My wife and I met SSA owner Rusty Berry during the Lobster Fest Event held at San Padro California on 09/18/10. He offered both of us scuba lessons/certification at a reduced show special price of $100.00 each. At that time he promised us a full refund for all equipment purchased from Scuba Schools of America should we decide to cancel lessons or otherwise end our relationship with Scuba Schools of America. Based on his money back, no risk guarantee, we decided to sign up and paid Mr. Berry $513.92. For classes and educational materials to include 6 classroom/pool sessions and 4 open water ocean dives. We again met with Mr. Berry at his Montclair retail shop on 09/22//10 where he proceeded to select several items of equipment required to begin scuba classes. The total for the equipment came to $1795.49 in which we paid. He then directed us outside to a on premise swimming pool to try out the new equipment. On Saturday 10/02/10, we arrived at the Montclair location for our first lesson. We were suprised to learn from Mr. Berry that there were to be additional costs to become scuba certified. Totaling over $700.00 to pay for boat fees and additional rental costs. Mr Berry then attempted to sell my wife and I additional scuba equipment totaling over $9000.00.in which he then gave us a money back guarantee in the event we decided scuba was not for us. We decided not to purchase at that time. My wife and I were both under the impression that the $513.92 was all costs needed to get certified including all equipment rentals. After experiencing Mr. Berry's high pressure sales tactics, and considering the unexpected additional fees, we felt that Mr Berry had been less than forthwith concerning costs, and we decided to discontinue our certification course and ask for a refund of all monies, for classes and equipment purchased. At that time Mr. Berry agreed to refund monies for the classes the $513.92 but refused to refund equipment as he said that there is no refund on snorkeling equipment. We were shocked because we did not buy any snorkeling gear, we bought what Mr. Barry said we needed to start scuba diving. We have yet to see a refund of any monies spent. Buyers Beware!
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