worst online retailer with which i've ever had the displeasure of dealing.

[smarino7]

hands down the worst online retail experience I've ever had.
when I say this was my worst online retail experience ever, I don't mean strictly related to scuba equipment, I mean EVER! what will follow is a lengthy, detailed description of my personal experience, but they take home points are as follow:
-i am a dive professional who has also worked in scuba retail
-i STRONGLY reccomend use of another retailer
-terrible customer service
i recently had all of my dive gear stolen. this experience, to which many of you can relate, can be an ordeal to rectify. to compound the inconvenience of this tragedy, it was discovered days before i flew out for my next dive trip. upon discovering that my gear had gone missing, i began piecing together a new set, and some of my gear is difficult to find online. i ended up having to place orders with six different online retailers to assemble the set-up that I'd formerly possessed. naturally i was thrilled to find Dive Right In Scuba as they had some gear that was virtually unavailable elsewhere online. they also had expedient shipping options, so i thought i would receive my order before i flew out days later.
the following day i received an email telling me my order had been cancelled due to its failure to meet the stringent requirements of their "security check". after calling their store, speaking to a customer service representative, and being placed on hold several times for very long durations, i was finally put in contact with someone who seemed to be in a managerial position. Mike, maybe? he informed me that several details of my order raised "red flags" for security in their system. i was on the phone with him for over 30 minutes clarifying information that other retailers with whom i've dealt(including leisurepro.com, scuba.com, amazon.com, diveseekers.com, and the hundreds of non-scuba related establishments I've patronized since the inception of online retail) had no issue, he requested additional information which I'd almost consider an invasion of privacy(my current living situation, diver cert. number, etc.). i was accused of fabricating false addresses that couldn't be located via google maps, to which i responded by walking the representative on the phone through what can only be described as a step-by-step google maps tutorial. i was told that my phone number of sixteen years did not belong to me after a google search, and was told that my order could not be shipped to an address that was not the billing address(definitely do not try to buy a gift), after which i requested that they do send it to the billing address, but was refused. in fact i was told that they had elected not to process my order altogether. if they are this insanely paranoid of fraudulent credit card use, that's fine, but ulitimately, these people wasted invaluable shipping time, my time on the telephone, and overstepped boundaries by requesting too much information. by the end of the entire transaction, i had grown skeptical as to the legitimacy of this business as a whole. as someone who has worked in dive retail, and has been professionally diving for several years, i STRONGLY recommend NOT using this company. very cumbersome process that only yielded frustration and inconvenience.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Cool story, bro.

Why is your compressed time schedule DRIS's problem, again?

For the record, I had no trouble ordering a customized drysuit to Oahu from them--smooth and easy transaction.

 

[SeahorseDeb]

I'm only going to comment on the credit/debit card protection aspect of this because frankly it's my only area of expertise. In Europe all credit/debit cards need to have the "chip." The chip protects the merchant against fraud (chip data is dynamic..not static like the strip on the back). If a cardholder tries to file a fraud claim on a transaction and a chipped card was accepted--the merchant loses--the client wins. This is the EMV standard that's taking hold in the States now. It's my thought the merchant was taking extra extra precautionary steps to protect themselves against fraud. I agree for you it was very frustrating and ridiculous. If you had used a card for which the issuing bank was located outside the USA 50 states, and you were having it shipped to an address that wasn't the billing address (I read your comment on that)'then it could have been considered high risk with so much security at the financial level on card fraud, I'm sure your bank might've declined it and you would have called your card issuing bank and said "It's mine, please authorize it." What I do not know is how the EMV standard will change MOTO (mail order--telephone order). I could only speculate that this merchant may have been the subject of too much fraud and that then causes them to have harsh security measures imposed by their credit card merchant processing company. So...that's perhaps part of an answer for you. It doesn't account for other things you mentioned, I'm just one SB'er trying to help out another. If anyone else wants to read up on EMV, just google something like EMV Chip Security or some such topic and a lot comes up. Take care...

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

Yes, that was me you talked to.

I do apologize for the headache, but yes, your order was flagged for fraud from the beginning for a variety of reasons. As you said, we cancelled the order. You called, and I decided to look into it more, and asked more questions to try and see if we could bypass and get you the products. I ONLY asked for additional information after we decided the transaction was fraud, and it wasn't in our interest, and you called telling me I had to ship it.

In no way am I going to disclose all of our techniques in looking for fraud or list all the things that were out of place, we, like many other retailers get hit by fraud on a DAILY basis, and have to cover ourselves. I explained this to you many times on the phone, and you said you didn't care. Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase...lots of BIG names have been hacked lately, and we have to protect ourselves from all the stolen CC's out there.

As I said on the phone numerous times, we never want to waste your time or ours. It's a big headache for us and a customer when things are out of whack and we try to make sense of it in terms of fraud. You can be mad at us, as you were on the phone, or you can understand the times of internet security. We have to protect ourselves and reserve the right to turn away business if it doesn't seem legit. We aren't rich, we have lost lots of money to fraud, and it hurts when it happens. On the phone you were insistent that I had to ship your order, but you didn't want to help fill in some blanks without telling me I was overstepping bounds. I was only asking these additional questions to try and get more information on if the order wouldn't be fraud, identity theft, or legit.

There are alot of things that didn't add up, we are sorry we had to decline your business, and like you said, " I will bash you on every scuba forum, Yelp, Google, and everywhere possible for this", we never want someone to have a bad experience. I apologize that we couldn't make it happen for you, but that's the way it happened, and I still stick by my decision. You may very well 100% be a legit customer, but we were more than uneasy about how everything was coming together, and decided it wasn't in our best interest to finalize the transaction. We had 4 other attempts at fraud today, blame the criminals for this, not us. With all the stolen credit cards out there, it's happening alot. I can' speak for other companies, and how they decide on what to investigate. That doesn't matter to me.

If your number is so safe, then Google it. Tell me why the first thing that comes up says, "Fake Record of Identity By Phone Number". I won't post the number here, and that was not the only thing that raised a red flag. Like I said, I'm not going to list it as I don't need criminals figuring out how to bypass things. We already have a hard time staying ahead of them. I will tell you that using someone else's credit card, shipping to a different address, and demanding things is a pretty big no go with us...not to mention some of the other flags. There was more than 5 big red flags for us.

Regardless, yes, we denied your order as there were too many things that leaned towards it being fraud. Sorry if that wasn't the case, but I would still make the same call with the info we had for your order.

I can assure you, and I'm sure there will be lots of people that can vouch for us, we are a VERY legitimate online store that puts our customers first. Sorry it didn't work out and we hope you have a great trip.

 

[decompression]

I've had nothing but great experiences with DRIS, they are recommended highly from many members of this board. I will remain a satisfied customer for many years to come.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Brandon]

I've dealt with Mike and Dive Right In Scuba for over 6 years. DRIS is most definitely a reputable online business, and I believe the whole of Scubaboard would be happy placing them in the top 5 of online scuba retailers.

I will tell you that using someone else's credit card, shipping to a different address, and demanding things is a pretty big no go with us..

If this is true (and I have no reason to believe it isn't); then I find it absolutely ludicrous that the OP couldn't see how this could be a problem for an online retailer. Trying to bully people into shipping is a HUGE red flag and the bread and butter of almost all mail fraud schemes these days. Hell... for that matter, creating a bunch of new accounts to make a single negative post about how much you hate a business is just another form of bullying. I sense a theme.

I was actually in a similar situation back in 2005. I lived on a remote island in Alaska, and my address didn't show up in most of the online verification systems. Further, since UPS and FedEx didn't deliver (officially) to our island, I often required some creative addressing to get packages successfully delivered out there. I was working on a project that required me to order approximately $6,000 of hobby electronics, and I placed the order online. Understandably, I received an e-mail shortly after placing the order rejecting it because they believed it to be fraudulent. I totally understood their concerns, and I wrote them a lengthy e-mail in response providing them with an outline on how exactly they could verify my information. I gave them very specific, reputable and easily verifiable sources, and after reviewing it and speaking with the manager (politely) on the phone - it wasn't a problem and they shipped my order.

You can't want better online security and fraud protection, then get pissed at a business for trying to implement procedures above and beyond the totally minimal (and easily subverted) credit card protection schemes currently required by the banks...

 

[BRT]

DRIS has been great to deal with. Our business was trying to get the police involved with a customer theft today. No luck. It pays to be careful.

 

[Tug]

Too bad there isn't any more popcorn on SB...

In all seriousness, I've had nothing but positive experiences with DRIS. Heck, I even got responses to emails in the middle of the night.

Keep on doing what you're doing Mike!

 

[undrwater]

You're going to find it hard to discredit Dive Right in Scuba. They have done business the right way, and provide superior customer service. Anyone who reads the OP's post who has had interactions with them will likely question the OP's motives (only one post to bash?).

Nope...I've got a big order coming soon with Dive Right in Scuba's name on it.

 

[Herb-alaska]

I have had nothing but great customer service from DRIS for everyone of my many orders It is really nice to call a shop that i have never been in and have them recognize my voice and name and know that I'm the Herb from Sitka Ak ( personally i think that it means that i spend to much on gear but it won't stop me anytime soon ) Mike and everyone of the staff are great professionals