Deceptive Dive Operator in French Polynesia
I would love to tell you about our once in a lifetime diving off Bora Bora, but thanks to the deceptive practices of Top Dive, the preferred dive operator of Club Med, I have no exciting stories to share. We signed up, and paid in advance for, a one tank dive for three of us. We stipulated that we wanted to go to the popular outer reef dive where you're almost guaranteed to see black tip and lemmon sharks, and maybe marlin, sailfish, eagle rays, even whales! What a dive!
But my wife got sick the night before and decided at the time of resort pickup that she couldn't go. I asked the Top Dive staff member who was picking everyone up from Club Med if it would be all right if we postponed our dive to the next day. He was very kind and expressed simpathy for my wife and said of course it would be all right. That evening at six o'clock, a Top Dive staff member called me to say that since we wanted only a one tank dive we were being cancelled to accomodate two tank divers. As we were to leave the following day, that next morning was our only chance to dive - six o'clock at night was too late to sign up with any other dive operator, so we were just screwed.
Top Dive staff come to Club Med nightly between five thirty and six thirty to sign up people for the next day's dives. That next night I was the first in line to state my case. I let the staff member know how disappointed we were about being cancelled that morning, and told him that if we could go on the "shark" dive the next morning, we would stay another day at Club Med just so we could go on the dive. He was apologetic about the cancellation and said we could go and be ready at 9:30 am. Twice more I impressed upon him that we were willing to stay another day (for $700) just to go on this dive. He understood and said not to worry about it, that we were going.
The next morning we were excited to see a Top Dive driver approach exactly at 9:30. He took us to the dive shop, and after a while (with no one even greeting or talking to us), he said to get on the boat. He trook us to a larger boat anchored in a lagoon. When we were aboard, I saw the same staff member who I talked to the night before. I asked him why we were in a lagoon and were we going to the outer side of the reef where the sharks were. He just said no. I asked him why and he said we just weren't. I explained again that I had paid $700 just to stay another night so we could go on the shark dive. He said he was sorry, and that he'd pay for our extra night and not charge us for the lagoon dive.
I was outraged over this situation, but as we were there with no alternative, we went on the lagoon dive. It was very boring, without much to see besides sand. When we returned to Club Med, we talked to several other divers we had met. They all had tales about how Top Dive had lied to them and cancelled their dives with no expliantion. Now that I'm home, I see on my VISA statement not only the charge for that extra night at Club Med, but the "free" lagoon dive as well!
I would love to tell you about our once in a lifetime diving off Bora Bora, but thanks to the deceptive practices of Top Dive, the preferred dive operator of Club Med, I have no exciting stories to share. We signed up, and paid in advance for, a one tank dive for three of us. We stipulated that we wanted to go to the popular outer reef dive where you're almost guaranteed to see black tip and lemmon sharks, and maybe marlin, sailfish, eagle rays, even whales! What a dive!
But my wife got sick the night before and decided at the time of resort pickup that she couldn't go. I asked the Top Dive staff member who was picking everyone up from Club Med if it would be all right if we postponed our dive to the next day. He was very kind and expressed simpathy for my wife and said of course it would be all right. That evening at six o'clock, a Top Dive staff member called me to say that since we wanted only a one tank dive we were being cancelled to accomodate two tank divers. As we were to leave the following day, that next morning was our only chance to dive - six o'clock at night was too late to sign up with any other dive operator, so we were just screwed.
Top Dive staff come to Club Med nightly between five thirty and six thirty to sign up people for the next day's dives. That next night I was the first in line to state my case. I let the staff member know how disappointed we were about being cancelled that morning, and told him that if we could go on the "shark" dive the next morning, we would stay another day at Club Med just so we could go on the dive. He was apologetic about the cancellation and said we could go and be ready at 9:30 am. Twice more I impressed upon him that we were willing to stay another day (for $700) just to go on this dive. He understood and said not to worry about it, that we were going.
The next morning we were excited to see a Top Dive driver approach exactly at 9:30. He took us to the dive shop, and after a while (with no one even greeting or talking to us), he said to get on the boat. He trook us to a larger boat anchored in a lagoon. When we were aboard, I saw the same staff member who I talked to the night before. I asked him why we were in a lagoon and were we going to the outer side of the reef where the sharks were. He just said no. I asked him why and he said we just weren't. I explained again that I had paid $700 just to stay another night so we could go on the shark dive. He said he was sorry, and that he'd pay for our extra night and not charge us for the lagoon dive.
I was outraged over this situation, but as we were there with no alternative, we went on the lagoon dive. It was very boring, without much to see besides sand. When we returned to Club Med, we talked to several other divers we had met. They all had tales about how Top Dive had lied to them and cancelled their dives with no expliantion. Now that I'm home, I see on my VISA statement not only the charge for that extra night at Club Med, but the "free" lagoon dive as well!
