Padi Fees

[Mustard Dave]

I think that it's time to stop feeding the troll. 158 posts to explain corporate profit motive and why customer service costs money. About 157 too many.

Enough of this back and forth self indulgent twaddle.

Presumably you are referring to me here? I fully understand corporate profit motives; the points I've made are:

• Why does an organisation that brands itself as a 'professional association' exist as a for profit organisation?
• It costs far less than £26 to issue a replacement card, and considerable mark-up is included in that fee.

If it is me you are calling a troll, which one of us is the only one not to have had a post toned down by a moderator?

 

[tursiops]

Did I say most DIVE companies. I thought I was pretty clear when I said most ---- companies.
So they all do it. You know what I always tell my kids... If all your friends jumped off a bridge..... Just because they all do it doesn't mean it is right.

And you'll have to excuse me if I don't think that $52 CDN is a great deal for a piece of plastic. I prefer not to bend over.

Well, that's progress, of a sort. You've stepped away from saying PADI is a piece of **** and now are saying all the agencies are made of the same stuff. Have you tried golf?

 

[ljpm]

I didn't twist any words. I just asked a question.

Let me ask another question from a different context. I recently had to have some electrical work done, and I had to hire an electrician. His work had set prices for the work, regardless of the time it took, and I had 2-3 things that needed to be done. They took him a total of about 10-15 minutes, for which I was charged a little under $600. What words would you use to describe that?

Ordering a replacement card vs having an electrician, a highly skilled and licensed worker, come to your house to do work.

Here's a better comparison. My Costco membership also costs $50 (cdn). For that membership I receive 2 personalized cards containing my picture and membership information. Additionally, if I lose a card they will replace it free. How does Costco manage to stay in business?

You can call me a troll. You can defend PADI's right to charge whatever you want. The argument seems to be that they all do it so we have to accept it. If you go through the posts you will see that one person even stated diving is expensive so just pay it. Really? The only point I was trying to make is that $52 is obscenely expensive for a simple replacement card. No one seems to have argued otherwise.

I did learn some interesting points through this post however. For example;
1. Padi stands for "Professional Association of Diving Instructors".
2. A professional association is usually a non-profit organization seeking to further a particular profession.
3. Padi is not in any way, shape or form a professional association. Padi is a privately owned company that has no responsibility to diving instructors in the least.
4. For the most part the diving industry in Canada is self regulated. Padi is also the major certification granting organization in Canada. As stated above Padi's only responsibility to diving seems to be their bottom line. Ensuring divers have a C-card before filling tanks seems like a good idea in terms of safety but is a great idea when you can charge $50 to replace those C-cards if lost.
5. Padi's name may be a violation of Canada's Competition Act since the company name is clearly a misrepresentation.

 

[tursiops]

If I say $44 is too much for a replacement card will you shut up?

 

[cerich]

5. Padi's name may be a violation of Canada's Competition Act since the company name is clearly a misrepresentation.

That is a honestly new angle that I have never heard brought up before.An interesting one.

 

[Mustard Dave]

That is a honestly new angle that I have never heard brought up before.An interesting one.

I have often thought they must be sailing close to the wind on that front, but I suspect action would only occur if somebody made a complaint. If for example there was a real professional association representing the industry, they could argue the case that their members are being misled into believing they are signing up to a similar service provider. As it goes, however, there are none that I am aware of, and the general public just see them as a training agency (and are unaware of what PADI stands for). It's probably not in the public interest to take action.

 

[TMHeimer]

In Manitoba teachers unions are called associations-- ei. Thompson Teachers' Assn. Not sure where that fits in. The assns. are not for profit money makers, though many school boards may say otherwise....

 

[KevinNM]

1. Look for a dive shop that advertises that it does not intend to make a profit. Its employees work without pay. The ownership is happy to run a money-losing business just to keep people happy.

There are three scuba stores in Albuquerque. One runs deliberately at a loss apparently because the owner uses that for tax purposes (when the manager got it profitable anyhow the owner promptly opened another store in Santa Fe, which was never even close profitable until it closed at a huge loss), another that is essentially a hobby (though one employing multiple people full time) subsidized by his very successful real business, and a third that seems to run as a real business.

So this happens, though not exactly as you describe.

 

[IBjones]

I felt the same way when PADI wanted a ridiculous fee for an "e-card" (Something they generate for free on their server and email to me.)

So I just downloaded a "e-card" image someone posted online and photoshopped my own info on it.
My cost ------> 20 seconds worth of bandwidth and 10 minutes on photoshop.

Then I copied the image to my cell phone. When the dive shop monkey asks for "C-card" I just show them *my* PADI e-card and mumble "people haven't used plastic C-cards in years, man."

In the last 2 years no shop has ever rejected my PADI E-card that I photo shopped. If they did, I'd just tell them to go waste their time logging on to PADI Pro and look it up for themselves.

The only thing a C-Card does is give the dive shop some leverage for you to return their crappy rental gear. Because they think if they hold your card hostage and it costs you fifty bucks and hassle to replace it you'll return their worn out crap clean.

 

[RandomGuy1]

I felt the same way when. PADI wanted a ridiculous fee for an "e-card" (Something they generate for free on their server and email to me.)

So I guess now servers, server admins, programers, email servers are all free. Just because something ins't physical, doesn't mean it doesn't cost money to produce.