Truth Aquatics Cancellation

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

EricJ

Contributor
Messages
305
Reaction score
2
Location
Los Osos (San Luis Obispo County) California
# of dives
500 - 999
I recently signed up and paid for a one-day dive trip on The Truth out of Santa Barbara. About a week prior to my the trip, I received a message that the trip was cancelled.

When I called Truth Aquatics, I was told that another group wanted to charter the boat for three days.

I realize they have a right to cancel the trip for any reason they see fit, but I was still a little annoyed.

I've always had good experiences on The Truth, and I'm sure I'll go out with them again. However, I was perturbed at how abrupt they were about the cancellation. You'd think they might be a little more apologetic for cancelling a trip simply because they have the opportunity to make more money off of another group of divers.

As I later visited their Website and looked at all the one-day dive trips they advertise on their calendar, I couldn't help but wonder if Truth Aquatics were being truthful about their intentions of taking divers out.

I want dive boats in our area to be successful, so I suppose I'll give them my money another day. Has anyone else had a trip cancelled for a similar reason?

Enough whining! I'm off to check other boat schedules.
 
I've always had good experiences with them. However, I think they would have made you and future customers much happier if they let you go along and have the charter group take only the bunks/space they need. That's usually the way we do it here, but we can handle 35 divers at a time if need be.
 
I was cancelled from a charter because it was hired to shoot some undewater footage for a week (more $$$). I understand the economics, and I guess I'm not bitter since I don't remember if I dove elsewhere that weekend or not.
 
They've cancelled on me twice. I can't remember why they did it the first time, but the second time they said it was because of weather and lack of interest, 4 days in advance!!! Pretty lame if you ask me.

I'll never book a trip through them again. From what I understand, they are pretty notorious for canceling.

Billy
 
I have had Captain Jerry on the Magician cancel Wednesday dives on me a couple of times.
While he didnt explain to me how many people he needs to run the boat and break even, I can empathize with him and other boat captains.

The guys on the truth treated you poorly, mosey on down a little farther and dive the Magician.

T
 
drbill:
. However, I think they would have made you and future customers much happier if they let you go along and have the charter group take only the bunks/space they need.

Bill,

I'm not sure that is a feasible solution to this problem. In the instant case, the diver originally signed up for a 1 day trip and the trip got cancelled in favor of a 3 day trip so letting a 1 day diver on a 3 day trip doesn't sound prudent, if possible at all. But moreover, if I charter a boat then I, and I alone, will be the person that decides who is on the trip. If I ever chartered a boat and then found that the skipper let other people on my trip it would be the last time I ever used that boat again. Let's say for example we were planning on going to a majorily advanced site such as the Matterhorn, or Osborne, or even to a lesser and more local extent Farnsworth, and I had hand picked a bunch of paying customers that were like minded and qualified by my judgement, and then the skipper starting letting other unknown divers onto the trip I would have major issues with that and would never use that boat again. If I'm paying for the charter I say who joins my charter not anyone else.

Regards,


BTW, are they still planning on closing the point this Thursday?? We'll be there from Wed. thru Sun. for a Tech 1 and just heard that there is opposition to the clean up and now health inspectors are being called prior to commencement of work.. Any truth to the rumors???
 
The main point of this post was to find out whether Truth Aquatics honor their one-day dive commitments. Or, are the one-day, open-boat trips just an "insurance" policy in the event they can not get someone to charter out the entire boat for one or more days?

I don't have a problem with someone buying out the entire boat and then deciding who should and should not go on the trip.

I do, however, have this "old-fashioned" notion that if you advertise something and take a person's money that you should make a "good-faith" effort in honoring your commitment. Obviously, I don't want dive boats to lose money, and I've had trips cancelled because they didn't have enough people signed up. However, this was the first time I've had a trip cancelled simply because someone was willing to buy out the boat and essentially kick off divers who'd already paid for a trip.

This whole story does have a happy ending. I went out on the Sprectre and had three AWESOME dives. Visibility ranged from forty to fifty feet. I saw a large octopus, a bat ray, moray eel, tons of lobster, sea lions, harbor seal, and much more.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom