What can we do about Skyride?

[marks 0]

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I'm not defending the Skyride/ B&C thing, but to call that FOX News ITEAM bit journalism is a sham.

You do work for them don't you? Of course you are going to defend them. You profit from their scams.

true, he does. but he is blinded by the bullshit, just like alot of other peeps who work there. there are alot of good kids there, and it is easy to get blinded by the bullshit that goes on...

dan knows that there is bullshit that goes on there, he just isn't sick of it, YET.

although, shit has gotten better since tyler started being maneger. Tyler is the best thing they got going for them, hands down.

[billvon 2,435]

>The second complaint was a little more legit in that he got a
>40 second freefall, but honestly how many Tandem Masters have
> never had to get out lower than the advertised height before . . .

They advertise a 60-90 second freefall. For a tandem opening at 4500 feet (which is a bit low) with a tiny passenger (i.e. falling at 109mph) that means they'd have to go to 14,000 AGL to make the 60 seconds. Take a heavy passenger or a more reasonable opening altitude and you won't make it.

And to go to the advertised maximum of 90 seconds, they'd have to go to 18,000 feet. I don't know of any first jump tandem location that uses supplemental oxygen.

So it's not that they couldn't get the altitude. It's that even if they _get_ the altitude they won't get the 60-90 seconds of freefall.

[monkycndo 0]

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I don't know of any first jump tandem location that uses supplemental oxygen.

Not to threadjack, but Hollister does when going to 18K.

And now back to our previously scheduled discussion.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[Thanatos340 1]

Dan, I agree with you. I was actually pretty disappointed with the story they did. The 2 main things they focused on were in fact pretty petty.

Any reasonably qualified journalist could have found so many better things to bring up. I think the Iteam really dropped the ball.

Skyride/ASC has done so many other things over the years, to bring these two almost Non-Issues up for an expose was weak.

They really should have focused on the Hidden Fees, Lies about their Location, Deceptive marketing techniques and other unethical business practices. There are so many better examples out there than the ones they used.

[popsjumper 2]

The guy complaining would have been about 10 years older trying to get to 14K in the plane he flew in.


Where's a good Otter when you need one?

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[billvon 2,435]

>Not to threadjack, but Hollister does when going to 18K.

So do we, when we go to 16.5K for bigways. But tandems generally don't go with us.

[Elisha 1]

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>Not to threadjack, but Hollister does when going to 18K.

So do we, when we go to 16.5K for bigways. But tandems generally don't go with us.

Does Monterey as well?

[CSpenceFLY 1]

Dan I would think that you would be happy that they didn't bring up all of the other things that they could have hit on.I would like to hear the answer to the question,I think it was Shimmel ask,"Why do you think there is all of this negativity toeard ASC and Skyride?Do you think the rest of the skydiving world are just confused about what has been done by B&C.
Dan the list of people that refuse to be a part of ASC and Skyride is long and distinguished.I don't think all of these people are just misinformed.
I was told by someone recently that things at Skyride were changing.Then a week later I followed one of the links on a google ad here on DZ.com.It was for The Georgia Skydiving Center.That use to be a DZ in Rome Ga. for those that don't know.The directions from Atlanta were take I-75 north toward Rome then once you got almost to rome they wound you all the way back around to..you guessed it,Cedartown,Ga.So I guess the only thing that is changing is the directions to ASC.
Oh and do you want to know who this person was blaming for Skyrides practices?They were blaming the "over zealous telemarketers" that work for they.Kind of like they hung Joey out to dry when the city of Roswell was going to sue them for all of the bumper stickers that were all over their town.


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[gweeks 1]

I just found about 50 skyride sites that stole text from our website. Anyone have any luck getting them to remove material that is owned by someone else?

[mnealtx 0]

It may be pretty hard to get them on anything concerning IP (intellectual property) as far as text goes... good luck, regardless!!

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[BillyVance 34]

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I just found about 50 skyride sites that stole text from our website. Anyone have any luck getting them to remove material that is owned by someone else?

sic a lawyer on them... I think some DZs have done that to some level of success. There's a lot of info on this thread that could help you if you have the time to read it.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Mr17Hz 1]

Before you do anything; take a ton of screen captures and compile a document that gives you pretty good proof that it happened. that way down the road you can use it in the case that someone ever successfully launches a class action or any other type of group suit... THEN have your lawyer send them a letter.

Matt Christenson

[email protected]
http://www.RealDropzone.com - A new breed of dropzone manifest software.

[porterhouse 0]

Can you buy advertising through google/yahoo that will say 'SCAM!' whenver they are entered as a search, and then take you to a link that explains why? I know someone paid google so that if you ever enter the word "failure" into the search, it comes up with information on President George W. Bush. Why can't the same be done for skyride?

[justinb138 0]

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Can you buy advertising through google/yahoo that will say 'SCAM!' whenver they are entered as a search, and then take you to a link that explains why? I know someone paid google so that if you ever enter the word "failure" into the search, it comes up with information on President George W. Bush. Why can't the same be done for skyride?

Because, people don't search for "Skyride" when they're looking for a DZ. They key in something like "Dallas Skydiving", and end up at a Skyride website.

[skydived19006 4]

I don't know how you'd use this to help with the Skyride situation.

Googlebombing 'failure'
9/16/2005 12:54:00 PM

Posted by Marissa Mayer, Director of Consumer Web Products

If you do a Google search on the word [failure] or the phrase [miserable failure], the top result is currently the White House’s official biographical page for President Bush. We've received some complaints recently from users who assume that this reflects a political bias on our part. I'd like to explain how these results come up in order to allay these concerns.

Google's search results are generated by computer programs that rank web pages in large part by examining the number and relative popularity of the sites that link to them. By using a practice called googlebombing, however, determined pranksters can occasionally produce odd results. In this case, a number of webmasters use the phrases [failure] and [miserable failure] to describe and link to President Bush's website, thus pushing it to the top of searches for those phrases. We don't condone the practice of googlebombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we're also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up. Pranks like this may be distracting to some, but they don't affect the overall quality of our search service, whose objectivity, as always, remains the core of our mission.

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Can you buy advertising through google/yahoo that will say 'SCAM!' whenver they are entered as a search, and then take you to a link that explains why? I know someone paid google so that if you ever enter the word "failure" into the search, it comes up with information on President George W. Bush. Why can't the same be done for skyride?

Experience is what you get when you thought you were going to get something else.

AC DZ

[mnealtx 0]

Yeah, but if you put in "skydive fraud" the first entry is funjumper.com's Skyride fraud page....it's a start!!!

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[bigern13 0]

Correct me if I am wrong, but this is SKYRIDE ON MYSPACE!!!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=54021249

A place where MILLIONS if not billions of people frequent everyday. There is alot of us here that go to myspace.

"I love 'lamp'."
-SKYMAMA

[DSE 3]

If EVERY dropzone out there put up a "hidden" skyride page, with keywords in it, and links to "good" dropzones in their specific area, the word about Skyride would quickly get out there.
Keyword your own dropzone, keyword all the various names about Skyride, and use all the information found in this thread and on various Skyride marketing pages including Ebay. You could also put up screenshots of their various pages so people can instantly recognize these scams as they come up on their screens during searches.

If everyone were to do it in their area, this would quickly create a negative powerplay for Skyride.
Our local DZ has a statement at the bottom of their website saying they are not affiliated with Skyride (and goes on to list their other names as well) and the DZO says it has helped a bit.
FWIW, Skyride has no Utah DZ's that support it, so at this point, the Department of Consumer Protection is looking into it, and a local news station recently did an expose' on Skyride.

[BelskyBlueEyes 0]

I live in Atlanta and when we searched for a DZ the closest was ASC in Cedartown. A group of 17 of us went there, we all did tandems. I found nothing negative about the experience. We all paid when we got there, no 'certificates' or anything. The people there were nice. It was a very busy day for them. So, why is there so much bad talk about ASC? The person who did my tandem had 1200 jumps, another guy had 9200. These were people that are experienced and were safety conscious. I am scheduled to get AFF certified there in a few weeks. I am confused as to why people have said bad things about ASC????

[BillyVance 34]

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I live in Atlanta and when we searched for a DZ the closest was ASC in Cedartown. A group of 17 of us went there, we all did tandems. I found nothing negative about the experience. We all paid when we got there, no 'certificates' or anything. The people there were nice. It was a very busy day for them. So, why is there so much bad talk about ASC? The person who did my tandem had 1200 jumps, another guy had 9200. These were people that are experienced and were safety conscious. I am scheduled to get AFF certified there in a few weeks. I am confused as to why people have said bad things about ASC????

You've only seen their good side.

Take some time to read through this thread and you'll get the idea of the scope of their dirty tactics.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[CSpenceFLY 1]

It's not about ASC.There is a whole DZ full of good people there.It's about the long history of the poor and crooked business practises of the owners.Enjoy your AFF training and then don't be afraid to visit every DZ you can.There are alot of great people and good parties to visit.


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[teason 0]

The tread is huge and quite a challenge to read but to sum up my experience, I own a DZ in Canada. The owners of ASC own a booking company called skyride that stole my web site. I other words, they lifted text and images from my web site and produced 25 copys. Origionally, all the websites where identical to ours and even had my picture in the banner proclaiming me thier chief instructor.

While looking into this theft, I learned that Skyride has hundreds (over900 last time I checked) and use them to direct internet searches to thier booking agency. For example, they will have a site called "Adventure Skydiving North Dakota" and claim it to be a DZ in North Dakota. When you call the number, they will sell yo a gift certificate and send you to the nearest DZ that will honor it even if it means you have to drive two states over.

To simplify, the steal intellectual and copy righted property, use it to mislead the customer, compete unfairly with local businesses and often give gift certificate users a poor experience through these deceptions.

Legal action on the part of any of the wronged businesses is futile in most respects as the cost of fighting them will outweigh any benifit and is therefore totally unfeasable.

So that is my problem with skyride.

As for jumpers and staff at ASC, as far as I know, they have nothing to do with the above issues. I'm sure the instructors act just as professional as any other in the business.

ASC and Skyride are owned by the same people but that doesn't meanthat the offensively parasytic nature has any bearing on the quality of instruction given by any Tandem Master or staff member who works for ASC.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

[Elisha 1]

BelskyBlueEyes,

That is great that you had a good experience. But here is a question: what if 2 out of 10 customers had a bad experience/bad service and you were just one of the 8? Wouldn't you agree that 20% is pretty bad for a poor customer service level? What if Skyride customers typically had 2 out of 10 bad experiences while non-Skyride had about 2 out of 100? I'm just trying to give an example of just because someone has a GOOD experience, doesn't mean that there is no service problem. A business should be doing there darned best to make sure they provide the best service possible and not mislead or poorly treat ANYONE. They should be dilligent about this to protect their reputation in an HONEST fashion and not just a CYA or "damage control" fashion.

As BillyVance said, read through this thread.

[lisamariewillbe 1]

The people at ASC are overall awesome.... Its the business practices. The farm a mile away is awesome people AND not practicing bad business practices.

Have fun on your AFF and say hi to Fast Eddie and Preacherman.

Sudsy Fist: i don't think i'd ever say this
Sudsy Fist: but you're looking damn sudsydoable in this

[Thanatos340 1]

I glad you had a great time. Welcome to the Sport. We all hope you stay.

ASC does have an Excellent Staff and a great group of people that jump there.

What everyone is complaining about here are the deceptive Marketing tactics their owners use.

ASC/Skyride is know for having 100`s of websites for dropzones that don’t really exist. On those website they have/had many stolen pictures and text from legitimate dropzones.

Other practices they are know for include hidden fees such as "Extra Altitude” Fees and "Big Plane" Fees. These Fees are not charged at other Dropzones. Also other things like thier "No Refunds" policy are very harsh. Other Dropzones will work with you if you cant make your scheduled Jump and atleast give you a partial refund.

Other things they have done in the past include.. After a very prominent Dropzone owner in a neighboring state was killed in a Skydiving accident, ASC\Skyride owners called ATT and pretended to be the dead Drropzone Owner and has his 1-800 number redirected to their offices so that they could take his business. This act alone should give you some insight into the character of the Owners.

Since This was first thread Started, ASC has changed management and it appears they are cleaning up their act somewhat.

Again.. Their Staff and Jumper are Great. You are absolutely correct on that point. It is just their Business practices that have upset so many people.

Once you finish AFF (Or before even) come over to The Farm.. We are only a Mile away. Get out and see as many Dropzones as you can and make up your own mind for which one you like best. If that turns out to be ASC.. Great. You can still come over to the Farm after a day of jumping at ASC and socialize. Many ASC Jumpers and staff do that all the time. The jumpers and Staff from both DZ`s get along great for the most part.