JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There is a consumer alert involving PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and a Jacksonville company that teaches people to dive.
According to the Better Business Bureau of Northeast Florida, as many as 180 people who paid hundreds of dollars through what they believed to be PADI and Groupon to take scuba lessons at Scuba Lessons Jax allegedly haven’t received their certification cards.
The warning comes after numerous complaints from customers poured in to the BBB about the alleged PADI/Scuba Lessons Jax deal.
Matt Hayes said he was looking for affordable scuba lessons and found PADI – Scuba Lessons Jax on Google.
“It was more affordable than the rest and there was no fee to rent gear,” Hayes said.
Hayes is now frustrated because he, like so many others, is complaining about not being able to get his diver’s certification card from PADI.
“They informed us after we passed the class, which was the weekend of Dec. 3, 2016, that it (certification card from PADI) would take three to four weeks to get to us, and it’s now March of 2017. What happened? I don’t know. I reached out to them at the end of January and could not get ahold of them, could not get ahold of the owner,” Hayes said.
But Hayes never got his card and is now out $399.
“If I could resolve this, I would like a refund or get my certification so I can be certified officially,” Hayes said. It sounds like PADI needs to step up and either issue the certifications or help get Mr. Hayes and others their due refund.
PADI may have dropped the ball in issuing these certification cards as it can take a while for them to process c-cards when they are busy. Also, PADI has supposedly gone through an ownership change not too long ago. Maybe PADI’s systems are not as well functioning as they were before the ownership change?
Scuba Lessons Jax’s website is down for maintenance at the time of this article submission. While searching Google for that website, we found this…
http://www.scubatampa.com/padi_sucks.html
https://www.change.org/p/padi-replace-cheryl-gilmore-or-have-her-examined
https://www.facebook.com/PADISux
