Eurodivers ZANTE avoid at all costs! pls read my rant!

[carolineUK]

I have reported the Eurodivers Zante to PADI - and being one not to sit back and wait for a terrible accident to happen or worse, I have to let everyone know how bad that place was.

Not to be confused with the real Euro Divers who operate in the Maldives/Thailand etc.


This was a cruddy place in Zante Greece on Laganas beech.

I have a few other divers who have expereinced and made a lucky escpae from this place so it is not a joke complaint-more of a bad experience which if un reported would be worse.

So lets hope they get closed.

-

Ive got a really long report which PADI have from myself and other divers on the place so- if you can have time to read it, please do. Its not a petition, its just a red flag to warn others.


Eurodivers, Laganas Beach, 29100 Zakynthos, Greece
I would like to bring it to your attention to investigate them.
Firslty - did you know there are 2 Euro Divers.
the GOOD ones eurodivers.com. Whom i have dived with and whom are very very respectible.
Then there are eurodivers.nu
Running with the SAME name.....is this allowed???!!! but NOT anything like the ORIGINAL Euro Divers.
I have a bad feeling about them.
I have dived with the RESPECTIBLE 'EuroDivers.com' whom are proffessional, upgrade their gear and are very nice people.
I dont know if you have ever been to Zante to check out thr euro divers in greece- they are very badly sign-posted, and tucked away. Now why would this be?
They have something to hide??
Myself and my brother had gone along to see about doing some dives and to do the advance open water course.
Upon arriving we had a look around and from the outside, it looked very well turned out...all the certs on the wall and quite impressive. We decided we wanted to dive with them as the prices seemed OK and filled out the forms but were never asked for our diving insurance details or med cert!!!!! The girl on the desk seemed BORED and wanted our money there and then. We didn have the full amount so we left a deposit. Now i find this odd as most dive schools prefer to settle up or talk moneys at the END.
When we came back the following morning, we were hastily shown around.....and may i add IT WAS HASTY. we were shown the broken toilet, and the facilities to stow our personal belongings (which i may add was an exposed SHELF!!) there were no boxes ( as most dive centres always have)...a huge box with a number. There was nothing at THIS place. So it made our personal belongs good pickings for a thief. And, seeing that the girl who was more intersted in doing her emails in the next room, there was no one on reception!!
After seeing the 'bathroom' and the area to place our personal stuff!!My brother met the instructor whom he was due to start his AOW with. A german woman Birgit.
We were mortified at her abruptness and haste to do the DEEP DIVE FIRST!!!. had she not read that it is PADI regulations to do that IDEALLY as a last dive ?! How can anyone feel confident venturing to 30m with a student whom they dont even know what they are like, refresh some skills etc.And to top it off she wanted to have my brother to 3 dives in 1 day-no beach break. All from the boat. She seemed rushed and wanted him to complete it in 2 days SOLID.
Ok, we had a chat and thought maybe it would be very tireing and didnt really question it anymore.We didnt have to much time to think...They were keen to rush us....as if we were purses with legs...get us out and away and onto the next customer..No sooner had we been introduced and my brother briefed about his course,we were led down and around the back of the dive centre and were told to grab our equpiment by one of the instructors.Because she didnt have much to say, she continued standing uselessly and smoking as if in annoyance.Now- i didnt feel happy about routing in an area im unfamiliar with. We had literally just arrived- put or things down and were getting ready to do a deep dive!!!! We wernt shown anything or where the gear was, and i asked if they could find my size. This sorrt of annoyed them it was clear.When the girl brought out the BCDS i almost fainted. They were PREHISTORIC. Mine and my brothers were crumbled. The pockets with holes and the seams ripped.Upon asking ...'where is the clip for the octopus reg'? she replied "you will have to hold that under your arm" WHILE i am doing scuba of course!!!!> I was distressed at the thought of doing this as yoiu can imagine.The hoses looked bad. And the wetsuits were also bad.I was more concerened about the state of the bcds. They all looked in such a bad way - the instructor had the 'best' one of course. We all had ropey OLD tatty and DANGEROUS gear which once we had signed that disclaimer....had anything gone WRONG ..would have been all down to our desicion to use it.Birgit was extremly unfriendly and was chain smoking all the while we were going over our equipment. We generally got the impression that they werent going to ask us if we were happy or needed help with the sizing etc etc. It all seemed about makning money and getting us to complete our course and dives in as quick a time as possible. It was also obvious that they were not intending to upgrade any of their eqtpt as they hardly even bothered to make an effort with us students let alone the gear! Surely it is in their best intrest to change the stuff which is life dependant, on an annually basis or every 2 years.I have been diving all over the world and dived with the REAL Euro Divers in the Maldives. I have spoken with lots of owners and instructors of dive schools worldwide and they have said TIME AND TIME AGAIN it is in their best interest to keep the dive gear good. The longest any ONE place has changed their bcds is 3 years.And the thing is- One shouldnt have to buy their own bcds or octopus as it is cheap enough to rent out good, equipment from the dive schools. They expect this. And they expect their customers to return- and be satisfied with everything. And when im paying good money to DIVE, they cant expect me to wear THAT crappy gear from the Ark!! I refuse to keep quiet about this as some one may one day be in serious complications if they dive using that equipment. And you know just how shoddy this place was when the 'owner' ran up to me DESPERATLY begging us not to go and offered to lend me his wifes BRAND NEW BCD and octopus.! oh right....so my buddy gets to use the crappy one- RISK his life AND MORE and il be OK???NO THANK YOU mate. NO WAY. My God, i have NEVER in my whole LIFE seen such appaulingly SCARY dangerous bcds as in the Euro divers in zante. Its given me knightmares.HE needs to pull his finger out and SERIOUSLY needs investigating.I felt it a high priority you look into this. Before, someone gets hurt or A DEATH occurs due to the slackness of the place.We didnt dive with Euro divers - walked away unscathed on the same day.Come on PADI please please make your checks tighter and more regular at all centres no matter how big/small.

Report from other divers-
The Try dive experience with Euro Divers was an utter disgrace, I am a Advanced Plus Medic 1st Aid diver with over 14 years experience but my wife wanted to have a Try Dive so I booked us both with Thomas Cook as Try Divers (they had no knowledge of my status). We were told to walk down to the dive shop, where we found that they had already left to pick us up from the hotel?! Once we were collected we were driven to their dive shop/site and with several other people having Try Dives too filled in the PADI disclaimer forms to say we were all fit and healthy. The couple opposite us, the lady put that she used to suffer from sinuses many years ago and was told by the staff that if she wanted to dive she would need to change her answer to NO. Anyway, we eventually board the boat after our safety and skills briefing to find there is a mixed bunch, ranging from Try, Open Water, to Advance divers. All the Try Divers had to carry out their skills in the sea, unfortunately we were the last couple to be called and they were in a rush to complete to get the boat out. I at that point made the instructor aware that I was an Advanced Diver and therefore he could spend a little more time with my wife who was having problems with her equipment (mask floods etc), Oh No-they weren’t interested and promptly after 5 minutes said she could come on to the boat but she could not dive. Strangely enough the lady with the sinus problems from many years ago had to disembark when her ears started to play up (no refund given). I buddied a Open Water diver for my first dive, a pleasant easy going dive and when the second dive came up I asked that since my wife was unable to dive could I have a second dive? The answer was strange as he told me that there was no extra equipment (tanks) to be able to take my wife’s dive experience, I pointed out the fact that her tank had not been used and therefore it was possible, now that I got his back up the answer was still a no!


Please dont use this place if you go to Zante
carolineUK

[PeteStewart]

Hi Caroline,

An unpleasant experience, thanks for the heads up.

It is quite normal to do the AOW in 2 days, 3 dives on day 1, with deep the first dive on day 2.

If you have not dived with a center before I would expect an additional check dive to be done on day 1, meaning a total of 6 dives for the course. PADI limits training to a max of 3 dives per day.

Did you actually complete the course? I would always advise people to do their training in the UK in order to get the most out of their diving holiday .

Pete

[EllieCee]

I've dived with the real Eurodivers before and thought they were good, so it's a real pity that this shoddy company is using the same name. At the end of the day, it's your safety thats at stake so if your not comfortable with something it's the right thing to do to walk away. There seems to be plenty of dodgy dive operators out there. We stayed at the Sultan Gardens in Sharm which had its own dive school, and whilst the centre had A PADI sticker in the window, it was not actually a PADI registered dive centre, but I bet many novice people have been duped into diving with them without realising....

Ellie

[O2 Steve]

Hi Caroline

Sorry to hear about your crap time but well done for naming and shaming!!

[aquafan]

Sorry to here you have had a rough time. I was training experience in Corfu was a bit shoddy. The company I used was also advertised as a PADI centre and they were no longer registered.

Maybe we should have a section these kinds of experiences where we could name and shame. But the problem there is someone may not like the trainer and shame the whole company!

[divingdoc1]

oh dear, big no fun at all!

puts all those who try to do the right thing right in the s***t bin

[coldhands]

Yikes! Sounds like you had a lucky escape there. Well done you for naming & shaming them - too many people would mutter darkly and just walk away.

[oneill207]

Thanks very much for this - someone from work was about to use them whilst on holiday to do their OW and I pointed them to this thread. Needless to say they are not going there!

[Bristolmilo]

Ok so i don't agree with using dodgy old equipment and this is something that clubs should be spot checked on more. As for the rest of this rant though, unfortunately alot of our european neighbours don't have such a british sense of customer urgency. Mortifyed by an abrupt chain smoking german???, in my experience they're all like that.
I'm not defending this centre at all, but complaining about nowhere to store your belongings and how you percieved that you were treated is not something that padi will have high on their priority list.
As for them rushing you through and treating you like a purse on legs, well that is just padi all over!!!

[Sakara Drinker]

(21-11-2008 12:01 PM)Bristolmilo Wrote:  As for them rushing you through and treating you like a purse on legs, well that is just padi all over!!!

Not my experience at all and I have been going on courses and diving holidays for many years now.