OnlineScubaLessons.com is a SCAM!!!

[redacted]

Why not? I recently got a solicitation for copyright services, saying they'd handle all the paperwork to register my book with the U.S. Copyright Office for ONLY $179.

What a deal!

Do you think they could get an OW C-card for that price too?

 

[Hoomi]

Do you think they could get an OW C-card for that price too?

Oh, I'm sure they'd be happy to order you a duplicate copy of a OW-C card for $179.



If I overheard at the Dive Shop correctly, that's another thing that you can order yourself from PADI for like $30 or so (no idea what the replacement cost would be from NAUI).

Just like the copyright service, you have to do all the work, and they just do some simple filing for you, so for the OW-C card, you'd have to take the courses and do the cert dives, and they'd file the paperwork.

For a generous fee, of course. As I recall, it only took maybe five or ten minutes to fill out everything for the copyright registration online, for which that outfit wanted an additional $144 above the cost of the filing. That's a pretty decent profit margin, if you ask me. $144 for a few minutes work? Maybe I'm in the wrong business!

 

[DandyDon]

try your credit card and see if you can get any refunds from them...

I'd try that, Attorney General's Office, anyone I could think of - but if they delivered the online course they promised, gooooood luck.

Check out any regulator by name/model in Google search. You'll notice that the retailers have all learned how to make their hits show up in the search results before the manufacturer does in most instances. Once you figure out what Google-bot scans for, you can figure out how to make your page hit higher in the results. easy marketing techique.

Nope, not a good reason to buy on its own. Hey, it's a learning opportunity.

But it is still scam and a blemish on the sport.

 

[fisherdvm]

I've got an answer from onlinescuba.com on their ONLINE NITROX COURSE product, which is the SDA scuba divers of america product pushed by OnlineScubaLessons.com:

[#1006]: Online Nitrox courseWednesday, July 9, 2008 4:21 PM
From: "Online Scuba Support" <support@onlinescuba.com>Add sender to Contacts To: @yahoo.com

What is the certifying agency of your $79 online nitrox course? Is it TDI, SDI, PADI?? Or is it SDA?

Hello:

The agency is "SDA" (Scuba Divers of America). An accredited new agency is a perfect way to describe it! Accredited the same as PADI, NAUI, SSI, YMCA, NASE, CMAS, IDEA, NASDS, etc...
The customer's concern is... "Will it work?" "Can I go anywhere and get Nitrox?" The answer is Yes!

Online Scuba Customer Support

Ticket History (Client) Posted On: 06 Jul 2008 07:11 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ticket Details
Ticket ID: 1006
Department: General Support
Priority: Low
Status: Closed

 

[fisherdvm]

He, he, he.... I think Thalassamania, Walter, and Dandydon are on the board of directors....

 

[DandyDon]

He, he, he.... I think Thalassamania, Walter, and Dandydon are on the board of directors....

Why? Did they say that Spare Airs are jokes, too? :lol2:

 

[diver918]

that sucks..

 

[fisherdvm]

Just wanted to let any new people considering taking any course online to AVOID OnlineScubaLessons.com!!!! My girlfriend thought it would be a good idea to take the classes online and then do the pool test and open water dives whenever we had a chance, but now the only place we are is out $90 each. WHAT A WASTE!!!

IMO the online classes in general are a huge waste. We couldn't find anyone in FL to give us any type of discout since the academics were already done (even if the place we did it was legit). So if you're paying full price anyway might as well do the classes with the local dive shop!

Also, Aquastrophics - Online Scuba lessons and equipment sales is another one of there BS sites. Don't buy anything off of it either!!!!!

Hope this saves someone the headache i'm going through!

Unfortunatedly, if you did a search on aquastrophics on scubaboard, you'd have read alot about them (negatively). Also, unfortunately, they used to, and perhaps still do.... advertised on Scubaboard.com.

Are they still advertising here???

 

[DandyDon]

Unfortunatedly, if you did a search on aquastrophics on scubaboard, you'd have read alot about them (negatively). Also, unfortunately, they used to, and perhaps still do.... advertised on Scubaboard.com.

Are they still advertising here???

I hadn't recognized the name, but sure enough: this search does list a larger number of posts about how bad they are.

And on Google, this thread is the #3 hit: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...diving/182651-catastrophic-aquastrophics.html

 

[NancyLynn]

Just like the copyright service, you have to do all the work, and they just do some simple filing for you, so for the OW-C card, you'd have to take the courses and do the cert dives, and they'd file the paperwork.

For a generous fee, of course. As I recall, it only took maybe five or ten minutes to fill out everything for the copyright registration online, for which that outfit wanted an additional $144 above the cost of the filing. That's a pretty decent profit margin, if you ask me. $144 for a few minutes work? Maybe I'm in the wrong business!

Since the thread is already taking a minor sidetrack in this direction - a simple copyright registration is no big deal. Most reasonably intelligent people can handle it.

It's pretty easy, however, to get beyond a simple registration, without realizing it (compilation of works, multiple authors/copyright rights, special classes of work, work made for hire, derivative works, trade secret content). If the registration turns out not to have been a simple one, the $144 would look pretty cheap in hindsight compared to what it will cost to correct the mistakes and protect your intellectual investment. (A botched registration with even very minor problems can significantly delay obtaining relief in court - which is really the only time you need to have registered your works at all.) At going rates for intellectual property counsel, the $144 would pay for anything from 15 minutes to 45 minutes of work (depending on the firm and perhaps the experience level of the person working on it) - not so far off from the time you spent on it.

That said, I doubt your solicitation came from a reputable law firm. More likely it came from someone who wouldn't recognize whether your work involved any special circumstances which would have made the registration more complicated so it would have been throwing money at someone with no particular expertise to make the add-on fee worth it.

- Oh, and in a reputable law firm, the $144 has to cover not only the attorney's time, but also pay for the rent, office staff, health insurance, employer's and employee's share of social security and medicare, worker's comp, malpractice insurance, phones, computers, etc. Not saying its a bad gig - just not as outrageous as it might seem at first when you think of $144 for a few minutes work.