Scuba Certification Rip Off

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

this guy needs teaching a lesson. Small claims court would probably take care of that. I know there are Lawyers on the board, perhaps you can ask "Lawman" for some advice how to bring a class action suit on behalf of all those affected by this instructor. Iam sure PADI will back your case too.
 
Sounds like a job for Sgt Preston.

Met a young lady at Tobermory this weekend who was having a similar problem - she wasn't from Brockville tho.
 
fish_bowl:
Oh My .. I Was Just Talking To A Friend At Work And She Had Trouble With These People Too.. She Did All Of Her In Class And Poll Sessions And Paid The Money To Do Her Open Water Dives, But They Would Never Return Her Calls To Do The Open Water Dives.. So She Thinks She Is Basically Screwed.. The Mystery Grows..

Anyone Else Out There Have Trouble With These People??
Just spoke to PADI about there sop and here is what they said.
Write it out in a email, stating what happened as much info as possible dates and others names, send it to certifaction dept.
They can help more when they get the mail.
sorry I can't help more
 
I Have Talked To Padi.. They Are Trying.. But He Does Not Return Calls.. And He Keeps Saying That He Has Sent Stuff But They Still Have Not Got Anything. We Have Been Talking Back And Forth.. It Just Is Starting To Feel Hopeless.. I Think I Migh Thave To Talk To Lawman.. :)
 
A group of us also did our certs through his store with a different instructor last spring (finished june1/03) we managed to get our temp cards. Eventually PADI let me e-mail scans of our temp cards along with our pictures and they sent us our cards.

PADI was really good to deal with, however when I asked the girl on the phone if she was going to do anything about this guy, she said that's not my department. That was the end of that. PADI probably could have prevented your problems right there!!

Eric
 
Yes I Wish I Had My Temp Card.. He Kept Saying He Was Out Of Them.. B*s*t*ard.. I'm Just Really Frustrated..

Fish
 
Just a bit of devils advocate here. First the owness in the situation lies on your instructor and the dive shop. If you have done EVERYTHIng you needed to do. Filled out all the forms, completed all the Knowledge reviews, quizes and the test, paid for the course, provided pictures for the certification card and had your student recaord file and log book properly signed and filled out. then there is no reason your card should be held up.

I am a PADI instructor and in addition to all the other paperwork I have to keep track of I need to keep a "HIT" log...this is a log of all my students who owe me something... a make-up test, thier knowledge reviews, payment, etc... So i can justify not sending the the paperworkto them and PADI... I currently have 15 divers on that list. I directly certified 76 divers last year and assited in the training of at least another 30... so I am looking at roughly a 15% non-cert for some reason beyond my control ratio.....
Now I am not saying this applies to you or your situation, becuase i know there are people in the industry who fail to do what they are supposed to do.

My advice to you is to go down to your dive center and meet face to face with the shop owner and the instructor and get this settled....a phone call or an e.mail doesn't ever seem to get the right message across to someone who owes you something.

Plus if there is indeed a lack of performance issue you can fill out a quality assurance form on the instructor with PADI and PADI must address the issue and discipline the instructor as necessary.

Lastly if you enjoyed diving don't let this butt-head take that away from you
 
I would think that if there was anything noted in the unscrupulous intructors "hit" log he would want to call up the people and tell them that they need to finish whatever it may be to complete the cert. The first time I went to do my OW dives I came off a cold and couldn't equalize, so basically I could go down 5' and then my ears would kill! The instructor was nice enough to setup another set of OW dives a couple of months later and I got my card. I'm glad it was a couple of months later as Toby in May was freakin' cold!!!
RIDiver501 - how do you handle people on yout hit log?? Do you call them up to explain what they missed and what they need to do to complete the cert?
It just seems to be the professional thing to do - at least in my eyes.
I'm not trying to rag on you or anything RIDiver - sorry if it seems that way - but that is what I would expect.
Again we don't know the entire situation so hard to speculate why the cards aren't sent in.
Good luck in getting your card fish_bowl! Hopefully you'll be in the water soon...

Safe Diving
 
Hmmm, sorry to hear of the problem. People are a sad bunch some times.

As a self employed person, I ogtta tell ya life ain't always peachy-keen, as hard and as diligent as you try to be.

I'm not sure if this will get looked upon negatively or not, and I'm certianly not going to advocate that this be done, but I am saying it can be effective..........so I hear......

I've had the once in a very blue moon occassion, a couple folks "come up (very) short" on their end of the bargain sometimes.

Now being the level headed kind guy that I am (That's the first thing that gets you in trouble, but what the heck.....) Next thing you know your phone calls aren't returned, the excuses start flying better than your 2 year-olds, and they're usually about as brilliant too.

I've gone the legal route...........Generally in my experience it gets you deeper in a hole, and when the poop clears, the guy's got nothing, and guess what you get out of it? Lets just say I ain't a real big fan.......

But hey, ZERO minus court costs, minus time wasted. Ya got a perfect batting average going on.

22 people???? WoW, I'd poop if I was that store owner, and 22 disgruntled folks walked in one day at 4:50.....

Now I'm just thinking out loud..............

Some guys have to learn the hard way......I find it's very effective. Group efforts work the best.
 

Back
Top Bottom