Aquatic Adventures, reviews

1439141088

Tim Schalm

google

1

Be very careful when renting from this company. We rented a full set of dive equipment on 8/1/15. We made our reservation for the equipment rental two weeks in advance. When we arrived, we were told that most of the "better" equipment was already rented out for some dive picnic (we were never told this prior to the rental). We get to the lake and my wifes BCD wouldn't stay inflated. In addition, her older model of BCD only had two small pockets. These small pockets wouldn't hold enough weight to get her to the bottom. On top of this, they didn't give us enough weight (they don't have weight belts) to get to the bottom of the lake. Needless to say she wasn't able to dive and since its unsafe to dive without a buddy, I only dove for 10 minutes. I only used a 1/4 of the air in one of my tanks and didn't touch my second. My wife didn't use either of her tanks. We went back to the shop and explained our experience and were told that the manager was not on duty and they could not offer a refund or any other solution. They gave use the manager's contact info and we tried contacting this manager twice and also tried 2 other contacts we had for the shop. We never received a response from Aquatic Adventures. From what we have experienced, they are very poor on customer service and their equipment that we paid $300 to rent was just a waste of money. I would strongly caution anyone who is thinking about renting from this facility.

1436735995

Renato Geromel Jr

google

Renato, we are very sorry that you had an unpleasant experience at Aquatic Adventures. Our sales people are well-trained, experienced divers who are taught to thoroughly answer every question when a customer calls. They are taught to refer every caller to our website at the end of the call to ensure that the customer can find answers to any other questions they have. Normal practice is to take the customers email address so that our automated system can send the customer links to the pertinent information on our site. This helps minimize misunderstandings particularly for those new to diving. In this case, it seems the sales person may have been too quick to refer you to our website. We certainly understand why this could be frustrating. In researching your complaint, we noticed that you registered for an Emergency First Response Class and Rescue class back on August 12, 2013, but that you never showed up for class. If you had let us know at the time that there was an issue, we could have worked with the sales person to ensure that both you and other customers receive the information they need to make an informed decision regarding their dive training. We hope that our current staff would not let you down this way. We also noticed that you have never made a purchase at Aquatic Adventures, and we are unsure why you feel our equipment prices are too high. All of our prices on Aquatic Adventures Online (shop.dive-aai.com) are set at the minimum advertised price (MAP) established by our suppliers. It is not possible for us to advertise at prices less than MAP at our online store without violating our dealer agreement. In our physical store, we have a policy that we will meet or beat any price a customer is offered by an authorized dealer for the products we stock. Obviously we cannot match prices for current model year products with prices for models from prior years, which is often what the big online discounters are selling when you see low prices. We also refuse to match prices with online discounters who are not authorized dealers and cannot provide customers with valid warranties and service. We also do our best to keep only current model year products in our inventory to ensure that our customers are buying the latest and best products available. Of course, this could make it appear that our products are over-priced, when in fact they are newer models of what you are comparing them to. Again, we are very sorry you had an unpleasant experience at Aquatic Adventures, and we hope you will give us another chance and encourage you to visit our store.

1431560266

1

Have been diving for 7 years now. The people that work at this shop are very rude. I called to asked questions and they said everything was online, once you sign up. How was I suppose to know the info before I've signed up. Equipment and classes prices are high compared to local shops and online. Go somewhere else if you want good service. There are a lot of great shops out there!

1639451930

Cynthia Hutson

google

Thank you for the review! We are happy to hear you had a great experience. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

1639453827

5

Great staff who are knowledgeable AND personable!

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Pam Poglitsch

google

Thanks for the kind words, Pam! We are thrilled that you and your daughter had such a wonderful experience diving Lake Michigan and look forward to diving with you again soon.

1435269656

5

As my daughter was pursuing a career in Marine Biology, she asked me to be her dive partner. My husband was already certified. I was afraid at first, being older and not understanding the diving process. As we took classes and practiced skills this began my confidence with the equipment and my abilities to dive safety. The first certification was wonderful because we started in the pool and worked our way to Pearl lake. The instructor varied in age so I could confide in the different concerns I had. GOT my open water swim certification..Then my daughter told me we have to get advance open water swim.. What ??? Go into the cold waters of lake Michigan? and go 70ft deep? As we jumped into the cold water of Lake Michigan and started to descend to the ship all my coldness went away, the ship was so majestic and awesome, with some fish hanging around the wreck.. With Jerry the owner leading the way, Vince and Holly following, we had a great time.. Thanks for all your help.. Pam

1366948789

Danielle Kaebisch

google

2

When I decided to start diving a year ago, I researched the local dive shops in the area (surprisingly there were a few options) and decided take the class through Aquatic Adventures. I have to admit that the deciding factor for me was the price. They are priced between the other two stores in the area. Big mistake.... First, they use the UWM pool for their pool portion of the class. The class only reserves two swimming lanes (insufficient) and the other lanes are occupied by other swimmers (who show no respect for the class). It is extremely distracting and I do not know how they continue to use that pool. Also, the instructor overweighted everyone in class so they would be stuck to the bottom of the pool.. My knees were bruised by the end of the weekend because I was overweighted by about 20 lbs. Then, to complete the 2 day open water dives they make you drive 3 hours a day to south Beloit.(which was 3 weeks later no earlier dates) The visibility goes to about 3ft in 1 hour becasue once again it is overcrwded with other dive stores. By the end of the class with all the hidden fees and class it ended up costing over $400 to complete the class... I felt completly scammed and frustrated...