BDSC
Contributor
Thanks for the thoughts. I am disputing the charge and I have warned Scouts Place that I am going to dispute it as well, They have had full notice.
As to whether or not my son is too young to dive, that I believe is a personal choice. Padi rules, as best I can tell, permit him to dive deep as long as he is with me, once he turns 12 (he was not permitted at age 10 or 11). This is not relevant to the dive operator however.
The point is, Scout's Place was not comfortable taking my son down to 100 feet, that is their prerogative. I would not even want them taking me if they were not fully comfortable. I emailed them before I came, however, that my son was 12 and that we wanted to dive deep. If they had an issue with that, the time to tell me was before I came to Saba. Their error was saying, in writing, "come to Saba and dive as deep with your son as you feel comfortable and we have no problem with his 12 year old age" before I booked the trip. They only changed their tune once I had flown to Saba and paid them for the dive. At this point, I was totally at their mercy. This is unprofessional. Whether you approve of 12 year old's diving 100 feet or not, it does not justify making promises to do something and then not doing it once you have been paid and forced your client's hand (assuming no new information became available).
Additionally, the dive shop had no business suggesting that my son appeared like he was being forced to dive. Besides the fact that they were wrong, and my son loves diving and is pushing me to do it more with him, the owners were way out of line. They were trying to deflect the blame from their own poor business policy.
I totally agree with you. The point here is the dive shop told you one thing and then didn't follow through with what they said. They knew he was 12 when they replied to you so they are in the wrong. I feel like you. They just wanted the money and then changed the rules after they got it. Don't pay them and never do business with them again. I hate liars.