National Association Of Underwater Instructors, NAUI , Doug Bennet Beware of NAUI!! rude! Instructors wont instruct! demoralizes students! Tampa Florida

Beware of Naui!! in my opinion/experiance, they are dangourous! hurtfull! decitfull! and don't care about their students!!I had signed up for my master scuba diver course through Naui, (up till this course all of my diveing certifications were through PADI) and this is my story.

Doug, the Naui instructor, after our first or second dive became a VERY Rude and Distasteful individual!! I have OCD'S (Obsesive compulsive disorder) not extreamilly bad, but enough that it slows me down when prepareing for the dive(checking the car door, makeing sure i didn't forget anything) as i said it's not bad and i don't even take medicine for it as it is not bad enough to need it, however, it make me slower to get ready for a dive (make sure the key is somewhere safe, make sure the door is locked, and now i'm already 2 minutes behind Doug).

well, back to the story, During our diveing sessions Doug continuosly called me names, it started out light, but then it progressed, things like crack head and such, and telling me that i should be in a beginer class, and makeing me feel like i couldn't do anything right. I hated this and told doug that i wanted to withdrawl from the class, we had had only 1 or 2 dives by this time, i told him that since he thought that i shouldn't be in this level of a class that i would like to withdrawl (this was only part of the reason, the biggest reason was that i couldn't handle the insults from him! him trying to make me feel worthless)

Doug told me that since we had gotten into the water that i could not get a refund!, and so i stayed in the class. Doug had no interest in teaching, he wold not call me, when i asked about when our next class was going to be he would just say he would call me and i would remind him of my time situation (haveing to be done by the end of october), which he would always reply don't worry we have time! however he never would call me!! actually i had to call him and beg him to have classes!! he would sound like welllll, ok i guess kinda thing!! and then we would meet and maybe get one dive done! after one he was always tired or hungery or had other buisness.

By the end of October (October 28th to be precise) i still had 3 more chapters that we needed to review together and 5 more dives we had to do!! i brought this up to doug and again he just said " don't worry we have time"!! how? when? 5 more dives, 3 more chapters in 3 days???? it could be done, but not by an instructor as worthless/lazy as this one!!

As it turned out after that he didn't answer my calls till the middle of Nov!! when he told me that hejust got back from a convention in the states! (thats all fine but he shoulda finnished up our class first or at the very least told me he was going to be gone during that time!!

I then told him that i must most deffinattly be done by December 15th as i was leaveing to move back to the states, he assured me that we would most definattly be done by then.

Our last dive was on 29 Nov, he would not dive with me after that (i only had one more to do!!) he would tell me to meet him somewhere and then i would go there and wait for him, and sometimes he would show and sometimes he would not, when he came he always said it was to cold or that it was raining or that he didn't feel like diveing or that his ears wouldn't equalize or that he wasn't feeling good ect.. when he did not show, I HAD TO CALL HIM to see where he was and why he was not there! and he would give me some lame excuse or another as to why we could not dive (busy,customers came, sick, children at home alone, ECT..)

Dec 15th came and went and i stopped calling him, i NEVER got any calls form him, NOT A SINGLE ONE!! no form of contact!

At the end of December i started trying to call Naui, everyine was gone for the holidays, it ended up being the first week of january, i got ahold of Naui, they verrified that Doug had not turned in anything about me, had not requested a card for me or any thing. They had transfered me to the Compalints department, There I spoke with a MR. Randy Shaw i told him my story and he told me that this (constant insults, not meeting, not instructing,etc.) was just NAUI's way of being CONSIDERATE!!!!! i told him i wanted my money back and i wanted Doug to lose his teaching liscence(people like that do not have any buisness teaching anything!!)

The only thing MR. Shaw did was contact the instructor and tell him to contact me!!!if i could have resolved this situation by contacting doug i would have!! but i knew that was worthless!! so i i REINFORMED him that i had NO wish to talk with doug and that i wanted the compaints department to handle it, MR Shaw told me that all that naui would do for me was get a copy of my records from Doug and send them to me so that i could find another NAUI instructor and pay the money AGAIN (payed doug, and now i gotta pay a new instructor too???) to finish my class!! and MR. Shaw TOLD ME THAT IF I WANTED TO GET MY MONEY BACK THAT I WOULD NEED TO GO GET A LAWYER!!! and that that was all they could do.

After a month no records came and so i contacted Naui again, but this time by email and i sent my story to every important person in naui to try to find someone who could resolve my problems. (president of naui, vice president of naui, director, head chairperson,etc,etc,)

I got an email back stateing that because it was my choice that i did not finish my instructions with this instructor that they would do nothing for me!! my choice he says!!

Know frusterated that noone in naui cares i email back asking if he had even read my letter? and reiterated some of the more important parts, such as the instructor not instructing and always calling me names and not showing up for classes and ex..ex...

Then the Naui board of directors MR. Sliman emails me and tells me to stop offending them and that i am not providing factual information!!! email me back saying that i am not provideing factual information??? and says that if i offer any more accusations that he will inform everyone not to take any action into this matter!!! they wern't even doing anything to begin with!! and what is accusations?? just telling the truth!!

After a week i email back asking why i haven't heard anything and asking if anything had been done.

The NAUI board of directors MR. Sliman emails me back a very rude email!!! stateing that i am just a complainer and a waste of his time!! and that he will not spend any more time with my case!! did he spend any to begin with???

Also at the same time i get an email from another NAUI member that I'm not sure what he does, named mike? who states that i am just a belly acher who DON'T WANT or SEEK SOLUTIONS TO Life's problems. stateing that he Sympathize's with him And based on my bellyaching, bitching and failure to follow!!! MY FAILURE TO FOLLOW THROUGH???? i tried to stick it out and finish the class!!

I tried to grit my teeth for Months getting called names, getting set up and waiting for an instructor who never showed up, being put down and treated like dirt!! only to have an instructor who would not finish the last class!!!! and now that i contact the company for resolution, they are the same rude people as thier instructors!!! and they are so rude also!! and they try to put it on the student saying he was wrong! and that it was his fault! and not fixing anything but instead just adding to the problem!! no wonder the instructors don't care what they do once they get your money!!!

as of now i have had many rude emails and been called many many many very bad names by Naui and thier instructors and staff

Now even though i have emailed Naui numerous times they will not respond to my emails.

no reports, no resolution, no money, still alot of hurt in my heart (don't laugh, it truely does hurt to be treated like this)

i shoulda stayed with --- for my master scuba diver
certification (all my other 6 certifications are through padi, great wonderful --, never had the same instructor twice, every single one i met was excellent top notch instructors) ,Naui truely is one for the books, i have never been treated this poorly by any company before!

Tim
APO, California
U.S.A.