Dive shop owners or Independent instructors... Question: Do you tell the prospective student...

[diverintheflesh]

27 miles, 32 minutes... all highway from my post office box to the pool...

However, I teach in a 150 mile radius from my mailing address. I've had students that came as far as New Jersey for dive training in Clear Lake, Sisters, Oregon... Our cert dive destination is 150 miles away when not doing a referral.

From where I live, I have students that are 50 miles away. The city is part of a twin city and people cross the border on a regular basis. Each city is easily 25 miles wide...

No one has ever had a concern about the drive.

Without revealing details that would reveal the person's identity, they contacted me a month prior to needing to be finished. I always warn people to start sooner than later as work, family, and illness can become obstacles to completing on time. I tell everyone that my services are first come, first served, first scheduled.

Well, they procrastinated and prior to signing up another student signed up and scheduled a day that the other would later want. All my classes are private. I got permission from the other student to have another join us in the pool, however, while they said yes, they could have said, no.

The student also only wants to complete the program on their days off while I am available 24/7 and the pool is open M-F, 11-7 and Saturday, 10-4...

 

[diverintheflesh]

All in all it should work out for them, however, they are shifting responsibility for their schedule issues on me. I don't want to jeapordize my reputation, and while I have everything documented and clearly stated, I quit a career in banking to teach scuba diving so I wouldn't have to deal with these issues.

 

[BoltSnap]

Never been an issue for me when I was an independent instructor or as a dive store owner in the US. When people were signing up and handing over money, they had to know the details including the venue for the classroom/pool/openwater training no doubt. I had them also sign a "student agreement" that listed their responsibility and their rights and obligations in very clear terms (document was approved by attorney of course).

 

[Patoux01]

Mine didn't have a pool, he said the lake was just a large pool.

But yes, I'd do it if it's far away.

 

[Bubblesong]

So he didn't ask where pool is, didn't ask availability of training time and procrastinates is getting his own scheduling done. Hmmm, Analogy: if three things went wrong in preparing to dive, would you cancel the dive? Because I would "call" diving with this guy already. I have a feeling this guy is not going to get better at looking ahead.

 

[Rred]

"When the customer doesn't read the terms of what they are purchasing,"
Slightly OT but. I heard a radio interview with one of the megabands from the 80's, I think it was ELO. The interviewer asked about the band's reputation for being diva's, because their typical contract was 56 pages long and even specified that there had to be a big bowl of M&M's with no red ones in it, in their dressing room. The band member guffaw'ed at that and said "No, you don't understand. The red M&M's bit was real. But we didn't care about the M&M's, we just stuck it in there because if we saw red M&M's in the bowl, we knew that no one had read the contract."
So, if you really want to know whether they have read what they are signing? Just put in a note halfway through that says "Session #9 will require eating ten red M&M's, students must supply their own red M&M's. All substitutions must be approved by the instructor before the course begins."
I think our instructor supplied the Coke we all had to drink.(G)

 

[oly5050user]

I was surprised that the dive shop DID have a pool in back! Being from the north I would never have assumed that any shop would have a pool.

When we tell people we have our own salt water heated pool they take a look at it in disbelief. No other facility in NYC metro area ( we are just outside the city here in Yonkers) has its own in house pool or it's own parking lot as we do. As such we get students regularly from as far as Staten Island and Brooklyn.

 

[BoltSnap]

When we tell people we have our own salt water heated pool they take a look at it in disbelief. No other facility in NYC metro area ( we are just outside the city here in Yonkers) has its own in house pool or it's own parking lot as we do. As such we get students regularly from as far as Staten Island and Brooklyn.

Where do you get the salt water from? IIRC, you are very far away from the ocean.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

Where do you get the salt water from? IIRC, you are very far away from the ocean.

One bucket per week, or as needed.

 

[diverintheflesh]

I think it's time to pay an attorney to draft it in legal terms a court would support and have them sign before starting class, physically or electronically.... thanks for the feedback.

Never been an issue for me when I was an independent instructor or as a dive store owner in the US. When people were signing up and handing over money, they had to know the details including the venue for the classroom/pool/openwater training no doubt. I had them also sign a "student agreement" that listed their responsibility and their rights and obligations in very clear terms (document was approved by attorney of course).