Would you expect compensation from a live-aboard operator if

[Mike Veitch]

The crew member slept in the guest room the night before we boarded. No suggestion is being made that there was anything other than that. No one was in the room the prior week.
Carol

thank you.. hoping i was readin that wrong..

 

[murdrcycle]

Since everyone is so eager to blame EV, why stop there? Lets go after the guest from two weeks ago!

Because it isn't the guest's responsibility to provide a clean, safe environment. It is the business owners though.

 

[DandyDon]

Gooooood mornin'! I'm a little late with my kibitzing today...

I usually start a negociation by asking for what I want first. I would like cash and I proposed a method for calculating the amount.

My wife and I were not the only ones who got sick. There were 8 people who got sick. The boat was sick. Had it been just she and I then I would not have been upset over this. Now I'm being defensive.

I think that cash is out of the question, and while your thoughts on how to calculate may have seemed appropriate - your wording and approach was aggressive.

Sorry that feel defensive, but you asked for our feedback - not just to support you completely: yes or no. If you don't like some of the opinions, you can have a complete refund on them.

This is Carol, Don's wife. I have to jump into this a little bit.

First of all, we are NOT contemplating in any way suing over this matter! We don't do business that way. Clay never was open to any kind of compensation, good will gesture, even a voucher of some sort for a future trip.

There were not 3 sick divers boarding the boat when we did; we all got sick with the same symptoms. Clay was ill informed.

----------------------

EV knew that this was a strong and highly contagious virus. We were greeted at the door of the boat with the news by the purser that she had a cold. She stayed in the salon and galley the entire day, evening and next morning (starting on Saturday) and by Monday, the first guest was sick -- the one that she had slept in his room the night before.

Hope this boils the situation down to some bare facts.

Hi Carol! You can register for your own SB account and user name if you'd like? Just log Don off, yourself on before posting, then log off before he logs on. Uncheck "remember me."

The esteemed doctor did post above that the virus is spread by touching and droplets, not from bedding or food handling, ok?

I see a $1500 demand, not a measely $500 request.

And last I looked at it, liveaboards don't promise diving, they promise the transportation to dive sites. Otherwise, they would serve no purpose to any non-divers, which I have personally seen on liveaboards. At the end of the day, is it good this happened, no. But should EV's name be tossed in the mud over this, absolutely not. This is no different than the other thousand reasons you can come up with for why someone would not get to dive on a vacation.

There really are two good and strong sides to this disagreement. It is kinda fun to keep arguing on the keyboard, but serves no purpose. I do hope the two sides ban both calm down and seek a friendlier compromise - or hire a professional arbitrator...?

But we can go on here as long as the spare air vs pony bottle thread.

 

[TravisD]

'Sorry, we were sued by someone because they got sick on the boat, so now on our policy is that we do not allow any guests with signs of illness to board, just incase we get sued, you will be issued a reimbursement within 60 days, please leave, now.' :11:

Almost happened to me in January '07 on a pod-people cruise. We had spent the week before in Disneyworld, and I spent about 3 solid days there afraid to venture further than sight distance from the bathroom. I was feeling 90% at the end of the week though, when we transited to our nex vacation leg which was a Royal Carribean cruise. When we checked in for the cruise we had to each complete a small health survey that included Yes/No about a few symptoms in a specified timeframe (last 36 hours I believe). I said "yes" to my particular problem just to be safe, and ended up having to wait over in the corner for the Ship's doctor to come have a chat with me. After discussing thing, including the timeframe, I was finally allowed to board the cruise. After all of the cruise-ship illness issues lately, they were more than willing to turn me away if it would have helped prevent a wider outbreak. We didn't get far enough to find out if that would have included a refund or not...

 

[djanni]

I think that cash is out of the question, and while your thoughts on how to calculate may have seemed appropriate - your wording and approach was aggressive.

Sorry that feel defensive, but you asked for our feedback - not just to support you completely: yes or no. If you don't like some of the opinions, you can have a complete refund on them.

Now, if you were to get off of your high horse, apologize for being to aggressive, and ask if they would like to offer anything - then you might see more progress.

The last thing a company wants to do is return cash. My company included yet sometimes we do.

"Cash is out of the question" - - why? I guess we've all been conditioned to think "cash is out of the question?"

I had to give them all the cash up front. Now that they have my cash they are in control and I'm at their mercy. Whatever happened to me and 7 divers is no skin off their noses because they've been paid.

Even though I thought a cash refund was appropriate I didn't really expect it. I did expect reasonable consideration for a future trip. However, Clay offered none. Nor did he offer any compensation to the other 3 people who wrote him and they were not as "to-the-point" as I was.

Giving me a discount on some upcoming trip might be acceptable but even so they remain in control of all the money and if we don't go with them on another trip the only financial looser is me.

Yeah, I did ask for feedback and I appreciate it. I considered that I might be wrong to expect compensation for a situation such as this. So far I think I was not wrong.

 

[DandyDon]

Like I suggested, give off your high horse (maybe only cowboys know that term?) as you put them on the defensive, apologize for seeming aggressive, and request their suggestions.

 

[CoyKoi]

After reading all the posts allow me to wade in:

• I am sorry you and your wife and others got ill on your liveaboard vacation.

• 
  I, too, think your letter to the owner was a bit heavy-handed. My grandmother used to say "You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar."

• 
  Would I expect compensation? Probably not, but if the liveaboard offered a discount on the next cruise I would probably use the discount instead of booking my next liveaboard with their competitor.

• 
  What ever happened to putting the fence at the top of the cliff, instead of parking the hearse at the bottom of the ravine? I plan to take a small bottle of disinfectant with me when I go on my first liveaboad in April. And I plan to be extra vigilant with hand washing and other cold-prevention measures.

 

[redacted]

? I plan to take a small bottle of disinfectant with me when I go on my first liveaboad in April. And I plan to be extra vigilant with hand washing and other cold-prevention measures.

Too bad there is little indication that the operator took such simple basic steps. I am assuming that if that was a bleach (chlorox) mix in the "windex" bottles, that we might have been told that rather than simply receiving a response from EV that appeared to be an attempt to discredit the OP. I'm wondering if the captain took over as chef because they wanted to quarantine the sick cook or because he was just too sick to do his job.

This looks like another case where the business should ask itself WWLJD - What Would Larry & Joe Do (Scubatoys).

 

[Skeeter1097]

Name all whom was involved to the chamber of commerces and the health dept. Tell this charter that you are doing so. Call dan network and the under writer. If I got sick after they all ready had a out brake. They had better have a release from the health Dept. Check the Law and get mad.

 

[almitywife]

Originally Posted by robint
........We just returned from a trip to Palau and spent a week with an Australian guy. He even brought up the fact that the people who scream the loudest and complain the most are always Americans

hijack: hmmm - sorry aboot that, personally im finding us aussie are getting up there on the annoying, ugly & loud list these days
hijack off:



now, back to origianl topic

i can speak from experience that no insurance company will/can insure for loss of enjoyment whilst on holidays

and my holiday nightmare included an attempted rape (not me!), fighting, police, broken & stolen gear and lost bookings

as far as OP goes, i would be requesting at least some compensation (major discount on next trip at least) for the trip

cheers

edit: oh, and if i was on this trip i would be the rude aussie with a scarf around my mouth, telling sick people to stay away and spraying glen20 everywhere and would even be cooking my own food..... sick people must stay away from me, especially on a trip!

im not germ phobic, just dive healthy... touch wood havent had antibotics for about 15yrs