Undercurrent the Ombudsman

Last Thanksgiving Tim Chau, a Chinese-speaking immigrant from Vietnam, took his first diving vacation and flew to Cozumel from his home in Houston. On one dive he lost one of his Dacor Pursuit fins -- “it just fell off,” he reported. When he returned to Houston he contacted several dive shops to buy a replacement fin, but not one would sell him a single fin. Because Chau doesn’t speak English well, his friend Tony Go explained the problem via e-mail.

While you might not be able to by a single shoe if you lost one, it seemed to us fins ought to be different. So, we called Dacor and talked with Joe Stella, Marketing Director, about Tim’s problem. Stella said that Dacor works with disabled divers who need only a single fin, so the problem was not unique. “Have him call me and tell me the shop he uses. We’ll send one to the shop and he can buy it from them.”

A few days later, Chau picked up us his fin for no charge, compliments of Dacor and Joe Stella. Since it arrived in time for Christmas, it made a nice present for Chau.

While we wouldn’t expect a dive shop to break up a pair of fins in stock, we don’t understand why at least one didn’t call Dacor to set up a one-fin purchase. Customer satisfaction is “Good Will,” and that’s hard to buy.

So, thumbs up to Dacor and Joe Stella for their exemplary service. And thumbs down to the shops that sat on their fins.