?

How does one know one os buying from an EU travel agency (and not e.g. a separate US business entity u der maybe same name)?

Any idea about that situation for Swiss agencies, e.g. Diviac. ... Would an American resident have exactly the same recourse as a Swiss one? And how does thst compate to an EU agency?

People who use their real names on forums are usually genuine and can be easily traced to ensure they are! If you book your dive travel via a European agency, under EU Law they must be ATOL bonded to sell a vacation with more than one element (eg travel & accommodation) so consumers are protected. The US is a free country and Americans are freely ripped off! Europeans are gob-smacked by these stories!

 

[Schwob]

For what it's worth, strictly my personal opinions:

1.)
If you win e.g. 5000 dollars in cash and I steal those very banknotes from you, did you not have 5000 dollars stolen from you? Why should it matter if you won it, found it, or worked for it?
So, imho you should demand full compensation for your entire loss, possibly including time. I do realize you very well may not really have a very good legal handle to get that (and would have no good advice on how to).... I don't know... But if the companies aim actually was to make it right, to make it up to you, that or maybe a compromise for that w/o lost time compensation (often the biggest cost) would need to be offered for me to feel: OK, they did tight by you.

2.)
You did well in your factual presentation.
Agressor does have the choice not to comment of course and they can do so for whatever motive. I think you presented so well that that choice by Agressor does not look so good, possibly even looks a bit strange. I having second thoughts about them and their motives now and of course I am also feeling iffy about insurances that proove defacto useless..

4.) If 7 days out you were given confirmation and thus embarked on the journey ... why should it matter if a group (even if it were the case), cancelled or if their reservation never existed? What does that have to do with the contractual obligation to you?

5.) What if you'd been told a couple of days prior to your flight that the trip is a no go and maybe for a reason an insurance would not cover and you'd be financially on the hook for the flights...
Cheez, all of a sudden booking an LOB sounds quite scary / risky financially...

OK, I stop here and I wish you well.

You are correct- I did join the forum the day I posted- I was directed here by another diver that said this would be a place that would be knowledgeable and would be able to give me advice. Please note- I used my whole name as I am not trying to hide who i am or what is happening.
As for your other statements- I just don't have time to address them. I am looking for guidance and am happy to answer questions for clarification but I do take what you are saying personally and I don't care for it as it is far more negative than it is neutral. As I stated before, I understand skepticism but as someone else mentioned- its hard to provide facts in this case - I just don't know what to provide you. I have a voucher awarded to me, a confirmation 7 days out that the trip is going and a phone call conversation cancelling it. That is it.
What I really want to know is has this happened to someone else and what is reasonable to ask Aggressor for. I won the trip- my stance would be much clearer if I had paid, but I understand I won it and I don't want to be unreasonable in a request I make.

So instead of debating if I am telling the truth or not- treat it as hypothetical and tell me how you would handle the situation if you were in my shoes.

 

[flyboy08]

You are correct- I did join the forum the day I posted- I was directed here by another diver that said this would be a place that would be knowledgeable and would be able to give me advice. Please note- I used my whole name as I am not trying to hide who i am or what is happening.
As for your other statements- I just don't have time to address them. I am looking for guidance and am happy to answer questions for clarification but I do take what you are saying personally and I don't care for it as it is far more negative than it is neutral. As I stated before, I understand skepticism but as someone else mentioned- its hard to provide facts in this case - I just don't know what to provide you. I have a voucher awarded to me, a confirmation 7 days out that the trip is going and a phone call conversation cancelling it. That is it.
What I really want to know is has this happened to someone else and what is reasonable to ask Aggressor for. I won the trip- my stance would be much clearer if I had paid, but I understand I won it and I don't want to be unreasonable in a request I make.

So instead of debating if I am telling the truth or not- treat it as hypothetical and tell me how you would handle the situation if you were in my shoes.

Don't go toe to toe with keyboard trolls....use the ignore feature it'll lessen the anxiety your going through.