Help Needed: Shady Dive Operator?

[Wookie]

The old bate and switch is the worst business practice in use today. Just glad I'm with an honest dive operator.

Then dear God explain why divers put up with it. I see no difference between this (all of the extra charges in a bait and switch) and a resort where you have to pay extra for nitrox, or beer, or whatever else. Come with me, everything is included in the price, your drinks, your meals, your nitrox, everything but a t-shirt. Go with the other guy, pay for nitrox by the fill or as a package, pay for beer, pay for wine, everything is added a la carte. Yet the guy with the a la carte pricing, as this situation as well as airlines, dive resorts, etc. is full when the all inclusive is not. I see it as the same situation.

 

[mathauck0814]

Hmm. I'm curious as to how you think that what I'm asking is "whining".

Sorry, I should have been more clear. These threads where you're struggling with an operator are usually more helpful if you name the shop and link to their website. Otherwise it's just venting as we don't have all the information. Also, if you call out the shop, quite frequently the shop will come and tell their side of the story which is immensely helpful for deciding whether it's a valid grievance.

 

[freewillie]

My LDS offers AOW training for $275 including course materials. Rental gear is around $65/day includes wetsuit, regulator, BC, weights, and tanks but package deal available for less for students in classes. Not included in cost of training was cost of boat dives or trip to Catalina. I also had to pay for part of the instructor's spot on the dive boat which was divided up amongst the rest of the students. I paid about $120 to dive the HMS Yukon to do the deep dive. I was on a time table to try and get my daughter certified before vacation. We had very poor conditions for the week in June we were supposed to do her check out dives and wound up going to Catalina Island for her dives. I paid $320 for her to go over and part of that included the cost for me to accompany her and the instructor. We had our own gear and that was for two round trip tickets and tank rentals with transportation cost back and forth from the dive site to the ferry. Also chipped in for the instructor's portion as well. If it includes cost of boat dives then $600 is not out of the ball park.

 

[beanojones]

Then dear God explain why divers put up with it. I see no difference between this (all of the extra charges in a bait and switch) and a resort where you have to pay extra for nitrox, or beer, or whatever else. Come with me, everything is included in the price, your drinks, your meals, your nitrox, everything but a t-shirt. Go with the other guy, pay for nitrox by the fill or as a package, pay for beer, pay for wine, everything is added a la carte. Yet the guy with the a la carte pricing, as this situation as well as airlines, dive resorts, etc. is full when the all inclusive is not. I see it as the same situation.

I hear you on this.

Everyone shops by price, and once people start to go with someone, they stick with them even as they are nickel and dimed to far more than the all inclusive price they turned down as too expensive.

It's how people think they are making money doing that private taxi thing when they are not keeping track of their gas bills, and repairs, and they end up making less than mininum wage. Death by a thousand cuts is unreasonably effective, because most people don't work under actual budgets.

Aaron's in Hawaii used to advertise Open Water CLasses for $59.00. Not including books, or gear rental, or snorkeling set, or PIC, or pool rental or.... AT least the intructors were able to be completely aware they were not making any money teaching the class, because they did not even see the whole $59.00 for the class.

 

[azmodan50]

Then dear God explain why divers put up with it. I see no difference between this (all of the extra charges in a bait and switch) and a resort where you have to pay extra for nitrox, or beer, or whatever else. Come with me, everything is included in the price, your drinks, your meals, your nitrox, everything but a t-shirt. Go with the other guy, pay for nitrox by the fill or as a package, pay for beer, pay for wine, everything is added a la carte. Yet the guy with the a la carte pricing, as this situation as well as airlines, dive resorts, etc. is full when the all inclusive is not. I see it as the same situation.

That's not really the same thing. With the a la carte pricing, you can still control how much you spend based on how many fills you get or how much you drink. Drink less, pay less. As an example, I went on vacation and had a choice of an all inclusive or an non all inclusive. Based on how much I knew I would drink and eat, I knew that the all inclusive would save me money in the end.

In most cases, you can't control how much you pay for a dive certification because there are requirements. At the shop I dive out of, any specialty that requires dives is $125 and the ones that don't are $75. Sometimes the dives are shore dives and others are boat dives. Because the shop has it's own dive boat, the only determining factor is if the boat is in the water or being used for something else. But the price is the same no matter if it's a shore dive or boat dive. You know the price, it is what it is. There are no hidden costs.

 

[tkaelin]

Why not simply contact your shop and ask them for clarification. My daughter did her advanced and nitrox with Dive Provo 3 years or so ago. I can check the prices but I don't think it was $600.00

 

[Aguablanco1]

To answer the original question, I paid $285 USD in Puerto Vallarto a couple of years ago. Included everything. All dives were from the shore. This was way less expensive than anyone near me was charging.
RichH