The cost of Padi

[Christi]

Christi, thanks for posting. I was feeling a little defensive about this. The funny thing to me was PADI saying that if your business is your NAME then you did not have to pay business dues. There are a lot of dive businesses here called "Jack Aarron's Diving" or "Mike Severens Diving"....minor point but interesting. I wonder if this enforcement is new. Evidently, it sounds like you got the exact same explanation as my friends.


AE, that is so cool Scubatoys did that! They are very popular, aren't they? I will have to check that out. I think that is a great thing for Instructor's to know....wow, its just hitting me, the business genius of the person who thought THAT up. Imagine you are an OW student, or a DM, student and you hear that. I bet that could get a lot of the "right" traffic to their site! Glad you posted, I plan to pass that news around.

This was actually in 2004 right before DEMA. When I went to DEMA, I spoke to them about becoming an IRRA member. I sent all of the paperwork in and never heard back from them. I followed up several times and finally they told me they had never received my paperwork. By that time, HUrricane Emily had hit and the $750 annual fee to join wasn't really a priority just to have my name listed in the PADI Travel Network and have a store number and a few other "benefits." Of course since then, we've had Hurricane Wilma and we are still trying to recuperate financially.

A couple of months ago, I received an e-mail solicitation from PADI to see if I was still interested in becoming an IRRA member. I replied and told them that I was but that I was financially unable to do it with the Wilma issues and asked several questions, including whether a payment schedule could be offered for the IRRA dues, etc. I have to this day not heard back from them.

As far as membership renewals for 2006...we all received notifications from PADI that we had a grace period until the end of March to do our renewals. I asked if the same would apply to IRRA renewals...no answer...

 

[JeffG]

Catherine, I agree with you. Overall, I have been really dissappointed by all PADI materials. Poorly written and generally lacking of content.

For comparison, you should look at the old TDI manuals. PADI starts looking a whole lot better. (Mind you...TDI just re-did them. They might of been improved.)

 

[TheRedHead]

For comparison, you should look at the old TDI manuals. PADI starts looking a whole lot better. (Mind you...TDI just re-did them. They might of been improved.)

So true...my TDI manual sounds like it was written for a good ole boy.

 

[RonFrank]

Don,
Really? they sell books? Any good ones on the PADI DM type questions? I will look.
I will have to check out your posts. It is not a popular subject, is it?

Aloha,
catherine

FYI, Scubatoys is a NAUI shop, so you won't find any PADI materials, but they do sell the NAUI stuff.

 

[TCDiver1]

Hmmmm. Thanks for the confirmation Christi. In my opinion that is a money grab, especially considering you are all PADI.

I agree, this one was a bit of a surprise to me also. But, PADI has long been known for the nickel and dime two step it puts on its members and associates. Ergo the famous sayings: "Put Another Dollar In" and "Put All your Dollars In", etc. Their number does work out to 1-800-Pay-PADI after all.

 

[espenskogen]

Well, another point is that perhaps they were not enforcing it too much, and suddenly they are. Looking at sites, and calling places that have been doing it for years, selling PADI services, and now, being told to "cease and desist". For right or wrong, it is getting some backs up. They certainly have the right, I was questioning if it will be a good business move for them, in the long run. That point, my main one, has been a little lost. You certainly cleared some things up here....

I'm sure it would get some backs up - Here in the UK, it's not so much of an issue, since if you want to work in the dive industry, you can teach either padi or bsac - And bsac has a totally different business model (As far as I'm aware, it's more of a club model, so you don't really pay commercial rates for training anyway) which leaves us with padi, whether we like it or not. Not sure what the impact of a bundle of angry instructors/diveshop owners would be in the rest of the world, but SSI/Naui/SDI/YMCA and the rest don't really have a presence here, so we can't simply stop teaching Padi courses, and move to another agency.

In the sense that an IRRA member pays almost 10 times the dues of an individual member, I can see why Padi is enforcing this rule - If you were allowed to use the logo's without being an IRRA, it would devalue the whole product - Nobody would pay hundreds of dollars to be able to promote themselves as a Padi centre if individual membership was sufficient.

So I can see where you're coming from, but I think overall, from a commercial point of view, it would be more damaging not to enforce it. As you know, the average instructor teaches between 2- 4 years. The IRRA members tend to exist (hopefully) for a little bit longer, and in terms of both dues and book/material sales, they're vastly more profitable to Padi than the independent instructor.

E

 

[nyprrthd]

same here in Hawaii, Quero. Being geographically isolated has some issues.

When I lived in Hawaii they called it "the price of paradise." I could just never understand why mangoes cost more in HI than they do in NY.

 

[RonFrank]

Sounds like PADI needs to direct some of that $$$ they are getting from IRRA dues into their customer service department

This PADI business model seems somewhat backwards. and a bit monopolistic. Let's see:

They expect the LDS/instructors to pay annual dues to keep the certifications current.

The LDS must carry their product line of materials.

PADI requires EACH diver to purchase their own set of materials (this one really bothers me from an organization who promotes environmentalism right to the point it might impact their bottom line. So typical selfish big business).

The LDS does all the marketing, sales, and instruction in the local market without much or any help from PADI.

The DM's and Instructors are paid slave wages, and are potentially liable for anything that goes wrong.

PADI has very little liability, and very little interaction with the public other than to produce and mail certifications.

Basically the LDS does all the local marketing, handles the sales, hires the instructors/DM's, provides the facilities. PADI sits back and harasses the business owner who is doing all the promoting IF PADI does not get their IRRA dues.

Most business would kill to have every retailer promoting their products using Logo's and web presence. PADI seems to be in the position to demand payment for something that is a direct benifit for them.

 

[DBailey]

I know that some people have commented on the material in the book and the lack of content and/or the filler material. Remember that PADI's training material, NAUI's training material and all of the other "general population" training material is developed for a board range of people.

The same OW book is written whether you are 15 years old, 27 years old or 80 years old. The same OW book is written whether you are a waiter, engineer, lawyer, doctor, unemployed, sales clerk, mechanic, etc. Every segment of the population will interpet the information differently, and it has to be generic enough to hopefully cover everyone.

Look at the PADI DM material. I am an engineer not too far removed from college. The physics and gas laws aspect of the were cake for me. I even had some pre-med education so a lot of the phyisology information was cake for me. I am very interested in DCI and have done my own research before the DM class, and that portion was cake for me. On the other hand my girlfriend is a lawyer and avoids numbers and equations at all costs. She had to find outside help to understand the material.

Why do we need to know some of this information? Credibility. If a student asks a question, we need to know enough to answer it. Saying, "I can find out for you" to every question makes you lose credibility.

 

[TheRedHead]

The LDS does all the marketing, sales, and instruction in the local market without much or any help from PADI.

That's not accurate. PADI does a lot of marketing and has established a BRAND. What value does the Better Business Bureau have to a merchant other than the brand? Many new users have come to this site and stated that they chose PADI because it seemed to be the most established and popular. They assumed it would be good. Branding is a very powerful marketing tool. Companies spend millions to billions each year to establish a brand.