It must have been back in 1998 that I first heard of the existence of the Aquala all rubber dry suit and it was love at first sight! This was the suit (well more or less!) that I had seen pictures of as a teenager and had attracted me in such a strange way.
I wanted one!
But the price! I couldn't afford that sort of money...
I wrote and got their sort of catalogue, and looked at it longingly, but it wasn't coming any closer...
A little more than a year ago, some money that my father had left me in an inheritance came free and we decided to get a new kitchen and bathroom in the house. It was then that we decided that this was also the opportunity for me to "treat" myself to an Aquala suit!
I visited the website (which had changed a lot) and saw that the models had changed and the prices too! It was even more expensive! I emailed them asking about this and got a pleasant email back from the new owner explaining that they still could make the old models and the price rises were due better quality rubber.
After a number of email exchanges I had sorted out which of their suits I wanted, placed an order and transfered the money to their bank account.
The owner said that it would take about five weeks to make suit and when I enquired by email five weeks later he said that he had dispatched the suit the day before!
When it hadn't arrived a week later I emailed and got a reassuring reply that it had been sent by air freight and should arrive any day soon, it was probably held up in customs...
Five weeks after dispatch (and a number of emails later) I was starting to get worried...
Six and half weeks after dispatch it arrived! It had not been sent
Airmail Parcel Post
as I he had said (which should take 4 - 10
days), no, it had been sent Economy (Surface) Parcel Post
and
that would take 4 - 6 weeks to arrive (according to the
US Postal Service
web site). I had paid $95 for shipping and $19 insurance and they had
paid $21.55 postage. I was not pleased.
The Aquala owner explained that he did business with a local freight company and that they did everything. That may be true, but it doesn't let him off the hook in my opinion. It may not have been his fault, but it was his responsibility.
Six weeks later, the ankle seem between the leg and the "bootee" started to separate.
I emailed Aquala and he said that was not the norm (glad to hear that!) and that it would be cheaper to send me a repair kit free of charge. He went on to say that if I continued to encounter problems I could send the suit back to them (at their cost) and they would take the necessary measures to repair the suit. I was pleased with the response.
He also for the first time enquired what I used the suit for, saying
that when used for diving they gave no problems, but that the rare
problems occurred when the suits were used for other
things
...
I replied saying that I used the suit for other things
, but
that I could see no reason why that would have caused my suit to fail
so soon.
Aquala
replied that they had had suits returned covered in "Armorall" and the
like, with rope burn - you name it, that he was a diver and that he
had bad experiences with the fetish community.
There followed a pleasant exchange of emails in which I explained that the fetish community was a "broad church" and that were all sorts in it. I pointed out that Aquala suits were attractive to the fetish community and that he would probably continue to sell to them if he didn't actively stop. It was all quite friendly and he said he was considering making two web sites, one for the divers and one for the fetish buyers, all very nice!
In May I damaged my suit (in the washing machine) and needed a larger
piece of rubber to repair it than was enclosed in the repair kit from
January. I emailed
Aquala
and he replied that that was no problem
, he would get it out
to me tomorrow
. Ten days later there was still nothing and I
emailed again asking what was happening and were the shipping agents
again perhaps being the problem?
Aquala
replied that he had just dispatched it.
Now this is where I got a bit peeved. It you say that you will get
it out to me tomorrow
and then only dispatch it ten days later
after a reminder from me, I find that pretty poor service. If he had
said that he would dispatch it sometime in the coming two weeks that
would have been OK.
I mailed back and said (amongst other things):
Say what you do and do what you say! > It went out in the mail today. "Slow boat to China" speed or something more reasonable? > Thanks for being patient. Yes, it is a virtue. And it is being tested! ;-)
Please note the "smiley" on the end of the previous line. For
me the Slow boat to China
speed was a reference to my
past experiences with his shipping agent.
The reply from Aquala was short:
Mark,
Letting you know that I will no longer do business with you. I
really hope you enjoy and take care of your suit, because it is the
last one you'll ever buy from me.
Now I remember why I don't like doing business with fetishists.
Good luck,
Ty
This took me a back!
I mailed a reply back straightaway in which I apologised for any unintended hurt and asked what I had done to cause such a reaction.
No reply.
A week later I tried again.
No reply.
Since then there have been no communications between me and Aquala and I have a rather bitter after task in my mouth.
Yes, I like my suit, but as you can probably understand, I find it hard to recommend Aquala to fellow fetishists. We may want an Aquala suit, but Aquala doesn't want our custom. It's your call...
If you want to contact me, do so at rubber-mark at plowman dot nl (de-spam this email address first).
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