I have been a PADI certified diver for over 25 years. For the first time in all these years, I am…read morewriting a bad review about a PADI Dive Shop.
At the end of this month, I am traveling to Honolulu, Hawaii with my wife and five-year-old daughter for vacation. I reached out to "Aloha Scuba Diving Company" (www.divealohascuba.com) a PADI 5-star IDC, inquiring about their dives. We exchanged about 10 emails, where they offered me to do a Wreck Certification. In those emails, we went over the dates, time requirement per day, dives, and cost, among other details. After a lot of negotiation with my family, they allowed me to step away from our time together, to go diving for a couple days. Based on the information Aloha Scuba Diving Company provided in those emails, I coordinated with my wife and scheduled the rest of our vacation (booking activities with my family, rather than going scuba diving by myself).
After booking the rest of the activities in our vacation, I emailed Aloha Scuba Diving Company and they asked me to call the shop to make the payment and confirm the booking. Yesterday, I called the shop, and they took my credit card to confirm the booking. After the call, I received emails confirming the booking and notifications from the credit card company confirming the charge. The first thing that happened was that they overcharged my credit card compared to the price they quoted me on the emails (even when during the call I pointed to the specific email with the price they had quoted). I called back and they offered to do a refund for the difference. A few minutes later, the same person I spoke to called me, and told me that all the information that was given to me in our email correspondence was wrong. He told me that there was "some miscommunication" and that the certification required more days, more dives, and that they would need to increase the cost they had quoted. I told them that I had booked my whole vacation around the information they had provided and that they should honor what they told me. The person on the phone said he would talk to the dive shop owner and let me know. After we finished that call, within 2-3 minutes, I received emails cancelling my booked course. I immediately called the shop again to find out what was happening, but they just did not take my calls. I followed up with an email asking for an explanation, but they did not reply (again, all this within minutes of them taking my credit card, confirming the booking and calling me trying to charge more).
In all my years of diving, doing so in multiple countries, I had never faced this situation. They clearly do not understand the commitment (cost and time) that going diving requires for a diver traveling with his/her family where they do not dive. I am taking precious time I could spend with my wife and five-year-old daughter, creating memories, for the diving certification. I also planned and booked all other activities around the information they had provided by email. When things are written, there is no room for "miscommunications." The fact that they tried to overcharge me (even when over the phone I pointed to the email where they quoted the price", and after catching their intention to overcharge, they started coming up with these additional days, additional time, additional dive, and additional cost required, is absolutely unacceptable, a deceptive practice (bait-and-switch), and disrespectful to someone that is booking a whole vacation around this activity.
I always book my diving with shops that are listed in the PADI site because it gives me the peace of mind and certainty that they are established dive shops that abide to PADI's Quality Management Practices, Safety Guidance, and involving qualified personnel. This is the first time in all these years, and diving in multiple countries, that I find myself in this situation.
Do yourself a favor and avoid Aloha Scuba Diving Company at all costs.
