Instructor warning

[fishfreak]

Guess I'm not going to stop by the store.  I got a PM that leads me to believe I am not alone. Now what?

[alnineball]

Why not at least talk to them. Your monies already in there hands. If there good they will work it out with you. If not there are plenty of other LDS that would be glad to take on another diver. Make sure your Cert is good and valid and see what they are willing to do to make it right. If you don't feel comfortable diving take a refresher with another LDS. I trust my LDS completely if I didn't I would use a different one. Its your life, and your buddies, in your hands when you are under the water. You need to make the decision you are comfortable with.

[SmithDiving]

I'm pretty disappointed that your not going to stop in or give me a call.  One of our basic business tennants is to fix our customers problems as quickly as possible if we can.  It is unfortunately impossible for me to fix any problem you've got if I don't know who you are, or the specifics.  It is quite obvious that we have made a mistake and I frankly didn't get much sleep last night as a result. You would be doing me a great service by letting me know what info you were given by NAUI, To my knowledge, all of the Instructors that we have teaching are and have been active, so if NAUI is giving out different info I'd like to know why.  As I mentioned in one of my private messages, we never heard anything about this from NAUI and my assumption is that NAUI would call us to let us know if we were trying to register a student to a non-active instructor.  I have a call into NAUI to try to sort this out, but I can't give them the information they need because I don't have all the information.

[eelpout]

Hard not to pipe into this subject. 

Fishfreak- whoever PM'ed you about their experience was sharing their experience. Yours might be different already by having the people involved trying to communicate to you that they want to make things right. It may have been a misunderstanding from everbody's point of view. No malice intended. Also remember that the person/s who Pm'ed you may have other motives. In the age of the internet, beware of making rash decisions based on other peoples stories or experiences. There will always be another side to their story.

I would suggest visiting the LDS and seek an explanation to the misunderstanding.

From your past post "Thanks Shooter.  BTW: I wasn't intending to slam any LDS.  I didn't have a problem with the quality of my instruction.  Just felt like it was misrepresented. " You paid for the training, and you feel that the quality of the training was good. What you have a problem with is the C-card which could have been a simple mistake that could be rectified by communication. 

The LDS has extended the hand, the ball is in your court. My opinion take it and see what happens.

JIm

[SCUBA Dog]

Fishfreak,

Eelpout makes some good points. In one of you posts you mentioned that you were going to go to the LDS and discuss the issue. Then based on a PM from another person (whom you may or may not know) you decide not to go into the LDS and give them the details relating to the issue. I do not see that as giving them a fair chance to explain and rectify the situation. I do not know any details, other than what has been on this board, but I can think of a few reasons that something like that could happen - possibly an innocent mistake, a clerical error or in one case not the fault of the dive shop. In my opinion, if you do not present the shop with the facts and give them a chance to explain / investigate the issue, then all you are doing is giving the shop a very public black eye. I see that as a bit unfair if it was simply an innocent mistake or one of the other possible scenarios. I say give them a chance.

99

[LKunze]

I agree with the previous two posts.  Fishfreak, give Smith a chance to rectify this.  I am certain from my experience that they are not in this business to screw people over.  I did my open water training through them years back and they have had a pretty solid reputation in the local dive community for many years.  Since you brought this issue onto the public forum and since Smith has reached out to you to make things right, it would be in your best interest to take them up on their offer to at least try and sort it out.  If not then the credibility of your original post may come into doubt.  If you do contact Smith it would be nice to hear a follow up from both parties to put the issue to rest.

[DiveCaptDean]

Hey Fish-
I too must chime in.  Keep in mind..i am from up north..not down there.  In my pm to you, i explained that this certainly all could have been a clerical error.  And now that the shop in question has been named..i really think you should have a talk with lee and see what he has to say.  His shop has a very good name..A shop doesnt get a good name by treating customer like poop.  IMHO I am extremely impressed that lee decided to chime in on the scuba board for all to see and look to rectify any concerns that you may have.  I personally think you should stop in and have a chat with him.  This could be a very simple error....If you are not satisfied after that conversation then so be it....but..i think most of us would agree that this would be the correct way to handle it...  I would also be careful with  the advice you get from people..(i know..ironic) but any time someone will only give you advice behind closed doors..they advice has a possiblity of being bogus...or have a hidden directive...I am not saying anyting here other than be careful..

Go see him
Deano

[arcFlash]

This looks like a lot of assumptions, Smith - "I don't know who you are" as well as other speculations make me think it's not worth a public trial. This may not even be Smiths error, or NAUI (it was only implied) so maybe remove the whole post and stop the bad press.

It's not helping SMITH so help them and remove the topic.

I can't see any value anymore and if it was my shop I'd want it pulled as here-say. Smith stood up and offered to help and it may not even be their student.

I'm going to pull my other post now.

[fishfreak]

I NEVER meant to pull SMITH into it.  It was a generic warning.  I will PM Lee with the details of who I spoke to at NAUI.