Are you having problems with TDI cert. ??

Genesis

I have an earned TDI cert that I have NEVER received - its coming up on two years now.

The "back and forth claims" are not worth chasing down, but it certainly has made me a LOT less willing to believe that I'll actually get what's promised from any agency in the future.

Yeah, its only $25. That's not the point.

__________________
"A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American."
http://www.denninger.net
http://www.diversunion.org/liability.htm - Fix the Diving Cert racket

Deep Thought

Sorry but I don't buy the two years on TDI fault if it is in the states...there are records that your instructor has of training. If you earned a certification it should only take 2-3 weeks to process and return in the mail.

Yes it is frustrating when a training agency loses certifications. I called a certification agency that has just changed hands and asked for about a dozen lost cards; the young fellow on the other end tells me that he has a couple “Meg – A – Lodian” cards, but has no record of the other cards that I sent in…..

I guess if the agency has no idea what the rebreathers is called, they probably have no idea where the cards would be???

I was guilty as an instructor of letting the training agency lose tract of processing, but I took the bull by the horns and fixed the problem.

There is a lot of this going around lately and it’s time to start ripping on your instructor to get your card! I know that I played the waiting game, and finally got fed up and processed several cards through another agency to get my students the cards that they earned.

Your instructor is the quality difference, the agency is there for support like processing cards. If the agency is not doing its job talk to your instructor.

Deep Thought

__________________
Creature Of Habits; Mostly Bad

www.gudcscuba.com

JonnyB

I do not agree with you at all, i have hear so many stories aobut people waiting for their certs from TDI for 1-2 years, and i do know of one person that is still waiting for his trimix instructor course even though he got it more than 2 years ago.
The issue with TDI in Europe being very late delivering certs is an issue being discussed frequently. Actually i do not know a single person that will actually stand up and say i have not had any problems with delays and i am 100% happy. I got my IANTD certs less than a week of completing my courses.
/Jonny

Deep Thought

Sorry as polite as possible, still don’t buy it!

There is absolutely no excuse that an instructor should let a certification go unprocessed. It is the instructors responsibility to follow up on processing, you don’t drop the ball once the card has been sent to HQ.

Time to mail to HQ, a couple days in house to process, time to mail back to instructor.

If an instructor has a problem with an agency, then they contact the representatives of that agency or other worldwide affiliations to get the problem resolved. If they still have problems then they are free to change affiliation.

People let you down, not a three or four letter acronym. And yes I have had People at an acronym that you mentioned let me down on processing, and it is not professional to wash dirty laundry here. There has been change of agencies on either side of the pond and I would assume that there are difficulties, but two years for processing – no.

At some reasonable point the instructor must intercede

If a student does not get a card after a reasonable time, it is then the students responsiblity to contact HQ either local or worldwide to start a questionaire.

If you earned a certication you should get your card in a reasonable time, no excuses

DT

__________________
Creature Of Habits; Mostly Bad

www.gudcscuba.com

JonnyB

I totally agree with you on this, i am not going to name anyone on this, because it is not my conflict, but the person in charge is the TDI regional office. But i do know for a fact that my friend who had problem with this instructor talked to the heads of TDI and they said they will have a look at this, i was present when he talked to them, face to face and that was several months ago and still nothing.

/Jonny

Deep Thought

It is very disappointing that a student would not receive a card that they earned, and they should not accept some vague excuse for not getting satisfaction.

And I also hate to see agency names dragged through the mud because I know there are good people out there representing such agencies, yet I realize there are problems.

If a diver has not received a card for a course taken, contact your instructor and if that does not work contact the agency directly, if that doesn’t work contact the international affiliate….

Don’t take no for an answer! If you earned it you deserve it!!!

DT

__________________
Creature Of Habits; Mostly Bad

www.gudcscuba.com

Genesis

Well, exactly how much trouble will you go through for $25?

My answer is "not much." But I will add to that "You'll never get another nickel of my money and neither will any of your affiliates. Nobody gets a second shot at stealing from me."

Once finger-pointing starts - where the agency says the instructor never sent the paper, the instructor says they did, and neither will take responsibility and solve the problem it comes down to "what options do YOU, as th person who is owed the card, have?"

My answer is simple - agencies destroy their credibility when this happens. The instructor is teaching under their banner. It is their responsibility as the issuing agency to follow up and solve these problems.

If I am a "dealer" for "Brand X" and some customer is dissatisfied with what I do, then "Brand X" is the one damaged too, not just me as the "dealer".

This sort of problem is not limited to TDI either.

Another agency also had an issue with a cert I had earned. After a couple of weeks with no card, using my copy of the training record as my "temp" (it was getting a bit tattered around the edges), I called them. They claimed a paperwork problem that they said was the instructor's fault - my answer was that they had paper in hand that verified I met the requirements for the card and so did I; if there were technical problems with the paperwork that did not bear on validation of the requirements of the card being met it was their problem, not mine, as the instructor was their affiliate, and it was their responsibility to chase it - and the fact that I had to call them was proof positive that they had mishandled the matter and had, at that point, effectively stolen my money.

They shut up and mailed the card the next day.

Point being, I shouldn't have had to be involved at all - they should have detected the problem and immediately gotten ahold of the instructor and expeditiously resolved the matter internally with me none the wiser.

That's not what happened in that case though, and with TDI, instead of handling it when challenged the finger-pointing ensued.

The bizarre thing is that the only agencies that I've had dealings with that HAVEN'T screwed up are the big recreational ones.

Speaking of certs, why is it so difficult for agencies to stick up a web page where you can punch in a person's identification (with perhaps a PIN code) and validate ONLINE their certification status? I can verify my driver license online - I just need the number. How come if I forget a C-card a dive shop/boat owner can't log into the Internet and verify that what cert I claim I have was actually issued?

Its not like this is difficult to do - what ever happened to "customer service" and why do divers put up with this sort of thing?

__________________
"A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American."
http://www.denninger.net
http://www.diversunion.org/liability.htm - Fix the Diving Cert racket

Drmike

Its not difficult and it already exists.

Not like you to rant on about something you dont know about [message to webby - we need a 'sarcasm' icon]

__________________
Cave diving is a sport
Wreck diving is a sport
Diving in general is a sport

'Rebreather diving' is not a sport
its the delusional obsession with a highly dangerous and often inappropriate piece of equipment

dantheman

PADI has this. It's called DiveCheck.

--dan

Genesis

I know PADI does, but its a "dive shop only" thing which means you need to be a PADI affiliate in order to use it (since you must sign on.)

Now tell me which tech agencies bother with this itty bitty small investment in customer service, and which agencies (of any stripe) make it publically available as several states do for driver licenses.....

__________________
"A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American."
http://www.denninger.net
http://www.diversunion.org/liability.htm - Fix the Diving Cert racket