Attempting to make a direct individual-case relationship of cost of the class and quality of the class simply can't be done. In a modern professional scuba diving store, a training class is a retail product, just like any other retail product. While the smart fiscal objective is to make a predetermined markup on each product you retail, it does not always work that way. Lowering or raising the price of a scuba class to meet current market conditions, local economic situations, and local competitive forces is simply par for the course from a business sense. Many of the costs are fixed and will be paid even if there are no students. Further, there is nothing wrong with teaching classes, even for free if on chooses, as a method of customer acquisition. These things are standard business.
Saying, as a blanket statement, that less expensive classes are worse in quality than more expensive classes is simply silly. It ignores the precepts of standard business modeling. It is further silly to assume that instructors are "more poorly compensated" in cheaper classes than in more expensive classes. My instructors are paid EXACTLY the same, regardless of how much we charge for the class. The quality is the same. The standards never change. I know of no situation where we said "Hey, lets get this class over real quick. Lets cut some corners. These people paid less for the class, so we can't afford to do it the normal way".
Broadly generalizing about price/time/quality relationships about scuba training is pretty common, and making automatic assumptions that less expensive training is taking scuba diving to "hell in a handbasket" is a very populist approach. That doesn't mean the approach is correct.
Phil Ellis
www.divesports.com
