Go for the jump not a remembrance of the experience (video).
I planned this jump with my co-workers (my and one other's birthday) but by the time to jump came around, I backed out. I went to the jump site to support my six other co-workers but by the time the training and video was over, I felt comfortable enough to jump and signed right up. I'm pretty afraid of heights but surprisingly I couldn't wait for my turn to jump. Problem number one: when my co-worker arranged for our jump, she told the front office there would be 10 of us which would have given each of us a $25 discount. In the end, only seven of us jumped and the discount was $20 each, still pretty good. Only, we didn't get to jump together, they split us up into two groups. Made us each a little sad but we still had a great time. (Skydance: please work on this: when groups come together, they typically would like to jump together unless they state such). For the second time, I was going to back out of jumping after paying my money because I wanted a video and they did not have enough camera people for me to go with the second group. I'm thinking this is kinda expensive anyway and I really didn't come to jump and didn't want to make my co-workers splint into yet a third group just for me. I was happy on the ground! Low and behold, they "found" another camera man that they didn't know was there and found a way to not give me a refund. Okay so now I'm jumping with group two, I have an experienced diver that I'll be attached to, and a camera man.
So now the jump. I jumped with Charlie Brown, yes that's his name, and he is AWESOME! This is also when I get to meet my camera man Nick, he was pretty nice too. It was so quiet and peaceful in the air, I forgot about Nick until Charlie reminded me to look up into the camera. I was allowed to wave around and guide our decent, pretty cool. When we came down for our landing, I was thinking that wasn't bad at all. Jumping out of a plane feels nothing like falling in your sleep which is what I think terrifies people the most. So now that we're on the ground everyone is high fiving and congratulating one another. Emotions are pleasingly high. The second group is waiting for their video's to be edited and handed out to us. Now keep in mind, I was the first out of my group (group two) of co-workers to jump and the ladies in the office even said my video looked awesome. I'm the first to jump but the last to receive my video. By the time I got my video we couldn't look at another video in the office because the computer kept messing up. We were going to have a birthday lunch anyway. Now we're here from 10:30 until after 2:00 p.m. So no, I didn't look at my USB drive before I left and no, I wasn't encouraged to do so. In fact, I wouldn't even know we could view the videos if it wasn't for one of my co-workers. I opted to skip lunch and head home because I was having a small group of friends and family over to help me celebrate my birthday and I wanted to show my jump video. I inserted my USB drive into my home computer and watched a promotional video for the company but my video was not there. I called Skydance and explained my dilemma. I was told the videophotographer was unavailable because he was on a jump and someone would call me back. I guess I was too anxious because I called backed to a slightly annoyed person answering the phone but when I explained I was having people over at 5 p.m. she stated she understood and even sounded nicer. Nick called back stating he didn't understand how my video was not on the drive could have happened and he was apologetic. In the end, I ended up giving him my Google password to have my video up loaded. I didn't receive my video by 5 p.m. and I was told that it was still uploading because the file was so large. In the end, I didn't get to show my jump video for my party but did get it AFTER my guest left. During the exchange of phone calls back and forth (which is not the way I should have spent my birthday or my party) I told them I wanted a refund for the video. I was told everyone was out of the office and they would make some notes and someone would call me on Monday. When I didn't receive a call after 2 p.m. on Monday, I called them. I was transferred to Donna that stated they didn't give refunds and I received my product in the end and that was it. I wouldn't say she was firm but rude. I asked to speak to a manager and she offered the owner "who would tell me the same thing". Before I could get my story out yet again, the owner cut me off and stated he already knew everything and in fact he was present during my phone calls with Nick. That's when I lost it and stated I was told no one was present to authorize my refund when I initially asked for one. WHAT A LIE, from his own mouth, he told me he was present. I never asked for a refund for the jump which was awesome, I only wanted a refund for the video, which I still think I deserve. read more