Folks, this whole thread astonishes me. Is it sleazy for major universities to charge separately (yes, read that as EXTRA) for books that you need for the courses for which you have already paid tuition (and fees)? Of course not! Is it sleazy for a physician to charge separately for professional fees (the office visit charge) and the laboratory tests? Of course not! It is sleazy for an automobile repair shop to itemize separately the labor charges, and the parts charges? Of course not! In fact, itemization of charges (and separation of labor charges and parts costs) is something that most organizations and businesses do now in response to complaints from customers who felt that it is sleazy to roll them all up into one bottom line' figure. There is nothing SLEAZY about this at all, for goodness sake. A good shop or good instructor will tell students up front, The cost of the course is $XXX, AND the cost of the crewpak, or course materials, or whatever, is an additional $XXX'. Dare I suggest that a reasonably capable consumer will ask, 'What are the charges for the course? Are course materials extra?' It is up to the instructor or shop to determine if they wish to bundle the charges or price them separately. Most separate them. Some do not. Either way is OK, as long as they are forthcoming about what they are doing.
I have carried PADI course materials on out of country trips and never found them to be oversized or problematic. You can actually take the books and materials out of the box and carry them in a briefcase or suitcase.
As for PADI books, they are intended to be standardized. Sometimes, a student / diver views them as useless, other times they dont. That is going to be true for any agencys course materials. BTW, that is also true for many undergraduate textbooks. And, most educational institutions do not absorb the added cost of maintaining a library with enough copies of textbooks, for all courses, to allow all students to simply check the text out for the semester / quarter and avoid buying them. Or, in the rare cases where they do, they simply boost student fees to cover the cost.
Well stated! Going back to the original question, every competent certifying agency want to be sure that their courses are taught according to their standards. PADI is no exception, and they are VERY interested in knowing if an instructor, or a shop offering PADI instruction deviates from standards. If you take PADI AOW in North Carolina, it should be equivalent in content to PADI AOW in Virginia, and California, with the obvious exception of variations in local diving conditions which may determine the environment in which you make your dives.
Finally, I must echo the comment that PADI, NAUI, SSI, etc are all in business for profit. It is called the dive industry, people. It consists of education, of equipment, of experience (charters, resorts, etc.). If someone does not charge for a course, they usually anticipate making up the costs elsewhere (equipment sales, charter fees, etc.). Last time I checked, that seemed to work pretty well.
As for where the c-cards are sent, the posts are correct they are sent where the instructor says to send them. Usually, they are mailed to wherever the forms were submitted. When I did my OW, I did the academic and pool work in NC, then went on a referral to a shop in FL for the dives (it was winter). The cards were sent to the shop in FL, who called me and asked if I wanted them mailed to me in NC (which I did), or was I going to be back in the area? It was not a problem to have them mailed (and, by golly, they didn't even charge me for the postage). PADI sends them where the instructor says to send them. It should not be a big deal. If the shop where you did your cert doesnt want to mail them to you, report the shop to PADI, but dont get annoyed with PADI for asking you to pay a fee for a replacement. It costs extra money to generate the card, and mail it, when they have already done it once.
