what do you think of the new SSI logo

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In what ways has the customer service been suffering? I'm a DiveCon in Canada and haven't heard of any issues here.

When I refer to customer service, I'm talking about their retail side, not the diver or dive leader services, those seem pretty much the same. It just seems that the people taking the orders have no desire to be doing it. They tend to be very curt, short, if you have an unusual product needed to be ordered that is not on the price list or hard to find on the product list, the operators are generally unwilling to help to find the product. Before Head took over, those my shop ordered through were very friendly, helpful & I also enjoyed the little chit chat that we would have, get help with placing the order, if needed. It is now very cold & impersonal. Kind of along the lines of, "what do you want?", "Can't find the product?, You have to have the number to order it". No offer to help, no pleasant chit chat to make things go better. I have really noticed it has gone from a friendly small business, to large corporate mentality. Does a company have to be friendly, personable, make small conversation? No,.... but having a friendly demeanor can go a long way with customer relations & make a transaction go so much smoother. The best way I can describe the change is: imagine going from ordering from a person to ordering from a phone robot.... Kind of sad to see it go from a pleasant ordering transaction, to cold impersonal ordering.
 
All training materials by SSI are brand new!!!
The digital apps and materials are really revolution in scuba education!
The XR and TXR materials are awesome!
 
All training materials by SSI are brand new!!!
The digital apps and materials are really revolution in scuba education!
The XR and TXR materials are awesome!


Did you mean "(a) revolution" or "revoution(ary)" in scuba education?
 
All training materials by SSI are brand new!!!
The digital apps and materials are really revolution in scuba education!

doing my first ow class this year with the new online program. getting mixed reviews from the students in this class about the new way of doing things (ie: books vs. online). still waiting for the new ow instructor materials to be avail. but we're making our way thru ok so far. i have seen about 80% of the new online program at this point.
 
doing my first ow class this year with the new online program. getting mixed reviews from the students in this class about the new way of doing things (ie: books vs. online). still waiting for the new ow instructor materials to be avail. but we're making our way thru ok so far. i have seen about 80% of the new online program at this point.

I will be starting a class next month with the new materials. I'm taking a "I'll believe when I see it" attitude. I tried the online course they had 1 time & it was disastrous. The students were coming from a long distance & wanted to save some trips into the shop. When I started the pool sessions & would try to remind them of what they read,..... They looked at me with completely blank stares,... They were lost. They wound up having to come in for additional academic training, thus not at all accomplishing their goals.
 
Was that with the old online material? From what I've seen, the new stuff is easier to use and better presented than the old online OWD program. To be fair, I'm yet to teach a course with the new "digital revolution" material.
 
i personally think the info online is presented in a good way.
however, we are still getting quite a lot of negative feedback from students. most seem to indicate they would have preferred to have the book. i know the books are avail but as far as i know it is an extra cost. there is also an extra cost now for dive tables and a log book.
i am in the middle of my second class so have only dealt personally with about 10 students at this point. everyone so far has expressed they are not happy with having to pay extra for these items that they think should be automatically included with the course.
i would also mirror the comments by stormdiver that most (not all) of the students are not doing the academic work prior to class. it makes it pretty hard to go over dive planning, tables, physics, or dcs etc when they have no idea what you are talking about. even though they are told to make sure it is done ahead of time, i would say only a quarter of them are doing it. but i don't think it would be any different if they were using books. the biggest difference would have been that at least we can see what they have done when we ask to see the answer sheets from each chapters questions.
i totally understand ssi's idea of going with the online material and that they are trying to lead the way with the most modern techniques. i am just not sure the whole program as it now exists is being delivered in the best way for students. just as an example.....a student came in for a nitrox class (not a student of mine) and we could not understand how that course could be offered without giving the student the appropriate ead and o2 exposure tables. the student was apparently told he would either have to buy them (extra cost) or cut out the tables from the book. i have not done the ssi nitrox program (i did mine through another agency quite some time ago) but when i did mine i was given a large very detailed manual, the air tables, 32% tables, 36% tables, ead tables, and the o2 exposure tables. i had everything i needed to do the course and to apply that newly learned skill to future dives. isn't that how it should be ?
 
I know in 2011 I had to buy the log but the tables were included. Also I was given the Nitrox tables when I took that class. The table I got is actually quite nice. It goes from 22% up to 50% with eads. And ppo2 for 1.4 and 1.6 for each depth listed.

Sent from my galaxy S5 Active.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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