Rude, $-grubbing Local Dive Shops

[oly5050user]

The LDS that i got my OW cert through was kind of a shyster outfit as well. His entire business model is to get you into the shop as many times as possible and try to upsell everything. Example: our evening classroom training was about 50% a pitch for various trips and advanced classes he was selling. Also, he refused to sign the logbook after the dives were completed, made you come to the shop to sign it, then again to pick up the card, all the while telling you you need BCD, reg, everything. My checkout dives were 5 minutes of skill review, and then sat on the bottom while he dug up clams for himself. No returns in the shop for refund, only "store credit". The other dive shop in our area laughs when they say how they get all his repeat business.

Let me guess what LDs you are writing about here that makes you go into store repeatedly and gives you 5 minutes of time on training dives...Capt Samm's??
I had a few people find me for their training dives and or completely walked away from his store and policies and complete their academics/pool/ow dives with me in Westchester.I hope he keeps up the good work and sends me more students.

 

[Andy077]

Let me guess what LDs you are writing about here that makes you go into store repeatedly and gives you 5 minutes of time on training dives...Capt Samm's??
I had a few people find me for their training dives and or completely walked away from his store and policies and complete their academics/pool/ow dives with me in Westchester.I hope he keeps up the good work and sends me more students.

Glad I'm not the only one who got fed up......

I should also add that Danny and Ivan from Off the Wall in Grand Cayman really went above and beyond helping me out when i went down there 3 weeks after getting my OW, and found that I really was lacking in basics like air management and buoyancy control

 

[Hoomi]

So "Scuba Cowboys" aren't scuba cowboys? Rather like an operation here called "BAD" which most certainly isn't.

Who do you think gets those sea cows from one place to another on the underwater cattle drives?

I shoulda been a cowboy,
I shoulda learned to rope and dive.
Wearin' my regulator and my pony bottle
On a cattle drive.
Stealin' the young girls hearts -
A meld of Jacques and Roy.
Singin' those dive boat songs,
Oh, I shoulda been a cowboy.

(with apologies to Toby Keith)

 

[Divrdug]

Who do you think gets those sea cows from one place to another on the underwater cattle drives?

I shoulda been a cowboy,
I shoulda learned to rope and dive.
Wearin' my regulator and my pony bottle
On a cattle drive.
Stealin' the young girls hearts -
A meld of Jacques and Roy.
Singin' those dive boat songs,
Oh, I shoulda been a cowboy.

(with apologies to Toby Keith)

TOO funny......

 

[gooffydawg1]

great song

bad LDS

 

[RonFrank]

One thing that new divers can take from this thread is that many dive shops use training as a loss leader. IOW's you sign up for a $99 OW cert, and the materials are $100. Then they tell you that a mask, fins, snorkel, booties are a requirement for the first class, so come buy them now (at VERY overinflated prices). By the time things are said and done, one has spent $600 on that $99 class. Then there may be hidden costs, like the cost of the PADI cert card, or the cost of diving for the OW checkout dives.

There are things that one can do to mitigate the costs. Purchase personal equipment from a reasonably priced dealer. More important, don't spend the farm on a mask if you are not sure it might fit well. Actually this is where an LDS *can* be good. This assumes that you can try out different items before purchase, but a lot don't even let you do that. Ours has every mask, fin, snorkel, and wetsuit/booty that one can try during the OW pool sessions, which is a very nice, and professional touch. However this LDS is not charging $99 for OW, more to the tune of $300 for OW with Check Out dives.

In any event, for the new diver, one must take into account the TOTAL package cost, not just the price that got your attention.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Ron, thanks for that post.

For reasons I do not understand the New York area is sort of the home of the low priced hook to sell things. Anyone that has ever dealt with the camera stores there will know the concept. It starts with offering a price too good to be true and ends up costing more than one would have gotten at a fair priced place. The key has always been to appeal to buyer's greed (ok, to be nice, the buyer's desire to get something at a price below what is reasonable).

Sadly, there are a lot of ways to play this game and not all of them are that easy to get out of.

While all my teaching and every shop I spend time in today tells every student the total cost and what the student is expected to bring up front... I have known of places that went so far as to low ball the class price (getting the money up front) and tell the student to just show up for the first class, and at that time give them the list of stuff they have to pay for and/or have for the class that night.

Your comment on the total cost is dead on.