speaking of fake reviews,misperceptions, and misleading webpages, back in the mid 90's I worked for the dive operation that sold from Pro-Dive (the big retail shop in the middle of town, on Salas and 5th).
The retail shop looked fantastic, as it was chock full of shiny,new (but mostly mediocre and over-priced) dive gear (and surely still is,LOL), but the actual dive operation we worked for was owned by a husband/wife that were hustlers of the first order (that outright killed that golden goose), but we got tons of credibility in the eyes of walk-in customers, largely because of the big nice dive store we sold from.
The boss had someone throw a website together for us, and we got a big laugh out of the claims of us having a "staff" of multi-lingual instructors, of new,top-quality gear, or fast,comfortable boats fully stocked with 02 and safety equipment, etc.etc. (all of this was mostly, or totally, inaccurate).
I did a good job of taking care of my personal students/clients, (often hiding good equipment for them,as best I could) but the operation as a whole was a complete train wreck !!! (none of this was on the website, though!!)
I've never seen a sadder pile of dive gear than when i worked for those guys ! I would bring regs back that had major leaks going on, then tie the HP hose into a knot, ID-ing it as needing repair, and seperate it from the "good" gear. The next morning I'd come in and find that they untied the hose, and put the reg back on the boat with the morning trip !!!! (I could go on all night,LOL!)
Over the ensuing years, I'd worked for a couple much better operations, and when minding the store trying to sell the passersby, (which used to be really easy to do down there), I eventually started running into tons of folks that wished they'd booked with us rather than the cattleboat operation they were booked with, after I'd offer them smaller boats and groups, for less money, but then they'd lament that they purchased to their whole package on the internet, and couldn't back out.
I found over time that the internet was just killing walk-in/street sales, because everybody up here has become brainwashed into doing everything imaginable on the interwebz.....just cuz it's.....the interwebz.
It got where virtually nobody flew down, checked into the hotel, grabbed a beer, and then walked around shopping for the best deals, anymore.
In the Olden Days, you could mind the store on Friday-Saturday evenings when the planes were coming in, and lock in enough certs and resorts to fill most of your week (as well as put some divers on the boats).
But the internet just absorbed all those FTF sales, and i would point out to folks that what they bought, was whatever the dive operation wanted them to see.
I could show them our solid gear, and 6-pack boats, and guarantee them small groups, and trips to the distant,deeper southern reefs, rather than just Santa Rosa and Paradise/Chankanaab, just so it could get back in time for the afternoon trip. But, even if they wanted to (and many did), they were locked in to that package they bought from home.
Eh, good times ! Sorry for the ramble !!
The retail shop looked fantastic, as it was chock full of shiny,new (but mostly mediocre and over-priced) dive gear (and surely still is,LOL), but the actual dive operation we worked for was owned by a husband/wife that were hustlers of the first order (that outright killed that golden goose), but we got tons of credibility in the eyes of walk-in customers, largely because of the big nice dive store we sold from.
The boss had someone throw a website together for us, and we got a big laugh out of the claims of us having a "staff" of multi-lingual instructors, of new,top-quality gear, or fast,comfortable boats fully stocked with 02 and safety equipment, etc.etc. (all of this was mostly, or totally, inaccurate).
I did a good job of taking care of my personal students/clients, (often hiding good equipment for them,as best I could) but the operation as a whole was a complete train wreck !!! (none of this was on the website, though!!)
I've never seen a sadder pile of dive gear than when i worked for those guys ! I would bring regs back that had major leaks going on, then tie the HP hose into a knot, ID-ing it as needing repair, and seperate it from the "good" gear. The next morning I'd come in and find that they untied the hose, and put the reg back on the boat with the morning trip !!!! (I could go on all night,LOL!)
Over the ensuing years, I'd worked for a couple much better operations, and when minding the store trying to sell the passersby, (which used to be really easy to do down there), I eventually started running into tons of folks that wished they'd booked with us rather than the cattleboat operation they were booked with, after I'd offer them smaller boats and groups, for less money, but then they'd lament that they purchased to their whole package on the internet, and couldn't back out.
I found over time that the internet was just killing walk-in/street sales, because everybody up here has become brainwashed into doing everything imaginable on the interwebz.....just cuz it's.....the interwebz.
It got where virtually nobody flew down, checked into the hotel, grabbed a beer, and then walked around shopping for the best deals, anymore.
In the Olden Days, you could mind the store on Friday-Saturday evenings when the planes were coming in, and lock in enough certs and resorts to fill most of your week (as well as put some divers on the boats).
But the internet just absorbed all those FTF sales, and i would point out to folks that what they bought, was whatever the dive operation wanted them to see.
I could show them our solid gear, and 6-pack boats, and guarantee them small groups, and trips to the distant,deeper southern reefs, rather than just Santa Rosa and Paradise/Chankanaab, just so it could get back in time for the afternoon trip. But, even if they wanted to (and many did), they were locked in to that package they bought from home.
Eh, good times ! Sorry for the ramble !!
Last edited:
