gentlegiant
Contributor
Everyone,
I have posted in support of a particular DS before, but I am now going to tell everyone to avoid that DS like the PLAGUE. I cannot mention the DS by name due to a threat of law suit by the DS owner if we post anything on the Net about him or his shop, but a search of my previous posts, particularly in the Noth America travel/trip section should clue you in.
The crux of the story is that this owner called my wife a "Fu***** Crazy Bi***" this past Thursday and also said "lady, you are so insane that you don't even know what you are saying".
There is a back story here, so please bear with me as this may be a long post.
Last April we discovered an ad for some dive trips with this shop. We met their instructors ont he trip and had a pretty good time. At that time we did not know the pricing for Dive travel to PCB so we paid what they asked. Because we liked the insructor we dealt with we decided to take a class with them. When we took the equipment specialty class we also looked around the store. We soon decided to purchase some gear and ended up doing an almost complete change-out of our basic gear with them. My wife and I each purchased a new BC, tanks, regs, a pretty complete set of spare parts and some other things from them. We also booked on their May Dry Tortugas trip.
On the boat the shop owner started asking my wife what she did for a living. My wife runs an adult related website that does quite well and provides our diving fun money. She told the owner this, asked him to keep it quiet and answered some of the rest of his questions. By the end next day she had at least 4 people on the trip come up to her and tell her that they had been told she was an "Internet Madame". She also received ridicule from some other trip passengers who were on the conservative side. She confronted the DS owner and he told her that he had not told anyone and that in fact our instructor friend, who had to stay to run the shop while the owner and his son (also an instructor) went on the trip, had told those people. My wife asked the other passengers again and they confirmed that the owner had told him. This was the beginning of our troubles with them.
Over the next year we found out more about this owner and his practices. We found out that he pads his travel by at least 40% and in some cases 75%. Example: The Dry Tortugas trip runs $850/person from this shop, a direct booking with the Ultimate Getaway runs $550. When we went out the DS owner wanted $45 for Nitrox, the boat only charges $10 (the boat captian now makes this DS owners trip goers pay for Nitrox directly to try and cut down on this gouging. The captain mentioned that this owner marks up the price more that any other DS he does business with). We heard complaints from boat captains about how this owner bosses them around when he comes on their dive boats. At least 1 crew member we know of asks for time off whenever this owner is scheduled to be out on his boat.
The latest boil over happened when my wife and I wanted to go divign at PCB with Hydrospace again this weekend. I have a bunch of weekend work coming up so this was my last dive chance for a while. We dove the previous weekend and inquired about diving the following weekend. This DS owner had a 8 hour trip scheduled with only 8 people on the boat (our favorite boat due to an incredible captain and deckhand) so we asked if we could be added onto the boat by Hydrospace. We were added to the list by a crew member. This was to be a 3 tank trip and since my wife and I dive steel 120's with DIN H valves we decided to purchase 2 more tanks to bring our total to 6. Just as we were on our way to pick up the tanks Thursday we get a call from Hydrospace saying we had been booted off the Saturday boat unless we paid the $315 per person plus $200 for our son to ride directly to this DS owner. Apparently he had called down and found out we were added to his boat and pitched a yelling screaming fit at the owner of Hydrospace. Now remember there were only 8 people on a boat that fits 15-17 divers comfortably. My wife called he DS owner and offered to pay him what Hydrospace charges ($88 per diver, $20 for rider) for the Saturday trip (the DS package included room, board and Sunday dives as well). The Ds owner refused and a war of words insued which led to the above statements by this DS owner.
We are not the first people he has done this to either from what we hear.
It is my belief that DS owners like this one are driving as many if not more people away from diving or to purchasing their gear from the Internet. I would love to get feedback from some other owners on this issue. Sorry for being so long winded, but I wanted to get his story out. Yes, we did dive this past weekend, but only a 4 hour trip Saturday. No more diving for me until July due to work stuff. If anyone needs more details please PM.
I have posted in support of a particular DS before, but I am now going to tell everyone to avoid that DS like the PLAGUE. I cannot mention the DS by name due to a threat of law suit by the DS owner if we post anything on the Net about him or his shop, but a search of my previous posts, particularly in the Noth America travel/trip section should clue you in.
The crux of the story is that this owner called my wife a "Fu***** Crazy Bi***" this past Thursday and also said "lady, you are so insane that you don't even know what you are saying".
There is a back story here, so please bear with me as this may be a long post.
Last April we discovered an ad for some dive trips with this shop. We met their instructors ont he trip and had a pretty good time. At that time we did not know the pricing for Dive travel to PCB so we paid what they asked. Because we liked the insructor we dealt with we decided to take a class with them. When we took the equipment specialty class we also looked around the store. We soon decided to purchase some gear and ended up doing an almost complete change-out of our basic gear with them. My wife and I each purchased a new BC, tanks, regs, a pretty complete set of spare parts and some other things from them. We also booked on their May Dry Tortugas trip.
On the boat the shop owner started asking my wife what she did for a living. My wife runs an adult related website that does quite well and provides our diving fun money. She told the owner this, asked him to keep it quiet and answered some of the rest of his questions. By the end next day she had at least 4 people on the trip come up to her and tell her that they had been told she was an "Internet Madame". She also received ridicule from some other trip passengers who were on the conservative side. She confronted the DS owner and he told her that he had not told anyone and that in fact our instructor friend, who had to stay to run the shop while the owner and his son (also an instructor) went on the trip, had told those people. My wife asked the other passengers again and they confirmed that the owner had told him. This was the beginning of our troubles with them.
Over the next year we found out more about this owner and his practices. We found out that he pads his travel by at least 40% and in some cases 75%. Example: The Dry Tortugas trip runs $850/person from this shop, a direct booking with the Ultimate Getaway runs $550. When we went out the DS owner wanted $45 for Nitrox, the boat only charges $10 (the boat captian now makes this DS owners trip goers pay for Nitrox directly to try and cut down on this gouging. The captain mentioned that this owner marks up the price more that any other DS he does business with). We heard complaints from boat captains about how this owner bosses them around when he comes on their dive boats. At least 1 crew member we know of asks for time off whenever this owner is scheduled to be out on his boat.
The latest boil over happened when my wife and I wanted to go divign at PCB with Hydrospace again this weekend. I have a bunch of weekend work coming up so this was my last dive chance for a while. We dove the previous weekend and inquired about diving the following weekend. This DS owner had a 8 hour trip scheduled with only 8 people on the boat (our favorite boat due to an incredible captain and deckhand) so we asked if we could be added onto the boat by Hydrospace. We were added to the list by a crew member. This was to be a 3 tank trip and since my wife and I dive steel 120's with DIN H valves we decided to purchase 2 more tanks to bring our total to 6. Just as we were on our way to pick up the tanks Thursday we get a call from Hydrospace saying we had been booted off the Saturday boat unless we paid the $315 per person plus $200 for our son to ride directly to this DS owner. Apparently he had called down and found out we were added to his boat and pitched a yelling screaming fit at the owner of Hydrospace. Now remember there were only 8 people on a boat that fits 15-17 divers comfortably. My wife called he DS owner and offered to pay him what Hydrospace charges ($88 per diver, $20 for rider) for the Saturday trip (the DS package included room, board and Sunday dives as well). The Ds owner refused and a war of words insued which led to the above statements by this DS owner.
We are not the first people he has done this to either from what we hear.
It is my belief that DS owners like this one are driving as many if not more people away from diving or to purchasing their gear from the Internet. I would love to get feedback from some other owners on this issue. Sorry for being so long winded, but I wanted to get his story out. Yes, we did dive this past weekend, but only a 4 hour trip Saturday. No more diving for me until July due to work stuff. If anyone needs more details please PM.
) ) I don't see why you are exposing yourself to legal risk. You are executing your rights as a consumer in a free and democratic society. Just as the law states in some ways: "Buyer beware" it also promotes: "Buyer be aware"
