Experiences with Pattaya DCs

[elcapitano.thai]

Since working and living in Bangkok it has been my intention to learn scuba diving, recently I was in Pattaya for a weekend with friends and we decided to do a discover scuba diving course with a company Dive South East Asia, who are located in the beach road. All I can say is the whole experience was most disappointing despite being promissed a great day out.
The boat had around 30-40 passengers some diving, some learning to dive and some were snorkelling.
Despite being promissed to be returned to the town by around 4pm we arrived around 6.30 and this caused us to miss a pre arranged appointment. The reason for the lateness was that simply there was not enough equipment on the boat and people were having to take it in turns to use what was there.
I counted about 10 tanks, and around 18 divers, there would appear to be sufficient masks and snorkels for around only half of the customers, and the rest of the equipment was also in short supply, looked very old and in a poor state of repair.
Despite such a long day leaving around 10.30 and returning around 6.30 for our 4000 baht the only attention we recieved was two short spells of around 25 minutes in the water, which I feel does not represent good value and certainly does not compare with what we were promissed.
I wish to continue to learn to dive but will most certainly not go with this company again.
Is this sort of thing representative of what I can expect from diving?
I was told that the cost of our discover scuba course could be deducted from the Open Water Course if we decided to continue with the training. Can this be carried forward to another shop.
Any guidance or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation

 

[Arizona]

I doubt the shop will give you anything to be applied to another shop. Up to you, but if you were not impressed don't continue training with them. There are much better options than what you have experienced. PM if you want some recommendations.

 

[Ex-Aquanaut]

El Capitano -- So sorry to hear of your experience. Had you just strolled up the road a bit to us at Aquanauts, your experience would have been much different, as we assign all DSDs a personal instructor who takes care of just you.

In your post you reference "we," so I'm guessing it was two of you doing Discover Scuba? Are both of you wanting to continue on with Open Water?

The system usually works that if you do a Discover Scuba, you can apply 1 dive and half-to-all of your 4,000 fee to the Open Water course. But that would be if you did that with the same shop. As noted just above, other shops would not honor this, as the initial revenue went to someone else.

HOWEVER, in your particular case, if you contact me via PM or at info@aquanuatsdive WE WILL give you the same discount and credit you 2,000 baht each off your Open Water courses. And you will do all 4 Open Water training dives, not just the three you might have gotten at Dive SEA to continue on.

We want to show the naysayers out there that there is good fun diving to be had in Pattaya.

 

[lord khram]

In my experience this type of behaviour is not generally typical of dive centres, but I must say again in my experience this type of crap is commonplace in Pattaya.
The only advantage to yourself being based in Bangkok, is that Pattaya is the nearest recognised dive destination to you. But other than that I can't think of one reason to recommend diving in the area. My advice would be to just put this escapade down to experience, move on and do your course in South Thailand (Andaman Sea). Particularly this time of year it has so much more to offer. There are others that post on here regularly that are better placed than myself to recomend specific shops.
If you decide to visit there once you will see that what is on offer from all angles to do with diving will be far superior to what you can expect to see in Pattaya.
I do hope you will not let this bad experience put you off continuing with your diving.
With regard to the 4000 baht, it is unfortunate but again I would forget it and do an open water course from the start with a reputable shop. It sounds to me you possibly were not tought very much so maybe better to redo what you were or were not tought.

 

[lord khram]

Well done Seaduction.
This is the sort of thing that is needed, root out the bad boys, because at the moment all Pattaya shops will be tarnished with the same poor reputation.
Going back some months I wanted to start a name and shame thread, hopefully if such a thing was running and people posted responsibly putting both good and bad experiences, the good shops would get more business and the bad ones would have to book up their ideas to stay in business.
As far as I can see the only losers would be shops that dont care about their customers and everyone else both shops and divers would gain. But at the time others on here thought it was a bad idea.

 

[Dive-SEA]

Since working and living in Bangkok it has been my intention to learn scuba diving, recently I was in Pattaya for a weekend with friends and we decided to do a discover scuba diving course with a company Dive South East Asia, who are located in the beach road. All I can say is the whole experience was most disappointing despite being promissed a great day out.
The boat had around 30-40 passengers some diving, some learning to dive and some were snorkelling.
Despite being promissed to be returned to the town by around 4pm we arrived around 6.30 and this caused us to miss a pre arranged appointment. The reason for the lateness was that simply there was not enough equipment on the boat and people were having to take it in turns to use what was there.
I counted about 10 tanks, and around 18 divers, there would appear to be sufficient masks and snorkels for around only half of the customers, and the rest of the equipment was also in short supply, looked very old and in a poor state of repair.
Despite such a long day leaving around 10.30 and returning around 6.30 for our 4000 baht the only attention we recieved was two short spells of around 25 minutes in the water, which I feel does not represent good value and certainly does not compare with what we were promissed.
I wish to continue to learn to dive but will most certainly not go with this company again.
Is this sort of thing representative of what I can expect from diving?
I was told that the cost of our discover scuba course could be deducted from the Open Water Course if we decided to continue with the training. Can this be carried forward to another shop.
Any guidance or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation

Hi elcapitano.thai

Why didn't you contact the shop and air your complains directly to the management if you had a grievance?

We would have gladly refunded your money or offered you another day out on a less busy day free of charge if you had any grounds for complaint

 

[Arizona]

Good for you South East Asia to respond. Two sides to every story.

 

[Dive-SEA]

Good for you South East Asia to respond. Two sides to every story.

Hi Arizona

cheers for the comment

I can't really see what the big deal is if all they have to complain about is coming back a bit late.
The average dive time for a DSD is about 30 minutes, they may have gone though the air a bit quicker, they were probably on 50 bar and did not even realise the dive was 25 minutes for their own safety.
And to be honest on busy days like that with 30-40 customer out on the boat you can easy add 1-2 hours onto the normal scheduled day, and the staff tell the customers that before we leave unfortunately sometimes they don't listen.
We are the only dive centre in Pattaya that gets 30-40 customers in a day and have been for 8 years now with just this one complaint that we came back a couple of hours behind schedule.... so we must be doing something right

 

[Arizona]

To fair, equipment issues were also mentioned per El Capitano. It is good to air things out as everyone should benefit in the end.

 

[Dive-SEA]

Hey Arizona

There is nothing wrong with our equipment, all the dive kit is 100% working order and less than 2 years old.
This person claims they were a DSD what do DSDs know about dive gear, it is just hyperbole, like the utter nonsense about us only having 10 tanks for 18 divers all making at least 2 dives it is just plain silly.
We get so many DSDs we do not give each one their own set of gear for the day, we put them in to small groups and the kit is shared at no time were they ever told it would be any other way.

To fair, equipment issues were also mentioned per El Capitano. It is good to air things out as everyone should benefit in the end.