Dahab - Rude Manager at Red Sea Relax. Buyer beware

[gcarter]

For myself, the OP was / is an ass. That was my immediate reaction on reading his post, before any other replies. On its own, on its face, it reveals this.

The target of his wrath was unfairly attacked IMO and is fully justified in his reaction - but - exercised poor judgment in responding via email in that manner. Poor judgment, but hardly a capital crime.

The OPs second missive is borderline sociopathic. There is no excuse for the threats to livelihood, or threats of bodily harm.

I am taking away two things:

1) The OP is an ass
2) Paul appears to be a good guy who momentarily allowed his emotions to get the better of hm.

 

[wedivebc]

Paul, I admire your restraint.
If someone tried to slander me because his sense of self-importance made him believe I should drop everything to cater to him I think I would have used harsher words.

OP, you're a PADI scuba instructor, get over yourself.

 

[Crowley]

There's a pervasive "us vs them" theme on SB and it's leaking into this thread - as in - customers vs the dive business, and I'm not sure people are reading quite so thoroughly through the topic before posting.

What's a real shame is that a few posters have said they will never dive with Red Sea Relax because of this "poor customer service" by the manager, when it seems to me that he replied quite courteously in the first place, but he did not wish to, nor was there any need to have, a 30 minute discussion about the dive centre over the phone.

At no point did the manager of Red Sea Relax attempt to humiliate the OP in public. The non-customer wrote a review in a public forum, Paul replied in a private e-mail, and now the OP wants to spread it all over the internet in what appears to be a rather vindictive fashion. The manager - Paul / HPP_O2 - has joined scubaboard and, given a fair and balanced account of the proceedings, in a very professional fashion, without calling anybody names, without shouting or the usage of extraneous exclamation marks. Sadly, this is not true of some of the other posters in here, who have leveled accusations that he is "cocky", "arrogant", "incompetent" or out to steal people's money - in what I think is a very unprofessional manner indeed.

I might even go so far as to say that since the OP refused to dive at Red Sea Relax and ended up diving with an unlicensed and illegal operator in Dahab, that his own judgement may, in fact, be called into question.

So - if you go ahead and read the post more thoroughly, apart from sending an angry to e-mail to - it's important to remember this - somebody who was not his customer - Paul hasn't really done anything wrong, and yet, one guy is out there trying to destroy his dive centre for no reason at all.

This might be the most exciting discussion that's happened on the Red Sea forum since the shark attacks, but it's getting a bit personal, really; a lot of unwarranted assumptions are being made based on very little factual evidence on behalf of the complainant, and it's no surprise that the dive pros are coming out in defence of the manager of Red Sea Relax. We see hundreds, even thousands of customers every year and once in a while you get that one customer who is only on holiday to complain: The boat is too small, or too slow, the dives are too short, or too long, the water is too cold, the waves are too big, the fish are too small, they wouldn't let me dive because I said I had a heart-attack three months ago but I'm fine now, the dive centre manager won't let me sleep with his wife.... people who bring down the holiday for everybody else, and then complain about it on the Internet later.

And here's a little inside information that might make people think: Whilst people go and slate us on the internet for our crimes, most dive centres have some sort of internal "customer review" - as in, people who we do NOT wish to see return for business because actually, sometimes the best customer service you can give to your other divers is not to let that one complaining person come back.

Many happy returns for the day, be excellent to each other,

C.

 

[aquamarin]

Excellent post Crowley

I'm one of those "bend over backwards etc" to please guests that a previous poster slagged off - no worries, I wasn't insulted I've been in the business 7 years now. I will go very far to make sure guests receive an even better service than they pay for, BUT in some cases it just is not worth it. We do have a couple of guests that simply aren't welcome with us, because they ruin the atmosphere for all our other guests when they are here, with their negativity and nagging. As nice, professional and helpful as any of us dive pro's may be, there are people who will never be happy or satisfied, no matter how hard we try.

The problem I see is that it is too easy to do damage on the www. There are numerous forums out there and the chronic complainers are often on every one of them, so it's difficult to cover all bases. I just hope that people who use SB, TripAdvisor etc (like myself) to look up places and companies, take the time to get a clearer picture than the one painted by a single post.

Happy Saturday
Karin

 

[DevonDiver]

I'm one of those "bend over backwards etc" to please guests that a previous poster slagged off - no worries, I wasn't insulted

Oh, I don't think for a second that you represent the sort of instructor I was describing in an earlier post... that's an entirely different breed altogether

Good customer service is one thing. So is flexibility and the 'willingness to go the extra mile'. There's a subtle, but very distinct, difference between that attitude and the one that prostitutes itself to grab any passing trade and satisfy unreasonable demands. Normally, the biggest difference exists when the money grabbers commitment to quality quits at the end of their sales pitch, when the money is in their pocket... wheras the 'real' dive pro considers other issues - long term sustainability in the industry, quality of life/work balance and developing real...quality... relationships with customers rather than just pandering to anyone for a few dollars.

 

[Working to live!]

Although I know the resort in question I came across this article by accident and am incensed by the way it has been taken out of all proportion. A very unprofessional ‘Professional’ takes it upon himself to publically decry a service that he has not participated in, threatens physical violence and then is afforded sympathy! I totally agree with Devon Diver, he should read what he has signed up to if he is going to masquerade as a PADI Professional.

Paul may have been unwise to respond in the way he did however, he did not go public and as I read it, never intended his response to be aired publicly. Who would not act angrily when your livelihood is put at stake by someone who has insincerely booked but never used your services and then pretends to have intimate knowledge of the organisation so that he can write a ‘noteworthy’ review? Tripadvisor should never have allowed the post but at least they have acknowledged their mistake and removed the belligerent comments.

I am also confused as the Professional says that he “booked a ten day package online” but needed some clarification before “making the final plunge”. You either booked or you didn’t. I don’t think he ever had any intention to use Paul. Why leave it until the night before he starts his diving to query ratios and the likes? If this was a real concern a real professional would have done that at the outset.

So concerned with standards that the ‘Professional’ then decides on a whim to dive with an organisation that falls woefully short in every respect i.e. they are unregistered! What checks did he do before diving with this allegedly cowboy unit? So long as he gets the correct answer to his questions then all is ok and no need to check further? It is this sort of unprofessional attitude that brings diving standards into question. By his own admission the other provider could not guarantee what dives sites would be visited as this would depend on the weather – not dissimilar to Paul’s response! So proficient that they would disregard the wishes of small group that was already with them in order to accommodate the ‘Professional’s’ wishes – alarm bells would be ringing by any competent person with this suggestion. He gets what he wants to the detriment of the other divers! Sums up his whole attitude to me. He might be a diver but Professional he certainly is not!

I have used the services of Paul’s team and can wholeheartedly recommend him to any diver who expects safety to be paramount in dive activities.

 

[Soapy Bubbles]

What a relief to see the like minded people out there who share my principles when it comes to working as a full time dive professional! While so many of you have voiced yourselves far more eloquently than I can, I still want to show my support of Paul against the vicious attack he's been under from the OP.

From the very start I have not agreed with the OP's position which he's based on a short after hours phone call.What in Hell was so important that it couldn't wait until the next morning anyway? If it had been that important then why had he not asked his questions during their emails to book himself in? From what I understand Paul had previously booked him in and was expecting to see him the next morning so though the OP cited Paul as being 'rude', I find this hard to imagine.
I think the OP's overreaction is more indicative of a spoilt child not getting his own way there and then as opposed to a professional Vs. professional...the idea is supported by the OP's decision to use the web in a malicious attack against a man and business he has no actual experience with. Hardly the behaviour of a professional and decent person. It's the first time I've seen evidence of a grown man having a tantrum and aiming to provoke potentially damaging consequences...based on WHAT? If I had been on the receiving end of such an attack on then I'm sure I would have reacted in much the same way as Paul did.

I imagine that thanks to the articulate and thorough support of Paul some of you have voiced that somewhere there's a man with steam coming out of his ears, stamping around with clenched fists because he didn't get what he wanted again! I think there must be something seriously wrong with that man.

Who will he pick on next? He's the diving equivalent of a 'bunny boiler'!

 

[wedivebc]

I wonder how many dive professionals gravitate to these sorts of threads not to wade in the mud of other's misfortunes but to possibly learn from other's mistakes and get a feel for what sets customers off to even prompt such a thread.
More often than not as Crowley stated above I find the operator has commited some minor oversite which has caused a huge overreaction by the customer.
If these threads seem to be more common I am afraid it is because we are living in a very self centered society that demands instant gratifictaion to our
numorous demands.

 

[DevonDiver]

I wonder if Paul's initial reaction wasn't slightly skewed because the OP was himself a dive professional - and thus, could be expected to have a slightly more informed understanding of the work/life balance a dive professional otherwise struggles to enjoy... coupled with the obvious understanding that posting such scathing feedback on social media sites would be extremely damaging to the business concerned... and grossly out-of-proportion to the 'customer service' issue that had been experienced.

One might be slightly more forgiving if a novice/occasional diver had been so demanding, so un-appreciative of the situation and so unaware of the damaging nature of their actions... but when the complainant is a 'fellow' dive professional.... well, that's really quite unforgivable because they really should know better.

I just can't understand how someone who supposedly understands the industry would act so vindictively over such a minor and insignificant issue. I really can't.

 

[buddhasummer]

After the dust settled.
As I see it:
The OP as a dive professional was unprofessional, acted like a spoiled child and then a thug, I wouldn't go diving with him.
The dive manager as a professional became unprofessional, lost his cool and was rude, I'd probably go diving with him.