Review: Discovery Divers - Koh Samui, Thailand

[SB550]

[FONT=&quot]With an upcoming vacation in Thailand, I decided to get open water certification. While still in the United States my wife and I completed the classroom and confined water dives. For the open water dives I selected Discovery Divers out of Koh Samui, Thailand. Due to the experience we had with Discovery Divers, I felt the need to do a review. The review is for open water dives for certification.

Positives:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Great food - [/FONT][FONT=&quot]The lunch was terrific. It consisted of a spicy curry, rice, and an apple.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Initial customer service [/FONT][FONT=&quot]- Before selecting this company, I contacted Eric several times with questions. He always replied promptly and seemed very helpful.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]
Negatives:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Instructor that was not paying attention [/FONT][FONT=&quot]- During the dive, we went to the bottom and practiced the exercise where you simulate running out of air. My wife took her regulator out of our mouth for the exercise, stuck the spare regulator in and it didn't work (I think it was probably upside down). In a panic, she started inhaling water. It wasn't until she started to try to dart to the surface that the instructor noticed. He then held her down and put his alternate regulator in her mouth. By then she already inhaled water about 5 times and nearly drowned. I believe that the instructor was not paying attention; therefore her safety was at severe risk. I think instructors are paid to pay attention and make sure people are safe, and this instructor clearly failed to do this. [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Overreacting for payment[/FONT][FONT=&quot] - When we paid for our certification lessons, we put down a deposit. I thought they would collect the balance at the first day, but for some reason they didn't. After day 1 my wife and I sent Eric an e-mail letting him know that we were cancelling day 2 since we didn't enjoy it. He kindly gave us a discount for not taking part in day 2 and said that we could pay the balance on PayPal. I agreed to this and let him know that I'd pay via the PayPal link. Since I was on vacation, I didn't check my e-mail every day. After about two days, before I got the chance to pay, he showed up at my hotel with the Thai Police. I obviously never intended to not pay, and I find it ridiculous that he would show up to my hotel with the Thai Police.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]
Summary:
Although Discovery Divers has very prompt service and great food on dives, I don't think that makes up for instructors that don't pay attention or for having horrible payment policies. I would not recommend this dive shop.[/FONT]

 

[stevenl]

I am not judging since I don't know exactly what happened, tone, etc., but how was Eric to know you were going to pay after you cancelled the course? If after 2 days there was no payment, maybe no reaction to emails? I would start to wonder as well.
Did he try to contact you any other way, e.g. via a message in the hotel?

 

[limbo]

Not an unfair assessment by Stevenl

 

[eric v]

Seth, I am truly sorry that you decided not to complete your course here in Koh Samui. I also apologize if you were offended by us coming to your hotel to collect the money. I am sure it was not intentional, but after two days of unanswered e-mails and non-returned phone messages left at your hotel we were a little concerned about collecting the balance. Unfortunately, once a tourist leaves the country it is virtually impossible for us to collect any money and once we were able to track you down at your hotel you graciously took care of the balance which was much appreciated.
As far as your dissatisfaction with the diving and instructor goes, I am sorry that you did not make me aware of any issues you feel you may have had when I met you at your hotel. When I asked you about the instructor, I wish you would have told me your concerns at that time instead of me finding out by reading your post a few months later. It is necessary to do the skills in open water and to practice them in case of emergencies that could possible come up on a dive including an out of air emergency. When things don't go exactly right, for instance putting the regulator in upside down, it can be very scary and seconds can feel like an eternity. Even though you were under the impression that it took longer than you would have liked for him to remedy the situation, you telling me that he was able to stop a panicked ascent and have his alternate second stage ready to place in your wife's mouth tells me that he did exactly what he was supposed to do. Unfortunately, when we need to react to a situation, what is 1-2 seconds can feel a lot longer. If he wasn't paying attention and your wife would have done a panicked ascent to the surface without breathing, the situation could have possibly been very bad.
Again, I am sorry that your first day diving was not as you envisioned it would be, but I really hope that you give diving another try and complete your course in the future. I am sure you will see why many of us do this everyday and never tire of it.

 

[DevonDiver]

I don't see that expecting a final payment within 2 days is a "horrible payment policy", given the location and circumstance. Most business owners would have had similar concerns, especially given a failure to contact them back for 48 hours. To have arranged the payment via Paypal would have taken.. what?.... 5 minutes from your busy holiday schedule, at any one of the ubiquitous internet cafes, your hotel internet or laptop via wifi?

Nobody got hurt on the course - can sympathize that your wife felt some anxiety after messing up the AAS/OOA drill. Instructor responded promptly enough to maintain safety, but that doesn't stop any distress from occurring. It happens to more than a few novice trainees on their first attempt - instructor may have paused for a second to allow some leeway for your wife to self-resolve the situation, after all, it was only an 'upside-down' regulator. Some degree of panic threshold and problem-solving does need to be developed on the course....its impossible to do that if the instructor pounces like a hawk every time a drill isn't performed flawlessly.

Just ask yourself whether you'd be happier for your wife to learn from that simple mistake, or whether you'd want her to emerge from her training with an expectation that she will receive instant intervention to any problem encountered once she is a trained diver. At that point... it'd be YOU responsible for her safety, as her buddy.

I doubt very much that she "inhaled water 5 times and nearly drowned". Inhaling water tends to have some obvious physiological effects on a person.... normally involving the need for urgent medical attention. Let's not exaggerate eh?

 

[Quero]

Oh SB550. How disappointing. I feel bad for both you/your wife and Eric, to be honest. I think you were all trapped in a miscommunication as to the payment issue with each of you having different understandings:

• Eric's understanding seems to have been intended to spare you the time and trouble of physically going to his shop to make payment, so he offered you the option of paying by PayPal since it would be easier for you and you could do it from anywhere in a matter of minutes. Naturally he expected you would take care of this as soon as possible.
• Your understanding seems to have been that you could pay by PayPal when it became convenient (for example, when you got home and had time to tie up loose ends from your trip).

When there's a serious miscommunication, hard feelings are not far behind! The two of you should have been more clear about agreeing on WHEN payment was expected in addition to agreeing on HOW it was going to be handled. There's a lesson there for both of you.

As to the instructor's conduct during the course--not having been there it's hard to know for sure, but one thing I do know is that the personal rapport between student diver and instructor is a major element in dive training. If that rapport isn't present at the outset, it's much easier for a student to become overwhelmed by a small issue like an upside-down reg and aspiration of a small amount of water as a result. (As an aside, this makes the diver cough, so I can envision a rapid series of inhales with coughing that might bring some additional droplets of water into the airway, but there's a lot more air than water in these inhalations, and it's quite different from actually inhaling a lungful of water, which would indeed provoke drowning.)

For whatever reason, you and your wife lost confidence in the instructor, and you were correct that going ahead with him would no longer be possible. Student divers must be comfortable with their instructors, and they must be allow to change instructors when there's a lack of comfort, with no recriminations or placing of blame--sometimes it's as simple as a personality mis-match! At any rate, you should have let Eric know what happened so that he could assign another instructor to you. Based on his gracious offer of a discount when you quit the course and your own reports of good customer service before your arrival on Samui, I would imagine that he would have done whatever he could to make things right for you if he had simply been given the opportunity.

Again, it all sounds like a classic case of a misunderstanding that spiraled out of control. I feel bad for everybody involved.

 

[limbo]

Almost makes you wonder how the OP found SB and even makes me wonder more if he actually bothers to check in again and contributes to this thread or SB in general.

 

[Quero]

As far as I can tell, Seth is sincere. He joined SB a couple of months ago and doesn't seem to have posted his review elsewhere, so I'm going to assume that he's a good guy who has simply suffered a disappointment. I hope he comes back here to let us know that he's worked things out with Eric and that they now understand one another's perspectives. It would be too bad if a simple misunderstanding and a less-than-optimal student-instructor relationship might keep him and his wife from diving...

 

[eric v]

[FONT=&amp]I agree with you Quero. And here are some additional details I hadn't mentioned. When the customer e-mailed me to cancel the course, they said the reason was that they did not enjoy the diving. When I met with them at their hotel I asked them if they had a problem with the instructor and they told me that the instructor was fine. I even offered to take them the next day myself to finish the course and they told me they just wanted to relax instead. To be honest, I was really surprised to learn of this thread because this happened over 3 months ago, and these reviews posted yesterday were the first I heard of any issues at all. I really wish the customer had let me know since I would have been able to take timely action--at least have a talk with the instructor. Now it's a little late to make it right with the customer or investigate any potential issues with the instructor.

As far as the money issue goes, I believed that we had agreed that they would take care of the balance before leaving the island. I sent follow-up emails as well as phone messages to call me to let me know when they planned to pay but received no response. I was not able to contact them until I went to the hotel personally. I had to take the police with me in order to speak to reception to release information about their whereabouts so I could find them.

While I hate to see any student divers quit the course, I am willing to refund their fees in cases in which they cannot finish. But in the case of any complaint at all, I do want to know what the customer would ideally like me to do to make it right. Do they want a make up class? A different instructor? An apology? In this particular case, I am at a loss as to what to do to resolve the issue.

A google search of Discovery Divers turns up dozens of positive reviews, and we take this one negative review (which he posted here and on TripAdvisor) very seriously. We do strive for excellence, and if there's something we can improve, we do want to try. I hope they will come back and let us know how we can help. At the very least, perhaps we can send his student records on to him so that he and his wife can complete their training elsewhere.[/FONT]

 

[limbo]

As far as I can tell, Seth is sincere. He joined SB a couple of months ago and doesn't seem to have posted his review elsewhere, so I'm going to assume that he's a good guy who has simply suffered a disappointment. I hope he comes back here to let us know that he's worked things out with Eric and that they now understand one another's perspectives. It would be too bad if a simple misunderstanding and a less-than-optimal student-instructor relationship might keep him and his wife from diving...

Fair enough he registered in may bit up till now it's his only post. It's not about Seth to be honest, it's more about people that sign up, post just once, unload their grief and leave it be without ever coming back to see what happened or contribute to a discussion they themselves started. Seen it I don't know how many times on various boards about various topics.

It seems in this case Seth is on a mission by posting here and according to Eric on Trip advisor, all just red flags in my experience. Maybe he's the exception and will come back and contribute here.