Cert card

[Paco II]

Some comments to the OP and previous couple of posts. First off, I doubt your instructor is pissed or anything. If indeed the paperwork was not filed, it is much more likely that they are just a little flaky at doing the paperwork part of their job. But being flaky is no excuse for them. You are a newly certified diver (congrats btw!!) and the shop should be making sure you stay in the hobby/sport. Making sure you get your c-card in a timely manner is a 'given'. So, stay in touch with the shop, and have them confirm the paperwork was all filed.

As Kevua posted, SSI now offers a way to check your cert status online. It doesn't work will all older ssi certifications from the USA, but anyone certified in the last few months at least should all be on there. So definitely check that out to see if there is any mention of your info.

I have no doubt this will all work out just fine and you will get your card soon. I totally understand your excitement. After 8 years certified, I still love my c-card :cool2:

 

[Chkultr]

Standard mail is about 2-3 weeks from when we receive the request for
the card. Please remember that unless it was specified to be sent to
your address the card will be mailed back to the shop.

this is the e mail I got from Shana from SSI. This answers the time table just not the fact that I have yet to hear from my instructor!

By the way...Thanks for the SSI tid bit. I had already been on that before posting. Trying to cover everything before I wasted everyone's time!

UPDATE I went to my LDS and the owner gave me a new student registration form. So now I have to fill it out and get a picture for it and turn it in to her. She seemed a bit annoyed with me, but hey she hired the damn instructor. The kid behind the counter chuckled when I asked her to get a hold of my instructor. He said he had been calling all day and couldn't get a hold of him!

 

[Chkultr]

Hello all,
Yesterday.........
I went to my LDS yesterday and spoke with the owner. I asked if she would be able to get in touch with my instructor(his name) the young man at the register chuckled and stated he had been trying to get a hold of him all day! No luck with that. She checked the book to see if our name was on the list of c-cards that had been ordered. Negative there.

So she gave me two new student registration forms. One for me of course and my class dive buddy. She told me to fill it out and bring it back to her and her only! 10-4.

So I call my dive buddy and give him the news and informed him to e mail me a picture of himself and I would size it, print it out, and turn our forms back in the following day.

Today.......
I got both my forms filled out and since it was slack at work today I went back to my LDS around 11:30. Walked up to the counter where there were 3 people and asked for the lady I had spoken with yesterday. They said she took the day off since her dad had recently had a stroke. They asked what they could do for me so I told them my situation. They immediately apologized and both jumped right on it. They finished filling out our forms, put them in the envelope with a stamp and out they went.

When they asked who my instructor was they both hung their heads and shook them! Not a good sign. There is something they know about him, but will not tell!

I know this is a long and drawn out update but I would like to give thanks for the people here that gave me some helpful info. Especially to Capt. Gary! Thanks for stepping up to help. Much appreciated and unexpected. If the people on here are anything like you I'm in good hands.

Thanks!

 

[thevalkyry]

My card ended up taking 3 weeks too. But I used the diver check and printed me a colour copy of the temp card and laminated it to use in Cozumel while the real one took its time in the mail. My advice would be to be a squeaky wheel with your LDS & SSI - thats when I finally saw forward progress: calling every other day at one point. Turned out that the shop told us 10 days, but the the instructor decided to wait to check out another class before sending them all in together. If he had just told us up front!

 

[Capt Gary]

You might want to ask the shop and the instructor how they are processing the certification cards. Via snail mail or on-line.

We process all our cards on-line and once submitted to SSI the card is created and printed at SSI facility automatically. They then mail the card to either the shop or customer, whichever the instructor has chosen.

Hope this helps.....

Good Diving,

 

[Chkultr]

Sure wish I had of known about the online deal. I would have pushed for it instead of the snail mail!

 

[Chkultr]

I sorda have my own chat session with myself on this thread!!!!

Great news for me. I checked once again the SSI online check and BAM here I am! Printed out my temporary card! So excited!

 

[Chkultr]

Didn't take the 2-3 weeks that they said it would! My card is here!

 

[Chkultr]

I seriously just got an e mail from my original instructor. A month after trying to contact him! How should I respond to his e mail? I'm already certified and have my c-card!

Any Suggestions?
This is the e mail he sent me......

Josh,

I need documentation of the certification dives. The copies from Dana are
not in the files yet. Could you get to me copies of the sign-off page and
the dive log pages for the certification dives. Either leave copies at the
shop or email me scanned copies.

 

[oreocookie]

Just tell him that you appreciate him getting back to you, but that because you weren't sure what was going on, you went to the shop and they got the card processed for you. No need to be rude, just state the fact and then go enjoy the card.