Lost dive holiday whilst in the Maldives - do I have a case?

[Hawkwood]

Heck, we tell all our students who just do class and pool with us to make sure they contact where they intend to do their OW dives, before they go and find out what they need to take so that they are not disappointed. Photos, medical, sometimes even a PIC, and of course make sure to have the log book with all the referral information.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

It was an unfortunate event. I do hold the OP primarily responsible.

 

[Tao of the Dive]

To clarify Jim, do you mean Operator, or Original Poster?

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Original Poster

 

[Tao of the Dive]

Thank you sir.

For clarification of my position, as i was in a hurry when I opined the first time around: I do not understand anyone knowing that there is a medical form, and not assuming that answering negatively/truthfully on that medical form might keep you from participating. I can understand that initial excitement of being able to dive and participate in the training of your children and how that can impact your attention to detail. But every time in my lifetime, if I was presented a medical form, it meant there were risks involved in that activity, and it was common sense that if I answered negatively/truthfully on that form, then I may very well be excluded from that activity.

By my nature, I am a planner, a thinker, and a list-maker. I would not travel halfway around the world for a class, half way prepared, and not have an understanding of what I need, what I need to do, and what will be expected of me. Even on a local dive, there are lists involved.

 

[ozzydamo]

I live in the UK

I wanted to do my PADI Open Water course with my kids - 2010.

We decided to go to the Maldives.

After some googling we settled on Velassaru

I contacted the island and asked them to put me in touch with their onsite dive centre.

I emailed the dive centre explaining precisely what we wanted and ask if there was any paperwork or anything (e.g. any books I could buy here in the UK and read before I arrived, or any medicals or any other paperwork)

They wrote back saying that they'd sell me the books there anyway, and also there is a medical form to fill out.

After a few more exchanges I booked in, flew out and looked forward to my diving lessons.


The next day morning I turned up in the dive centre and was given the usual paperwork.


This was a badly photocopied medical form and I answered "YES" to one of the questions.


The dive centre said I couldn't dive without a medical. "No problem" I said, "Tell me where to go."


"You can't." came the response.


Thus I was stuck on this small island and my diving holiday was destroyed.


Upon returning to the UK, I'm now a PADI Instructor complete with an HSE Dive Medical. I have also become aware that he could have (as I do for my students) emailed me the pdf of the medical form and said something like "We'll need you to say 'NO' to all of these - if you say 'YES' to any of them both now and on the first day of your course, you won't be able to dive without a doctor's medical" - I send this out to give people a chance to not have a wasted journey.



This dive centre on Velassaru could have done the same. PADI agreed with me, although because he hadn't technically breached any standards they couldn't take it further.



In short I feel I wasted quite a lot of money on this holiday that I'd never have gone on otherwise - the sole purpose (as detailed in my protracted emails with both the hotel and the dive centre) was for a dive holiday.



Comparing it with my pilot's licence in the USA ten years ago, the school said they send all students for a medical that will cost X; that was done, and I expected, from the wording of the dive centre's emails, that I'd turn up and be sent for a medical, only to find that no such facilities existed.



So: opinions: did he do wrong?


And if so, anyone advice how to go about getting damages through the Maldives legal system?

Why didn't YOU go see a Doctor and get a med cert?????? Baffling!
Its a technicality your build a case out of, get away with you!
Sounds like your not short of a quid either!
Stop being such a litigious twhat- it's people like you making this world all bitter and twisted, your greedy, you want more then whats fair and square.

Tell me?
Did you go snorkeling after they/she/he refused you a dive course, because YOU had a medical condition?

Now an Instructor with less then 200 dives hahhhahhahhahhahhahahhahhahhahahhahhahahhahahhahahhahah!!!!!!!
Shows that credentials aren't really worth a lot in these days of privatized training and Bachelor of the Art'
You can't buy a kilo of experience!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Now, Now, Ozzy. Musn't seem nasty. Need to be like this guy maybe. A balanced approach:
R. Lee Ermey Geico Commerical - YouTube

 

[Shasta_man]

This is interesting because a dive pro on another forum is concerned because thier Maldives based op doesn't have a doctor and wants people to do what you suggest they should have let you, namely falsify their medical in the interest of diving anyway.

 

[darren_uk]

"Passed with high marks, now to get experience?!?!?" NOT the kind of instructor I would want.

As litigious as you come off, it is ironic that you suggest to your students to lie on a medical form which may result in them suing you.

NO NO NO - this is *not* what I'm suggesting.

What I do is send the form to people in advance and explain that they need to be able to answer NO to all the questions; if there's anything that they answer YES to then I explain they need to get a doctor's sign off (and I can also recommend a local dive medic)

In other words: I send them the paperwork first, rather than them having a wasted journey to fill out the paperwork at the pool side (which they also do), answer "YES", I explain they need a medical and then they turn around to me and say, "Why didn't you tell me about this before?"


Just trying to improve customer service; definitely NOT suggesting people lie...


Sorry if I wasn't clear - didn't appreciate that my wording could be construed negatively... really sorry about that.

 

[darren_uk]

To follow a similar pattern to other posters...

No there is nothing you can do about it - it is essentially your own fault
Yes it is incredibly bad customer service - but you can't sue for poor service (although sometimes I wish you could)

It never ceases to amaze me how many people rock into my office each year without having contacted us first and having traveled half way around the world to learn to dive only to be turned down because of (usually) asthma.

I guess the difference with me is that I did make the trouble and effort to contact them and exchange extensive and protracted correspondence with them.


To piggy back onto this reply rather than make individual responses to others' queries:

1 - Someone asked if I'd been bothered to understand the physiology of the asthma. Since I came back to the UK yes I did go on to get my HSE Divers At Work Regulations medical (a requirements in the UK - you need a commercial medical). Asthma is something that the aviation authorities are also very hot on (a UK-based professional diving medical and a UK-based professional pilot medical are almost identical - in fact, some aviation medics have also become dive medics). I went a few steps further: I renewed my commercial pilots' medical (it was time to do that anyway, it's an annual for me) but in addition I went to my doctor to ask to be referred to a specialist (my doctor's a scuba diver) to be doubly sure. In short, I've been cleared: by an aviation medic, by a dive medic, by my own doctor, and by a respiratory consultant. Overkill, but just responding to the poster who alluded to me not being bothered


2 - I thought I'd nailed it as much as a customer could have done; what I've not done is posted the protracted correspondence between me and the Velassaru resort - to answer another poster's questions about did they know I was coming out for the sole purpose of diving? Yes - and that's very clear in the extensive correspondence.


Back to you Rob:

I think you've given the best response on the entire thread: bearing in mind that at the time I was just Joe Public walking in off the street, making extensive enquiries, they showed terrible customer service. PADI stated that too (the reason it was over a year later (responding to someone else suggesting it's down to bitterness and resentment) is it's taken over a year of progressing through the training and up into the professional levels of PADI that I've realised what the resort could have done; and from a customer service perspective I wondered if PADI were interested). Ditto with my personal Open Water instruction: it's only now that I've spotted that standards were breached - but of course at the time one doesn't know (I didn't know as a student that I needed to, say, swim 15m underwater without a mask - something that wasn't covered in my entry-level course).




Hope this helps someone