Paid for dive lessons, but shop closed up. What do I do?

[CoconutDiver]

The thought has occured to me that after 20 previous posts/replies (not counting this one) that the original poster (the student who lost his money) has not responded ... I wonder "why" that is?

One might think that he would be watching to see what advice others would be offering ... after all, he DID ask.

 

[snowdog]

Great observation, must not be an issue anymore.

 

[REDEYE1978]

My wife and I went on Vacation and just got back. We went to another dive center and they wanted us to do the pool class again to check us out before we did the open water. So we did the pool class today. We have tried to get in touch with the bozo instructor to get the referal letter, but he will not return my phone calls. The dive center even tried to get him to fax the letter but still no dice. Still waiting on his letter and will let you guys know what is next. Thanks for all the good advice.

 

[furby076]

Goodluck in getting the letter. He should at least be courteous enough to get this to you. You may want to let him know, in a nice fashion (which he doesn't deserve) that if he provides you with the letter you will drop the rest of the matter and he will not hear back from. Don't say "and if you don't, I will sue you"...let that remain an open threat. He may just provide you with the letter to get you off his back.

If not, see if the dive shop will accept the log books, or let you take the test and show that you know the stuff. The most important portions, the water tests, they are requiring you to do anyhow.

I would definitely report him to whatever dive association he uses...while he may not have violated safety practices, he has violated ethical/professional practices. Especially if you write a great letter to that association, they may get annoyed with this guy and strike him from their list of recommended instructors (or some such thing). It may work, it may not. If it doesn't then you can tell that association "Great, you certify your instructors, but when they rip off customers who are also YOUR customers, you don't provide support? OK, well my friends were gonna go with your association, but I am going to tell them to go with your competitor". Nobody likes a bad rap.

As for things like sueing the guy...for $150? You are entering a very expensive hobby/sport, and as such you have some kind of disposable income...is $150 really worth your time? For principal, sure, but for just the money???

I would just fill out a lot of online type surveys and give this guy a bad rap. Also post his name and dive shop name and locale. I find it interesting that he contacted everyone except you. I'd wager he may have not contacted anyone but just fed you that line to pass the blame.
My thoughts.

 

[Deac in the Wake]

While regardless of the outcome we have learned some kind of lesson about posting dive operators' woes via the ***** case (rhymes with Mundy), why not post the guy's name and former shop? I realize he's closed up and on to something else but surely he still dives. Perhaps people would like to know what kind of guy they're diving with.

 

[scubadiveilat]

Excellent points made!!!

First!

Do you have all the paper work from the course?

• skills
• Evaluations
• Dive log book of dives made
• Classroom etc...

Second The Association?

Inform the association by filling a complaint. you paid for the course there should be some effect made to complete it. It's bad publicity for others of these bad apples.

Your options are:

If you have all the paper work and simply need a signature for the final OW dive(s) to complete the course than pay the extra and complete it. Fast simple and move on.

If you don't have all the paper? Can you get them without a problem? If yes! pay and complete If not Let me know and I'll help the best I can. To make things less stressful and for you to enjoy this incredible sport.

Have fun!!!

 

[REDEYE1978]

Well, my wife and I just got back from another vacation in the Caribbeans. We were suppose to go scuba diving, but could not because of the bozo still has not mailed me the letter, so we could do the open water. I contacted Kert with SSI and he said that he contacted bozo and said that he was out of town and could not mail the letter. That was three weeks ago. Now I just wrote a letter to SSI headquarters and they responded by saying that they will email my letter to Kert. The next open water class is July 9 and 10. I bet the bozo does not send the letter.

 

[oly5050user]

Well, my wife and I just got back from another vacation in the Caribbeans. We were suppose to go scuba diving, but could not because of the bozo still has not mailed me the letter, so we could do the open water. I contacted Kert with SSI and he said that he contacted bozo and said that he was out of town and could not mail the letter. That was three weeks ago. Now I just wrote a letter to SSI headquarters and they responded by saying that they will email my letter to Kert. The next open water class is July 9 and 10. I bet the bozo does not send the letter.

Too bad you did not get to dive on your trip..Looking back, it would have been better to take the loss and take the class over again if you did not have a log book that documented your progress during the course for your academic and confined water progress.That could have been used as a record of completion.
I have students keep their log books up to date during their inital ow course.Dates are recorded for classroom and pool sessions that are completed and iI sign it off.This way if they forget to take a referal form with them on a trip and they have their logs all they need is to fill out a medical form for the new instructor and they are good to go.

 

[theduckguru]

Charging students money, failing to give training, and issuing a card - big deal. Charging students money, not giving training and not issuing a card - no big deal. Welcome to the world of PADI and SSI.

 

[oly5050user]

Charging students money, failing to give training, and issuing a card - big deal. Charging students money, not giving training and not issuing a card - no big deal. Welcome to the world of PADI and SSI.

Very foolish statement.This is NOT an agency specific problem .Issue is not PADI or SSI problem.,To say otherwise can be construed as slander.. It is the instructor that failed to meet the customers needs. Could be any agency or any type of business. The agency has nothing to do with the way this person runs his business.
The OP paid the instructor,not SSI or PADI for training.
I have had people come to me with issues like this and I tried to assist them.They claimed that yes they paid their money for a course but were not issued a certification card.Turned out they could not perform the required skills to EARN the card.Just because they paid does not mean they passed and EARNED a card. Not saying that is the case here. We only have to go by what the OP wrote and if all true,we have no reason to not believe him, the instructor they had is probably irresponsible and that is why he went out of business.