scrane
Contributor
The Ecard is just a blatant ripoff. It's PADI's way of saying, "thanks for your business and screw you".
What happens when you purchase PADI Ecard?
- Thread starter Lucifer911
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Within the app it looks similar:
Would have posted it last night, but I needed to reinstall the app as it kept crashing when trying to load. Glad I didn't actually need the ecard yesterday.
I have photographed my physical cards and e-mailed them to myself.
Cameron
Ps. Thank you for security alert, I have redacted some personal information.
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This is a problem that occurs to me often...
PADI app is not the best, and they should improve it a little bit more, as well as the e-learning site...
And also the ScubaEarth website that looks like a website from the early 90s...
I'm afraid to say anything positive about PADI in this particular thread, but for the record, once you have your ecard on your phone (or all your ecards @ $40 each), you don't need to be online. The app opens in your phone with whatever you last downloaded. So the app shouldn't crash unless you're online and trying to update information. Or, (sorry, Cameron!) if you have a phone/software interface issue, which (as he said) should be resolved by reinstalling the app.
But since EVERYONE seems to carry their phone with them, you can be in WiFi no-man's-land, and still walk into a dive shop and show any ecard you carry in a couple seconds.
As you can see by the little airplane symbol at the top of the pic, I was not connected to anything when I took the screenshot after opening my PADI App and then opening one of my ecards. Hope this helps! Yeah, they're way overpriced. But they are convenient.
But since EVERYONE seems to carry their phone with them, you can be in WiFi no-man's-land, and still walk into a dive shop and show any ecard you carry in a couple seconds.
As you can see by the little airplane symbol at the top of the pic, I was not connected to anything when I took the screenshot after opening my PADI App and then opening one of my ecards. Hope this helps! Yeah, they're way overpriced. But they are convenient.
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Cowfish Aesthetic
Contributor
My interpretation: ask yourself why you need a card at all. If it's for dive shop/operator verification, you don't need an e-card because they can look you up on the website. If it's for any other purpose (authorities, etc.), the e-card might be a benefit, but only if they won't accept a picture of the physical card on your phone.
True, but sometimes impractical. Last cattle call I was on in Wreck Alley down in San Diego, they had 24 guys in line checking in for a wreck where Deep or AOW was required by Boat Op. They'd accepted a reservation without any card check, but come signin time, there were 15 people behind me, with the boat leaving in 25 min. There was no way the dive shop was going to look me up on the computer unless I was last in line. If there had been a dozen of us with the same request, it would have been unhappy all around.
Show phone, board boat. Either my ecard, or your photo of hard card. I'm jes' sayin'.
3arl J0n35
Registered
THINK Bro!
Use the E-card for the free month, screenshot, save the image on your phone. That's what I did.
So far no dive shop has turned down the E-card. I show them my phone and they say "OK". One dive shop clerk asked me to email it to her because she was too lazy to log in and verify it on the computer.
ljpm
Contributor
New to Padi? Of course they make you pay for each card. I wouldn't be surprised if they make you pay again if you get a new phone. Almost definitely will charge you again if you switch from apple to android.
3arl J0n35
Registered
I agree. The whole C-card thing is a money scam. I have a pile of about 10 C-cards now I've accumulated over the years. I wish they'd just go electronic and quit charging me $40 for a new card everytime I take a course. They could just update my record in their database and skip the whole "This card proves you know how to dive at night" thing.
C-cards were probably a needed thing 20 years ago. Nowadays I don't know a dive shop who doesn't have a computer connected to the Internet. They spam me with monthly "newsletters". When I buy something they print out my receipt on their computer. If I want them to order something, they run to the computer and look it up and tell me how much it will cost. They print their "if you die diving with us you promise not to sue us" form from the computer for me to sign. If I have a store credit then the information is in the computer. Why in the world can they not just verify my certification on the computer also?
I think the answer is that I have paid PADI about $400 for worthless plastic cards in my desk with my picture on them over the years. In my 18 years of diving, when I've showed an operator my Rescue card he's never asked to see my OW card, so owning an OW or AOW C-card is a waste. C-cards are as good as printing your own money at $40 a pop. I taught at the college for a couple of years. The student services office buys the blank PVC cards for about 3 cents each to print student ID's. Throw in the per-capita cost of the printer to print on them and you have about forty cents invested in a plastic C-card. Consider fifty cents postage and you have a $39 profit.
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