Sunn Odyssey (Freeport) Negative experience

[bikinichick]

Just returned from Bahamas with my good friend and diving buddy.

Unfortunately, we had problems with Sunn Odyssey, which is owned by a couple named Nick and Karen. They seem very knowledgeable about diving - no complaints related to diving knowledge or safety.

But... a big BUT... there were some serious customer service issues and attitude problems, and we left feeling ripped off financially. I'd advise anyone to steer clear of Sunn Odyssey; I don't want anyone else to experience what we went through.

We had bad weather; and only did a few dives early in the week because the boat couldn't go out due to weather most of the week, plus my buddy got sick. Which of course is beyond anyone's control. However, Karen seemed very blase - totally unconcerned/ unsympathetic. It was really evident that she didn't care if we had a good time or not; we were nothing but a number to her.

But the real problem came when we settled the bill;
(a)she misrepresented the first dive; that day, she verbally referred to it as "a dive", but later found out she counted it as a two tank dive for each of us.
(b)She overcharged me for Ben's Cavern: $159 (the two other operations on the island charge $119 and $129, respectively).
(c)She failed to honour the volume discount; we had originally booked 10 dives each, and it would have been good faith for her to give us the volume rate since we had intended in good faith to do the volume of dives (This third issue I could have let go it just would have been a nice gesture, is all, but the first two were, in my opinion, serious billing issues.)

The clincher? When I pointed out that the charge for Ben's Cavern was too high, Karen said (and NOT jokingly) "I told you what the price was. You must have been drinking or something". I of course always show up for dives sober, and felt that comment to be rude, dismissive and insulting. That is just the worst example of her attitude, but it wasn't the only one.

I understand that other divers have had positive experiences with Sunn Odyssey, and I mean no disrespect by posting this. However I felt that my story should be told. This is a perfect example of how a dive operation may be great when everything's running smoothly, but what about when everyhting isn't going well? How will a dive operation treat you then?

I left their shop in tears, I will never, EVER dive again with Sunn Odyssey.
Katy

 

[Daxter]

Katy,

I feel your pain. We were down there last week got to do one tank on Monday before the sea was to rough. As with you, we had commited to Odyssey for 12 dives and were charged 40 per tank instead of the 28.80 that bulk diving whould have cost. We did not want to dive Bens Cavern, otherwise we would have met you on that trip.

I found the comunication with Sunn to be difficult every morning I had to call to see if we were going out or not. If I did not call I would not get a message. Found that Nick and Karen were nice people and Nick did seem to want you to have a good experince and lead a good dive but the business side was a hassle.

If I knew that I was not going to get the package price I could have made at least two more dives with the on-site dive op at our resort.

I can give the dive op at Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach two thumbs up for their attuide and for dealing with our last second dive request every day when we would find out that Sunn was not going out. There was only one day that the boat was full and only one day that they cancelled all the dives.

Oh well live and learn. Hope you did have a good time at Bens Cavern.
Cheers,

Tom

 

[bikinichick]

Tom,
I agree with you, Nick was great, my problem was chiefly with Karen and the business side of things. What was the name of the Dive Op at Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach? If I go there again I would consider them.
Ben's cavern was great. If you get the chance to go again, I highly recommend it.
Cheers, Katy

 

[Tavi]

If you ever return to Freeport, I highly recommend Grand Bahama Scuba

you will not be disapointed!!

 

[Daxter]

Katy,
I believe the dive op at the Wyndham is just called Viva Diving. We didnt sign up with them from the start because the web site for Wyndham has very little info and I was looking for a dive op that had small groups not any cattleboats. Down side to this way of thinking was as you saw Sunns boat did not go out, although I did see Carribean Divers out on the last day and their boat was the same as Sunns.

Viva was a huge pontoon boat, one dive we were with about 20 other divers. The other 3 dives we did with them only between 11-15 divers per dive. They do not seperate divers on basis of skill, but to thier credit they did go out as they could. If we had not commited to Sunn we would have been able to get in 5 more dives.

Sad that a dive trip consisted of 5 dives. With the wind as was, I guess I should be happy to get that many for the week.

Tom