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Review 11/8/2010
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Pushy, manipulative, coercive owner. There are all sorts of accounts on the internet of bad experiences with this shop; ranging from bad experiences with buying a particular item, to having been manipulated into purchasing several thousand dollars worth of nonrefundable equipment (which you are told IS refundable). I have shopped at Best Buy, Wal-Mart and many other retailers that are well-known for poor customer service, but never have I felt such disdain and anger as I did when I shopped at SSA. Rusty Berry gave me the worst customer service experience I have ever had, and all I bought was a mask!. Steer clear of SSA!
OH, AND NOTICE THE 5 STAR REVIEWS ABOVE? THEY WERE "COINCIDENTALLY" CREATED ONLY HOURS AFTER THIS POST WAS CREATED AT SCUBABOARD.COM: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/socal/358721-scuba-schools-america-rusty-berry.html
The problem's not with the mask Rusty, the problem's with you:
(Phone Call)
me: do you carry the oceanic shadow and atomic frameless
him: yeah, actually I use both those masks…I have the atomic as my main and I use the shadow as a backup
me: cool, and you have both of those in stock?
him: yeah
me: cool, I’ll be down in a little bit
at SSA, I try on both and decide on the atomic. The floor display didn’t have a mask strap so you could try it on more easily (that's what I thought, at least).
Me: okay I’ll take the atomic
him: okay, you’re gonna want to get the floating neoprene mask strap
me: I already have one
him: do you have the FLOATING strap
me: yeah, mine looks like the one you’ve got
him: no, these have a piece of neoprene in them so they float, does yours have that?
me: I don’t think so
him: so you’re gonna want to get this one
me: well, alright (I had lost a mask before when a wave knocked it off, so I thought it might be a good idea. In hindsight...stupid idea since it doesn't work; or at least not when my snorkel's attached).
He takes the mask over to the register, rings it up, and hands it to me and says thanks.
Me: do you have a brand-new one?
him: this one is brand new
me: this is the floor display
him: yeah, and it’s brand new
me: it has fingerprints on it, it’s not brand new, do you have one brand new in a case?
him: no
me: well, do you have the default mask strap?
him: no, we throw them away
me: You throw them away?!?
him: yeah, I haven’t used a rubber mask strap in 15 years, the nylon/neoprene straps are the way to go so I throw them away.
me: so, this is brand new, but it doesn’t come with the Atomic strap?
him: no, we throw them away.
me: do you have the case?
him: let me check (he comes back with a big atomic case). Here you go.
me: this isn’t the case this mask comes with, it comes with a low-profile form-fitting case, do you have that case.
him: this is an atomic case for atomic masks.
me: right, but it’s not the case that THIS MASK comes with, do you have the specific case for this mask?
him: no
me: can I just get a refund
him: I can only do an exchange
me: I just bought it!
him: I can only do an exchange
Luckily Atomic was cool enough to send me a strap and case free of charge...but come on man, you can't tell me this wasn't ridiculous on your part. No offer to discount the mask, no offer to throw in the SSA strap for free, no nothing except for a strapless/caseless floor-display mask sold at full retail price. That was abysmal customer service...by far the worst retail-store experience I've ever had.
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Business's response - by Rusty Berryon 11/9/2010
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Mmmm....the only Doug P we have in our system is Doug Pinsak. Can't imagine the problem you had with your mask purchase....maybe you can call us and let us know so we can possibly fix it. If you mean being manipulated by asking a person.." Would you like to purchase this item?" yep I'm guilty of it. Sorry folks...we are the kind of dive store that will ask you to purchase what you are looking for and we will even go into the pool with you and make sure it works and if it doesn't we'll find the right thing for you. No one has ever been told that there is an unconditional guarantee for anything in our stores.
Regarding complaints in the ten years I've been with the BBB four complaints aren't bad. It's just when the truth has been twisted. Like with the couple that keeps posting under different alias's that we promised to refund their personal equipment if they didn't like it. They failed to mention that they reviewed the program twice before actually committing to it....and a third time during class module one.....and...Oh yeah...did they mention that we even gave them thier rental and their boat trips to them for free just because we care...no they didn't mention that! And that they texted us that they can sure tell that customer service is important to us? We have all their texts if you want them. Or the woman that was told that we would sell her system for her during the summertime so she could get her refund because she has some mental issues to deal with.....no she didn't mention that either...she still has yet to get her equipment back to us so we can sell it. Our written guarantee is posted and right infront of everyone's face...people just choose to hear and see what they want to hear and see then hide behind alias's because they can't handle face to face confrontation.
Yep...you're going to have hundreds of responses from all or our happy divers and customers that understand that we have been and always will be completely upfront about what scuba
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