Berry Dive Center

Extremely unorganized. Used Groupon to purchase open water dive course. Received 1 email acknowledging scheduled class but otherwise no instructions. I received a call 3 days before class to say pool time had been changed. At that time was informed I should have picked up the book and have it read before class. They are 1 ½ hours away. No instructions as to what you had to do to complete course. I had to search the website to find out the few things I did.
Went to class and then pool all was fine except pool time was cut short due to a storm, no fault of theirs. But found out we would have to go to their shop and pick up gear for the quarry dive, they don’t bring it out. And the quarry fees are not included. Got the gear and was then told we would have to bring it back to them after the quarry dive. Went to quarry only to realize I didn’t have same gear as I used in pool. And some people in our class wasn’t told the same time so had to wait for them.
At the quarry was told we wouldn’t need weight belts we used in pool, even though we now had on neoprene wetsuits. Needless to say we could only float. Now instructor is becoming short as we are holding up the class. Added more weight but still only floating. There were 4 instructors and 6 in class. Instead of breaking up class they held up everyone.
In the end we just got out of the water so everyone else could complete the dive. If we had received an email explaining everything we could have made the decision as to continue. And we would have decided that 4 trips of 1 ½ hours each way wasn’t what we signed up for. And that another $ 75 plus fuel wasn’t what we wanted to pay.

TLDR; Nick (owner) basically ripped me off $ 900 worth of gear. Didn’t get my money back or any kind of update on my order until I stormed into the store saying I was getting my money back or calling Amex and filing a dispute. I will never do business with these people again. Extremely unprofessional.
Went into the store and made a $ 2500 purchase for new gear — about $ 900 of which had to be ordered as Nick didn’t have it in stock. He told me he’d let me know the next day when they would arrive. As you can probably guess, I didn’t hear from him the next day. I waited about 2 days and started calling the store. I was only able to reach the employees as apparently Nick is an absentee owner and is rarely in the building.
After calling several times and inquiring about my order (which, by the way, the employees were completely clueless about), I finally received a text from Nick telling me he would give me an update in an hour. Surprise, surprise, no update. I gave him another few days and called the store a few more times and got nothing. At this point, I am fuming and sent Nick a final text saying if I didn’t get my items this week I would cancel the order and get a refund. Get a confirmed read receipt that he got my message and he completely ignored it.
The next afternoon I went to the store to get my money back. Unfortunately, Nick wasn’t there — I was looking forward to dealing with him in person but had to settle for the refund. When I brought up that Nick ignored my text message to the employee, he told me that Nick had told him we were talking and resolved the issue! So not only is he blowing me off but also actively lying when asked about it. Unbelievable!
I gave Nick several opportunities to make the situation right and he outright ignored me and tried to keep my money. After being treated in such a disrespectful manner, I will NEVER give these guys another penny and am making sure to tell any would-​be customers to watch out and avoid my experience.
Oh and final thing: all the gear I bought I was able to find online for substantially cheaper without paying the 9.25% local sales tax so you may also want to consider that if my horrible experience isn’t enough.

Got my PADI open water certification w/​a Groupon. Unfortunately, I never received my Certification Card, and I’ve tried following up with Berry Dive Center for over a year now, and no luck. The diving instructors, however, were wonderful!

Nick is the man to see for all your scuba needs-​both equipment and training. Do NOT go anywhere else. The staff is welcoming and knowledgable. They will make your dive experience pleasant and rewarding.

We attempted the Advanced Open Water Certification with the Groupon and got what we paid for. If I had to do it again, I would go to a shop that didn’t have to offer Groupons to get customers as this was just not worth the headaches.
Went to pick up the gear before the diving weekend, but the staff at the store was clueless, texting the owner as to what to give me and still got it wrong. It would be nice if they collected the gear from you on the last day of diving, but instead they make you make another trip to the shop to return everything.
First day of diving, we completed 2 out of 3 dives, mostly because the instructor (Roger) liked to chat a lot, mostly about the stupid mistakes he’s done as a professional diver or his substance abuse problems (reassuring right?). During dive planning I had to correct a few brain farts of his. The only reason I went in the water was because I felt comfortable with my own skills and knowledge and only needed the instructor to sign off on the certification.
Second day of diving, we had to make up the missed dive from the first day and get 2 more in. We did only one, as my dive buddy felt sick and could not go on. The conditions were rough (super cold in late April) and I believe her wetsuit did not do the job. I could have went on and finished my dives and got certified but went on home with my dive buddy instead, with a plan to finish at the resort on our vacation.
This is where the headaches begun. I’m not an expert on the referral process for finishing the certification somewhere else, so I asked the owner Nick for everything I would need to finish our certification at the resort. All i got was a signed dive log. Our new instructor at the resort was not amused and wanted to contact Roger to verify a few things and discuss what he did not provide. Getting in touch with him was impossible, mostly because he never gave us any of his info. Contacting the owner Nick was no help at all as he never bothered to respond. It felt like they got their money and didn’t care about the rest. We were able to complete our certification with the resort and the great professional instructor there, but with no help from the Berry Dive Center.
I would not recommend this place to others due to the lack of professionalism.
I’m sure they have plenty of satisfied customers, but personally, when it comes to serious matters like training for extreme sports, I would try to find a more professional operation.

Overall: Good training program and instructors, but they make every step of the way a colossal pain in the butt.
I decided to get PADI open water certified with a few friends via a groupon, which was $ 250 and lasted over three weekends. Great, I was thinking, that’s not a bad price at all. But literally every step of the process involves a fee that they don’t tell you about beforehand, as well as a separate trip to their store to take care of something. When you live in the city, commuting to their little store in Northbrook is no easy task. In addition to the cost of signing up ($ 250 via groupon), you have to come to the store separately to buy additional equipment ($ 200+), you have to come to the store separately to get sized for a quarry wetsuit, you have to pay the entry fee for the quarry dive ($ 20, paid twice for two days), you have to pay to get your actual certification card ($ 30), you have to pay to buy a dive log (between $ 5 and $ 20), you have to pay to have your air tanks refilled ($ 9 per refill), they make you carry all of their heavy equipment (that you don’t even own) home with you, and they make you take it back to the store separately after the final dive.
There’s no reason they can’t settle all these extra steps in their store (buying extra equipment, sizing wetsuits, etc) all in one day instead of making you come back once or twice every weekend, ESPECIALLY when everyone is there at the same time for the classroom session. There’s no reason they can’t just tell you upfront about all of these extra fees and costs that you will incur and provide an all-​in-​one package. There’s no reason they can’t be the ones responsible for transport of their own equipment and air tanks for the quarry dive.
I have no idea if this is the norm for scuba certification, since it’s the only program I’ve ever done. The trainers were nice and accomodating, and the act of scuba itself was enjoyable with them. But every step of the way involved some extra fee or a trip to their store that they didn’t tell you about initially. It was a colossal pain, especially on my wallet. I’d recommend either looking elsewhere or at least being aware of all of this extra money and effort before you sign up with them.

So far So good. I called Nick a while back b/​c I had to cancel my open water certificate due to an unexpected pregnancy. I called again this year and he was happy to change everything out even though my voucher had already expired. Then I had to change my schedule around again due to some unexpected circumstances. These people are so understanding and accommodating, I take the classes in Sept/​Oct so I’ll def update on the actual training experience but as far as admin/​customer service goes, they are def 5 stars!

I’ve used this shop for my scuba maintenance (tank, regulator) and for some training (PADI Rescue Diver, Deep, Wreck, and Nitrox certifications). This is a basic entrepeneur’s shop. I gotta be honest that the retail portion of the store, in spite of one of the best web sites of a scuba shop I’ve seen, is an absolute horrid mess. This may really annoy you but I can handle it (kinda — I guess tolerate is a better word). They have fair pricing for their courses and provide good quality instruction. For future certifications, I seem to have a knack for being busy whenever they have scheduled training but that’s something I can’t fault them for. Overall, a good shop. Oh, and can you guys actually stock a size L 7 mm wetsuit — I looking to buy if you’d actually get one in stock, ya know…

My wife and I just finished the full PADI open water certification yesterday at Haigh Quarry using the groupon, and we couldn’t be happier. We didn’t have any organizational issues and they even helped us pick up our gear a little bit early from the shop since we couldn’t make it to the shop during the week.
My wife was very nervous about diving but I needed a buddy and talked her into it. The first pool session we had Roger as an instructor, and he was amazing. Took his time to explain everything really well and cracked some great jokes to help keep my wife calm. Fantastic instructor and we all did really well that night.
For the Quarry dive, we had Nick and he was also amazing. Even though it’s getting chilly out, the wetsuit they hook you up with does a great job at keeping you warm, but I would suggest getting some hand warmers for between sessions as getting out of the water is when it gets cold. Nick did a great job with our small group of 4. He also explained everything really well, and again his calm demeanor and sense of humor helped my wife relax and really have a good time doing the final open water dives. We all passed, and learned a lot in the process!
Overall, we both really loved the «family» feel of the dive center, as some of the other dive centers out at the quarry seemed to be more «cookie cutter» trying to churn out big groups at a time. The instructors were great, the groups were small, the gear was in great shape, and we had a lot of fun getting certified. Yes you do have to make a few trips to get gear, return gear, etc, but that’s how they keep track of it so I have no problem with that. Can’t wait to take our first dive vacation!