Imported post
Can echo these comments. EDC are the biggest outfit bya long way, and I'd do the course with them, and then do diving with a smaller company who will have maybe a few less customers out on the boat, which EDC fill as tight as they can.
I used to work for a tiny centre in Oludeniz, Blue World Diving, and have spent a lot of time with a girl who has worked for EDC, Divers Delight, amongst others (the names have gone). Basically, she said that when she was there, Divers Delight were cowboys, and have had some safety issues (beware as some of this is second hand) so you probably want to avoid. EDC as mentioned before play by the rules, but run all courses at max ratios but have good instructors and a nice CD, hence reccommending them to do the AOW. I would reccomend Blue World, but you may never get your card. It's happened to others. Nice guys, but PADI don't like them too much right now, due to some irregularity in their courses, like a CMAS 1* instructor teaching them.
In turkey everyone, and i mean everyone, haggles. Get their price, and halve it. That's what you're aiming for. We were charging £20 per dive, all in, but some of the guys were selling down to £12. They don't get their commission, but they make a sale. Push hard and you'll get a good deal. And don't bother haggling woth the sales boys. Either speak to the middle-range guys who know what the bottom price is, or go right to the top and speak to managers. The sales boys won't like it, but you'll save 10% by cutting their commission out of things.
One last thing. Stay well away from the paragliding on the beach. Your insurance doesn't cover it, and whatever papers they show you, they don't have any either. About 3 or 4 people die every year doing it, and broken ankles, twisted joints etc are a daily occurance. See the guys who pack the parachutes on the beah playing around doing ground training? In a few weeks they'll be taking paying customers up. And down. Hopefully slowly. Just a warning as it's dead popular, but is being cracked down on by the authorities, as it's no good for tourism to have people dying every few months.