American Pro Diving in Crystal River Florida

At one point in my life I worked in the SCUBA industry. I dived with
American Pro Diving in Crystal River FL. and they were wonderful. I was so
impressed I wrote a couple of articles for prominant diving magazines noting
how thrilled I was with experience.

I subsequently retired but decided to take my family to see the manatees and
called American Pro Diving. I reserved a dive trip. I was surprised when
they quoted me a price so I asked 3 times if the quoted price included scuba
gear. I was assured that all gear was included for the price. The day before
the trip before the scheduled trip I went to American Pro Diving for gear
and was told scuba gear was not included in the quoted price. I was upset
that I had been quoted an erroneous price (lots of places in the area are
cheaper). They told me "if you don't like the price don't go". I asked if my
credit card would be billed and the told me it woud not. I returned from my
vacation to find my credit card had been billed a "seat charge" for a
canceld reservation. I disputed to charge with my credit card company and
American Pro diving responded with a letter accusing me of cursing at them
(a lie), and stated I stormed out of the shop and "was not at the shop long
enough to even talk about a credit" (another lie).

I want to appologize to anyone out there who read my articles and went to
American Pro Diving based on my recommendations. I guess the lesson is to
take what you read with a grain of salt. As a writer I was treated
wonderfully, as a tourist I was treated like crap, ripped off and accused of
lying.

If you are thinking of diving with the manatees, I recommend you do so with
anyone but American Pro Diving. They seem to me to exemplify what really
hurts the scuba industry. They refuse to admit thier mistakes and try to
take customers for every nickel they can suck out of them.

In article <7fednQxNRYdPrdPfRVn-1A@comcast.com>, timothybrown01
@comcast.net says...
> If you are thinking of diving with the manatees, I recommend you do so with
> anyone but American Pro Diving. They seem to me to exemplify what really
> hurts the scuba industry. They refuse to admit thier mistakes and try to
> take customers for every nickel they can suck out of them.

I will second this. These guys are among the absolute worst. There are
other operators there to go with who will provide a much better
experience.

Here's third suggestion that you stay away from them.

Other shops in the area are far more professional. The three I recommend
are:

Birds Underwater - http://www.birdsunderwater.com
Aquamarine -- http://www.aquamarineimages.com
Port Hotel Dive Shop (but only if you are going self-guided)

American Pro routinely lies to customers.






In article <MPG.1cb857aa8f1f800a989758@news.verizon.net>,
Al Wells <al.wells@gmail.com> wrote:

> In article <7fednQxNRYdPrdPfRVn-1A@comcast.com>, timothybrown01
> @comcast.net says...
> > If you are thinking of diving with the manatees, I recommend you do so with
> > anyone but American Pro Diving. They seem to me to exemplify what really
> > hurts the scuba industry. They refuse to admit thier mistakes and try to
> > take customers for every nickel they can suck out of them.
>
> I will second this. These guys are among the absolute worst. There are
> other operators there to go with who will provide a much better
> experience.

"Ron T" <ombligo@tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message
news:ombligo-DBCD26.10363202042005@news-server2.tampabay.rr.com...
> Here's third suggestion that you stay away from them.
>
> Other shops in the area are far more professional. The three I recommend
> are:
>
> Birds Underwater - http://www.birdsunderwater.com
> Aquamarine -- http://www.aquamarineimages.com
> Port Hotel Dive Shop (but only if you are going self-guided)
>
> American Pro routinely lies to customers.

I was in APD a couple times, not recently (03?), and listened to some
lying asshole for about 30 seconds.

Bird's Underwater is great.