Skydive Franz — Attraction in South Island

I did not have a good experience with these guys, mainly because of the sky diving instructor I had. He was just plain terrible. I went with a group of friends and they were paired with two older gentlemen, one being a South African chap. Both the these guys were fantastic. They were socialising with my friends, asking questions, making them feel comfortable, just having a good time and making sure my friends enjoyed themselves. Whereas I had this young New Zealand chap with long hair (cannot remember his name) however he barely said two words to me. Made me feel really uncomfortable the whole time. He came over and barely introduced himself and went straight into showing me how to sit at the end of the plane to jump. Asked me zero questions. After he explained this, over the whole 25 seconds, he went away and did his own thing. Didn’t say a single word to me other than that. Where as my friends are fully engaged with their instructor. We got on the plane and took off and my friends instructors were showing them the sites and different places etc whereas my guy was just sitting there. I asked him “is that the glacier?” and after he started saying yes it is and pointed another thing out to me, but mainly everything was a yes or no answer. When we jumped, it was great but you couldn’t really enjoy it as much because this guy had really spoiled my preparations so it wasn’t the same. I jumped before in Australia so I know what it should have been like. Whilst we were floating in the parachute I asked him a number of questions and all I got were three word answers. This guy seriously did not want to be there and it’s clear he’s only doing this so he can jump for free himself and enjoy the sport he likes. He doesn’t give two craps for the tandem jumps where people pay. Things like sky diving and scuba diving, the instructor has a big influence on whether enjoy yourself or not and I can tell you I had a terrible time. We did the first jump and there were a number of jumps that day so I watched as he prepared with a German girl who jumped next. I wanted to see how he was compared to the others (maybe i overreacted) and it was exactly the same as I had experienced. After we got to the main office I asked the German girl what she thought and she gave similar comments to me. She clearly wasn’t happy either. I actually asked her to write a review aswell but not sure she did. This is meant to be a once in a life time experience for most people and it shouldn’t be ruined by an instructor who couldn’t care less whether we have a good time or not. Word of warning to other divers. If you get paired with the young New Zealand guy with long hair, just ask for someone else. You will be...

Went to my 3:00pm reservation and waited an hour for clouds to clear, then had to be rebooked to 12:30pm the following day. This sucks, but hey that’s the weather. Not their fault.

But then showed up for my 12:30pm reservation the next day and they stuck me in the final plane of that group so we had to wait until 3 (would have waited much longer if we actually got jump as only the first of three planes went at this point).

They then told us an Oil Pressure Sensor light came on in the plane and they will hope that it turns off. The instructor told me this has happened 3 times in the last month!! At that point, why wouldn’t you get the plane serviced or sensor replaced?

They rebooked gave me the option to rebook for 5:30 or 7, I chose 7 as the weather had started to turn and hoped a later time would give them time to fix the light and the weather to clear.

I checked back in around 5:30 and they told me they were able to turn off the light and the 5:30 group was going up (a little late).

Waited until 6:45 to check in, and they told me that since the 5:30 group went up late, our group could not jump as it was too late!! WHY DID YOU NOT KNOW THIS WOULD HAPPEN AT 5:30?! Come on, you’ve already wasted over a day of my once in a lifetime trip to NZ.

Out of anger, I drove over to the takeoff/landing area to speak with the person who actually called the shots. She told me that there was a miscommunication and we were supposed to be given the offer to jump at 8:30pm. DUDE

Waited around a little longer trying to decide if we could wait any longer, but we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. In my time of debating, I was told the Oil Pressure light came back on the plane and they would not offer the final flight. They offered to rebook for next day, I said no.

Normally I would give them 1 star because I am appalled by their lack of forethought and planning (maybe try to give priority to people who have been waiting days/hours). Also 1 star for not properly maintaining their aircraft. If they light had been on 3 times in a month they should have looked into it more rather than saying “oh cool, the light went out on its own, let’s keep going!”.

I add a star because everyone at the company was actually very friendly and did seem to feel bad. Specifically the orange hair girl at the front desk. She was able to help us get a refund for a member of our group who could not jump last minute. So thank you to her, but this company really needs to look at their protocol for people who have...

Left feeling very sad and upset after reading the owners response to Dom Williams’s review. I am one of the “two friends” or as you can probably guess, his brother.

SANDY was extremely blunt and rude when we visited. We went in to ask general questions (not forceful) about the chance of being able to skydive in the next few days. She said that weather was “shit” and the following day’s slots had been cancelled. This was clear to us that we wouldn’t be able to skydive in Franz but as we knew we would have other opportunities throughout the trip, it wasn’t an issue.

As we were intending to do the Glacier walk, we thought we would ask Sandy if she knew any specifics about the weather on the following day. Expecting a response like, oh it’s cloudy in the morning but the sun is supposed to come out in the afternoon. Sandy must have assumed this was us pushing for a skydive as she replied “I get asked this question 4000 times a day and there’s no point explaining as you won’t understand.”

From having worked in retail, front of house and other customer facing roles for the last 6 years, I truly understand that some days can be difficult but I’ve learnt it’s always important to treat each and every customer as new. Sometimes a light hearted fun conversation with you last customer can really turn your day around.

Stay positive and always remember the reviews are only there to help you as a business.

EDIT: In response to the owners reply. As I said above, the review is only there to help you as business. The reviewer gains no advantage and therefor would have no purpose to lie.

Thank you for the kind wishes....