Overpriced OW class?

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Texanguy

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Location
texas usa
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I recently was looking for a dive instructor for my OW class, and the one place I went to was going to charge me $500 per-person for a group class, plus I had to buy my mask, snorkel, and fins from them, which he said would cost 300 to 400 dollars. He was a PADI instructor. Does this seem overpriced?
 
If the $500 includes all course materials and certification fees it is a bit high but not outrageous. If the course is good the $500 is well spent. The price for the mask fins and snorkel is high. I would think it should cost at most $200. I would pass on this operation if they make you purchase everything from them.
 
depends... what did the $500 include? books/materials, c-card fee, park fees, boat diving, etc? Is this a top notch instructor that is worth paying more for?

The "...had to buy my mask, snorkel, and fins from them..." is where I would have a problem. it's generally good practice to support your local dive shop buy buying those things from them, but it should not be a requirement. And $300-$400 for those 3 items is a bit high.
 
Very overpriced for Open Water. Our classes are $275 including book, c-card, etc. We prefer you to buy your mask, fins, snorkel, boots thru us but not required and ours is $170-$190 depending on what equipment you want.

That is the price we pay here to go take Cavern and Cave classes.
 
$300-500 could be good if it includes the rental gear & boat fees.. requiring to buy from them no not good... asking if you don't, to at least look at the gear to make sure scuba quality and not just cheap stuff that'll just hold up to using in a pool or snorkeling (to protect their liability) is understandable.
 
The variation in standards of SCUBA courses is huge and sometimes cost has an influence on the end product. Having seen divers that are certified that have absolutely no idea what they are doing it makes me think that whatever they paid for their training it was a waste of money. Good solid training will not be the cheapest that is on offer and it is good training that you need to seek out and invest in, if you find a facility that you are confident will provide you very good courses and make you a confident competent diver but they come in at $100 or so more than others then my recommendation is to really not be concerned about the cost difference.

Asking you to buy your own fins, snorkel and mask is something that I have seen a few centres doing along the way. I don't really approve of it from a consumer point of view. Advantages to you having these pieces of gear mean you can snorkel while on vacation without renting gear and having a bad fitting rental mask will really take the fun out of your dive. But I always wonder what happens if you buy the gear but then half way through the course decide that diving is not for you. You can buy fit for purpose fins snorkel and mask brand new for considerably less than $300 - $400
 
That seems pretty high, of course ever area is different and there is no info on what is included. I know our shop charges $333 which includes materials, gear rental and c-card, student is responsible for quarry fees. I am not a fan of any shop that requires you to buy gear for open water, as a first time student they have no idea of what they like or dislike or works best for them. Beyond Open Water, I do think they should be responsible for their own gear. In any case $300 - $400 seems excessive, most students budget around $200 unless they are looking something high end like "smoke on the water" fins and optical quality lens..

If you break it out our students pay: $333 (open water course) + $40 quarry fees = $373 If they want to buy (even though rental is included) Mask / Fin / Snorkel then $573 Total..
 
There Was no boat diving just shore diving. Most other places i checked costed 350 to 450 some being as low 200 ( I don't know if i would trust a class this cheap). So I was curious if this is normal pricing elsewhere.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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