Sticky Situation: PADI vs SSI

[Tom Smedley]

What you might also do is PM the name of the instructor so they can be contacted by scubaboard staff and allow them to give their side of the story. There is most always two sides to every story.

 

[peterbj7]

Eh? To take the students, the Instructor should have been a teaching status instructor. No ifs, ands or buts about it. The question is - was the instructor was in current teaching status at the time of the course - and the time of issuing the temporary card -thats the certification!


If the Instructors rating lapsed *after* the course - so what - she was a current teaching status Instructor at the time of the course and PADI would issue the plastic (thats why cert date is on the PIC)

My guess is the Instructor was not in status at the time of the course- either knowingly or unknowingly - if knowingly, then she clearly defrauded OP. If unknowingly, well, then its just a mess....

That's an interesting point that I've never actually tested. Are you sure it would work that way? Certainly using their electronic pic system I have to be current at the time of processing as well as at the effective date of certification. If PADI watch these pages a reply from them would be useful.

 

[ligersandtions]

I agree with awap here. But something yet to be mentioned is that if this instructor was not honest upfront regarding the certifying agency could there be anything else that she was not honest about? If this is how she chooses to operate than what other things might she not mention? Maybe certain skills (please don't think I'm questioning your skills ligeranstions this is just a thought) were not up to par and she passed them anyways. Could be some serious safety issues here. Personally, I'd be livid for the above reasons, regardless of how similar the agencies are or the ability to cross-over. Okay I'll stop my rant now. Welcome to diving!

I know all new divers probably say that they are safe and are able to pass the skills set forth by a certifying agency, but I really do feel as though I'm a safe diver. Of course, I still have a lot of things to work on, and by no means do I think I'm the best diver....but I also don't feel like I'm putting myself or others in danger. However, I think I would like to dive with my original instructor and make sure he thinks I'm up to par....and if that means paying for the cert dives with him, then so be it. I'd rather spend a little money to make sure I'm not putting anyone's lives in danger.

Eh? To take the students, the Instructor should have been a teaching status instructor. No ifs, ands or buts about it. The question is - was the instructor was in current teaching status at the time of the course - and the time of issuing the temporary card -thats the certification!

If the Instructors rating lapsed *after* the course - so what - she was a current teaching status Instructor at the time of the course and PADI would issue the plastic (thats why cert date is on the PIC)

My guess is the Instructor was not in status at the time of the course- either knowingly or unknowingly - if knowingly, then she clearly defrauded OP. If unknowingly, well, then its just a mess....

The instructor knew that she was not current with her PADI stuff....I, however, was not made aware of that until after we did the check out dives and she said "I'm not PADI anymore" and both of us were like "whaaaaaa?" And she said she's with SSI now but that she's still got an instructor number for PADI. I guess maybe she thought that since she had a PADI number that she was still able to certify students????

I'd go beyond this -- every student diver should be asking the instructor for their certification card to see that they are current and in teaching status with the agency they're promoting. The instructor should also be willing to supply his or her cert number well in advance (if we're talking about a vacation dive situation) to allow the diver to check with the agency ahead of time.

I've seen this happen too often -- both with referrals coming to me from an inactive instructor, and seeing instructors I know to be outside of teaching status accepting students. Unfortunately, the only way to resolve this is to have the students be proactive in confirming it, then filing a complaint with the agency if they were mislead.

No matter how this gets resolved, PLEASE file a Quality Assurance complaint with PADI for this instructor -- she's making us all look bad!

Unfortunately, having an instructor provide a PADI cert number is apparently not enough. She had her cert number (I have it now as well...) and put it on our referral forms. I suppose that had we known to check this beforehand (meaning the weeks leading up to the trip, as opposed to the day of the trip), we could have contacted PADI to make sure everything was current and she'd be able to actually certify us. But I guess you live and learn.

I plan to speak with my original instructor this weekend (he just got back from Fiji....lucky!) and see what his recommendation. As of yesterday, I was leaning toward just taking the SSI card and running, but as of today, I'm leaning more toward asking for the refund of the difference between the cert dives and the regular dives, and putting that money toward doing cert dives with the original instructor.

Thanks everyone for your input....you've been extremely helpful!

 

[Walter]

If PADI watch these pages a reply from them would be useful.

Several years ago, a PADI representative from headquarters told me PADI has a strict policy of not replying to any posts on boards like this.

 

[peterbj7]

Is that just because they don't want to become embroiled in controversy? Did (s)he admit to whether they read the threads?

 

[Joe-Diver]

I plan to speak with my original instructor this weekend (he just got back from Fiji....lucky!) and see what his recommendation. As of yesterday, I was leaning toward just taking the SSI card and running, but as of today, I'm leaning more toward asking for the refund of the difference between the cert dives and the regular dives, and putting that money toward doing cert dives with the original instructor.

Good course of action. If it were me, I'd be pizzed at what sounds like fraud to get your business. Should have told you up front about the agency.

I'm curious about the temp card you got. What agency is it?

 

[Walter]

Is that just because they don't want to become embroiled in controversy? Did (s)he admit to whether they read the threads?

I was given them impression they did read them and I have an idea as to why they don't post, but it's also merely an impression.

 

[Ann Marie]

That's an interesting point that I've never actually tested. Are you sure it would work that way? Certainly using their electronic pic system I have to be current at the time of processing as well as at the effective date of certification. If PADI watch these pages a reply from them would be useful.

I do know for a fact that this is how it works. We had an instructor that left our store and his insurance was canceled. His last students hadn't received their cards and called when I happened to be there. I spoke with them, pulled their files and called PADI. They said that they didn't issue the c-cards because the instructor was in 'non-teaching status' because he lacked insurance. I said at the time the cert was issued, he was in 'teaching-status'. They checked into it and issued the cards.

 

[Ann Marie]

Good course of action. If it were me, I'd be pizzed at what sounds like fraud to get your business. Should have told you up front about the agency.

I'm curious about the temp card you got. What agency is it?

I'm so with you on this one Joe. I don't care what agency it is or is not; fraud is fraud. If the instructor was upfront about it, then as a consumer I would have had the chance to make MY OWN decision. That the instructor knowingly lied and cheated me...I'd want ALL my money back. And, if my credit card didn't back me, they'd lose my business too.

 

[peterbj7]

PADI QA dept have now read this thread and have contacted the OP (via me, as they don't have an account). No news from SSI yet.