Did I do Right AOW

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RidgeFC

New
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Location
Florida
# of dives
50 - 99
Hello all,

I am generally not a complainer, and when crap happens I just move on. However a recent a recent event at a drive shop makes me want to ask if I should do more.

I registered my son 17yo to do his AOW and my 19 yo daughter to do her OW at a our local LDS back for private classes on the 3rd of May. I explained that my Son was leaving for his moms in July for 3 1/2 weeks. The LDS has seen a recent boom in business and has had some issues keeping up with all their classes. Over the last year I had also purchased 3 new sets of year, (Atomic, Zeagle, Sunnto). I have had a good standing with the owner and other instructors at the shop diving at least 50 dives with them on top of gear purchase.

In short, it took my daughter 8 weeks to get certified. She had multi check out dives canceled, for unknown reasons, (Blue Grotto, Florida is never closed).

The really irritating part came with my son. As of today, almost 4 months later he has not finished his Check out dives. He has done 7 check out Dives with the LDS, including 2 Drifts, 2 deep, 2 grotto and 2 wrecks and 1 zero viz. (zero viz dive was to 110feet in a grotto)

During a casual dive with one of the over the summer, I was told that the shop has certified 2x more divers so far this year then all of last year combined.

I discovered at the first of August that the Dive shop submitted my son paperwork to PADI. I figured that maybe they were just going to pass him through. Sadly no. They said they were holding it till he completed his NAV and poll session.

So, since my sons return I have called the LDS, emailed, texted one of the instructors, regularly to get his last NAV dive in and poll session in. No response. This week I said heck with it and went online and paid for a replacement card. When I received the shipping notice, I Called the shop up the told them what I had done. During the call, I found out that the LDS and terminated 2 instructors, and the Owner was trying to clean up and do all the check out dives since he only had 2 part times instructors left. I also told them I wanted my son to finish the class.

Yesterday I received a call that the owner was Pissed and tried to call and cancel the cards delivery. I told them good luck I already had it.

My son has 32 dives, dives with me (AOW) and another Divemaster, we both feel safe taking the kid anywhere. He is very good diver and spent a lot of time in June in the LDS's pool with one of the former instructors helping with the youth classes.

The Odds of me going back to the LDS is minimal, other possible warranty work on gear. I am not and Instructor, but have been considering progressing through with the kid now to at least DM.

Did I do right by ordering his card and should I also call and report it to PADI?

Thanks all, I know it is a long read, but I wanted everything in the open.
 
I would say you did the right thing. I have no patience for poor customer service, especially when it is someone who has spent the kind of money you were spending. All the shops I have been to have all had more than enough instructors and the checkout dives for AOW specialties have always been "When are you FREE", rather than being on the instructors schedule. I think you took the situation very well. I would find another dive shop that has people I can rely on.
 
Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad to hear the certification agency was receptive and helpful. Poor customer service does nothing to keep divers diving, it just drives them away from the LDS and eventually away from the sport itself.

Sounds like you are in North Florida. Maybe your family would like to join the festivities at the Spring and Fall MegaDive Events. Everyone of all levels are welcome.
Hope to see you in the Keys.
 
I agree with Elena - you did the right thing under the circumstances you presented.
 
I believe you gave the LDS every opportunity to make it right.

I'll wager you made the LDS have second thoughts on pre registering students in the future.


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Thank you all for the feed back. I got lucky with them submitting my sons completion. So I ask, For future reference or others that may experience the same thing, can you call PADI and have them pressure the shop or are you sol?
 
Yeah what you did makes sense. Frustrating in that there is always a glut of instructors looking for work. It's like a supermarket or bank not having enough people on the tills. When business is good and busy there must be money to hire more people. We have 14 instructors and 13 DMs at present. Only weather can cancel ocean dives. I'll amend that--courses more advanced than OW are at times cancelled due to not enough students to make it feasable, but I believe that's the same everywhere.
 
We had the same situation in reverse -- the shop put the paperwork through on a cert prematurely, and despite contacting the student multiple times, we cannot get the person to schedule the dives still required for a legitimate conclusion to the class. We feel horrible. There is a person out there with a card that says they have completed a certain level of work, and they haven't . . . were this person to dive to their certification level and have an accident, we would be devastated.

I don't know whether your son worked with one instructor or many, but if the former, you might want to reflect on what it would do to that person if your son were, for example, to get lost because of poor navigation skills, and get hurt or killed.

It also strikes me that it's a dubious lesson your son is learning, that you don't have to finish something if somebody makes a mistake and gives you a pass on it.

I do feel your frustration with the time frame. Scheduling staff for classes can be very difficult, as people commit to one day and then decide they can't do it and want a change, or instructor or staff's circumstances change. We try very hard to keep our classes on track, but honestly, it can be close to impossible.
 
I always wonder why a deposit of at least half of the course is non-refundable. Except in case of illness, death in the family, etc., which would require proof (Dr.'s note, etc.). Same idea with e learning--Students buy the course but don't commit to a spefic date to do the pool & ocean. Why not make this a requirement? There's probably a good reason why this stuff wouldn't work.
 

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