what would you do?

[vshearer]

In this world there are two kinds of people: givers and takers. By the answer some of you have given it is easy to decide which you are.

I can think of a third classification.

 

[munselln8]

If this was a diving spot and you happened to bump into someone who said..."I dropped my glasses right here, can you go down and get them"? I would just give a look for awhile and hopefully I would find them, good deed done, and I would be happy. This is a case, however, where someone went out of their way to call a dive shop and "solicit" help in finding an object. The shop then called you. You made special efforts, went out to a place you wouldn't have gone otherwise and dived in a manner you wouldn't have dived otherwise. This is clearly "work". This wasn't you giving up ten or twenty minutes of your "fun time". This sounds 100% like a contract job. If it was a buddy of mine that called up and said hhey...I dropped my glasses off of the dock...I know your a SCUBA diver, can you get htem for me"? I would probably do it not expecting anything other than expenses (air & maybe dive fee), at the same time I don't think I have any friends that would ask me to do it at a loss and who wouldn't have a six pack waiting for me when I surfaced.
Sounds to me like these folks hired you. Plain and simple. Good samaritanism happens when you "Happen by a stranger in the road" not when they seek you out. That would be charity work (which you could justify this as if you wanted). Remember, they seeked you out because you have spent time and money learning a special skill that they don't have. I am pretty sure my Dr. never struggles over whether or not to accept my payment I probably wouldn't have done it for under $100.00 plus expenses...how many hours did you spend from "leaving the house"-"getting home"? I do agree with Rainer that an agreement should be worked out ahead of time, so noone gets excited when payment time comes around.
Good diving...

 

[DCBC]

I think it all depends upon what was said ahead of time and the Client's expectations. If you didn't have an understanding at the onset, you should have had. Given the circumstances, I would ask the guy to pay for my expenses (air and gas, assuming you drove there). I think that's reasonable.

 

[Erku]

In this world there are two kinds of people: givers and takers. By the answer some of you have given it is easy to decide which you are.

That's grossly unfair. Not everyone has the luxury of choosing to give. For some, the time and money invested is not insignificant. This is not a case of helping someone less fortunate for charity, it's a case of helping someone with at least some means who requested a trained person with expensive equipment. If a diver has the steady income and free time to donate without asking for anything back, that doesn't make them a "giver", though it's nice of them. If a diver can't afford to spare the time and air without requesting some recompense, that doesn't make them a "taker".

Regarding OP, I think I'd have agreed on a fee for found-glasses, and an expenses cost if I didn't find them. It was a potentially risky dive, and when unemployed you need to at least cover your costs.

 

[Nemrod]

recently my LDS called me and said a person came in and asked for a diver to help look for a pair of glasses they lost off the end of a dock at a private lake. I called the person and they agreed to pay me to look for their glasses.

we met at the dock and I geared up. The lake is about 150 acres. The water was very turbid from boat traffic and the vis was about 0 to 6 inches. The average depth at the area I searched was 10 feet. All I could do was crawl on the bottom and grope in the mud. The bottom was littered with sticks, limbs, huge fresh water mussells and the mormal beer bottles and cans. There is no swimming allowed in this area.The vis was so bad I ran right into the boat lift while blindly feeling for anything on the bottom.

I searched for 88 minutes and found no glasses.It was not extremely fun but it was interesting. I have been wanting to dive this lake for some time to see what it was like.yuk. To make it worse I was solo diving (which under these conditions even with a buddy it would be a solo dive).

Considering the drive there, the time in the water, the conditions and hazards, and the air fill, after not finding the glasses would you accept payment from them? To complcate matters I recently got layed off from my construction job. Just interested in what you would do.

When I was in college I sometimes took "salvage" jobs when I worked at the dive retail store. The payment was agreed upon before I went into the water. The fee was paid before I went into the water. I agreed to do my best for XX amount of time agreed upon beforehand. If I found the "thing" or not, I had my money. On rare occasion, I might take pity and not charge them or only a partial charge, if I did not find it or it was found in only a few minutes, but generally I kept the full amount, as agreed upon beforehand. My books, meals, dorm etc had to be paid.

N

 

[piikki]

I'd tend to agree with munsell's reasoning. You gotta decide if you were doing this for fun or if it was a job (and also think if you should be taking these gigs and what risks it entails).

I know guys locally who do these jobs and their deal is such that everything is agreed beforehand because it is so easy to start mumbling upon results that might vary largely. There is always a fee that of course covers expenses (time, fills, gas) and depends on the difficulty of the job. The basic fee is same whether or not the lost item is found in the first minute of the search, on the last agreed minute (max time is agreed always) or not at all. Oftentimes there is a bonus agreed if the item is found, so the diver will always get paid but gets more (incentive) if the lost item is found. The quicker you find the better for you but you can't whine if it takes you longer. One can always of course decide to lower the fee if one finds the item after 5 minutes of searching, like one of the guys said he often does.

I think this sounds fair when one is going for a job. It's different if you are doing someone a favor but you gotta decide what you are doing, and best you decide before you embark on it. A lot of non-divers don't even know what costs/risks are involved.

 

[Kingpatzer]

I agree there's a lot of "it depends" here.

I'd probably not have charged much more than gas and time (my air is free) and if I had a prior interest in diving the lake, I'd not have worried much about the time. So my up-front requrest would have been something like "Sure, can you toss me $20 to cover gas and lunch?" And I'd stick to that glasses or not.

But if we had an upfront "I'll pay you to FIND my glasses." I'd not charge anything.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I had a similar experience not too long ago. A friend called and asked if I could go look for a piece of railing his dad had lost off his boat. It's an old, classic wooden boat, and the piece would've been very difficult to replace. So I went, geared up, dropped in the water, and found the thing in less than a minute. While I was back at my car breaking down the gear the dad came over and handed me $30. I told him that wasn't necessary ... I did it out of friendship for his son. He responded that friendship didn't pay for my fill, or my time, or the gas it took me to drive down to the marina ... and that he'd like to reimburse me for those things. I thanked him and took the payment.

Depends on the people involved, I guess ... and how much the guy just appreciated the fact that you'd offer to help in the first place ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Dyno Bill]

I have done many hunts for lost things in the harbor or to accurate several harbors. I didn't charge for any of them because it was just fun to be doing something different. Ventura harbor was the ****s as the vis is like 2 inches due to years of silt and boats. I did however charge to clean boat bottoms with the exception of one sail boat that belonged to a lady and thats another story. I also did a search for two corpses in several caves in the northern Channel Islands as requested by a family member. Didn't find them and to honest I was happy not to but none the less I didn't charge for that one either.

 

[F106A]

The glasses must have to have been mighty special to make that dive worthwhile. I wouldn't have done it (or have asked). But, being the good guy that you are, you did. Driving to the lake, tank gas, time, risking your hide on a solo dive (OMG!) and the effort has gotta be worth, oh, $100? (And that's just a token charge in the grand scheme of things.) Being recently "layed off" you must be getting beaucoup bucks from Obama, right, so that isn't a factor. But, all in all, yeah, you should get a few bucks for trying. (Two years ago an acqaintance asked me to find his sailboat tiller near his slip. Viz was like yours. Bottom was like - there was no bottom - it just got thicker and thicker until it went from zero viz water to pudding viscosity muck. Real eerie. After finding three cell phones, a fishing rod and two encounters with Great Whites [I think] I got his tiller. He and his wife were to meet SWMBO and me that evening for drinks and dinner. Haven't heard from him since (before drinks and dinner). Well, we did get a Christmas card last year.
P.S. Those "limbs": human?