Posted by Reef Seekers Dive Co. on December 06, 2004 at 17:38:43:
In Reply to: Are all us divers really this CHEAP? posted by Richard on December 06, 2004 at 15:46:35:
I'm not sure if Tim wants to weigh in on this or not but I'll give it to you from our end.
Deciding to go or not go is always the hardest choice to make. One of the favorite sayings Tim and I have is "Damned if you do and damned if you don't." I wasn't on the boat, but on Sunday apparently a couple of people came up to Tim and said, "We're going to at least give it a shot, aren't we?" And a couple of others came up to him and said, "You're not really going to take us out in this, are you?"
Our thought, and one reason we like working with people like Tim, is that we'd rather cancel on a day we could have gone than go on a day when we should have stayed at the dock. Besides, strictly from a business standpoint, there's no sense in beating everyone up and maybe getting in lousy diving just so we can keep your money. It makes it less likely for you to do business with that boat or that shop again so there's no long-term sense in it.
What we instruct our DMs to do on trips like this (and I was told they did) is - ideally over the PA and if not that just mention to each diver - that although we'll be refudning you, it would be nice, especially if you ate something, to throw $5 or so in the tip jar to cover the boat's cost of food. Don't know who did or didn't but we at least put the thought in your head.
Although one of my favrotie sayings is "Diving is an expensive adventure sport that attracts the cheapest sons-of-bitches in the world," I will say this about the destination switch.
I personally called everyone (except for two people - phone rang and rang and rang with no machine) on this trip Saturday evening between 6-7:30PM to let them know of the destination switch, in case people would rather sleep in their own bed and come down in the morning. (And at that point, we really thought we had a good chance of making Catalina.) Not a single person that I talked to complained about the destination switch. Now they may have said something on the boat, but nobody said anything to me when they had a chance.
So anyway, that's the story. Aside from missing out on the diving, the biggest hassle for us is that we've spent a good portion of the day today refunding credit cards and trasferring people to other Reef Seekers boats.
I floated the idea to one guy that it was so bad out there yesterday that you guys should all be happy to pay us for NOT taking you out, but that notion didn't seem to merit his endorsement . . .
:-)
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner, Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, CA