Scuba Schools of America/Rusty Berry

[scjoe]

Given how long Rusty has been in business, it seems unlikely that the drysuit company danzngel is dealing with is not aware of what is going on. If Rusty placed the order, then the customer has no obligation to pay the drysuit manufacturer. He has no agreement with them. It would appear that the customer canceled his order with Rusty in time for Rusty to cancel his order with the drysuit manufacturer. Rusty is responsible for failing to cancel his order in time. The suit, if made, will get resold by him probably without being recut.

As a point of clarification for 5hundo. SSA, which is Rusty's shop, is not SSI the certification agency. The attitudes of SSA are not representative of SSI shops in general, but an SSI shop wouldn't carry PADI dive tables for the same reason you can't find SSI tables at Sports Chalet.

 

[danzngel]

HI! I had no idea! I had always wanted to Scuba dive and a friend sent me a "Groupon" and it was to Rusty's SSA spot. I went in and all looked legitimate. He rated me similar prices to Sports Chalet and stated they have social traveling and monthly scuba meetings with potlucks... like a family. Being I am a social butterfly it sounded pretty good.

Now after 3 classes, enrolled, and feeling abused... I spoke with a classmate yesterday (mind you I and boyfriend went solely to see what Rusty would say after we have been strong about the drysuit cancellation) and she stated she was feeling manipulated and he refused to cancel her drysuit last week, one day after the order! We exchanged notes and yup similar story. She was almost in tears regarding the way he spoke to her. She is a young college kid working to be a marine biologist. As we spoke she shared that friends of hers told her they only scuba with wetsuits and that they looked up Rusty and found this blog. I then decided to look him up last night.

I am in the middle of this nightmare and reading this thread has made me realize he is an expert manipulator. I can't believe HOW LONG THIS HAS BEEN GOING!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was innocently

 

[D_B]

Lina 77
danzngel

aww dang

please take to heart that there are others here on scuba board that ARE above board and would truly look after YOUR intrests when suggesting places/people to train with

(how to find a good scuba instructor has good info on questions to ask ... http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ng/287780-how-find-excellent-scuba-class.html)

 

[THESCUBALIFE]

I don't know any shop that gives a refund after it has touched salt water. He was willing to sell the gear for you and give you back your money. you might want to go back to his shop and take him up on that offer. $8,000 dollars for open water. Crazy. You shouldn't even be in a dry suit till your comfortable in a wet.

Lemon,
Sorry, I guess I should've been more specific. Before all this, I had already paid for a boat trip during Chamber Day, which was in May. I brought my dive equipment with me because I wanted to see if I could give it another try. However, I was not comfortable getting into the water at all, and I told Rusty that. He told me if I'm not comfortable, not to go in. When they went in for their 2nd dive, he tried to get me in the water, first to snorkel and then to dive. I refused but after I read their written guarantee for the first time, I understood what he was trying to do. I already had 4 dives, another snorklel and dive session would've put me at 6 and anything over 5 voids the guarantee. I had no knowledge of this till a week after because I had never read the actual guarantee, not until he provided it, AFTER I asked for a refund...hope this clarifys.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

I don't know any shop that gives a refund after it has touched salt water.

Just for the record, that was our standard policy at Reef Seekers from day one. If you bought from us and didn't like it, bring it back. Period. Don't care if it had been in salt water or used for some months or whatever. (Now, if you tried to return something under this policy after using it for five years, we might invoke a reasonableness clause/exception.) But the point was that, since you generally buy things based on the recommendation and info you get from the store, the onus ought to be on us to sell you the right thing, not on you to buy the right thing.

In 18 years of doing business (we closed the retail store at the end of 2006 and only do travel now), we rarely had stuff come back. But when we did, we gave you full credit or refunded you. Usually people got something else, paid the difference (if there was one), and we sold the returned item at a significantly reduced cost but usually over what we had paid for it. Win/win all the way around. You got something better and we still made money on the deal.

- Ken

 

[RedCash02]

Wow I can't believe thread is still alive. I'm not a big scubaboard poster, but had to chime in. Lina, I really hope you get a chance to give diving another shot, because a good shop or independent instructor is nothing like this. Hell, I don't know of any shop up here in Nor-Cal that tries to put new divers in dry suits.

 

[CaboJim]

Only dry suits? I'm surprised he didn't try to sell you a rebreather....
This guy gives LSD's a bad rep...

 

[DiveLvr]

I bought a rebreather from the store and found rusty metal fittings and slime in the hoses. Probably used. Jetsom had no record of my purchase. I would show up for a class and sometime have to wait hours while the instructor/store attendent ran errands or worked the store. By that time I was so done I stopped going to the store at all. My biggest beef was the store policy to record all your credit card data, front and back. if you made the mistake to say "man, I'd sure like to have one of those" or " I'd sure like that trip" BOOM the next month there would be a charge on my account for the item or trip. I had to demand he stop and changed credit card numbers. I dread the day I ever walked inthe store.

All that said, it is an impressive store/facility with plenty of activities.

 

[vcblklion]

I was eager to learn and a little naive in trusting the owner of the company, but I still believe in people keeping their word, especially when your company's reputation is on the line. I have met others who have told me similar stories about Rusty and the underhanded ways he tricks people into getting stuck with equipment they'll never use again.

So that's mostly my story...I am looking into legal actions because not only is he violating his own guarantee, he's also breaking a verbal contract. I am looking for others who are willing to share their stories so he can be exposed for the liar that he is.

You know..I'm REALLY sorry you went through something like this. I'm also a little surprised at those that are giving you a hard time because you got ripped off...It never ceases to amaze me at how self righteous some people can be....as if they have NEVER been taken advantage of. You got seriously ripped off. I truly hope you can recover through legal means including your legal costs. There is no way you needed to spend all that money to either get certified or get your equipment. Quite frankly the ONLY equipment you typically need for OW certification is your mask, fins, and snorkel. That's it. Everything else can be rented. Drysuit is nice but a seriously expensive commitment that should only be undertaken if you are committed to diving. Lots of places charge for drysuit lessons but it is possible to learn how to use one without the classes.

I hope you will continue to learn to scuba dive because it is an incredible experience.....

 

[sneighbor]

Only dry suits? I'm surprised he didn't try to sell you a rebreather....
This guy gives LSD's a bad rep...

He (Rusty) did promote rebreather equipment to me and my wife before we had even had our second pool lesson with him.

I am amazed and saddened, but also somewhat pleased, that this thread is still alive. I haven't been to this forum in a long time, but was notified via email that a new post had been added (I'm still subscribed to the thread) otherwise I rarely even think about Rusty and his shop anymore. But since I was reminded through the email I decided to post.

After our negative experience with Rusty, now 2 years ago (?) we tried all we could to put the message out to avoid SSA. Unfortunately, it would appear, there are still people being victimized by this guy. I agree with the others that it is amazing that this guy is still in business. There is an old saying that cheaters never prosper... I guess old sayings aren't always accurate.