CAIRNS, Australia (7 Nov 2001) -- The latest issue of IN DEPTH, the world's leading scuba consumer advocate publication, has announced a third Scam Buster Alert related to the discriminatory pricing policies of Mike Ball Dive Expeditions Ltd. The Australia-based live-aboard operator, which is partly owned by a Japanese consortium, has been overcharging Americans and Japanese divers by a 20-40 percent margin. The price discrimination against Americans and Japanese has caused angry complaints from independent divers in the US and Japan, as well as US-based dive travel specialists who cannot compete with their Australian counterparts in the increasingly important and competitive online travel bookings market. "It's all happening online these days and any pricing policy that fails to give everyone an equal opportunity to compete will be condemned," explained a US-based dive travel specialist. "We are losing bookings to Australia-based travel agents who can sell exactly the same trip at a 20-40 percent discount. Ball is making a lot of enemies in America and Japan with these policies." According to IN-DEPTH Editor-in-Chief, Cameron Montgomery, one way to detect dive operators who are involved in pricing scams is by checking their web site booking forms. | | Americans and Japanese can afford to pay more? "If there are no prices listed, find another operator," warned Montgomery. Ball told CDNN he can't stay in business with a single rate and implied that Americans and Japanese can afford to pay more. "They know what we charge and judge it to be good value compared to alternatives," Ball explained. SOURCE - In Depth Scuba Diving Magazine |
