How much $ would you charge?

[LUBOLD8431]

ALot of these stories make me laugh, and part of the reason why I charge $75 per hour (minimum 1 hour) for any search and recovery operation. I treat it as a commercial job, and very professional. I dont do anything like that for free...

Guy called us and wanted us to retrieve some keys from inside a car that was on the bottom of a lake so he could call the cops and say it was stolen, and then if anyone ever found it, they wouldnt find it with the keys in it.

Guy was drunk, drove his car into the lake, then got out and walked home.

We told him to have a nice day and get his own keys...


Funny part is, he then asked if he could rent a tank, bc and reg... We just about laughed him out of the shop!!! He wasnt even certified...


Snowmobile recovery is another story. I charge $500 for one sled, and $800 for two... Thats another scary story...

 

[gaustad]

Is your price for recovering snowmobiles based on the difficulty/danger of the activity, or because of the snowmobile's inherent value? I am curious because I know someone who is considering retrieving snowmobiles and I worry the task may be more than they expect.

 

[Barracuda2]

I've got $55.00 bucks in my pocket and had fun doing it. Found the glasses in about 20 min. in 7 feet of water. Let's see......where will the wife and I eat out tonight?

Barracuda2

 

[Freeman]

Shortly after my OW training my buddy and I were diving Porteau Cove and we were approached by the Dad whose daughter accidentally dropped her purse over the gov't dock. I suited up
*here comes the stupid part*, told my buddy I'd be right back and did a solo dive in 20 ft of water using the remaining air from our 1st dive with not even 20 dives under my belt at the time. I found the purse by the 15 min mark, somehow the wallet with ID etc fell out while swimming back to shore. The grateful father was relieved and paide me 60 bucks but asked me to check for the missing wallet. I grabbed my 2nd tank and in I went again. I found the wallet on the path of my initial recovery after 5-10 min and was paid another $40. All in all i made $100 bucks which covered most of my OW training ut:
Later I was told by my instructor I was 1) stupid for solo diving and 2) good score on the $$$. For simple search and recovery jobs like that he doesn't do it for less than $100 bucks as a general rule.

 

[LUBOLD8431]

gaustad once bubbled...
Is your price for recovering snowmobiles based on the difficulty/danger of the activity, or because of the snowmobile's inherent value? I am curious because I know someone who is considering retrieving snowmobiles and I worry the task may be more than they expect.

The price is because its a pain in the butt. You need big lift bags, first of all, usually, its under the ice (however, sometimes thin), And COLD water. Most people wouldnt be diving that time of year, never mind going in to search for a sled. This is, however, somewhat of a "going rate" if you will...

Yeah, and also, that the Environmental Police will charge you upwards of $500 a day fine for the sled polluting the water (gas/oil in the engine). And the fact that some of these sleds can cost $4-5 K. its all of that combined. Sometimes, its still not enough...

 

[diverjed]

Freeman once bubbled...
Shortly after my OW training my buddy and I were diving Porteau Cove and we were approached by the Dad whose daughter accidentally dropped her purse over the gov't dock. I suited up
*here comes the stupid part*, told my buddy I'd be right back and did a solo dive in 20 ft of water using the remaining air from our 1st dive with not even 20 dives under my belt at the time. I found the purse by the 15 min mark, somehow the wallet with ID etc fell out while swimming back to shore. The grateful father was relieved and paide me 60 bucks but asked me to check for the missing wallet. I grabbed my 2nd tank and in I went again. I found the wallet on the path of my initial recovery after 5-10 min and was paid another $40. All in all i made $100 bucks which covered most of my OW training ut:
Later I was told by my instructor I was 1) stupid for solo diving and 2) good score on the $$$. For simple search and recovery jobs like that he doesn't do it for less than $100 bucks as a general rule.

Yes, Bad Boy for the solo diving part!

That's a real anal philosophy sometimes. Unless you're in or near deco you should be fine. I can't tell you how many times i've done thing similar.

 

[Popeye]

Barracuda2 once bubbled...
A guy in town called me yesterday about a lost pair of glasses in his pond. Evidently, one of his kids was being funny on Memorial Day and pushed him in fully dressed. His glasses fell off. I went over to look at the site. The pond is pretty much a mud hole - no viz. The glasses are in a rather small search area (about 20 sq. ft.) in about 8-10 ft. of water (so he says) Because of the small area, I will be very surprised if I don't find them. I estimate that I'll probably be in the water no more than half an hour. Here's what I told him: $25.00 to suite up; $35.00 to go under for the first hr. and $35.00 per hr. while in the water. I estimate that it will cost him about $55.00 to retreive this glasses. What do you divers charge for jobs like this?

Barracuda2

Me personally, I woudn't charge him a dime.

If he wanted to kick for my expenses, and maybe a victory cocktail, that'd be fine.

Occaisionally, I'll do a hookup for local towing companies, or get hired by a marina to find an outboard, I'd take the bucks, but several times I did a favor for individuals, finding car keys and wedding rings, and I don't take money for that.

For me, the challenge and reward would be in using my skills to find the glasses.

Unless you've done this before, you'll find it will be very, very. difficult to find the specs.

What's your plan?

 

[pt40fathoms]

Check your local laws!

In Canada, receiving money for any diving operations requires a commercial license. The fines are in the thousands of dollars, and their is no consideration made if the dive was for a family member or friend. If you got paid, or just recovered costs of the dive, money has changed hands and you have broken the law. The laws in other countries will vary, so do yourself a favor and check them out and avoid a very nasty surprise.

Sorry about the bad news, but as the saying goes, reality sucks!

 

[scubajoe]

pt40fathoms once bubbled...
Check your local laws!

If the body of water you are diving is under U.S. National Park Service you have to have a special use permit to do anything that you do to make money. At our local lake all salvage diving is done by the NPS dive team. They get pretty ugly if anyone else does it. We have a special use permit to teach classes but nothing else.

Joe

 

[scubasean]

<wonders if folks realize that the originator posted this 45 days ago, and that the job was complete several weeks ago...>