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skyflyingbecca

Skydiving-related customer service

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Any of you had bad customer service related experiences you'd like to share?

Do any of you think people in this business are way more lax (or maybe just more relaxed) than other businesses?

Or do you think I am totally off my rocker? (I am by the way)

Upon the advice of good friends, I will postpone my recent experience for a couple more days to give this lady a 3rd chance.....

"I know it's friday night, but come on. Surely there's something better to do than yell at people on the internet?" - Tom A.

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Personally, I don't really care about customer service, as long as I can get on planes, I'm happy.

Now if the DZ is mischarging your credit card thats one thing.. but in general, just manifest me.

-Karen

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

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I've not been around all that long, so I can't tell you how it used to be, but when I started I found most skydiving companies relaxed to the point of annoyance. That said, I spent the four years before taking up skydiving working in London and ordering from Amazon, so I'd gotten kinda used to instant gratification. It took a while to readjust :P.

I should mention that Skydiving Magazine store has always been excellent. Things are dispatched quickly, arrive in good condition, and I've never had a problem.

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I can say that while I'm not a big fan of the 'hurry up and wait' aspect of things, I realise it's reality.

That having been said, Bonnie @ Gravity Gear (GravityGirl on the forums) and Kelly @ Velocity Sports Equipment (KellyF on the forums) have been AMAZINGLY patient and helpful through the process of me ordering my gear. They quite seriously have restored my faith in customer service!
cavete terrae.

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Square one has the best service ever.



I had a very different experience with Square 1 and I think Para Gear has the best service ever but I have spoken to people who say the exact opposite. Just goes to show every company is going to have customers that love them and customers that will never go back, and then all those customers in between.

One thing to remember is that it's usually the individual person at the company that makes your experience with them either good or bad, sometimes though we cant get past that one person making it bad to speak to someone who knows what they're talking about!
www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

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I posted a while back abot how good Paragear.com's service is, i ordered a camera helmet and some other goodies from them a while back and they had it here in a week, international order too.

Without a doubt Perris Valley is one of the most well run and professional skydiving operations i have ever come across. Everything about that place rocks, the bar, the coa coaches, the planes...

Not really what you asked but i thought i'd share anway :)

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

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I have bought gear from the Bytch at Square One, Dominick at Square One, JP at square one, the Bytch at the Drop Shop, Flite Suit, Firefly (twice), Pier LTD, and Paragear. I have not had bad customer service anywhere yet.B| Of course i am going to go find some wood to knock on now.:D

Never look down on someone, unless they are going down on you.

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I have had great service from just about everyone, especially the good folks at Velocity, Jump Shack and my personal favorite the Sunshine Factory.
L.A.S.T. #24
Co-Founder Biscuit Brothers Freefly Team
Electric Toaster #3
Co-Founder Team Non Sequitor
Co-Founder Team Happy Sock

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Pablo at Relative Workshop is tops.

The leg pads were cut too short and after 65 jumps they still did not fit.

Pablo went out of his way to pick my rig up and to return it. The work was completed in a couple of days as well. He even added a second hook knife pocket for my trouble.

When I had a biff on my 1st landing on my new rig, he repaired the damage for a nominal fee. It looks new. Festi helped on this and should also get kudos.

I love my Vector!

"You did what?!?!"

MUFF #3722, TDSM #72, Orfun #26, Nachos Rodriguez

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It depends on whom you deal with.
SunPath has always been cool-So has PD. Dealing with Kim at PD is always a very pleasant experience.


But hearing things from friends that have dealt with different manufacturers has made me not want to deal with a few of them.

I think what sets a manufacturer apart for me is there service after they have got my money.
I know a friend who has a canopy with a built in left turn, Unfortunately he has not been able to resolve the issue and the manufacturer is no help. I also have a friend that purchased a container that was measured and cut wrong by the manufacturer, but when it came time to repair their mistake they told them that it will take a few weeks because they only fix problems after production hours.
I thought that was total bullshit. What that tells me is hey we already got your money so fuck you.
Sad because they have a great product but that alone made me never get one of their containers.
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

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I had great customer service at Ground Zero at Elsinore when I ordered my jumpsuit. Kama must've spent over an hour with me helping me pick colors and options.

Square One has been great for gear rental and stuff like altimeters. I haven't ordered anything big through them yet, but I wouldn't hesitate to do so.

I also had a great experience at GravityGear in Byron. I needed new risers, and Bonnie and I spent quite a while comparing colors, figured out that the original color wasn't going to match because of fading, so she suggested ordering a contrasting color, and it worked out great. She had the risers sent to my house, and I had them very quickly.

Whenever I've ordered something from Para-gear, they've been wonderful. The first time I ordered from them, I was ordering cordura fabric for teddy bears. I'd requested overnight shipping online, and the rep called me to make sure it was what I'd wanted. The shipping was going to cost about $40, because cordura is heavy, and he wanted to let me know that if he sent it standard shipping instead, it would only be about $8, so he called to check when I needed the fabric by, and to see if he could save me some money on shipping. They took the time to save me $32, when it wouldn't have made a bit of difference to them either way.

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Do any of you think people in this business are way more lax (or maybe just more relaxed) than other businesses?



A lot of the skydiving companies bend over backwards for their customers, because they know it's a reputation business. Others can be real hit or miss.

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Do any of you think people in this business are way more lax (or maybe just more relaxed) than other businesses?



I think that most of the people that work in this business are great BUT I rarely get a response to an email or a promised phone call in a timely manner. Of course I don't expect it because most places have a pretty small staff that wear multiple hats and they aren't sitting by the phone or waiting by the computer for emails. Maybe this means that they are more relaxed but I like to think that they are just extremely busy. That said I have found that 3 weeks usually means 4-6 and that the squeaky wheel does get the grease lol
Think of how stupid the average person is and realize that statistically half of them are stupider than that.



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Larsen & Brusgaard can't possibly be topped, and I doubt Velocity Sports can either. Square1's customer service has always been solid for me too.

I know of one dealer that I wouldn't buy from based on how a couple of my students were treated, but I'm not going to get in a pissing match over it on here. :P:D

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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I've only had good experiences with 2 companies i've had to contact with problems. Both Wings vai Ankie and Larsen & Brusgaard vai Mads . The speed at which they resolved the problems where unbelievable. These are companies that i will buy from again and would not hesitate in recommending to others:)

Billy-Sonic Haggis Flickr-Fun


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I've not a lot of experience with CS because I bought all my current stuff used but I have heard some horror stories and I'm wondering specifically about manufacturers and not about dealers....got some more opinions on?:

Aerodyne
Flight Concepts
PD
Precision Aerodynamics

Mirage
Relative Workshop
Sun Path
Velocity

I'm ready to buy new and I want to avoid a lot of hassle if possible...I'm leaning towards Aerodyne for main/reserve and Sun Path for container but the skyhook has really got my interest.
My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

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My personal experience with RW and PD is great, there's absolutely nothing negative about my rig purchase that I can say. Even when I was still having trouble with my canopy 3 years after purchase, PD tested it and decided to give me a new custom one (the one I had was stock).

I don't have any experience with Aerodyne, but I do know Bushman and I have faith that you will get excellent customer service from them also.
She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

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