PADI problems...

[Fireplug]

Anybody else had problems dealing with PADI? I finished my open water end of September and mailed the packet in certified mail. They received it 10/9/07. I called 11/13 and found name spelled wrong, address wrong and picture missing. Lady finally found a picture of guy with shaved head, big moustache and glasses. Should be me. Card on the way. Called 12/3. Address wrong again. Card on the way. Finally received a card 12/10. Not the picture of a great white I paid extra to Project AWARE for. No picture of my smiling mug. No picture, period. What's the point of sending a picture? I'm not impessed.

Only good thing was Cristal Charters, Key Largo who let me dive on my instructor's paper temp card. Kudos to Cap't George and all in Florida. Great dive folks.

[texdiveguy]

Never had that happen....hope you get it worked out soon.

[WV Diver]

This is strange, I've dealt with PADI a lot with both my personal diving and seen lots of students go through and have never heard of this or anything remotely like it.

Sorry to here about it. I would stay on them and try to speak to someone at a higher level.

If you get it back again and it is wrong I would just have them send you another PIC Envelope (free) and just submit it again from scratch. They do hundreds of these things everyday, I can't see why your are having this problem.

[RoadRacer1978]

Sorry to hear you are having such problems. I received my night diver card and PADI had my middle initial wrong. I shot them an email the day I got my card. The next day I had received an email back telling me they would get me another card in the mail with the correct middle initial. A couple weeks later my new card arrived at my LDS. Everything was correct. I was very happy with the service I received from PADI. They are a little on the slow side, but they fixed the problem and I didn't need the card for any dives I was doing.

[adv_diver1]

I am sorry you had such a crap experience... very weird as I just ordered a replacement cert card online, uploaded my picture and it came in the mail about 5 days later. Maybe you just got handled by the one idiot in that department.... give'em another shot.

[robjoubert]

Newbie question: how long does it usually take after the last certification dive until you receive your c-card? My final OW certification dive was 11/24/2007 & the instructor got the papers to the LDS on 11/27/2007 so I am not expecting anything until January 2008. Or should it be sooner?

[RoadRacer1978]

I think mine took about 4 to 5 weeks to receive. I did mine in the summer however and that seems to be a much busier time for processing certs. You might get yours a bit sooner.

[cgvmer]

My son and I sent them in together, both came back in 3 weeks that was in we certified in April.

[Disneymom]

The only problem I've experienced was with my original OW cert card - they had my birthdate wrong. I sent them an email and they corrected it and got a card right back out in the mail. I got all my cards (OW, specialty, AOW) about three weeks after competion of each. Sorry you're having trouble with yours.

[WV Diver]

I had missed that you said you dove with Cristal Clear Charters. I have been out with them and they are really a great bunch. Actually, they took me out to the Spiegel Grove and shallow reef for free.