DirtRider
Contributor
I know that many people on this board and another have been helped very much by Phil at Dive Sports. I haven’t posted here a lot but I have read a lot and his name is spread all over many threads as having given great advice, prices, and customer service. I am not too afraid about buying anything online when I know the dealers are authorized, have done business long term, and have a good reputation among the community they service. Dive Sports surely met my criteria and I had one flawless order with them middle of last year. I returned at the end of last year/beginning of this year to place a tank order to take advantage of the $158 deal Phil was offering on the 40 cubic foot AL. I planned on getting into tech diving and would be taking a class beginning of March. I should have had the pony ready to go well before the class. That was not the case though because the tank took 10 weeks to reach me and about a dozen calls and a few emails for me to receive.
I placed the order either 12/30/06 or 1/1/07. I received an email at 1:46pm on 1/2/07 saying that my cylinder was delayed 10-12 days. No problem I thought. I was being very proactive about having all my gear ready well before class and I had left plenty of time. To my surprise Phil called me 2 hours later and said it would be delayed between 1-2 weeks. Wow I thought, those guys on scubaboard and deco stop aren’t kidding when they talk about great customer service. Email and phone call and assurance of shipment as timely as possible. I had no worries. Unfortunately the good feeling proved to be without substance.
I sent follow up emails since I didn’t received the tank in the specified timeframe. These emails were sent to all 3 of their contact emails including “phil”, “order”, and “staff” at their dive sports domain. I emailed on 1/31/07, 2/3/07, 2/6/07, and 2/7/07. Not a single email was replied to. Don’t worry, I am a web developer and know how to send an email. They simply didn’t reply.
In between that time of sending emails I had called twice already. Once I got a sales rep other than Phil but he said he’d have Phil call me back and that never happened. The other time I got Phil directly who promised a call back after figuring out what happened and this I never received. I didn’t bother sending more emails after that because it was obviously a futile endeavor. I called no less than 8 more times to follow up on where my tank was at. I got different stories every time. Every time except the first time I talked to Phil himself. I got the possibly true statements of a count being off and they needed to order a new palette and wait until it got in which would be only a couple days. That it was the distributors fault because they were shipping direct from WI and that it should reach me in IL in a couple days. Obviously those are mutually exclusive statements so one is a flat out lie. Then I got other stories like the tank was shipped to me twice and one of my neighbors must have it (I live in a single family home and never had shipping problems before – even verified address). I got another story about there being another person with my same first and last name in Pennsylvania who got my tank on accident. This just got very tiring and when I called in the beginning of march remarkably I still didn’t get irate with Phil but told him my communication with him had proven fruitless and that my strategy would be changing. I told him I was going to post up the details on the forums and dispute the charge with my cr card company. He asked for my IDs on both this site and another and said he would be writing a formal apology letter there as well as giving me a $200 gift card AND making sure my tank got to me this time within a week. He assured me this wasn't his normal business practice. A fair threat about posting the truth which would hurt his business was enough to get that tank to me in a few days whereby it finally arrived on 3/12/07. I called to say I got it and he said that he was going to credit my card the $158 for the tank. I guess he forgot he said he was going to give a $200 gift card instead but at this point I’d take the credit for the tank and get over the experience. I wasn’t going to waste more of my time writing on the boards. Unfortunately that credit has proven to be a lie and as of today – 5/4/07 – I still have not received my $158 credit on my card. I am sick and tired of trying to follow up with Phil and receiving empty promises. I should just dispute this with my cr card company but then again I did get what I paid for. I just got it two months later than promised, never received restitution or the promises he made to make up for his mistakes, and made over a dozen calls to get resolution on a simple order that has of yet not come to final resolution.
I’m not trying to bash Phil personally but I have stated the facts and I clearly received shameful customer service in this case. If he wants to dispute it I have all my email confirmations, detailed cell phone calling statements, receipts, and shipping information available to prove everything I have said. I would like to be compensated what I was promised but at the minimum wanted to post this here to let others know what they could be getting themselves into. Maybe others have received such bad service as well and were too fed up to post it. Maybe things are changing and we’ll be seeing more of this. Whatever the case I did my part to look out for my fellow scuba board members. You know what they say…caveat emptor.
-Dan
I placed the order either 12/30/06 or 1/1/07. I received an email at 1:46pm on 1/2/07 saying that my cylinder was delayed 10-12 days. No problem I thought. I was being very proactive about having all my gear ready well before class and I had left plenty of time. To my surprise Phil called me 2 hours later and said it would be delayed between 1-2 weeks. Wow I thought, those guys on scubaboard and deco stop aren’t kidding when they talk about great customer service. Email and phone call and assurance of shipment as timely as possible. I had no worries. Unfortunately the good feeling proved to be without substance.
I sent follow up emails since I didn’t received the tank in the specified timeframe. These emails were sent to all 3 of their contact emails including “phil”, “order”, and “staff” at their dive sports domain. I emailed on 1/31/07, 2/3/07, 2/6/07, and 2/7/07. Not a single email was replied to. Don’t worry, I am a web developer and know how to send an email. They simply didn’t reply.
In between that time of sending emails I had called twice already. Once I got a sales rep other than Phil but he said he’d have Phil call me back and that never happened. The other time I got Phil directly who promised a call back after figuring out what happened and this I never received. I didn’t bother sending more emails after that because it was obviously a futile endeavor. I called no less than 8 more times to follow up on where my tank was at. I got different stories every time. Every time except the first time I talked to Phil himself. I got the possibly true statements of a count being off and they needed to order a new palette and wait until it got in which would be only a couple days. That it was the distributors fault because they were shipping direct from WI and that it should reach me in IL in a couple days. Obviously those are mutually exclusive statements so one is a flat out lie. Then I got other stories like the tank was shipped to me twice and one of my neighbors must have it (I live in a single family home and never had shipping problems before – even verified address). I got another story about there being another person with my same first and last name in Pennsylvania who got my tank on accident. This just got very tiring and when I called in the beginning of march remarkably I still didn’t get irate with Phil but told him my communication with him had proven fruitless and that my strategy would be changing. I told him I was going to post up the details on the forums and dispute the charge with my cr card company. He asked for my IDs on both this site and another and said he would be writing a formal apology letter there as well as giving me a $200 gift card AND making sure my tank got to me this time within a week. He assured me this wasn't his normal business practice. A fair threat about posting the truth which would hurt his business was enough to get that tank to me in a few days whereby it finally arrived on 3/12/07. I called to say I got it and he said that he was going to credit my card the $158 for the tank. I guess he forgot he said he was going to give a $200 gift card instead but at this point I’d take the credit for the tank and get over the experience. I wasn’t going to waste more of my time writing on the boards. Unfortunately that credit has proven to be a lie and as of today – 5/4/07 – I still have not received my $158 credit on my card. I am sick and tired of trying to follow up with Phil and receiving empty promises. I should just dispute this with my cr card company but then again I did get what I paid for. I just got it two months later than promised, never received restitution or the promises he made to make up for his mistakes, and made over a dozen calls to get resolution on a simple order that has of yet not come to final resolution.
I’m not trying to bash Phil personally but I have stated the facts and I clearly received shameful customer service in this case. If he wants to dispute it I have all my email confirmations, detailed cell phone calling statements, receipts, and shipping information available to prove everything I have said. I would like to be compensated what I was promised but at the minimum wanted to post this here to let others know what they could be getting themselves into. Maybe others have received such bad service as well and were too fed up to post it. Maybe things are changing and we’ll be seeing more of this. Whatever the case I did my part to look out for my fellow scuba board members. You know what they say…caveat emptor.
-Dan