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
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