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

[theduckguru]

You are correct in the information publised is one sided. The response from the dive agency, the people authorizing the inst./lds to conduct business using their trademark,, was improper in my view.

The correct response from the dive agency would have been " We are in receipt of your complaint and we will investigate", not we'll forward your complaint to the person you are complaining about.

The inst. in this case may have closed his shop, but it appears he still maintains that agency's inst. cert and should still be subject to agency ethics requirements.

Sorry my standards for the dive agencys exceed yours, but when a agency certifies the inst., consumer complaints about the inst. should be investigated by the agency.

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.

 

[Quero]

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.

My question, until I learned it was SSI, was whether your instructor had completed the training record part of your logbook. PADI requires that this documentation be kept up to date for each stage of the training, so just the signed logbook training record is enough for a PADI instructor to move forward with a referral student. I don't know what SSI's procedure for documenting training is, but if you've got anything at all, show it to the new dive center and see if they can accept it.

 

[nilsdiver]

Do you know how the business was closed? I know some types of closing have legal requirements with creditors ( which you are ). I once worked at a company that was closed via receivership. Once it was declared all creditors had to registers with the receivership to get their money. They got paid a percentage based on what was left and how much debt there was... Folks I worked with that where travelling on business ended up have to personally pay off their corporate credit cards...

Guess my point is that when a company closes, the company may be legally blocked from helping you out... outside of the proscribed legal method... Don't know if this applies to your case...

 

[broncrider]

I was ceritified by an SSI instructor, and the procedure was everything got signed off as soon as it was copmleted. I would assume that most instructors would do things this way.

 

[Quero]

Thanks Jay, but that doesn't answer my question, so maybe I wasn't clear; I'll try to be clearer.

PADI instructors generally provide students with a booklet that contains both logbook pages and training record pages. In this booklet there are areas for instructors to record all training (not just for OW course, but for other courses as well). When instructors complete these parts of the logbook, they no longer have to provide copies of the training record they keep on file for each student when the student needs referral documentation because the student can simply present this booklet to the new instructor. If I had a student and couldn't finish him/her for whatever reason, all that the student would need to do is present the logbook with all of the information noted and signed off (we sign off and initial each stage of training). If the new instructor has questions or wants to confirm any details of the training, s/he can simply contact me since even that information is included in the training record pages. In other words, most PADI students have their own personal copies of their training records.

So my question is: Do students in the SSI programs have their own personal copies of the training records which they can present to a different instructor as proof that they have satisfactorily completed particular stages of the training for a course?

 

[Ally Matangi]

Man I feel for you folks...Maybe a blessing in disguise as if someone closes their shop, their insurance etc., would not be valid. Don't lose hope, scuba diving is a fantastic activity. All the best.

My wife and I paid for scuba dive lessons in Feburary and took the classroom and pool lessons in March. Open water was scheduled for April 17 and 18 but the weather was too bad. Then May 1 the instructor closed his shop up. I called him and found out that he contacted all of the class but me and my wife to go and do the open water dive. He said that I was suppose to call him if I was interested in the class. I asked him when he would do our open water class and he said that he did not know that he had a new job and that he was very busy.
I called another dive shop in our area and they want 75 dollars a piece for me and my wife to take the open water class. Plus they need a letter from my other instructor.
So I called my instructor and told him that they wanted 150 dollar for the open water class and he said that he would not pay it. He said that it was my fault for not calling him for the class.
He has known all along that we wanted to go to Key West with about 10 other people in the class June 8th. We planned a 3 day dive at Key West.
So I would like to know what you guys would do about this.

 

[firefighteru7]

contact your credit card company and dispute the charge from the dive shop for the cert, when you get the paperwork to fill to fill out for the dispute put the reason "paid for the course prior to classes and classes not given, dive shop closed prior to classes and course completion"

 

[windapp]

$75 dollars is dirt cheep. Get the required forms from the current instrucor, and just pay it. Also, frequent the dive shop that is giving you the deal. They are being very exceptional.

Dive instructors, in my experience, are usually very flexible and accomodating. Anybody who would screw you over like you described is not be is not going to be as concerned for your safety as an instructor ought to be. Consider the extra $150 to be an upgrade to a better instructor.