Dahab - Rude Manager at Red Sea Relax. Buyer beware

[aquamarin]

It would be really cool to have a place where we could vent and exchange experiences.............blacklist moaners and warn each other of unprofessional staff etc. We have experienced employees taking money from colleagues or us, disappearing overnight - and the worst bit is that Padi can't/won't do anything about it. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow warn each other? Same with guests who are pathological moaners. But then again, the op claims to be a dive center manager (in other posts), so it obviously wouldn't be a 100% solution

 

[Hawkwood]

I....and the worst bit is that Padi can't/won't do anything about it....

Why bring PADI into this discussion?

 

[black_sea]

A lot of emotional responses here. I want to thank the people that have given a balanced view that has helped me look at this from a different perspective.
For those of you that think talking to the man at six PM was unrealistic - a lot of other shops had been preparing for a night dive. So yes, it would have been great if he had mentioned if there was a night dive planned. You know, as part of the welcoming. This was my only contact at the resort, and I was hoping for some guidance from him before I committed to the five days.
And yes, I lost an evening diving because of all that. Finding a different hotel and dive operation was the last thing on my mind at that time.

I had apologized to the man for calling after hours and told him I only had a few questions, and thanked him for his time, despite his curtness. He somehow avoids mentioning that in any of his comments.

Any man that calls me an idiot, our conversation is over. If he wanted to elevate it further, like I said, we could continue at the gym.
So yes, his behavior cost me hours of my time. And I think future customers should be aware of the way the situation was handled.
I hope my experience helps someone else with their decisions as to choice of diving operator.


This week, I had a customer coming from another town. For a simple AOW, on which I will see very little money. A single customer, not a cash cow by any means, nor do I see him such. I was the first one to give him my cell phone, which is on my business card as well, and asked him to call me any time with any questions. He did call at 8 pm. He was not sure if he could park next to the dive store overnight. There are heavy parking fees there, and the signage is bad, hard to find for an outoftowner especially. I spent three minutes on the phone explaining to him where to find parking. Did not think anything of it.
We had a great time on the course, and he is coming back for more, with several of his friends. The point of that little bit of customer service (that I do not consider extra by any means)-I have another member of the club, that appreciates outstanding service, that will allow me to continue doing what I love.

 

[Rogersea]

55 posts later.....

What has this post done for me?

1. Reminded me not to take myself too seriously.
2. Reminded me to do my research before I leave home.
3. Reminded me to be very careful when making disparaging remarks on the internet..

Heres to hoping this thread dies a quick death!!!

Cheers,
Roger

 

[grantwiscour]

+1! to Roger.

55 posts later.....

What has this post done for me?

1. Reminded me not to take myself too seriously.
2. Reminded me to do my research before I leave home.
3. Reminded me to be very careful when making disparaging remarks on the internet..

Heres to hoping this thread dies a quick death!!!

Cheers,
Roger

 

[DevonDiver]

This week, I had a customer coming from another town. For a simple AOW, on which I will see very little money. A single customer, not a cash cow by any means,...

Desperate is as desperate does.

If you only get a single AOW customer in a week, then I can understand how you'd be desperate enough to get the course booked.

You do, of course, realize that more experienced instructors don't live in such petty desperation day-in, day-out.... and that they get sufficient volume of customers that would make it absolutely unreasonable to go to such lengths to secure the booking.... and that if they did with 100 customers per week, what you do with 1 customer per week... they'd lose any semblance of personal life and satisfaction?

Go get some experience as a dive pro in the industry... that's all I can say. You don't know what you think you know... regardless of the cheap piece of plastic in your wallet that you rate so highly.

 

[kerosene]

As a career Instructor myself, I've been following this thread with interest and amusement!

I've worked in many Dive Centres in many countries, and know from this experience that different shops in different countries operate with different policies. A business is a business, and if the customer doesn't like it then they're welcome to go elsewhere. What a business (regardless of whether it's diving or otherwise) won't do is continuously change they're operating policy to satisfy the whim of every fussy, prima donna customer.

Black_Sea: You seem to be, rather desperately, clutching at straws now. Night dive upon arrival... hahaha!! Is this what you had requested when you made your booking? Or where you just expecting everyone to drop what they were doing just for you? Maybe you should just drop this now, and hopefully in the future you'll think twice about posting such disparaging remarks.

 

[black_sea]

Desperate is as desperate does.

If you only get a single AOW customer in a week, then I can understand how you'd be desperate enough to get the course booked. .

You do like to form an opinion wihtout reading. That was five students, thank you very much. And I think it is a good example of customer service.

As for the night dive- with how late it got, it turned out being a snorkle, the group left before I could fill out paperwork, still a great experience as I had not seen warm water in a very long time.

And one last point - somehow several other dive operators were there, in Dahab, after six, open, busy diving. And they were glad to talk to customers. One of them got my business.

 

[Mike]

I love how more than one person has said the dive manager did nothing wrong because his unprofessional ranting and dressing down of a customer was done privately instead of publicly.

I guess it's okay to chastise customers, act like a sarcastic ass as long as you hide it. His actions were only exposed in this case because the OP posted his email. I wonder how many other customers this dive manager has acted this way to?

 

[DevonDiver]

Mike, you seem to be missing the point that Paul's 'private communication' was a response to a petty, vindictive and dishonest attempt to slander his business on hugely influential social media site. This wasn't a response to a complaint email, or a query. It was a retort to an extremely unethical, unprovoked and financially damaging attack.... and yes, it was an attack. A deliberate, premeditated one... aimed to cause maximum damage to the business concerned.

You are a business owner. How would you feel if an unknown person initiated a social media campaign to damage your business? A person who'd never been your customer and who you didn't know? A person that was tangibly costing your business money and reputation?

As I said... if you're finding this hard to comprehend... just imagine this... I could ring you at a time of my convenience. If not completely happy with the call/s, then I could initiate a damaging, slanderous and dishonest public slur campaign against your business. I could do my best to foul your reputation and deter potential trade from using your company. It took me only a minute to identify that your company is listed on the BBB site (accredited since 04/25/2006), along with numerous trade sites... and has youtube videos...and otherwise made good use of social media for marketing. Plenty of public places for a vindictive, dishonest person to damage your reputation. If you lost contracts, lose money, lose reputation because of those actions... I might expect nothing less than a friendly email in return from you. Of course... I'm not even your customer. Fair???

I think you are totally failing to see the exceptional nature of this situation... and thus failing to demonstrate any empathy for Paul's situation. The situation was way past 'customer service' - this was a reaction to being attacked... pure and simple.

I doubt that Paul has communicated with any other customer in that fashion - because I doubt that any other customer (or non-customer in this case) would have behaved so irresponsibly and unethically. I am pretty sure that had the OP written a complaint email, in private, directly to Paul - then the response would have been considerably different. I am sure it would have been a considerably more positive outcome for all parties.