Does switching dive shops mid-course have to be painful? And expensive?

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Golfer38

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Messages
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Location
Maryland
# of dives
50 - 99
As a new diver, I will not go into details about my experiences with my local (and first) dive shop except to say that my son (12yo) and I just got cert'd last Oct and being in the service industry, I would never either have an attitude or accepted an employee of mine to have an attitude which I faced in person and in emails from this shop.

I am a firm believer that it may be worth a few extra $$$ (not 100% markup) to support the local DS if they provide good service and support. As a new diver, I read tons of info from many sites and manufacturers only to be told by the DS that these forums are the worst thing for a diver because they are filled with bad information. There is some merit to what he said but it should not be a blanket statement and its up to each person to trust/check but verify. This DS wanted to sell me and my son $4K worth of gear with no questions asked.

My issue now is this... My son and I are OW and Nitrox cert'd. To date, we have about 30-40 dives each. We passed all our AOW class training via Padi E-Learn and completed all our required dives except for the Navigation dive. It was during this time period that my first DS and I parted ways. They left my son and me hanging on completing our AOW cert. I have called around and most DS said they would dive with us for our last dive but first wanted to do a few prelim dives (for $$$) to make sure we know what we are doing (I dont blame them) plus they want another couple hundred to certify us, plus $$$ for the Nav dive. So in all toll, my first local DS cost me alot of $$$ now I have to pay more to get us cert'd.

Is this our only option?

Thanks,

Jim
 
Lots of meat in that one Jim! Several issues...
Bad attitudes... well, yeah, there are some folks in the industry at the retail level with bad attitudes. Many of 'em started with a dream to have fun with Scuba while making a decent living - when the reality of the daily struggle to grind out enough to pay the rent from far too little grist hits, many sour. Some keep a cheery face forward, others don't. Sorry you had to deal with the latter.
Markups... When figuring the cost of goods sold, fixed costs must be covered. The markups on scuba gear just barely do that in most shops and fall short all too often. And they're nowhere close to the typical markups on clothing, computer cables or eyeglasses! I just figure the extra I spend at the local dive shop as the cost of keeping a compressor on line and available to fill my tanks.
Forums like this one as information sources - lots of chaff with the wheat here, true, but once discernment and due diligence are applied there's far more wheat here than at most local dive shops :)
Cost of finishing up your AOW at another shop - essentially two issues here... the new shop has to invest enough observation time to satisfy its due diligence to meet insurance requirements to cover the liability of having an instructor-student relationship with you, and it must invest enough time to meet standards to ensure you're qualified for the rating you seek. Here's where you have to "walk a mile in the other fellow's shoes." A good place to start is to answer "How much is my time worth?" at what you do for a living, then add pool time cost, equipment depreciation and wear and tear and rent and utilities etc, etc, ad nauseum. If you go through this exercise with what most dive shops charge you'll usually find that not only are you getting a good deal, but that *someone* is giving you their time at minimum wage or less :) - guess who?
Oh, yeah, the dive shop has to pay their agency for every card they issue, too.
Lucky for the diving public, and making it extremely hard on any youngster who wants to make a living as an instructor, diving is riddled with folks who teach because they love to teach and share, and are willing to do it for practically (and often in fact) nothing.
Rick
 
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If you are serious about buying equipment, see if the new shop will throw in finishing off your AOW as part of the package. My LDS includes a AOW class with every full package they sell.
 
First, thanks to the person (Mod) who moved my post to its own.

Second, thanks guys for the response. Actually, it was my gain for the events as I found a new DS and they are pretty good. I did buy most of my equipment through them and it was easy. Frankly, they were within 20% of the cheapest price I could find online for my ScubaPro BCD, Scuba Pro Reg and Cobra 3 computer. I bought two each of the same equipment so my son (12yo) and I would be 100% compatable. As he is young and we both are new divers, I wanted to make sure that we could learn the computer together and if anything happened underwater we both knew each others equipment like our own. Was probably a costly purchase but I know we both have solid and reliable (with warranty) equipment.

As was posted, I also favor using a trusted and local DS to buy equipment, even if it a bit more. At the new site, they threw in Nitox Cert for both of us for $50 (books). My first DS wanted $200 each. We took the class in between our OW and final required dive (Nav) for our AOW. It was too cold for us to finish our AOW and this is why we had one dive left.

Anyway, we are heading back to the Caymans next week for 8 days of diving. We are using the same DS as we did last Nov and they told me that for $100 plus the dive, they will cert us. Seems like not a bad deal as they do have to check us out and do all the paperwork. We will also be doing some night diving with them. My son and I will also be doing our first solo dive (shore) while we are on this trip.

We are planning on heading to NC this summer to do some diving or maybe Florida but being an old fart, I like the Caymans Diving where within 20 minutes from leaving the dock, I am in the water.. :)

Jim
 
A lot going on in this thread!
20 percent is a little higher than I would go but at least they through you extras. I'm glad you found a Good new lds.
I'm confused on your AOW. You paid padi, then paid shop 1. Now shop 1 wants another 100. And they got a charter trip for 2? I think shop 1 is still taking you for a ride. On the other hand 100bucks on grand cayman is what you spend on a couple mudslides. Do the training on a shore dive. That way if you don't have free air with package at least it will only be 10 for the tank. And you won't waste wall dives with training.
 
The "missing" dive, Navigation, can be a beach dive, and if you do your own unsupervised dive with your son at the same dive site, it can go a long way towards building your confidence as a new diver. For the question of cost, speaking as a dive center owner myself, what the Cayman school is charging sounds okay to me. There is an element of work on land (particularly familiarity with compass skills), as well as in the water, and for both you will be paying for instructor time plus certification costs.

Good luck and have fun! I was certified with my daughter years and years ago, and she's still my favorite dive buddy.
 
Quero. It sounds like its shop #1 that didn't complete the paid certification is charging them another 100. To finish it while they are on a charter shop #1 organized (and getting a cut of). I,d run from a shop like that without looking back. If it was another shop, say "sunset house" wanted 100 to finish the job as you implied. I'd say it's a great deal as well.
 
Wolfie, thanks for your response. The 20% was in comparison with the cheapest I found on the web (and Ebay). For example, I bought the Cobra 3 with quick disconnect, cable and software. The going rate is about $1000 from an authorized provider. I found these on ebay for about $600-800 but with no warranty, etc. I bought them for about $700 out the door. The DS seemed to me to be very fair. Told me his price then his markup. I sent to Ebay and told me he couldnt beat the lowest price but would meet me in the middle.


As for the AOW, due to my son being young (12yo), I wanted to have my AOW class done in person. The local DS told me it would be easier for us to to the classroom work via PADI E-Learning, so we paid for it and completed it. We then had to do our water dives. We did them all but the Navigation when the issues started to come to light. ALthough, the instructor was great and very patient with my son.

I am done with DS 1. The $100 + Dive cost ($100 - 2 tank dive) will be the cost for the Cayman DS to cert us.

Our plan is to go out on a regular dive the first day. Then do a shore dive and practice our Nav skills to get the hang of things. I have read alot in here about how to calculate yardage and the use of a compass. We will then go back out with the DS to have them conduct the Nav Dive and then sign off on all our class/dive work. So the only "extra" cost will be the $100 for them to test and cert us. We would be paying the $100 to dive anyway.

Thanks,

Jim
 
Does this forum not allow you to name the dive shops that gave you good and not-so-good service? If it is allowed please tell so that others do not get in the situation you did.
 
It sounds like you've got it all worked out. Have a great trip.
 
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