Dahab - Rude Manager at Red Sea Relax. Buyer beware

[DevonDiver]

You do like to form an opinion wihtout reading.

Pot - Kettle - Black.

Says the guy who formed an opinion and plastered across the inter-web under the dishonest pretense that he'd actually been a customer of the company he was slandering....

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.

Did we ascertain that Paul's company was closed and nobody was available to talk with you? Or wasn't it just a case that the manager himself was off-duty at the time and didn't want his night interrupted by a narcissistic customer?

Don't you know who I am??? I am a SCUBA INSTRUCTOR dag-namit! You WILL serve me NOW! In a manner befitting my almighty rank and privilege!! Or you will SUFFER the consequences!!

 

[Mike]

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.

Well, no offense, but I don't think you actually deal with anything that you posted, and I think all your statements are based more academically than based on reality.

First off if I was on the receiving end from what you are describing, our attorney would be involved. Secondly I'd hire a service provider that corrects these damages to your reputation on the internet. And that would be that. So believe it or not when it comes to business, it's just business and we treat it as such. Thirdly we've been in business a long time and as you said we are around on the internet, we are vulnerable due to that fact and have had to deal with issues like this in the past, and believe it or not there is a step by step proper approach to dealing with this stuff. No different then a pre-written safety plan or even a fire escape plan, you just go through the steps.

However, what I've just said would be in regard to an actual event of consequence, it and your description of the events the OP described have nothing in common.

THIS -

I booked a 10 dive five day diving package online. Paul the manager confirmed my booking. When I arrived shortly after 6pm, he had gone home for the day. As a diving instructor, I make it a rule to speak to the manager about their diving activities, safety standards, ratios and overall diving strategy before making the "final plunge". I asked to speak to the diving manager, and the person at the reception said he had gone for the day and would not want to speak to me. I insisted, explaining that I only had a
couple of questions. Paul was short and curt on the phone and simply said that "diving is different every day", refusing to give any details.

Needless to say, I went across the street to another dive center, "Dahabs Crocodile". At that different diving center I was personally greeted by the owner, who proceeded to introduce me to the instructor that would be going out tomorrow, told about the dives planned for the day, weather permitted, explained that they had a small group for the next week and that they would be very flexible in accommodating my diving desires and demands. This is the type of service divers should insist on!

I did not go back to Red Sea Relax. It felt like they did not want my business nor care about customer service. If you are a serious diver that demands quality service, I would suggest you stay away from Red Sea Relax​

Is simply the OP's opinion of his experience. It is not a dive review, he never even dived with them, it is not a review of their services, it is not slanderous, it is his opinion based on his experience.

Intelligent people when they read reviews add and subtract importance to a review based on a few things. Number one would be if the person reviewing actually purchased and used the service! The op never even dived with the outfit, his review carries little weight and consequence.

Your description

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.​

is wildly dramatic.

The only thing the OPs review would do for me would make me pause for a moment and just be more informed that the dive shop might have some issues, maybe not. The next thing I would do would be to see what other reviews they have. If I notice a trend with more poor reviews, especially ones that mimic this one, then I would tend to grant them more credibility. If on the other hand I see that the dive shop in question has a great many positive reviews then I'm going to see the OPs review in another totally different way, giving it almost no weight at all.

Now, on the other hand, the email sent by the manager is way more enlightening to me then anything in the OP's review. It's extremely damaging. I would never do business with a shop that employs somebody like that. To show such unprofessional behavior, to be so petty and trivial and so condescending is extremely revealing and I'd steer very far from that shop. The manager has tipped his hand and shown who he really is, how he deals with stress and customers he may not personally like. No thanks.

 

[Crowley]

Mike -

It seems like you have come down on one side of the fence and no amount of deliberation is going to change your point of view, and everybody is entitled to their opinion, but I don't think you have any understanding of the realities of the situation in which Egyptian dive centres are finding themselves at the moment. I work for one of the biggest, and we have taking a beating over the last year, especially over the winter months - everybody has. The biggest names in Sharm are struggling to find customers, and when they do turn up, are struggling to find staff to cater to them, because there has been a mass exodus of dive staff - both foreign and Egyptian, since the January revolution last year.

The idea of hiring a lawyer and a service provider to deal with problems such as this is, in the current climate, ludicrous. It's pretty much all we can do to keep ourselves in business at the moment, without spending money on people who would charge more for a day's work than we pay our entire staff. It's easy to look at this from the comfort of an corporate office somewhere, but here on the ground the situation is far more tenuous. For an outfit the size of Red Sea Relax, the loss of a handful of customers could actually ruin the livelihoods of every employee of that dive centre, because there is very little alternative employment available. It's not - as you assert, "wildly dramatic".

Telling DevonDiver, an experienced, working tec instructor that "I don't think you actually deal with anything that you posted, and I think all your statements are based more academically than based on reality." is, in itself, ridiculous. Our whole lives revolve around customer service, and I can assure you, if you've been in the dive business for even just a couple of months, you've had to deal with angry customers and negative reviews - please go and read my blog post about the guy who thought we were ripping him off by charging him for 13 dives when he insisted he only made 10 - despite recording 13 dives in his own logbook! If Paul was such a poor manager, then he wouldn't have a job in the first place, and Red Sea Relax would have gone out of business long ago. In the current climate, the simple fact of continued existence means that the dive centre does, indeed, provide a high level of customer satisfaction.

Red Sea Relax - and especially the dive centre - have some awesome reviews on TripAdvisor, but sadly, as always, negative publicity seems to have more impact than positive - which is how politicians win elections, after all. Doesn't matter how much good a person has done, there was that one time they got it wrong and this somehow makes them a bad person, and their whole entourage along with them. Is there anybody in this forum who never once got angry? You say the manager has "tipped his hand shown who he really is" and "you'd steer very far from the shop"... well then, that works both ways, because I reckon you've tipped your hand also, and we'd all be very happy if you didn't steer in our direction in the first place.

When it comes to diving - business is not just business.

Regards,

Crowley

 

[Mike]

Holly crap. You guys are so out of control and so mixed up in all this.

Listen ---

Mike -
but I don't think you have any understanding of the realities of the situation in which Egyptian dive centres are finding themselves at the moment. I work for one of the biggest, and we have taking a beating over the last year, especially over the winter months - everybody has. The biggest names in Sharm are struggling to find customers, and when they do turn up, are struggling to find staff to cater to them, because there has been a mass exodus of dive staff - both foreign and Egyptian, since the January revolution last year.

It makes no difference how bad business is, it's not permission to be a jerk.

I work in the construction industry. The NUMBER 1 most hardest hit industry in the US recession. No sector has lost more jobs, seen a larger reduction in work available. Combine that with illegals, scabs and fly-by-nights working for free, we've seen wages rolled back to 1980 levels. 1 out of 3 contracting businesses have closed.

Now with that said. It's doesn't give me permission to be a jerk because the situation I work in isn't farting gold coins through silk. So whatever struggles diving is going through have no relevance or justification to treat customers badly. IF ANYTHING, if you want to succeed in a down market you do the opposite. You go in the opposite direction and you create the best customer service you can. Even as bad as the industry is that I work in, we've grown every year, because we understand how to treat customers and potential customers. So stop rationalizing that a bad business situation gives you permission to be a bad business.

Let me ask you -- if every customer is precious in Egypt, when is this manager going to start acting like it? Why did this manager destroy his chances of getting a paying customer with the way he acted to this prospect??????? Because he was at a birthday party and the moron answers his own phone and is upset it's a customer?????

The answer is simple - he's a bad manager. But, you all keep denying it. Keep going down the path he was wronged.

The idea of hiring a lawyer and a service provider to deal with problems such as this is, in the current climate, ludicrous. It's pretty much all we can do to keep ourselves in business at the moment, without spending money on people who would charge more for a day's work than we pay our entire staff.

It was NEVER suggested even remotely to hire a lawyer. Read it again. I said if MY situation was as was being described by Devondiver as being attacked and slandered in the highly dramatic description he used, I would handle it as was written, I never said a word about some po dunk dive shop should lawyer up over a trip advisor review.

It's easy to look at this from the comfort of an corporate office somewhere, but here on the ground the situation is far more tenuous. For an outfit the size of Red Sea Relax, the loss of a handful of customers could actually ruin the livelihoods of every employee of that dive centre, because there is very little alternative employment available. It's not - as you assert, "wildly dramatic".

First off I don't work in a corporate office, I work 70-80 hours a week in a small business. Secondly, if customer acquisition is such an issue, maybe all the more reason to have a manager at a dive center who actually likes people and likes his job and realizes the situation and maybe he can figure out how to use voice mail or treat a potential customer with respect to EARN his business. IF NOT --- There's always trip advisor for a disgruntled potential customer to tell his story on. He can fight it all he wants, but the reality is, that this is the reality today.

Telling DevonDiver, an experienced, working tec instructor that "I don't think you actually deal with anything that you posted, and I think all your statements are based more academically than based on reality." is, in itself, ridiculous. Our whole lives revolve around customer service, and I can assure you, if you've been in the dive business for even just a couple of months, you've had to deal with angry customers and negative reviews - please go and read my blog post about the guy who thought we were ripping him off by charging him for 13 dives when he insisted he only made 10 - despite recording 13 dives in his own logbook! If Paul was such a poor manager, then he wouldn't have a job in the first place, and Red Sea Relax would have gone out of business long ago. In the current climate, the simple fact of continued existence means that the dive centre does, indeed, provide a high level of customer satisfaction.

Again, wrong context. I'm sure DevonDIver is an awesome instructor. The comment was in regard to the situation painted by him in regard to a review of a person who didn't even use the service, a review that clearly stated only the interaction with the manager and nothing more. His comments were about a slandering, devastating campaign against me and how would I react.

Red Sea Relax - and especially the dive centre - have some awesome reviews on TripAdvisor, but sadly, as always, negative publicity seems to have more impact than positive - which is how politicians win elections, after all. Doesn't matter how much good a person has done, there was that one time they got it wrong and this somehow makes them a bad person, and their whole entourage along with them. Is there anybody in this forum who never once got angry? You say the manager has "tipped his hand shown who he really is" and "you'd steer very far from the shop"... well then, that works both ways, because I reckon we'd all be very happy if you didn't steer in our direction in the first place.

When it comes to diving - business is not just business.

Regards,

Crowley

Pure BS. Cream rises to the top, always. If you don't rise to the top its your fault and nobody elses. Stop the crazy talk of how no matter how good you are, you do one thing wrong and you're ruined. What a joke.

Man up please. My God, when are people simply going to own their faults and simply fix them instead of want everyone else to ignore them and blame the customer of all people?

The manager screwed up. He really isn't a very good manager. However, he can do 2 things -

1) cry and whine and rationalize poor me and how this guys a jerk
2) learn how to be a better manager. Put in place systems to fix the break down that occurred in this experience so it doesn't happen again. Learn to operate on a professional level of common respect and courtesy.

What simple changes could the manager have made to have turned this completely around and gotten a 5 star review? If he thinks about it, I'm sure in hind-sight now it's a few different words, a little different tone, the answering of a question or two, probably no more time then it took him to tear the OP apart.

He will either accept he made a mistake and learn from it or he will continue on, and take the risk the next time he emails a customer to bitch slap them, that they too might make it public like the OP did. He got what he deserved. He got 'outed'.

Get voice mail on your phone.
Discuss a policy with your staff when to and when not to give out your phone number
Accept that if you do choose to answer a phone call, you are now required to spend the time required to deal with the person on the other end
Don't send aggressive, sarcastic, unprofessional emails
Learn how to get customers to post positive reviews on online review websites
Accept that every customer is not your ideal customer, accept you will have problems, but pledge to only take actions that will reduce the problem not increase it
When it comes to business --- #1 - be the bigger man.

 

[Crowley]

Holly crap. You guys are so out of control and so mixed up in all this.

What's holly crap? Holly is a type of plant, it doesn't make crap. We all make typos - malesh - we're not mixed up in this, we LIVE it.

Listen ---

We are, but it's like listening to a hairdryer.

It makes no difference how bad business is, it's not permission to be a jerk.

So - who gave you permission?

I work in the construction industry. The NUMBER 1 most hardest hit industry in the US recession. No sector has lost more jobs, seen a larger reduction in work available. Combine that with illegals, scabs and fly-by-nights working for free, we've seen wages rolled back to 1980 levels. 1 out of 3 contracting businesses have closed.

Did the American construction industry get negative reviews on the Internet? Or simply because people got too greedy and screwed up?

It was NEVER suggested even remotely to hire a lawyer. Read it again. I said if MY situation was as was being described by Devondiver as being attacked and slandered in the highly dramatic description he used, I would handle it as was written, I never said a word about some po dunk dive shop lawyer up over a trip advisor review.

You said quite clearly that if you were personally slandered you would hire an attorney. That's a type of lawyer.

First off I don't work in a corporate office, I work 70-80 hours a week in a small business.

70 - 80 hours per week.... Is that all?

Secondly, if customer acquisition is such an issue, maybe all the more reason to have a manager at a dive center who actually likes people and likes his job and realizes the situation and maybe he can figure out how to use voice mail or treat a potential customer with respect to EARN his business. IF NOT --- There's always trip advisor for a disgruntled potential customer to tell his story on. He can fight it all he wants, but the reality is, that this is the reality today.

He does like his job, and he does like people, he just doesn't like people who post ridiculous tripadvisor reviews for no good reason. He can't use voicemail because - and I repeat - IT DOES NOT EXIST HERE....! "The reality is, that this is the reality today"... good grief, give me another corporate manager-speak blub - possibly you'll be thinking outside the box next.

Again, wrong context. I'm sure DevonDIver is an awesome instructor. The comment was in regard to the situation painted by him in regard to a review of a person who didn't even use the service, a review that clearly stated only the interaction with the manager and nothing more. His comments were about a slandering, devastating campaign against me and how would I react.

You said his posts had no basis in reality - but as you say, the reality is that this the reality today. I've no idea which reality you live in, but it's not the same one that we do.

Pure BS. Cream rises to the top, always. If you don't rise to the top its your fault and nobody elses. Stop the crazy talk of how no matter how good you are, you do one thing wrong and you're ruined. What a joke.

Sh*t is also positively buoyant.

The manager screwed up. He really isn't a very good manager.

and you base this judgement on what? An angry e-mail in response to public attack or the care and attention he has provided to you, as a customer? Oh - yes - right - you've never been a customer, so you have no idea what the place is like, just a few words on a page from somebody who was never a customer. I have to assume you haven't read the other posts in this thread.

He will either accept he made a mistake and learn from it or he will continue on, and take the risk the next time he emails a customer to bitch slap them, that they too might make it public like the OP did. He got what he deserved. He got 'outed'.

So did you.

 

[Soapy Bubbles]

Well said Crowley!

 

[Mike]

and you base this judgement on what? An angry e-mail

Exactly.


Here's a different review rating them as poor.

“never again!!! How can people like?”

Reviewed May 11, 2009
We booked this hotel to spend 5 nights in Dahab after reading so many good comments in this site. Well, if you are looking for a bed, and you don't care, perhaps is the right place to go. If you want also to enjoy your vacation not only diving, try something different.
We were interested in snorkeling and beach, and we didn't find any positive side in Red Sea Relax resort. The place is in the town of Dahab and it is very far from the good area with sandy beach, generally you need a cab, and also the access to the beach of the hotels is for paying. In front of the hotel there is no beach at all, there is just a small cafe'. The facilities of the hotel are very used, and you can easily feel a sensation of dirtiness, confirmed by the thousands of flies going around (maybe is because in the back of the ho(s)tel the collect all the garbage without caring???). Breakfast is horrible, with very little choice, and arranged in such a way (at 7.45 staff was still sweeping the floor and all the dust in the air). Dinner is english style with the quality of the food you can have in Egypt if you look for english taste...We stayed only one night and only because was too late to move right away, the staff doesn't care at all, they knew we were arriving in couple (booked superior double room) and there were two single beds, no possibility to change. The sheets were old, grey, full of hair!!! We complained and the guy said that hair was collecting in the washing machine, so at least we were sleeping on clean hair of somebody else ;-) But the most horrifying thing was the day after: no water! We went downstairs, there was the owner sitting very quietly and cozy, not taking care AT ALL, not apologizing, saying that the whole dahab was without power, maybe would have come back at 11, inshallah, she was repeating! Serious hotels have power generators in such cases (power shortages are frequent). So, it is up to you, it depends what you are looking for, we suggest: spend a little more money and don't go in Red Sea Relax Resort!!!

• Stayed May 2009, traveled as a couple

Here is how it was handled :

Chris88Dahab, Owner at Red Sea Relax Resort, responded to this reviewMay 19, 2009
Thank you for your review. I was sorry to hear of your less than satisfactory stay with us at Red Sea Relax. Your review was our thirteenth. Of our twelve previous reviews we received eight “5/5” ratings- the other four being “4/5”. We have been delighted with previous feedback and pride ourselves on providing good service that is affordable to all, as reflected in our previous reviews. I am very sorry to see from your comments however that our facility does not appear to have met your high expectations, and I will do my best to answer your points.

Firstly you state that you only stayed one night. I can therefore understand that in the dark you missed our beach area which is 10 meters from our front entrance, equipped with sun loungers and just 50 meters down from the famous Lighthouse Reef snorkelling area. It is unfortunate that you considered it necessary to take a cab to get to a snorkelling or beach area when both were just seconds walk away.

Although you state the hotel has no beach- you also state there is a charge for the beach. Unfortunately there must have been a misunderstanding- the beach area in front of the Hotel is equipped by us but actually belongs to the government. It is open to everyone and free of charge.

You make several references to the facilities being “very used” or old. Our Dahab location is a brand new Resort open less than a year, and all facilities and equipment are brand new. We are constantly adding yet more facilities and I am sorry if you find genuine Egyptian cotton linen not acceptable.

You allege there is rubbish at the back and thousands of flies. Both these issues can be a problem in Egypt- but I can only resume you have confused Red Sea Relax with another Hotel you stayed at. At our Resort the public areas are sprayed by the cleaners schedule at 6am each morning. Our rubbish is stored in a staff service area and collected daily by the City council.

I am disappointed to hear that you were not happy with the breakfast. As previous reviews testify this is normally one of the things guests like the most about our Resort. The all-you can-eat buffet caters to the Egyptian, European and English tastes of the many varying nationalities we welcome at the Resort. If guests have any special requirements or tastes, if informed, we are delighted to oblige.

You state that the restaurant floor was being swept during breakfast at 7.45. You are correct that it was being swept- because at this time the restaurant is closed. It does not open for breakfast until 8am. At 7.45 it is being cleaned ready for breakfast and there is no food out on the buffet. I am sorry if you were in the restaurant at this time- a member of staff should have politely asked you to leave until opening time.

You comment that there was no water in the morning. This is true. It was true for every Hotel, restaurant and residential house in the Dahab Bay area due to the fact that the government was carrying out essential maintenance work. The cut in services was temporary and scheduled from 6am to 11am. I am sorry that you did not see the notice posted apologizing for, and warning guests of the impending inconvenience.

The owner whom you state, was sitting all quietly, “not taking care at all” was in fact not the owner. The owner is male not female. I can only imagine you mistook a female guest who was enjoying their stay, sitting “all quietly” for the male owner. I would not expect a guest to make apologies to you on behalf of the Government maintenance work.

Finally you inform readers that power cuts are frequent. This may be possible in other areas of the country- but not in the tourism area of Dahab. This short loss of service was the first in over 12 months.


I hope the above answers your concerns and that you enjoyed your continued travels.

Notice a difference compared to:

Good afternoon Alex,

I hope you have arrived home safe and refreshed from you holiday in Dahab.

I usually make it a rule not to respond to idiotic comments made by self proclaimed serious divers like yourself but I have decided to make an exception this time.
Now everybody who has read your ridiculous comment on tripadvisors knows you are a complete imbecile with absolute no diving credentials. So much so they have taken down your sad, malicious comments as they have seen how petty and very childish they were.
Next time, before you make a rule, think it through. Not everybody in the diving industry is here to pamper to your every whim. As a diving instructor, I would have thought you would have the courtesy to come and talk to me face to face instead of calling me up while I was having a birthday dinner with my family and then making such totally insulting and unprofessional comments about us without actually having stayed or dived with us. You called me curt when I was actually just trying to be factual .I am now being curt!

Just one final comment. Crocodile dive centre in an unlicensed dive centre that has been closed down by the authorities on two occasions because of their safety record. You really are a good judge when it comes to diving centres!!

So in closing, I would like to say that I am sure we will be able to survive without customers like you.


I wish you the best on any future diving endeavors and I hope that some time in the near future you manage to get a life!!!!!

have a nice life .​

Since this is what apparently is considered a good managers response, how come his response wasn't posted as the reply to the OP's review on Trip Advisor?

As I said - had I been considering the resort and saw the OP's review and a professional response, the OPs review would have had little bearing on my decision to book or not.

Had I seen the OP's review and the manager's unprofessional email posted as the reply, it would effect my decision.

We can play all the games we want including spelling ones if you like, but the bottom line is the manager's actions are deplorable, no matter what the initial circumstances were.

Discover voicemail, it's 2012.

 

[Shasta_man]

Wow, we're getting that it sucks to run a dive business there right now. Judging by the responses, this incident is only a reminder of all the problems you're dealing with on an, apparently, daily basis. A couple sentences on a travel board is taken as a direct attack to take down the business as well as actual slander. And apparently you believe it can.

It's OK, and in fact to be congratulated for getting back at the faceless bad customer, to send a nasty gram to a customer since it was a private email and you're mad, and some are thinking about blacklists to fix customers who talk too much or are annoying. But you still want the money, of course. With the proliferation of the Internet, this is a losing battle.

Seems like every person only had a strong opinion about the angry letter. With a better response or even no response, they'd be no discussion.

 

[DevonDiver]

As a caveat to this post - I think this thread is valuable as an investigation over the changing nature of the customer service/customer complaint in the era of global social media. I feel that the original issue is pretty much resolved, but that issue does provide an excellent example of worst-case social media manipulation, the negative impact upon businesses and the changing ethical and moral perspectives that now permit people to attack, rather than complain. Likewise, it demonstrates the increasing awareness that businesses can be hurt due to individual access to pre-existing consumer-focused media of enormous scope and reach. Please treat my reply as a debate in that sense...

Mike - did you ever leave the US borders? You perspective on things seems incredibly blinkered - and shows little empathy or understanding.

You agree that this situation is something that'd cause YOU to employ the services of a lawyer and internet consultants to fix...thus, a serious threat to business demanding a most serious legal response... and yet you have an absolute lack of empathy for the victim concerned, who doesn't have access to resources that you have at your disposal.

At this point, you seem to be passing yourself off as some type of 'holier than thou' figure... who cannot conceive the emotional response that Paul made to the attack. Are you saying that you never got angry when provoked? Not ever?

Yes, Paul was ill-advised to send an emotionally driven email to the person that attacked his business and livelihood. However, that is understandable. As you say, the issue of false reviewing on trip-advisor was a significantly serious issue to demand expensive external consultancy and legal action/threat to resolve. In an increasingly harsh business climate, such unwarranted attacks (nature of issue versus significance of customer action) are, without question, a huge blow to a company.

What you seem to be missing is the context of Paul's email:

1) This wasn't a reply to a customer complaint.
2) The OP wasn't a customer.
3) The TripAdvisor report wasn't a complaint - it was a social media assassination.
4) Complaints are addressed to the business - attacks are released to the public in the first instance.
5) To resolve an issue, communication with the business is needed - TripAdvisor is far from an effective medium for reliable communication.
6) An direct email to the business is a reliable and effective medium for communication.
7) At no point was Paul invited to reply to or rectify the 'complaint'.
8) At no point was Paul contacted before the public complaint - either by email or in person (the OP was there for a week).

The OP would have us believe that his intentions were to benefit other divers. That is a deception. If that were true, then he'd have approached Paul directly and attempted to resolve the issue at its source - thus ending the perceived problem, rather than simply publicizing it.

In the same context, the OP must know that his 'issue' doesn't reflect upon the overall standards, or customer service, of the business. His limited inter-action with the company, at the time of writing the TripAdvisor review, could in no reasonable way allow him to make any balanced or accurate comment upon the performance of the business.

Likewise, for the attack to have originated from a 'fellow professional' in the scuba industry brings about a wider scope of issues - because a baseline understanding of the situation can be assumed on behalf of the attacker. YOU may not understand such industry-related considerations (not having worked in the industry), but those of us who do...understand.

The OP made a public assassination, but didn't have the cahones to approach Paul directly and raise the issue. He felt 'so strongly' about the issue that it drove him to knowingly post a business-damaging attack on a social media website. However, he obviously didn't feel so strongly about the situation that it would spur him to pop into the dive center at a later time during his vacation to raise his complaint directly and personally with Paul. Neither did he feel 'so strongly' as to send Paul a polite email to raise, and hopefully resolve, the issue.

The OP didn't care to resolve this issue... or negotiate a better situation/service for the benefit of future customers. It was an assassination - pure and simple. Thus, we can only assume that his actions were entirely motivated by vindictiveness over a perceived 'slight' and vengeance for a ruffled ego.

If I were in Paul's shoes... I'd be extremely angry at the TripAdvisor assassination also. I can empathize with that. Of course, I don't feel that Paul's email response was the most prudent course of action - he simply gave the OP (who seems, to me, to be acting in a very unethical and unreasonable manner) more ammunition with which to continue his vindictive attacks. Personally, I wouldn't want to communicate at all with such an unstable personality - I'd address the review initially, because it was posted in violation of the TripAdvisor terms of service and was disclaimers attached to the review submission were dishonestly completed. However, TripAdvisor is notoriously slow for dealing with such issues... and the damage was being done every day that the review remained public. That adds a great deal of frustration for the victim of an unwarranted attack.

What we have here is a vindictive, ego-driven, narcissist who made unreasonable demands of another person and, when he perceived that those demands were snubbed, took a completely unreasonable course of action to damage that person to the utmost of his ability. Thus, Paul made an understandable error in replying emotionally to that attack - driven by a sense of frustration and outrage. The retort may not have been prudent.. or 'professional'... or ideal... or best calculated.... but it IS understandable. For that reason...I think it's forgivable. I also think it has little bearing on what anyone might assume is Paul's approach to customer service.

On another note..... If you don't understand the business climate pertaining to the scuba industry, or the Egyptian work-place, then you should acknowledge that deficiency and limit your comments to the issues that you have specific understanding of. I wouldn't dream of lecturing you about the construction industry in the USA.... so what do you feel qualifies you to take that approach regarding the Egyptian scuba industry?

Also...as a businessman... wouldn't you agree that it is ethical and fair for a customer to approach a business directly and negotiate maturely through the complaints procedure - hoping to resolve the issue satisfactorily in private? Or do you agree that social media is now an appropriate outlet for consumer complaints in the first instance?

 

[black_sea]

DevonDiver, it seems like we have a very different perspective on things. All your posts indicate that it is the customer that owes the business. It is unfortunate that you and others have attempted to steer the conversation towards other issues than customer service. I will let the customer decide if they want to be seen as the enemy.

During my stay in Dahab I had several conversations with different dive stores and their customers, both directly and after hours, I saw many examples of outstanding customer service. For example, one manager offered a discount on a fluorescent night dive, without being asked, and promptly invited me to contact on his mobile phone, at any time, with any questions (the one on his business card). This is for a single customer, mind you. He did not need my business- he just thought I would enjoy the activity and wanted to share his love for it with me!

Another diver I spoke to said that his dive center scheduled several night dives for him where he was the only diver, making sure he could get the photos that he wanted. No celebrity photog or anything like that, no big spender. It certainly meant extra hours of work time for the dive manager with little or no return - except the pleasure of outstanding customer service.

It is good to remember that diving is a recreational activity and the customer is king.

In the last year, I have been involved in a youth rehab program, and the certs issued to two young men in that program are perhaps more valuable to me than the 420 referral OW that I have done in the same time. Mind you, I am not talking about customer value here, as in one customer being more important than the other.
Rather, it feels to me that I have made a significant positive impact on their life, and that to me is what good customer service is about.
Your brash attitude towards the customer service examples that I have given makes it clear to me that we shall not find common ground on that issue.
I own shares in three successful dive operations, employing over 30 individuals and an online travel booking service that provides trips, including dive trips, to thousands of customers. Overall, we have sold over 40 000 tickets, 2300 dive vacation trips, and I have personally guided and certified over 2000 customers. Our dive charter trips, vacations and boats are booked solid till September.

It could all be gone in a second if the customer so decides.

The number is no record, and I aim for none.

In cold water, I specifically limit our customers to 4 or less per guide or instructor. Numbers is not the goal.
I do not count my referral students, for example, the number that matters is the return customers.

And I do not count my thousands of hours of commercial diving (sounds glorious, but it was cleaning and maintaining boats in murky water) towards my dives, as the skills I learned had very little to do with recreational experience.

You know what does count to me? The return customer, the most recent customer I had and how well I handled that, and how I am going to approach the customer I get today. You called that desperation.
I will let the customer decide.

This is all I have to say on this matter, and I once again thank everyone that has posted on this thread.