Dahab - Rude Manager at Red Sea Relax. Buyer beware

[Hillmorton Scubie]

What an unpleasant and childish customer. He doesn't get his own way and reacts in a pathetic and spiteful way. His reaction is that of a bully who expects others to drop everything to meet his wishes.
Diving has always attracted it's fair share of idiots with inflated ego's.

 

[buddhasummer]

I'm glad to have read both sides of the story, thank you Hi_PP02 for sharing your side and the side that the OP didn't. It's unfortunate that it degenerated into something hostile. Challenging someone to a fight It's easy to see how wars start.

 

[aquamarin]

There is always more to the truth than one version of it. The guests that complain the most and are generally rude are unfortunately often the ones that are heard best - simply because they are so loud. It's difficult to see how the situation could escalate to this extent though. That's why it's really cool that you, Paul, had a chance to give your version. And it's even more cool that we'll probably all dive with you next time we're in Dahab - I know I will

Hope business picks up for you guys in Egypt!

Greetings from the UAE
Karin

 

[DevonDiver]

TAnd one last note. We have a question on our job application - As you have left the dive store for the day, you have a customer contact you interested in your shop and diving. What would you do?

If you work at a cheap sausage factory dive center , and are a bum zero-to-hero wannabie instructor, then employers often expect you to work all hours and prostitute your free-time to earn commission or the 'right to teach' a course, by hanging around the dive center all hours to heckle passers-by outside your shop.

Experienced, capable and proven dive pros don't tend to work in such places, and aren't expected to put up with such shenanigans. In that respect, you confusing a 'proper' dive pro with a gap-year 'dilettant' OWSI. Bending over and taking one for any customer dollar is something you can stomach if you're only playing at being an instructor for a year or two. The perspective changes when you seen the industry as your 'career' and you've been doing it for years.

In that respect, perhaps the OP would be 'more at home' in the sausage factory zero-to-hero palaces, to which he is obviously accustomed... where he can flex his consumer muscles upon the twenty-something college boys who will be glad for the few $'s commission they'd earn from massaging a 'dive god's' ego.

 

[amp0611]

Since none of us were able to witness the phone call you had with the manager, it is hard to know who is the one being ridiculous here...whether he was indeed unnecessarily and unfairly rude or whether he was just being understandably impatient with someone who's demands and expectations were excessive. Either way, I think you did the right thing by posting a review, that is what sites like Tripadvisor are for. It is up to the reader to decide whether the writer's judgement can be trusted or not. But lucky for you, I think the manager's response will seal the deal for many readers and potential customers, I know it did for me!. Anyone who would be so immature as to (publicly!) call a former customer an imbecile and tell him to get a life, has some serious issues with customer service and professionalism. I would never choose to patronize a business where the manager behaves like this. Safety is #1 for me, but professionalism (which includes good customer service!) comes in second. Let's face it, there are a lot of options, a lot of people out there happy to take our money. I am not going to give mine to someone who is cocky and impatient with my questions and concerns. I have worked in customer service since I was a teenager, and I am also well travelled, so I certainly have been on both ends of a dilemma like this. Yes, there are rude a-hole customers out there who ask annoying questions, have unreasonable demands, or who expect you to bow down and lick their feet, but I also know first hand that there are a-hole service providers out there that think it is ok to take your money and then treat you like a piece of crap. Good customer service (and management!) is about giving a customer what they want/need within reason, and being able to kindly, yet assertively pacify them without losing your rag and acting like a child, which in my opinion is exactly what this manager did!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

But you seem to miss the point. He was not a former customer. He never used the op because the operation would not drop everything in his off hours and leave his family hanging to pacify some instructor who absolutely could not wait until morning to get his questions answered. He then went on and had a little tantrum and wrote a trip advisor post that was directly against their TOS.

I would dive with this op in a heartbeat because he has his priorities straight. In off hours family before anything.

I had an incident many years ago working for a service company. Instead of going through channels they went around them and took my name off an old invoice, looked me up in the phone book, and called me wanting answers. At 2 am. After I had just gotten home from the bar. I was not on call and under no obligation to be nice to them so I told em to piss off. But not that nicely. My employer while not backing me could not discipline me.

As another poster said. You don't own me. You don't buy me. You pay for my services during stated hours. After that I am under no obligation to be nice to anyone who wants to pester me. And when he does not get his way, runs and complains like a child to anyone that will listen.

There is a time to be nice and a time to not allow people to take advantage of you. The manager of the op was in no way to be faulted for his reaction. The poster needs to realize other people have lives.

I want to apologize to anyone I offended with this post and am editing it for the following reasons. It was sexist and quite rude. But the message is the same. Just said in a better way.

 

[Shasta_man]

Where's VoodooGasMan when we need'em?

 

[Mike]

Dear Alex,

Thank you for your reply.

Please allow me to clarify a couple of points. Firstly, you were never a customer of mine and therefore have astutely no grounds by which to comment on my "customer service prowess" except perhaps for the two emails I sent you with prices and from what I read in your replies you were very happy. Secondly, don't you think it is a little bit Neanderthal to challenge me to a boxing match in a local gym?

You seem rather confrontational with your gym, boxing and public forums but sorry but I won’t be taking part in any of them.

Last but not least it is my opinion that if one is to offer a review of any value on anything one must first have some experience or actual knowledge of the subject in question.

You made comments on Red Sea Relax and myself based on a 1 minute conversation you had with me after the dive centre was closed.

I am very sorry that there was something that you found so important that it couldn't wait until 08;30 the following morning when the dive centre would have been open.

I am sure you are aware that every business has opening hours.

I have a life and consider family time a very important part of it, so when I finish work after a ten hour day my working day is over.

I have lived in Dahab for eleven years and dont have any plans to leave so hopefully we will have a chance to continue this conversation then. Until then, have a wonderful life, enjoy your diving and good luck with your public forums but please make sure you have some knowledge of your subject matter.

Regards,

Paul.
.................................

So why wasn't this your original reply? It's getting better, still sarcastic and un-professional, but tamer then your first one

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 .​

 

[MarineResearch]

...Fifth: The OP/complainant is a PADI Instructor. I'll remind him of the Professional Membership Standards - Membership Agreement, as laid out in his Instructor's manual. When debating 'professionalism', it's better to not cast stones when you're standing in a glass house.

I think this sums things up quite well in addition to posting an inappropriate TripAdvisor review and re-posting of personal e-mail.

For the OP's sake, it would be nice to see this thread go away.

 

[DevonDiver]

I would dive with this op in a heartbeat because he has his priorities straight. In off hours family before anything.

As would I. The dive industry is full of desperate, do-anything, wannabies - having some proper priorities and professional attitude (as in, diving is someone's profession - their job, their career, their life... not for a gap year, but for life) shows true experience and commitment to diving. Nobody can sustain the 'eager-beaver' BS for years on end - and, to me, it's a sign of inexperience and short-term attitude. i.e. 'unprofessional'. Dive 'pro's with a real long term career in the industry have a lot to gain...and a lot to lose... from their work. They are the ones with a truly vested interest in providing high quality, high safety courses. It's the 1-2 year blow-out pretenders who damage the industry, short-cut standards and put divers at risk - little to gain, nothing to lose. Cheap and disposable 'dive pros', not worth anything.

Would I be steaming mad if I was in Paul's shoes.... of course. One quick phone call from a stranger...and the next thing you know your business, your livelihood... your family income and children's lifestyle is sabotaged by a vindictive, thoughtless and egotistical maniac.

Anyone on this thread who can't understand Paul's response obviously isn't putting themselves in his shoes with any degree of empathy. I ask them to consider - how would they feel if some stranger orchestrated a public campaign to damage their career. Still can't understand?.... just send me the contact details for your job and employer/boss and I'll be happy to demonstrate what it'd feel like.
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