PADI (diviac) has screwed up my liveaboard - help?

[moorish8idol]

Hi guys,

Wasn't sure what the best forum was for this but hopefully you can help.

Early July I booked my Red Sea liveaboard via PADI (former diviac) for this upcoming week in August. I paid and received my voucher for a Marsa Alam departure and return. I was somehow on liveaboard.com a few weeks later and noticed the same boat and same week with a return to Hurghada instead. I contacted PADI right away as my flights were in and out of Marsa Alam but they assured me it was as initially planned. I checked in on PADI website this week to see how full the boat was and now their website has changed the return port to Hurghada. I contacted them once again and this time they confirmed this was the case. No apologies or explanations as to why I want previously informed. I spoke directly with the boat who told me this was always the itinerary and that PADI had miscommunicated from the beginning. The only fix is to get up super esrly and take a 4 hour transfer back to Marsa only to get on a flight that will stop in Hurghada on it's way back to Europe. Flight change (just to board same flight at the second stop) is at least €250 (its Tui and customer service is hard). PADI has refused to engage with me on this error or offer alternative compensation. Any ideas on how I can pursue this or who had a similar experience and found a more satisfying solution? It's a week before departure that I'm trying to sort this and peak season for European travelers. Frustrated! (I have full insurance btw but obviously it doesn't cover this sort of thing) thanks for any ideas!

 

[Kharon]

Did you pay with credit card? Perhaps you have a remedy there.

This is a good reason to book everything yourself and not trust a travel agency - especially one whose main business is not travel.

 

[Aviyes]

When you say full insurance, i'm assuming you mean trip/travel insurance. You sure the trip insurance wont cover the change fee? That has been part of the policies i've used the last few trips i've taken. Especially if you have documentation of the change or mistake on PADIs part.

 

[Dogbowl]

Do you have email correspondence of your communications with PADI informing you of the wrong departure port? That would be helpful to build a case.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Did you pay with credit card? Perhaps you have a remedy there.

This is a good reason to book everything yourself and not trust a travel agency - especially one whose main business is not travel.

Diviac was purely travel before it was acquired by PADI recently. Nothing has changed in terms of their customer service quality and their website layout has remained the same so while I would agree with this statement in general, it doesn’t really apply here. I’ve purchased many liveaboards through them while they were still Diviac and after they became PADI Travel.

For the OP, I would take any communication you had with them and build a case and present it to them. If you don’t get anywhere, again with someone higher up, I would mention that you may pursue a dispute on the charge from PADI Travel for a smaller amount than what was billed for the liveaboard because of the bait and switch. You can definitely dispute partial charges and they will ask how much it should be. Perhaps you can back out the difference in the flight change fee, etc.

 

[bcaderunr]

You've got 215 views so far. I trust that PADI/Diviac is aware that we are all curious as to how this will be resolved.

 

[tridacna]

Interesting to see how this pans out...

 

[moorish8idol]

Thank you folks. I will elevate the complaint. Indeed I have written emails from them not only telling me of the wrong return port but of initially dismissing my first request for clarification when the return port was changed on liveaboard.com. I also have written communication from the boat operator saying the return port had been changed to Hurghada before I even booked. Change fees for my flight increase a lot with less than 14 days to go so their failure to advise me of this change (I would say earlier but in fact they never advised me) have proven costly. Have to wait until tomorrow (monday) to see if ticket change is even possible (it might not be for some weird reason) but I would very much like to see PADI take some responsibility for this since it's a huge error that has already caused a lot of stress and time on my part. I will let you all know what happens.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Thank you folks. I will elevate the complaint. Indeed I have written emails from them not only telling me of the wrong return port but of initially dismissing my first request for clarification when the return port was changed on liveaboard.com. I also have written communication from the boat operator saying the return port had been changed to Hurghada before I even booked. Change fees for my flight increase a lot with less than 14 days to go so their failure to advise me of this change (I would say earlier but in fact they never advised me) have proven costly. Have to wait until tomorrow (monday) to see if ticket change is even possible (it might not be for some weird reason) but I would very much like to see PADI take some responsibility for this since it's a huge error that has already caused a lot of stress and time on my part. I will let you all know what happens.

Please keep us posted. @PADI Travel Tagging them here so they can see, if they care to respond and address here.

Good luck!

 

[Lorenzoid]

This is a good reason to book everything yourself and not trust a travel agency

Yeah. I was under the impression that booking through a booking agent rather than directly with a liveaboard was supposed to give the customer peace of mind that if any problems arose, the booking agent would take care of them for the customer, not that the booking agent would create problems that would not have arisen had the booking agent not been involved at all.