***Apologies for such a lengthy post, but please read if you have the time as Id like to hear your opinion***
Hi guys, been lurking around here for several weeks now, and have enjoyed this resource very much.
Ive got a question for all of you regarding a dispute Im having with my LDS. Im looking for your opinions/points of view because I think what Im asking for is completely fair, but the dive shop owner strongly disagrees.
I figured you all would probably be a good, experienced, impartial group that could give me some insight in this issue. Ill begin by giving the facts with as little opinion/emotion as possible:
My wife (fiancée at the time) and I wanted to get our OW certification before we went on our honeymoon in Hawaii. The biggest problem we had was finding a dive shop that could work around our schedules we didnt have two successive weekends free before the wedding due to planning and commitments. We found a small dive shop that had no problem beginning our classes on one weekend, skipping the following weekend, and finishing up on the 3rd weekend . so far so good. We paid our $350 each and looked forward to beginning our classes.
Our class ended up being only 4 people, and one of the people dropped out after the first pool dive. We completed the classroom and confined water dives without a problem and skipped the next weekend.
We were moving during the weekend that we skipped, and even though the dive shop encourages its students to keep all of their equipment until class is finished, we saw no point in moving all the gear (especially two empty tanks) from our respective homes to our new one. The dive shop allowed us to return our gear over the weekend and told us we could pick the gear up at any time before the OW dives.
My fiancée called on the Wednesday before the OW dive to make arrangements to pick the gear up. She was told that the tanks were not yet filled, so the gear wasnt ready. They suggested she call back after 4pm ***My fiancée happens to work about 15-20 minutes from the LDS, but we had moved about an hour away from it this is important later.*** As requested, she called back before she left work, but she was told that the tanks were still not ready.
She hadnt been feeling well all week, but we were determined to finish our OW courses before our honeymoon to give us more flexibility and opportunity to plan recreational diving.
On the Thursday before the OW class, she was feeling quite poorly, so she scheduled a doctors appointment to get checked out and to make sure shed be o.k. to dive on Saturday. Her coworkers convinced her she should go home at lunch and get some rest, so she called the LDS again to come pick the equipment up. Once again she was told that our tanks had not been refilled, and that she could try calling back after 4pm (apparently the owner is not usually around until then and hes the only one who can fill tanks). She informed the LDS that she wasnt feeling well, was probably not going to be going to work the following day (Friday), and that we wouldnt be near the shop to pick the equipment up. The person on the phone basically said, sorry, theres nothing I can do, the tanks have no air.
She went to the doctor the following day (Friday) and discovered that she had an ear infection and therefore couldnt go on her OW dives over the next two days (Saturday and Sunday).
I still very much wanted to do my dives not only to get it out of the way, but because I was worried I might catch whatever she had, and then I wouldnt be able to complete my OW certification.
She called the LDS to let them know, and they were very understanding. They confirmed that I still intended to dive, however, they said they needed me to pick my equipment up that day (Friday), as Id be needing it on Saturday. This was at about 4pm.
I politely explained that I was over an hour away, and wasnt going to drive through rush hour traffic an hour each way, when we had attempted to pick our equipment up twice previously.
I asked if I couldnt pick it up on Saturday morning before the dive and was told no
I asked if I couldnt rent my own equipment near my home and was told no
I asked if the LDS could contact the remaining person in the class (who lived less than five minutes from the shop) and ask if he would pick my equipment up for me, and was told no
We were to begin our OW courses on the private boat of our instructor, so I asked if there wasnt any way the equipment could be dropped off at the boat and be waiting for me in the morning, and was told no
So, I said sorry, but Im not going to drive all the way down there right now, and that prompted the LDS to cancel the OW classes. I was told theyd reschedule.
I let them know that we were going to be out of town the following weekend, but that we had the next weekend free the one right before our wedding our last chance to finish our OW cert.
An instructor contacted me the following Thursday (the one just before the weekend we were going to be out of town) to schedule our OW classes for that weekend. I explained the situation to him, and he said hed have to get back to me.
A week went by, during which my fiancée was finally able to pick our equipment up filled tanks and all. I was contacted by the same instructor that Wednesday or Thursday and was told that now HE had an ear infection and therefore could not dive. I was told that they would look for a class we could join in order to finish our OW cert. On Friday I was told that they couldnt find one anywhere, and that they had no instructor that could finish our OW cert.
That night I called my local Sport Chalet and was put in touch with an instructor that couldve taken us out on that Sunday, but had no room on Saturday. He proposed that we could finish our final two dives sometime the following week. Unfortunately that didnt work for us because we both work, and it was the final week before our wedding and we were pretty busy.
The LDS told us that they would give us contact information at a couple of dive shops in Hawaii that could do a referral OW cert. for us, but they never did come through with any information. I asked about how we would work the cost out, and I was told that we should schedule and pay for our own OW courses. I was told that whatever refund I would receive would be separate.
Due to such short notice, the cheapest place I could find in Hawaii to do our OW referrals was for $400, bringing the total cost of two full beginner OW certs to $1100.
As you might imagine I was concerned with how much money my LDS would offer to reimburse me.
To make this long post a little shorter, I tried all week before the wedding to find out, and was always told that only the owner of the shop could decide how much money Id get back, but I could never get him to return my phone calls. On the day we began our honeymoon I called the LDS from the airport and I was told that there was a note from the owner that some amount had been credited back to my credit card, but that they didnt know exactly when or how much. I decided that was good enough for now, to not worry about the amount, and to enjoy my honeymoon instead.
When I returned I discovered that no amount was credited back. After several phone calls and messages I was informed that my total refund would be $130.
***Heres where the opinion part starts***
I found that totally unacceptable. I did a little research at the websites of dive shops in my area and found that the cost of an OW referral course is usually about 50% of the cost of a full beginner certification.
Since we missed the first scheduled classes partly due to my fiancées illness, I felt it was fair that we take some sort of monetary penalty, so I arrived at $300 as a fair amount to be reimbursed. Only about 43% of what we paid for our OW courses (not counting the equipment we purchased), and still a full $100 short of what we had to spend in Hawaii to finish.
The LDS owner actually told me that Im trying to rape him. He says his shop bent over backward for us by changing their usual schedule and doing their best to accommodate us. He blames me for not getting my equipment on time so that I could dive on the scheduled days (even though we were told we could not pick the equipment up until THE NIGHT BEFORE the OW class). He blames me for his employees unwillingness to open the shop early or transport the equipment to the boat I was to dive on (the boat is probably 20 minutes from the LDS, and the guy that works there lives on a boat in the same harbor).
Hes also very irate that when he wouldnt return my phone calls I left a message saying that if he didnt contact me Id call my credit card company and dispute the charges mind you, were a full 3 weeks beyond when this shouldve been settled, and not one cent has been credited back to me!
I told him that if my equipment had been ready when it was supposed to be that we wouldnt have had so many problems.
He told me that he has to give this some thought, and he said hed contact me tomorrow and let me know what hes decided.
Now, my question to you is this: do you think Im being unfair in asking for $300 to be refunded? Do you think his figure of $130 is fair?
Thanks very much for reading through all of this, Im looking forward to your comments.
Hi guys, been lurking around here for several weeks now, and have enjoyed this resource very much.
Ive got a question for all of you regarding a dispute Im having with my LDS. Im looking for your opinions/points of view because I think what Im asking for is completely fair, but the dive shop owner strongly disagrees.
I figured you all would probably be a good, experienced, impartial group that could give me some insight in this issue. Ill begin by giving the facts with as little opinion/emotion as possible:
My wife (fiancée at the time) and I wanted to get our OW certification before we went on our honeymoon in Hawaii. The biggest problem we had was finding a dive shop that could work around our schedules we didnt have two successive weekends free before the wedding due to planning and commitments. We found a small dive shop that had no problem beginning our classes on one weekend, skipping the following weekend, and finishing up on the 3rd weekend . so far so good. We paid our $350 each and looked forward to beginning our classes.
Our class ended up being only 4 people, and one of the people dropped out after the first pool dive. We completed the classroom and confined water dives without a problem and skipped the next weekend.
We were moving during the weekend that we skipped, and even though the dive shop encourages its students to keep all of their equipment until class is finished, we saw no point in moving all the gear (especially two empty tanks) from our respective homes to our new one. The dive shop allowed us to return our gear over the weekend and told us we could pick the gear up at any time before the OW dives.
My fiancée called on the Wednesday before the OW dive to make arrangements to pick the gear up. She was told that the tanks were not yet filled, so the gear wasnt ready. They suggested she call back after 4pm ***My fiancée happens to work about 15-20 minutes from the LDS, but we had moved about an hour away from it this is important later.*** As requested, she called back before she left work, but she was told that the tanks were still not ready.
She hadnt been feeling well all week, but we were determined to finish our OW courses before our honeymoon to give us more flexibility and opportunity to plan recreational diving.
On the Thursday before the OW class, she was feeling quite poorly, so she scheduled a doctors appointment to get checked out and to make sure shed be o.k. to dive on Saturday. Her coworkers convinced her she should go home at lunch and get some rest, so she called the LDS again to come pick the equipment up. Once again she was told that our tanks had not been refilled, and that she could try calling back after 4pm (apparently the owner is not usually around until then and hes the only one who can fill tanks). She informed the LDS that she wasnt feeling well, was probably not going to be going to work the following day (Friday), and that we wouldnt be near the shop to pick the equipment up. The person on the phone basically said, sorry, theres nothing I can do, the tanks have no air.
She went to the doctor the following day (Friday) and discovered that she had an ear infection and therefore couldnt go on her OW dives over the next two days (Saturday and Sunday).
I still very much wanted to do my dives not only to get it out of the way, but because I was worried I might catch whatever she had, and then I wouldnt be able to complete my OW certification.
She called the LDS to let them know, and they were very understanding. They confirmed that I still intended to dive, however, they said they needed me to pick my equipment up that day (Friday), as Id be needing it on Saturday. This was at about 4pm.
I politely explained that I was over an hour away, and wasnt going to drive through rush hour traffic an hour each way, when we had attempted to pick our equipment up twice previously.
I asked if I couldnt pick it up on Saturday morning before the dive and was told no
I asked if I couldnt rent my own equipment near my home and was told no
I asked if the LDS could contact the remaining person in the class (who lived less than five minutes from the shop) and ask if he would pick my equipment up for me, and was told no
We were to begin our OW courses on the private boat of our instructor, so I asked if there wasnt any way the equipment could be dropped off at the boat and be waiting for me in the morning, and was told no
So, I said sorry, but Im not going to drive all the way down there right now, and that prompted the LDS to cancel the OW classes. I was told theyd reschedule.
I let them know that we were going to be out of town the following weekend, but that we had the next weekend free the one right before our wedding our last chance to finish our OW cert.
An instructor contacted me the following Thursday (the one just before the weekend we were going to be out of town) to schedule our OW classes for that weekend. I explained the situation to him, and he said hed have to get back to me.
A week went by, during which my fiancée was finally able to pick our equipment up filled tanks and all. I was contacted by the same instructor that Wednesday or Thursday and was told that now HE had an ear infection and therefore could not dive. I was told that they would look for a class we could join in order to finish our OW cert. On Friday I was told that they couldnt find one anywhere, and that they had no instructor that could finish our OW cert.
That night I called my local Sport Chalet and was put in touch with an instructor that couldve taken us out on that Sunday, but had no room on Saturday. He proposed that we could finish our final two dives sometime the following week. Unfortunately that didnt work for us because we both work, and it was the final week before our wedding and we were pretty busy.
The LDS told us that they would give us contact information at a couple of dive shops in Hawaii that could do a referral OW cert. for us, but they never did come through with any information. I asked about how we would work the cost out, and I was told that we should schedule and pay for our own OW courses. I was told that whatever refund I would receive would be separate.
Due to such short notice, the cheapest place I could find in Hawaii to do our OW referrals was for $400, bringing the total cost of two full beginner OW certs to $1100.
As you might imagine I was concerned with how much money my LDS would offer to reimburse me.
To make this long post a little shorter, I tried all week before the wedding to find out, and was always told that only the owner of the shop could decide how much money Id get back, but I could never get him to return my phone calls. On the day we began our honeymoon I called the LDS from the airport and I was told that there was a note from the owner that some amount had been credited back to my credit card, but that they didnt know exactly when or how much. I decided that was good enough for now, to not worry about the amount, and to enjoy my honeymoon instead.
When I returned I discovered that no amount was credited back. After several phone calls and messages I was informed that my total refund would be $130.
***Heres where the opinion part starts***
I found that totally unacceptable. I did a little research at the websites of dive shops in my area and found that the cost of an OW referral course is usually about 50% of the cost of a full beginner certification.
Since we missed the first scheduled classes partly due to my fiancées illness, I felt it was fair that we take some sort of monetary penalty, so I arrived at $300 as a fair amount to be reimbursed. Only about 43% of what we paid for our OW courses (not counting the equipment we purchased), and still a full $100 short of what we had to spend in Hawaii to finish.
The LDS owner actually told me that Im trying to rape him. He says his shop bent over backward for us by changing their usual schedule and doing their best to accommodate us. He blames me for not getting my equipment on time so that I could dive on the scheduled days (even though we were told we could not pick the equipment up until THE NIGHT BEFORE the OW class). He blames me for his employees unwillingness to open the shop early or transport the equipment to the boat I was to dive on (the boat is probably 20 minutes from the LDS, and the guy that works there lives on a boat in the same harbor).
Hes also very irate that when he wouldnt return my phone calls I left a message saying that if he didnt contact me Id call my credit card company and dispute the charges mind you, were a full 3 weeks beyond when this shouldve been settled, and not one cent has been credited back to me!
I told him that if my equipment had been ready when it was supposed to be that we wouldnt have had so many problems.
He told me that he has to give this some thought, and he said hed contact me tomorrow and let me know what hes decided.
Now, my question to you is this: do you think Im being unfair in asking for $300 to be refunded? Do you think his figure of $130 is fair?
Thanks very much for reading through all of this, Im looking forward to your comments.
