Bay Area Scuba Center 390 Lang Road, Burlingame, CA 94010

"Scott took my money and ran. I booked scuba lessons/certification in 2020 and because of Covid-19 he kept pushing back my start date. Scott stole over 800$ of my money without blinking and his phone line is now disconnected for his business front. I'm am getting the Police involved at this point. BEWARE OF OWNER. SCAM ALERT!!"

"Scuba diving train requires patience and trust for the matter can be life threatening. The business owner/contact/trainer Scott Jackson charged me $500 dollar for private lesson on 11/13/2018, but the session got cancelled by him at last minute. He promised to do the refund after multiple calls and email follow-up as a reminder, but never did so for over 2 months."

"You may not receive a good diving experience with this program. I originally planned to do my pool sessions with Scott (my partner planned for the entire open water course) but Scott said the entire course would only take 5 hours. Are you kidding? What can you learn in 5 hours? Now let's move on to the scheduling. On May 23, I received a call from Scott after sending an inquiry for a scuba session on May 27. He said it was fine, there is availability and I should go ahead and book it with him. I spent a day researching my options and decided to book with Scott because he was the only scuba school with availability. When I called, there was no availability and my partner's scuba session was not even scheduled and he was charged for it! It was scheduled for the week after in June even though we specifically said we are leaving May 30. My partner would've shown up on May 27 with no availability, and we wouldn't have been able to reschedule for any other day. When he did try to reschedule us for Sunday, he said to call him back at 2pm but we decided to cancel altogether because we couldn't do Sunday... he said no refunds! That's just stupid because he made a mistake in his own schedule. Scott may be very responsive to calls and emails but he is incredibly disorganized. Not to mention a 5 hour open water scuba class which is unheard of! Now my partner is getting a refund through his credit card and I'm glad I never gave him my credit card info through the phone. This type of disorganization and poor business management seems to be the trend for this scuba school. Is Scott even certified to teach? I don't even care because I probably won't learn anything from him in 5 hours. Does he even care for the safety of his customers? It doesn't seem so! Avoid at all costs. Book your scuba sessions with a trained and professional scuba school. Be safe and don't take the short cut otherwise you'll run into someone like Scott! EDIT: I wanted to edit this review to include the name-shaming, curse words, and rude behavior that my partner has encountered with Scott via email. Scott threatened to sue because of a 1* review on Google and continued on to say we were the ones who backed out. However let me repeat the fact that he told us over the phone that Saturday May 27 was full even though it was the date we requested over the phone after payment. Very strange how that appointment changed to June 3. He offered Friday Sunday or Monday but he still needed to confirm and told us to call back at 2pm (this was a call made at 11:07am EST). We emailed him back at 11:40am EST to just cancel altogether because we wanted Saturday and found another option. He said no refunds. The scheduling was Scott's mistake. He needs to understand that. But instead, he has resorted to rude curse words, poor grammar, and complete unprofessionalism to handle this matter. If Scott communicated in a professional manner, I would not have left a 1 star review. EDIT 2 (May 30): In response to Scott's reply, just wanted the public to know this is the type of person you will be dealing with. I have records of all emails/calls. Go ahead and sue. Jason never completed the online course as you know yourself, Scott. You confirmed Saturday May 27 was available and now you are changing the story (also, my flight landed at 11:50pm on Friday, so why would I even request a Friday? Who is the liar now?). The so-called threatening email? It was us asking for a refund because you did not honor our paid scheduled date. When you said no refunds, we filed a chargeback. No services were provided. So go ahead, defend yourself but once the public reads your response (in addition to the negative 1* Yelp reviews), they will be scared to go to you for scuba diving. Who really wants to deal with someone like you? We refused your refund after you called the police and sheriff sided with us! I will not take down this review. I can 100% review you at 1* without taking the course because you are the epitome of unprofessionalism. Grow up Scott and learn proper customer service (and grammar)."

"Bay Area Scuba was super convenient and flexible. I did the first half of my Open Water Diver course with them on a Friday evening. Scott was flexible with scheduling. It took 5 hours after completing the online requirements - perfect for people with a busy schedule. The dive shop is write off of 101."

"I questioned even calling this school based on reviews on yelp. But with a short window to get certified before our vacation, I had to give every place a chance. I called and spoke with Scott. I explained my 3 week window to get certified along with my wife. Scott's response, "Let's get you going today and I can work the training around your schedules to make sure you're done in time." And off we went to the online study portion within just a few minutes of the call When we walked in for our first day/pool dive we were greeted by Scott. Scott was talkative and excited about teaching. You could clearly see he loved diving and instructing it was his passion. After a very detailed class instruction it was off to the pool with Dennis (dive instructor). My wife and I could not compliment Dennis enough. He reinforced all the online and classroom information, he was clear with his instruction, he performed each technique prior to having you do so, and he made corrections (with positive reinforcement) when needed. Bottom line is we couldn't have asked for or imagined a better experience and we are really excited to go back for our open water certification."