Tipping
- Thread starter lightwalk333
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Kamchatka
Contributor
DennisS
Contributor
Excellent advice, when you put that dive trip on the credit card, you haven't paid in full. You still owe money.Aloha all you bitter cheapskates,............................
If you can't afford the tip, don't do the trip!
The A-hole is the guy on the boat who's inferring that the money I paid for the trip wasn't the total amount, it's not really a $60 trip, it's a $65-$70 trip. They don't pay us, you have to, boat crew isn't included in the price. Didn't they tell you that when you paid.
I'm glad I have my own boat and only have to deal with this DM crap on special occasions.
I don't know how I manage to get the boat out, do a dive, and get back without a DM.
Kamchatka, if you zoom out a little you might see the bigger picture! Tunnel vision is very dark and stinky!
It's very funny that many SB'ers speak volumes between the lines and many other SB'ers don't know what between the lines means.
halemano,
Thanks for the explanation. (Note to self: Tunnel vision smells like a cow.)
If you can't afford the live off the tip, get a real job.
Hopefully others are as entertained by your more than proving my point.
You can not smell the cow when you are near a stockyard, and the ranchers say it smells like money. The smell between the lines (or cheeks) has 4 letters. :mooner:
Hopefully the colorful language isn't due to someone following a profile to a personal web page, although that would indicate more effort in trying to understand than many posters make. My personal page is seriously out of date, as I have not pulled any boat shifts for a couple years due to not being able to live off boat money. :no
I make a living in the resort shore diving world, teaching, guiding and selling dive photography. My employer pays fairly, the guests tip more than fairly and the photo's are the gravy. Nearly all the payments are made on room charges so the tax men get their cut.
I have seen the difference between a sufficient level of service and an exceptional level of service and when I go out on a boat I would rather get the exceptional service. When I get to the Great Barrier Reef I will gladly follow the local customs, but the exceptional crew will be invited out for a frosty deco stop, and an interesting single lass could easily get dinner out of me!
Kamchatka
Contributor
Well said, DennisS. I dove from my own boat for years, only going out with commercial charters maybe five or six times per season (in NJ my season was May-Oct). Took lots of friends and friends' friends out and the only thing I requested was that divers unknown to me be vouched for, as to their abilities, by their friends. Sadly, for them, the commercial ops don't have that option. So the DMs and crews have to be nursemaids to infrequent and, all to frequently, unskilled divers, specially in resort areas like SE FL. I think this may have resulted in a general low regard by the crews. Working with the public is a tough job in any arena. I sure wouldn't want to do it. In short order I'd be calling them stupid, cheap and unconscious dopes and be going around with a chip on my shoulder. That's not the kind of person for that kind of business. Very unprofessional. Anyway, when I, and apparently a few other divers, get on a charter, we often don't want, and certainly don't need, assistance. In NJ DMs don't lead dives, generally speaking. The "Buddy System" is more often honored in the breach. That's the way we (real NJ divers) like it. There are times when some NJ guys do need assistance, like when diving with swings, scooters, guns, etc. But we're usually pretty independent. OK, I'm off my soap box. (BTW, a couple of these comments were made tongue-in-cheek. I leave it to the reader to decide which.)
Tip or don't tip, it will always be up to the individual diver. After working on the same liveaboard for eight years I can say that those guests that tipped well were always appreciated. When they came back (and 70% of our guests were return guests), it was remembered and and crew went out of their way to go the extra mile. While I can't speak for day boats, I can say that liveaboards offer lots of service aside from dive deck operations--cleaning cabins, serving meals, laundering towels & linens, carrying luggage to and from the boat, the list is endless. These are DMs and instructors, but they are doing work outside of normal diving ops--the things they never told you about when you were working towards that instructor rating. This doesn't include the special services, like when a guest accidently drops a piece of gear over the side and we jump in and retrieve it (I've retrieved DOZENS of pieces of gear, including a $5000 camera from way beyond recreational diving limits), or when a camera isn't working right and we use our expertise to fix it, or when we find out it is a special occasion (birthday, 100th dive, etc.) and we use our "off" time to bake a cake and sing to make the occasion memorable, or when a guest shows up with a reg that hasn't been serviced in years and we fix it for no charge. These things certainly go beyond providing transportation to dive sites and assuring a safe dive environment.
I've chatted with guests numerous times about tipping and one subject that frequently comes up is that the guest suggests the tip SHOULD be included in the cruise fare. I try to explain that as an employee, I would love that, but IF the tip was included in the cruise fare, there would be no incentive to offer top-notch service. It's simply an incentive to go above and beyond.
There have been times where guests have tipped the crew $20 for a week of top-notch service and the crew gets angry, but I've always tried to explain that maybe that was all the guest could afford and this might have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I urge them to keep giving the great service and they'll come back, hopefully when they can afford a bigger tip. Karma is a wonderful thing.
I've chatted with guests numerous times about tipping and one subject that frequently comes up is that the guest suggests the tip SHOULD be included in the cruise fare. I try to explain that as an employee, I would love that, but IF the tip was included in the cruise fare, there would be no incentive to offer top-notch service. It's simply an incentive to go above and beyond.
There have been times where guests have tipped the crew $20 for a week of top-notch service and the crew gets angry, but I've always tried to explain that maybe that was all the guest could afford and this might have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I urge them to keep giving the great service and they'll come back, hopefully when they can afford a bigger tip. Karma is a wonderful thing.
Kamchatka
Contributor
Hopefully others are as entertained by your more than proving my point.
You can not smell the cow when you are near a stockyard, and the ranchers say it smells like money. The smell between the lines (or cheeks) has 4 letters. :mooner:
halemano, Your logic is flawed, your conclusions invalid. You are tedious and boring. I don't want to talk to you any more.
Texafornian
Registered
...and I'm only on page 6 (less than half way) of the posts.
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