I think that probably goes for most places, which is why I believe there is a significant other side to this story. Trained, professional scuba instructors typically do not "scream you're a ****ing idiot" at students in front of other students. The behavior described by hotpuppy is simply way way beyond appropriate, and the fact that the dive shop, having supposedly talked to several people that actually were there and did not fire the instructor makes me fairly skeptical that the scene played exactly as described in this thread.
Rude, maybe; short tempered, possibly, screaming obscenities, probably not.
Never said he screamed it at me..... doesn't matter if you scream or say it in a normal tone, it's still in appropriate. (Jus sayin).
Instructor is apparently out of town for business and so the very busy LDS Owner hasn't had time to talk to him.... or at least that is what I was told today. I'm fine with that explanation. I do believe that the LDS Owner leads a charmed life from a scheduling perspective. I have some more details that I could share, but it would compromise the identify of the shop.
The conversation today was productive and I did get confirmation that this not acceptable behavior. I was also told that my business is/was appreciated and that in the interest of avoiding any drama they were doing the refunds I had requested. For the most part it was simple enough. There were a couple of parts that were sticky, like the dive trip that's coming up sometime in the next 90 days and the DM and DEMP courses. I indicated that I want to finish DEMP. I also indicated that for the moment I want to break the DM course and I'll reconsider it after a few hundred dives. We both agreed that this made good sense. I expect to pay something for the portion of the DM course that is done.
The offending instructor is scheduled on the trip as well. I told them that I could take or leave the trip and that I didn't have to buddy with the instructor. I told them to use it as a wildcard and if they had someone who wanted in, this could make it affordable for them, and if not, I can go provided we can all behave like adults and move on from this. I reiterated that I am not sleeping with the guy, not going to hold his hand, not eating with him, and don't have to room with him.... so realistically it doesn't matter if we are on the same trip. The group is large enough that we won't be on one boat.
Now, for the record I have not had problems with the rest of the instructors there. So if it turns out to simply be a miscommunication between myself and LDS Owner then I'm willing to work through DEMP (I do like that instructor.... very very detailed and thorough) and handle the rest on a case by case basis to rebuild a working relationship.
That's going to sound a bit strange, so just trust me that I can't give you enough detail to make it unstrange without compromising the shop ID. Just suffice to say that today was productive and we covered the points that had heretofore been missing..... which are: (just so nobody is confused)
- What I described as happening would be inappropriate.
- It should not happen again.
- They are sorry it happened (already done)
- They appreciate my business.
I say "what I described" because everyone can agree that I am describing something. That lets us move forward and not get stuck in a he said - she said. I told them that only one person heard it from start to finish and that everyone else didn't tune in until I chewed the instructor out for multiple insults.
We also talked about the secondary issue and the LDS Owner response to it... which was that the Director of Training (who I thought was the Course Director) didn't really cover my expected points and instead took me to task over some stuff that didn't seem quite right.... (shame on you for having an issue, you abandoned your buddy, use a sep plan from another dive, at another platform with another instructor, etc)
So the bottom line is:
- They are giving me pretty much what I asked for a refund on.
- We need to check logistics and schedules before determining the outcome on the DEMP Class, but I've indicated a willingness to complete some or all of it. (o2 and Adv. o2 simply need a practical skills portion because offending instructor had kidnapped dollies and we couldn't perform the CPR/o2 portion without them so we postponed that portion).
- I indicated that I hadn't set out to fire them, and that I would be willing to try and get past this for the upcoming trip.
- I indicated that if it was simpler, I'd bow out of the trip as well. Worst case is I might be stuck with airfare, but I'm pretty sure I'll be going to Cozumel at some point.
- I got the impression that they had not talked to the Instructor at length.... I asked explicitly about why he had felt compelled to do what he did. I even asked if there had been something wrong with my diving that I needed to know about.
This is pretty much the ideal resolution and the pieces will take some more time to flesh out with the schedules involved. It just goes to show that remaining rational and reasonable makes it easier to resolve things.
