The latest nz skydive rip off!!! New Zealand

[cristiancuevas 0]

We went to Mercer (NZ Skydive dropzone, New Zealand) for the skills camp weekend in May 2007.

How cool – Davy won the Deepseed Jumpsuit voucher – thanks guys, we are loving that prize already - and he also won the return ticket to the New Caledonia Boogie which was to be supplied by NZ Skydive.

Well, being a busy DZ operator up north at Skydive Ballistic Blondes - Davy did not have time to go to the boogie himself so he decided to give it to Cristian (our camera guy) so he could go.

Contact was made with NZ Skydive to claim the ticket. Upon ringing Jim Lyver, he informed us that he knew nothing about it and that we would have to contact his staff which we did. They informed us that indeed we had won the prize and that Jim would have to honour that. I rang Jim back and told him what his staff had told me.

He said that he did not want to honour the ticket and that we couldn’t give it to Cristian anyway as he no longer jumped with NZ Skydive. It was never said that we could not transfer the ticket – we won the ticket, surely it is up to us who uses it. Eventually after about 20 phone calls to Jim we told him that we would notify all NZ skydivers that he had chosen not to honour the prize. After this he said his booking agent would call and book the ticket. The booking agent never called and Jim did not answer his phone. By this stage it was Friday and the ticket needed to be booked for the next day – it was just too late.

Obviously NZ Skydive do not honour their debts. This was a really disappointing situation for us and Cristian who did not get to go to the New Caledonia Boogie.

We wanted to let you all know what has happened so that you will not be disappointed by NZ Skydive when they do it to someone else.

Blue skies,
From all the team at Skydive Ballistic Blondes.

[Squeak 17]

Hi Kelly and Dave

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[virgin-burner 1]

i had gotten a jumpsuit-voucher just like you.. i hope it'll work out!

its somehow sad to hear stuff like this happening!
i guess, there's rotten apples in every crop..

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[bigway 4]

Jim can be a bit irrational at times but Mercer is a great DZ. They ran the nationals for three years and bought the nationals back to life.
They also give tons of free jumps away. I use to work there and they let me design packages for all the sporties. I use to sell sporties 200 jump packages at $13 a jump! They also use to fly down to slipper island for people birthdays so we could jump.

I remember one weekend there was a group there from the cir de sol or whatever it is called so for their last weekend they let us take the poorter up to the northern beaches and jump all day on the beach with a BBQ without charging anyone a cent.

I worked for them and i left under bad circumstances and to be honest, Jim LYver just bought me a brand new car, gave me free rent in his house and all my jumping was free plus a good salary and he let me sell jumps at $ 13 each instead of the usual $30 each to all the sporties.
HE also helped people out by loaning them the money to do their ratings.
If a foreigner ever needed work he found a way to give them a job even if it meant going to the farmers next door and paying them to give a young jumper a job to milk the cows without telling anyone he actually paid the guy to make the job available.

As I said i left under bad circumstances cause i had personal issues with Jim to the point where i had to leave or i would be addmitted to the looney bin. He made me crazy, but i will always say great things about the dropzone. Look who runs it, Her Majesty Wendy Smith.
Jamie Lyver, the son of Jim Lyver, one hell of a freeflyer, invited to the world records.
I remember Egon from relative workshop coming over to the dropzone and writing to me after and telling me how it was one of the greatest dz he had ever been to. Mercer is a blast!!

Again, I dont get on with Jim, he is the owner of the dropzone and he should have paid if he owed something but as far as mercer being a rip off??? This one thing over the thousands of other things they have done for New Zealand skydiving.


Either way... I think everyone who reads this thread before judging it should be made aware that..... the original poster has opened up a dropzone that is one of the closer dropzones to Mercer

I dont know you but i do believe that what you say is true, it is just nobody ever says the good things about that dropzone and while you sit here bad mouthing it all you are hoping for is that they lose business and that means people like Tuks, Rob, Aaron, Wendy and everyone else involved in Mercer lose out on work and that would not be fair to them because you are airring your personal problems that you should be sorting out with Jim. Bringing things like this to a public forum with only one post is just showing intent to hurt the jobs of our fellow friends who jump their, I can see why that would not be a problem for you when you have a dropzone very close to Mercer.

I must say you guys up there have awesome Staff, Attilla and Laszlo are two of the greatest guys i have ever met. However they would not be working for you if Jim Lyver was not the one who more or less gave them their visas to be able to be where they are now.... Even if they also ended up having their own problems with the guy

I am not standing up for Jim Lyver at all here as i can picture exactly what has happened but i am writing the great sides of Mercer while at the same time being honest about not liking the guy on a personal level. I have compassion for him but everyone knows what Jim can be like, it is no secret

After looking at your website it does look like a great place and you guys must be good sort to have Attila and Laszlo up their serving you guys. Looks like a great team that would give tandems a really enjoyable time and the boyz are for sure the 100% best RW jumpers in the country. I know that cause i tried so hard to get them sponsorship while i was there with a radio group.

I really hope you get your issues sorted with Jim one way or the other but for you guys to own a dropzone and bring your dispute with another company that owns the two closest dropzones to you here into a public forum is not a very professional way for you guys as owners of a dropzone to sort things out with your competition.
I know libby is not there anymore but i have spoken to her via email and made her aware of this thread, I am sure she will pass it on to Jim and i hope the guy will make up for what you ended up missing out on.... Yeah, yeah.. i know, as i said, i can picture exactly what happened.
Dont bring it to the forums though because it does not make you guys as competition dropzone owners look very good doing it this way and it is not any better for the sport in New Zealand than it is the way you have been treated.
I really wish you all the best and good luck with your new venture.
Do you guys actually have a chopper full time up there?

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[InsaneFreak 0]

I have to say i think its probably been a few years since you've last been at mercer by the sounds of things.

Lots of things have changed, not all of them good. Jim is Jim.

SBB is about 2.5 hours drive from mercer. ASC is less being at Whenupai. Taupo is also in the 2.5 hr circle. Rotorua, Matamata too. SBB is by no means the closest, nor largest competitor to mercer. The only other DZ you would be referring to is BoI.

This issue is personal, as Dave & Kelly were jumping in mercer to have fun when they won this prize. I don't see this as SBB vs NZSkydive. I see this as Dave and Kelly + Christian(who happen to be from SBB) vs NZ Skydive.

Also the best person other than Jim to contact about this issue would be Wendy, as she did the organising for the Skills weekend.

[bigway 4]

Deleted a big long post and replaced my reply with this..... I said my peace and I mean no harm to SBB, i think they have a great looking place and aesome team there.
I just firmly believe that even if it is a private matter that a dropzone owner should know better than saying such things against another dropzone on a public forum for the world to see. This sort of thing can only make things worst for sport skydiving in new zealand.


Shit thing has happenned to them but they dont need to tell the world.
Someone might turn around and air their dirty laundy in the public forums one day when something goes wrong now they have set the standards to solve problems.

I hope they never do anything to piss off another dropzone and have this happen to them.

Anyway, will leave it at that. I hope it gets sorted for you guys, it is just a shame you have had to tell the world that their are dishonest dropzones in New Zealand, especially with it being the one that the fantastic world famous New Zealander Wendy Smith Manages who came back to live in NZ to get the sport scene pumping.

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[skibumhass 0]

the world is not a fluffy friendly place like you seem to envision it and neither are nz dropzones. sometimes people need to be held accountable and at time this takes exposure.
I bet that was a sick boogie too.

[bigway 4]

I know this mate.... I just think there is enough politics going on in NZ with skydiving that we dont need to fuel the fire and expose it to the world. Everyone in skydiving in NZ knows Jim Lyver, i just dont think they need to bring it to the attention of the world.
Certain dropzones over there spend a year doing sub-$100 tandems trying to ruin all other dropzones in the country for the tandme market but nobody makes a fuss over that in the public, it is not ripping people off but it is very cut throat.

Anyway, as i said, I seriously wish Davey Hogg all the best in getting paid what is rightfully he is, It just saddens me that the way he has now gone about it is by rubbishing one of the only dropzones in new zealand that is trying to keep the sport os skydiving alive.

I would suggest to Dave that he does not approach it on the angle that he gave the ticket away as You can be sure Jim will argue that it was non transferable.

Anyway, Sorry if i have dissrespected SBB, I have tried to say my peace carefully in a way that i would not be verbally abusive towards SBB.

It also saddens me that Jim has let it come to this where someone who was jumping at his dropzone feels they need to publicly say what they have said. He should have sorted it out.

I woulkd be willing to bet my bottom dollar that Wendy and Greg were in support of Dave to be given what they rightfully won and am sure they would have done what they could to make it happen. They are the people that count, the people that manage the dropzone. Mercer is a great place and is not a rip off at all, However it seems that the owner needs to remember this.

Anyway, It is just sad, both angles to this thread

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[cristiancuevas 0]

Hey Karnage Krew - I think I remember you from Hamilton - lucky for Jim that we went to help him open up Hamilton DZ when he was short of tandem masters hey.

Wendy was fantastic and told Jim that yes the ticket was to be honoured - Wendy does a great job as CSO of Mercer and all their staff are great too. I do not see how this forum is going to effect tandems at Mercer as no one has mentioned tandem skydive work except yourself. If any of the guys from down there have any problems with this they can always contact us or talk about it the next time they call in for a beer on our deck. They too could have missed out on the ticket to New Calidonia!

I would say it has been a while since you have been jumping in New Zealand. There are loads of DZ's that support sport skydiving in the North Island. Auckland Skydivers, Matamata, Rotorua, Taupo, Nelson, New Plymouth, Cloud9 and Skydive Ballistic Blondes, Also Abel Tasman who organise the fantastic 'Good Vibes' Boogie. I hope I did not miss anyone out. All of the above DZ's also provided tandem masters, cameramen and equipment for the Hercules Jump for Kids with Cancer.

It needs to be said that we are not making it an Operators issue. We went to Mercer as fun jumpers as we support all sport skydiving events that we are able to (at the cost of closing our own drop zone for the weekend). If you advertise a prize such as that to encourage skydivers to come to your boogie (which a $45 reg fee was charged) then you must honour it. If not you cannot expect to get away with it unscathed.

We would not advertise prizes for our boogies without honouring them, that is not only dishonest but also illegal.

Just because I am a DZ operator does that mean I do not get to voice an opinion as I went to this boogie as a sport skydiver - not as a DZ operator?

Maybe if you had not undercut the rest of the Sport skydiving DZ's with $13 slots (which does not even cover fuel for the aircraft) then maybe NZ skydive would have been able to honour the ticket. You spoke about other skydiving centres doing exactly the same by undercutting with tandems.

This issue had to be made public. There were approximately 100 skydivers who could potentially have won the ticket - Jim only upset one - us.

Do you go to a boogie - win a prize and expect not to get it?

What happens if the prize was given by another parachute gear company and they did not honour it?

Would you not say anything because you own another parachute gear shop?

If so, you are doing the wrong thing by other sport skydivers - people deserve to know when this sort of thing happens. Maybe next time they will give away a 747 and attract 1000's of skydivers around the world - it won't matter - you have only upset one skydiver - you don't have to honour it anyway!

We told Jim if he made the choice to not honour the ticket that we would be going public with it. He chose not to honour it and did not even attempt to solve the problem other ways.

Deepseed honoured their voucher straight away - thanks guys you do a great job.

We think it is pretty poor that you would mention staff and visas which obviously has nothing to do with this situation. Without overseas instructors skydiving in New Zealand would be a whole lot harder.

And yes, we have a jet ranger and a long ranger on site with drop rated pilots and hope in the near future to have a cessna caravan.

Cheers

Davy Kelly & Cristian
Skydive Ballistic Blondes

[bigway 4]

I thought I recognised the name dave. you guys were saviours on that day. was a good day.

glad wendy sorted you out, she is a good thing for mercer.

on a side not we did not undercut the prices we just made a package deal for jumpers. it did cover fuel, it also coverd the pilots wage and the maintenance of the aircraft and any other cost. it just shows how cheap a porter is to run I with that new -34. when we worked out the costings of how much it costs to fly the porter with 8 people on board is how we came up with the pricing of the 200package.


anyway, davy, never meant anything personal, and I am glad it worked out.

I remember that day at hamilton well and remember it to be a lot of fun and you were interested in getting called up for more tandems, sounds like you showed them by openning up a dropzone and getting some of the best staff in the country.

wish you al the best with your operation.

that heli has to be a good atraction.. are you getting many sporties up there in the weekends:?

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[Squeak 17]

Quote

I thought I recognised the name dave. you guys were saviours on that day. was a good day.


anyway, davy, never meant anything personal, and I am glad it worked out.

That reads far to literate for Dave I'm betting Kelly wrote it. She is WAY smarter and cuter than Dave could ever hope to be

You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

[bigway 4]

. For sure the cuter one. Suprised to hear that coming from you though Squeak

.Karnage Krew Gear Store
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[deepseedgeezer 0]

Hi Mate, just so you are clear about what happened, DEEPSEED, my company, honoured the prize we had donated immmediately, don't get us confused with the "rip off" that took place.

Cheers,

Geezer

Turkey? Turkey? Bloody Rubbish, it's just a fat bastard chicken!!
If God had meant for me to fly like an eagle, he wouldn't have invented the pie!!!