thecovetrix
Registered
Below is the e-mail I just sent to PADI about the sketchiest dive op I've ever encountered: Jukung Dive in Amed, Bali.
In addition to this dodgy encounter, I should mention we were the last van from any of the area dive shops to arrive in Tulamben at the Liberty Wreck and thus had to deal with massive crowds. Also, my wetsuit was full of holes and stitched together sloppily with the equivalent of dental floss, and the wrist zippers were completely broken and wouldn't begin to close.
Next time we'll try Adventure Divers or Eco Dive - both seemed much more on the up-and-up.
With no further adieu, check out this mess:
°°°
Dear PADI:
I'm a PADI AOW-level diver and was excited to introduce my friend Zena
to diving, too. We signed her up for a Discover Scuba Diving course at
PADI shop Jukung Dive in Amed, Bali yesterday. She loved it, and now
is considering getting fully certified - great!
Here's the catch: when we spoke later to another dive instructor, he
asked whether she had gotten her PADI DSD certificate so she can do
fun dives with an instructor instead of having to do the whole DSD
course again during our trip. It was never mentioned to her, so she
went back to request it. The Jukung Dive owner told her the
instructor, Nyoman, had to sign the certificate but he was teaching a
class. We came back after the class and the owner handed Zena an
official-looking envelope and called it her "certificate."
Walking away, I opened the envelope to find... a log book page. We
went back to ask for the real certificate, and the owner said this was
it. We demanded a certificate, and he said it wasn't a PADI course
she'd taken, but a Jukung Dive version of the DSD course. I told him I
knew that wasn't the case, and that PADI would be unhappy to hear that
he was claiming there was no certificate. He got quite flustered and
started stammering, then said he would see what he could do.
Eventually, he returned with a DSD form to fill out: liability
waivers, her contact info, and the like, all to send to PADI. She
hadn't received this form before the class. He angrily explained that
she needed to fill alllllllll of this out in order to get her
certificate. He said he would do this for us in this instance, but
didn't want us to tell anyone else about it - certainly not PADI.
So I left Zena to fill out the form and get her certificate, and came
to this Internet cafe to report this very unprofessional and unethical
shop. There were perhaps four people total in Zena's DSD course, and
this shop is one of the biggest in town, if not the biggest, and must
be sending a thousand people away each year without their DSD
certificates. I understand the shop has to buy these certificates from
you (essentially) and thus has a financial incentive not to hand them
out.
I must stress that in addition to being crooked, the owner was very
angry and red in the face that we were asking for what Zena paid for,
and trained for - not a nice guy to deal with in the slightest,
despite our calm and reasonable requests.
I'd be interested to hear what comes of this, if you would be so good
as to keep me in the loop!
°°°
In addition to this dodgy encounter, I should mention we were the last van from any of the area dive shops to arrive in Tulamben at the Liberty Wreck and thus had to deal with massive crowds. Also, my wetsuit was full of holes and stitched together sloppily with the equivalent of dental floss, and the wrist zippers were completely broken and wouldn't begin to close.
Next time we'll try Adventure Divers or Eco Dive - both seemed much more on the up-and-up.
With no further adieu, check out this mess:
°°°
Dear PADI:
I'm a PADI AOW-level diver and was excited to introduce my friend Zena
to diving, too. We signed her up for a Discover Scuba Diving course at
PADI shop Jukung Dive in Amed, Bali yesterday. She loved it, and now
is considering getting fully certified - great!
Here's the catch: when we spoke later to another dive instructor, he
asked whether she had gotten her PADI DSD certificate so she can do
fun dives with an instructor instead of having to do the whole DSD
course again during our trip. It was never mentioned to her, so she
went back to request it. The Jukung Dive owner told her the
instructor, Nyoman, had to sign the certificate but he was teaching a
class. We came back after the class and the owner handed Zena an
official-looking envelope and called it her "certificate."
Walking away, I opened the envelope to find... a log book page. We
went back to ask for the real certificate, and the owner said this was
it. We demanded a certificate, and he said it wasn't a PADI course
she'd taken, but a Jukung Dive version of the DSD course. I told him I
knew that wasn't the case, and that PADI would be unhappy to hear that
he was claiming there was no certificate. He got quite flustered and
started stammering, then said he would see what he could do.
Eventually, he returned with a DSD form to fill out: liability
waivers, her contact info, and the like, all to send to PADI. She
hadn't received this form before the class. He angrily explained that
she needed to fill alllllllll of this out in order to get her
certificate. He said he would do this for us in this instance, but
didn't want us to tell anyone else about it - certainly not PADI.
So I left Zena to fill out the form and get her certificate, and came
to this Internet cafe to report this very unprofessional and unethical
shop. There were perhaps four people total in Zena's DSD course, and
this shop is one of the biggest in town, if not the biggest, and must
be sending a thousand people away each year without their DSD
certificates. I understand the shop has to buy these certificates from
you (essentially) and thus has a financial incentive not to hand them
out.
I must stress that in addition to being crooked, the owner was very
angry and red in the face that we were asking for what Zena paid for,
and trained for - not a nice guy to deal with in the slightest,
despite our calm and reasonable requests.
I'd be interested to hear what comes of this, if you would be so good
as to keep me in the loop!
°°°
