One of the biggest issues with today's service industry is that many companies think they deserve to still be paid even when services are not what expected, delivered in a timely fashion, or sometimes, just bad and ethically wrong.
On September 26, 2021, a Huntsville couple, went to Chattanooga Skydiving Company in Jasper, TN. The couple purchased the 14,000 FT Tandem Skydive & Reality Video Package. Even the package name says that it is a video package. It was $209 per person, with a FREE video. The couple then added on the Ultimate Video & Photos option for $125.
The Ultimate Video & Photos description states:
You're The Star! Filmed and Photographed from both the instructor's and an outside camera flyer's perspective. Edited and Shared through our YouTube Channel. Includes deluxe edit or raw footage DVD suitable for editing, and still photo DVD from 2 camera angles.
The couple chose the DELUXE EDIT, uploaded to Chattanooga Skydiving Company's YouTube Channel.
The couple originally had booked the skydive for September 5 at 2 PM. The couple got up at the crack of dawn and drove the two and half hours there. However, after they arrive, they are told at 2:30 PM that it was canceled. They never received the phone call that morning, the one in the email from the company that says you would receive it in case of cancellation due to weather. As seen in the email below.
WHAT EMAIL SAYS WHEN BOOK:
The couple had planned on doing their wedding proposal from the airplane and having the engagement party the following weekend. A total of $200 was spent that day by the couple on gas, food, and other activities to go to the event (such as a sitter for their four-year-old). Things that happen that normal people don't ask businesses to reimburse them for, but a good business would take into account when conducting activities for scheduled events.
The skydiving company then canceled their jump again the following weekend, September 19, before they finally got to jump on September 26.
The couple had been told when they first booked the skydive, that the company would make the appropriate accommodations for their proposal and proposal video, which was to be shown at their engagement party. They were told that they would make arrangements to place the banner, to record the proposal for the ultimate video edit, to carry the ring, and to make sure everyone in their party was able to be there for the video. The company did none of this after stating they would during the initial booking and payment. And it seems that Chattanooga Skydiving Company can cancel, twice, last minute without the morning notice stated to consumers via email, but if you tried to cancel like that on them with no notice, they would charge you $50, plus lose your deposit. To the company, it appears other people don't have life situations, like being in the hospital, etc. A rule that works only in the favor of the company and not of the paying consumer.
They were told to arrive at 12 PM sharp to train for the jump. However, no one really trained them. And despite the fact, the website says not to get there early. Even though their appt was at 2 PM, they didn't get to jump until almost 4 PM and were told they were running behind. Even though it was the company's issue for running behind, they didn't offer the group of five any discounts or even a free bottle of water, for having them wait. Even though it meant the couple, yet again, had to pay their sitter to stay longer than expected. They were told to arrive early to get ready and train for the jump. Yet on the website, it says not to. All in all, it appears the company clearly doesn't have their crap together.
"We just sit there staring at each other for hours until it was time to jump. We didn't finish until after 4 PM. We had to pay the sitter to stay longer and all kinds of stuff. We drove four hours total, with over an eight-hour day, trying to skydive. Because they were running behind on our special day. But our time nor us as customers, didn't matter," said the couple.
When they finally did start getting ready to go up, the female's instructor started being very inappropriate when getting her ready to jump and while on the plane. He started touching her around her private areas: breasts, buttocks, vagina. He was making it look like it was to put on her gear, but certain areas he touched, had nothing there to be connected to the harness. She started to feel uncomfortable before even getting on the plane. Her fiance, who started getting ready after her, was ready and on the plane, like eight minutes before her.
Once on the plane, the instructor messed with the straps the whole time, pulling them around the breast area.
"Yeah, I wanted to be safe. But this continued for at least 30 minutes. When no one else in the whole plane, all other GUYS, were not adjusting or doing none of this stuff still. THEN he made me set in his lap the whole PLANE ride. THE WHOLE time. Almost as soon as took off. No one else on the PLANE was sitting in their instructor's laps until was time to JUMP. Not on the RIDE up to 14000 FT!"
The instructor also grabbed the woman's arm while on the plane, leaving a bruise. She had been trying to hold onto one of the handles on the plane located above her when they opened the door, in the beginning, to let the pressure out of the plane. She was told not to move and to keep her hands on her thighs the whole time. While he grabbed and moved her up and down on his lap. No one, not one other person on the plane, was told this and allowed to move their arms about freely and WERE NOT asked to sit on their instructor's lap while enjoying the ride.
The whole time, the woman's partner set behind her, awaiting a proposal while his future wife was being sexually abused 14000 FT in the air.
"If he wasn't in charge of her safety, this would not have happened. I did not know what to do. I set there getting more and more furious as I was about to jump out of a plane. One of the other instructors beside me said that this was not part of the normal jumping process, how he was doing with my fiance. Our proposal was ruined before it even happened."
When they finally landed, the staff at Chattanooga Skydiving Company didn't have their proposal stuff set up correctly. And the flight instructors didn't capture their proposal as paid for. They just started gathering up their parachutes and rushing to get the next people.
"We were just dollar signs to these guys. Not people. It was a moment in our lives we would remember forever, and they couldn't take five minutes out their day to listen to our concerns or to complete the services that we had paid for."
Even though that is the whole reason the couple got the add-on video package.
The couple finally left that evening: exhausted, upset, and shocked. Shocked that this happened to them and the company just pushed it under the rug. When they complained at the desk the day of their jump, they were just given strange looks and told no refunds, and then ignored. Chattanooga Skydiving Company didn't care about the couple's experience, because it was just about the money to them, not delivering the services they stated. And the company rep in a phone call made sure to tell the couple "they always get their money."
The couple had a terrible experience. And just waited to receive their videos. The staff told them they would be up in 24-72 hours (the staff told them that the day of the scheduled jump and when they called three more times to ask about it) from the date of their jump.
They replanned their engagement party.
"I called three times. You can check the company's phone bill. You can't edit that out. I also did receive raw footage after a week but never received my ultimate edit or saw it on their YouTube channel as stated everywhere. I never asked for RAW video footage, because I don't have a newer device to view/edit them on. After almost a month had gone by, I had given up on ever getting a video. And then decided to dispute the charge. A few days after that, I FINALLY heard from the company. Only to be told I owed them $50 for disputing!"
The woman who was sexually abused by her instructor goes on to tell the employee from Chattanooga Skydiving Company about her experience and the inappropriate instructor. But the employee didn't try to start helping her, she just went on about how she owed them $50 and what cost them for disputing. She was sexually abused throughout her experience, never received videos or heard back, then the company does that! The employee also told her, they always won their cases. And that is frankly all the company cared about. Not making it right. The phone call was just to get evidence for their side. In which they used to change content online.
"Yeah, stuff that was previously on the website was gone and new content was added to try and justify what they had done. Just like hiding the full video that contained evidence of the sexual abuse."
Listen to the phone conversation here: Skydiving Gone Wrong
The couple tells the lady on the phone that they are happy just getting the edited video. They will cancel the dispute. And chalk it up to a late fee, for the company taking a month to get it to them. The woman tell hers that she would her video sent out to her that evening.
The call took place on October 13th at 12:30 PM from number 423-762-1332. The couple spoke with the company rep on the phone. (See audio recording).
Two days go by (October 15), the company rep only sends a link to the raw content after a follow-up with her, that the couple said she couldn't view on her phone, they already discussed it. That they couldn't edit it themselves or view it, unless on YouTube. The platform the company states everywhere on their site they will upload your video if you DON'T chose the RAW footage option.
The couple in this story did not CHOOSE the RAW FOOTAGE option. Other Ultimate Videos were uploaded from their group in attendance with the couple to the Chattanooga Skydiving Company YouTube channel, for example, a JASON DOSS, who opted for RAW footage and already received the RAW content, the company still uploaded his content to YouTube. And the company has uploaded the video for OWEN DOSS, who had purchased the Ultimate Edit Add-On, who was on the plane with the couple in this story.
As of October 18, the couple still has not seen the edited video of the female who was the victim of the instructor's sexual abuse. It is still not on the company's YouTube. And the company has not made the proper actions to resolve the issue at all.
Since talking to the company, and expressing their concerns, the company has also started updating its website to get out of all wrongdoing and to pretend this info never existed or happened. We here at BioGamer Girl are thinking the full video is not being released because it shows all of the wrongdoing.
So why does the Chattanooga Skydiving Company not want to upload the video to their channel that they refuse to give to the couple? I guess their marketing campaign for "Pay to Get Sexually Abused 14000 Feet In The Air - Only $209+" hasn't been made public yet. Until now.
However, legally speaking, the five people in the group can still testify that they in fact were told to be there two hours early, was canceled without proper notice per email (despite what changes the company now makes on their website), and most importantly, the fact that this company is trying to get away with sexual abuse and hiding evidence.