I was in san pedro 4/13 - 4/23 and wanted to do some diving. After reading all the great things other members have had to say about protech I decided to dive with protech, and boy what a mistake that was.

I took a relaxing walk up the beach from bananna beach to the belize yacht club where protech is located and spoke to a lady at their shop out on the pier. We had decided that since I had not been diving since 1999 that I should do a refresher course, so I agreed to the refresher course. I was told the refresher course would be $100 and included gear and it was a 1 tank dive that should last around 40 minutes or so depending on 02 usage. So the lady tells me to be at the dock at bananna beach the next morning at 0830 hours. Sunday morning I wake up around 6am and go eat to give time for the food to settle, then walk around a little bit. Around 0815 I head out to the beach and find myself a comfortable lounger to relax in while waiting for protechs boat to come pick me up. A few minutes later a protech boat goes flying past the dock and I thought that they would pick me up on the way back but around 0830 no protech boat, 0845 protech boat goes past the dock as I wave and keeps on heading towards their dive shop, 0900 no protech boat, 0915 still no protech boat. Finally I was pissed off enough that I walked up to their dive shop and spoke to another female there, one of the dive masters and informed her that I had a refresher dive scheduled for today and that I was told I would be picked up at 0830 so she checks the schedule it was on the schedule. I told her I was a little upset about the situation and she stated that they would comp the rental gear for me for my troubles if I still wanted to dive with them, which I agreed to. 1330 protech arrived at the bananna beach pier to pick me up and my refresher dive was with gilbert who was a great dive master and very knowledgable and eager to point out interesting things throuhg out the dive. After the dive I was feeling a little better about protech so I scheduled a 2 tank dive for the next day.

Monday around 0815 I waited nervously at the pier to see if protech would once again forget me, but this time they showed up and off we went back to the dive shop. Today my dive master was the female dive master I had spoken to the previous day. First dive max depth was around 65 feet and during the dive we saw a total of 5 huge sea turtles, 2 of them were large males that were fighting by snapping at each other shells and flappers so we hung around for a minute or two and watched while they fought. 2nd dive we again saw more huge sea turtles but not as interesting as the first dive. Back on the boat headed inside the reef Gilbert asked me if I needed to go to the dive shop for any reason and I said yes becaues I wanted to schedule another 2 tank dive. Gilbert said he would let them know and asked what day so I told him thursday I wanted to do a 2 tank dive and I was told to be at the pier at 0830 on thursday for pick up.

Thursday comes and I am again excited about diving. I walk out to the beach around 0810 and wait for the protech boat. About 0830 I start getting nervous that they might have forgotten me again but I wait a little longer. 0845 no protech boat, 0900 and still no protech boat so by now the phones are back up so I head inside monkey business to have them call. The lady at the dive shop says they had no one else who wanted to dive this morning so my dive was postponed for 2pm later that afternoon. She stated that she called Bananna beach and had the staff call me room but there was no answer, so they left a message taped to the door of my room. So I walk back to my room and look at the door, no message is taped on the door, I asked my travel companion who had been in the room all morning if there was a call for me and she stated no one had called the room. By now I am a little upset with protech, but reluctantly I decided to go ahead with the 2 tank dive later that afternoon. Later that afternoon protech did show up to pick me up at the dock and the dives were exciting and fun.

After the dives we head back to the dive shop so I can clear up my tab. I was told I needed to pay cash or travelers checks and I explained to them that when I first talked to them before diving that I needed to pay with a credit card because I did not have the cash nor travelers checks to cover the amount owed to them. After a few minutes they agreed to take my credit card. I scan over all the charges and see that I was charged $10 for a park entrance fee for the refresher dive, only problem is we did not do the dive at hol chan, it was some other local site. After some convincing the lady takes off the $10 charge. But what else, I see that I was in fact charged for the rental gear I was told that I would not be charged for becuase of their mistakes in forgetting to pick me up. Finally I had enough of that company and just sigend the damn credit card slip and got out of there.


CLIFF NOTES: protech forgets me at dock twice, then charges me for park entrance fees when we didnt even dive the marine park, and also charges me for gear they stated they would comp me because of their mistakes. NEVER again will I dive with protech.