SamDiver14
Contributor
This is the section for this so here goes, this has been bothering me for several years now.
The LDS that I have been trained through, that I have been doing business with for five years is about to become my last choice for where to take my money. My instructors have been great, but I think my issue is really with the owner.
A little background that you all may not want to hear..... I have several children (3). My wife and I owned a farm and financially we were forced to shut down. We decided to return to school and advance our existing degrees and then to try and relocate. This has all happened at the same time that I have pursued my professional diving status. I considered the owner of the LDS to be a friend of ours. I have explained to him over and over that most of what he offers, for trips, and diving activites are way out of my price range. I have bought all of my gear from him and it is top of the line and I payed full price. But he makes no effort to try and offer weekend trips, driving trips, local trips. I have asked repeatedly. I always end up making all of my own arrangements and then when I mention my weekend plans to his other regular customers I end up with a dozen people that want to go.
I suppose there may be other issues but I really feel that I have no value to my LDS unless I have a few thousand dollars to spend. The least expensive trip they run is to the flower gardens, it is still around five hundred dollars. I really don't have time to go anywhere either, like I said I have three small children and a wife. I can't disappear for a week, and sometimes I can't even get the whole weekend. I do know that I am the only instructor candidate that the LDS has had in the past few years, and all of the instructors that have been there aren't working or coming around much anymore.
When my wife and I get our advanced degrees we will be very well paid and in high demand. Then spending a few thousand several times a year for a dive vacation won't be such a big deal. But I just don't know if I would want to spend my money with the same LDS that seemed to not care or value me when I didn't have the extra money to spend.
I tend to be a very loyal person, it is a hard decision for me to decide to change dive shops. I am really not seeing a choice. Why should I place a personal value on my relationship with my LDS when they only view me as a number in a bank account?
The LDS that I have been trained through, that I have been doing business with for five years is about to become my last choice for where to take my money. My instructors have been great, but I think my issue is really with the owner.
A little background that you all may not want to hear..... I have several children (3). My wife and I owned a farm and financially we were forced to shut down. We decided to return to school and advance our existing degrees and then to try and relocate. This has all happened at the same time that I have pursued my professional diving status. I considered the owner of the LDS to be a friend of ours. I have explained to him over and over that most of what he offers, for trips, and diving activites are way out of my price range. I have bought all of my gear from him and it is top of the line and I payed full price. But he makes no effort to try and offer weekend trips, driving trips, local trips. I have asked repeatedly. I always end up making all of my own arrangements and then when I mention my weekend plans to his other regular customers I end up with a dozen people that want to go.
I suppose there may be other issues but I really feel that I have no value to my LDS unless I have a few thousand dollars to spend. The least expensive trip they run is to the flower gardens, it is still around five hundred dollars. I really don't have time to go anywhere either, like I said I have three small children and a wife. I can't disappear for a week, and sometimes I can't even get the whole weekend. I do know that I am the only instructor candidate that the LDS has had in the past few years, and all of the instructors that have been there aren't working or coming around much anymore.
When my wife and I get our advanced degrees we will be very well paid and in high demand. Then spending a few thousand several times a year for a dive vacation won't be such a big deal. But I just don't know if I would want to spend my money with the same LDS that seemed to not care or value me when I didn't have the extra money to spend.
I tend to be a very loyal person, it is a hard decision for me to decide to change dive shops. I am really not seeing a choice. Why should I place a personal value on my relationship with my LDS when they only view me as a number in a bank account?
