Is your Freediving school cheating you ?

I have known about this for some time now, having customers from all over the world. So I write this post to warn everyone that you might be missing something for the money that you spent.

We are an SSI dive center, so this is only for those taking courses with SSI. When a student decides to take a course with us, we either send them the tutorial to create an account or we create it and send them the tutorial on how to use the app. Then we register the course to their account, which they will have access to right away. This is beneficial for both us and the student. Students can learn at their own pace at home, complete their exam, and arrive here with knowledge from what they studied. We then do a knowledge review to clarify and correct any misunderstandings, supplement them with real-world experiences, and answer their questions. This would also save time in the classroom so we can spend more time in the pool where you get to practice your freediving skills. However, this is not what everyone is doing...

So, what might be missing for the money you spent?

Answer: the registration!

Why is the registration important? ... Because you already paid for it.

When you take an SSI course, the dive center has to pay money to the agency to register you and allow you to read the online material. The registration will stay with your account even if you cannot complete the course with this center. So if you go to other places and find a dive center you want to train with, you can be certified by them if the previous dive center releases this course.

So how do I know that some people got cheated by their dive center?

Some by talking to them and finding that they didn't know about the SSI application, which is compulsory. Some try to re-do the course with us, and we found that their account was never registered to any course before. They do it by teaching students with PDF presentations and paper exams. There is nothing wrong with using those, but they do not register students to the course and only register them once they pass. That means if you paid full price and didn't pass, the registration fee goes straight to the instructor and the dive school's pocket.

We strongly feel that this is unfair to the customer, and we would like to warn everyone about it.