LDS fails to deliver OW portion of PADI rescue, says tough luck

[Laurie S.]

 

[USFpsychDiver]

I offered 4 weekends that I am available in Sept. and Oct. I have regularly provided my available schedule to the instructor, previously offering 3 weekends in August and three in July. I am not available every weekend. That is 10 possible times across four months. I believe this constitutes a good faith effort on my part to schedule the OW sessions. Planet Scuba's response here seems disingenuous to me, to suggest that the reason they have not schedule the OW sessions is due to my limited availability; I have lots of availability, especially if that can be scheduled ahead. Planet Scuba has not once contacted me stating any availability of OW rescue sessions; I have contacted the instructor repeatedly while he was associated with Planet Scuba providing him with my availability over the upcoming 2 month periods. Never once has either the instructor or Planet Scuba contacted me stating when OW sessions would be available. I stated in my e-mail to Planet Scuba after two months of failure to schedule with the instructor that I wished them to assist in the scheduling. That's when they told me the instructor wasn't still working with them and I should work it out with him. I then provided them with the 4 weekends I was available in Sept. and Oct. and told them that if they could not schedule using those time that I would consider the failure to successfully schedule the OW sessions over 4 months of options evidence that they were unable to deliver the OW sessions. More than four months between classroom and pool and OW is unreasonable in my estimation. It is not like I'm never available; as I said in my initial post, I am generally available one weekend out of two, and am quite flexible given several weeks advanced notice, and four months is plenty of time for two parties to come to a mutually agreeable time if both parties are interested. Planet Scuba has shown no evidence of said interest. It is this continued disingenuousness on the part of Planet Scuba, first suggesting that they sold me only part of a course, not the whole course, now that the reason for scheduling failure is due to my lack of availability, that I think prospective customers should be aware of.

Individuals can do their own independent investigations of the business; for all I know I'm the only one who's every complained about them in a sea of satisfied customers; I honestly don't know, I haven't looked. I can state that I have taken OW, AOW, Nitrox, Cavern, and Cave I, OW, AOW, and Nitrox from one shop with 2 different instructors, and Cavern and Cave from an independent instructor, and have been 100% satisfied with each of those classes, each of which contained at least classroom and OW portions (well, the AOW was a little weak on skill building, mostly just supervised experience, but the dives were fun), so I have some experience in taking dive classes. The above are facts as I know them. My opinion is that Planet Scuba either made a cost/benefit business decision or were inept in their class management, and the Rescue students got the short end of the stick.

 

[jar546]

This is why all classes should have all dates solidified from the beginning so the student knows their obligation and so does the business getting paid to provide the service.

These open ended classes end up with issues like this in many instances.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Its also why shops should not be doing the scheduling for classes or offering them. That should be up to the instructor. All course fees should be collected by the instructor who would decide what cut, if any, the shop was entitled to.

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[TSandM]

I think this thread really highlights the potential pitfalls in the relationship between student, instructor and shop. I know for our shop, with advanced classes like Rescue, the shop "sells" the class and collects the money, but all the scheduling is done between the students and the instructor. The instructor is paid by the shop at the end of the class. I could easily see a situation like this one developing, where the student is unable to come to terms with the original instructor, only to find that that person no longer has a relationship with the shop. For this reason, I don't think there is any blame to apply to the shop for the original scheduling problems.

Once the first instructor is out of the picture, it's not hard to see the ensuing problems developing. For example, my husband teaches through our local shop. He is retired, and his time is very flexible. If he were, for some reason, unable to complete a class, the shop might have significant difficulty replacing him, as most of the rest of the teachers have day jobs. In addition, especially for short-notice work, the other instructors do schedule their time, so there isn't always someone available to pick up the slack.

If the shop included the instructor's fee for the OW portion of the class in the price that was paid, the shop is obligated to refund that money or provide an instructor. I don't get the feeling that the shop is trying to deny that at all. What I'm hearing is that, given that the dives have to be done away from home and those trips have to be organized, the shop is having trouble arranging the dives during the OP's available times. It actually might be the best thing for all concerned, for the shop to refund any portion of the payment that applied to the OW dives, and allow the OP to schedule that on his own.

 

[jar546]

Its also why shops should not be doing the scheduling for classes or offering them. That should be up to the instructor. All course fees should be collected by the instructor who would decide what cut, if any, the shop was entitled to.

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I am sure there are a lot of instructors out there who wish that were the case.

 

[redacted]

Hi all, I would like to add one very important detail that the diver left out....in an email he sent us, he gave only 3 weekend dates that he would be willing to participate in the Open Water dives. We cannot provide an instructor on those specific dates, but we will definitely have other dates available! However, he demanded specific dates, and since we cannot meet his required time table, we simply told him we couldn't, and that he was free to work with an instructor on his own. And to address awap's above comment that the cost of $200 is not included, that's because we have several locations where we can do rescue dives....not all the trips cost the same price. For example, if the diver would have wished to go to San Carlos for the checkout dives, his trip cost would be $415 plus the $40 for checkout dive instructor fees. Also, AWAP, you reference our Open Water course. This specific diver is referring to his rescue diving course.
-Danya and Chris Goodwill

What dates and locations do you have available for the rest of this year?

 

[SC_Hoaty]

Im not sure you understand his concern.

I consider that a breach of contract; the shop failing to provide the opportunity to earn Rescue certification.

I guess I really don't understand the concern, then. It seems like the shop is TRYING to satisfy him. If the sole bone of contention is the checkout dives, then the "breach of contract" is only for this portion. Assign a dollar value, settle, and go on.

Or work with the shop, and then there is no issue.

I'm glad the shop is active in the thread and providing some balance to the discussion.

 

[RJP]

If the sole bone of contention is the checkout dives, then the "breach of contract" is only for this portion. Assign a dollar value, settle, and go on.

But since OP specifically contracted (Is it even a contract? Don't know AZ contract law, but I doubt it.) for a course that did NOT include the OW dives, there'd be no breach. Plus, since he didn't PAY for the OW portion there's no dollar value for that portion of the course.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

But since OP specifically contracted (Is it even a contract? Don't know AZ contract law, but I doubt it.) for a course that did NOT include the OW dives, there'd be no breach. Plus, since he didn't PAY for the OW portion there's no dollar value for that portion of the course.

What is still not clear to me is if the instruction fee for the OW portion was already included ($40 value) or if it was going to be added to the cost of the trip. If it was already included, and the shop won't arrange the trip (which now appears to be not the case) then he might have a case to get the $40 back.

It seems like the shop is going to make it right, if he will work with them and let them make it right.