H20 Photo Pros, Mike Luzansky out of business

[adamhanlon 0]

Hi all,

 

Gates have just sent this out:

 

NOTICE:

 

Gates Underwater Products Dealer Termination: H20 Photo Pros

 

H20 Photo Pros is no longer an authorized Gates Underwater Products dealer. Gates customers that purchased through H20 Photo Pros must contact Gates directly for service and support. Those seeking sales assistance must contact other Gates dealers

 

Gates Underwater Products, Inc

13685 Stowe Drive

Suite A

Poway CA 92064

Phone: +1-858-391-0052 Fax: +1-858-391-0053

www.GatesHousings.com

Don't Take a Chance...Take a Gates!

 

Adam

[bvanant 190]

Hi all,

 

Gates have just sent this out:

 

 

 

Adam

Since the store is now called White Shark Imaging, I wonder if they will be official dealers. I suspect not but the store website still lists stuff that the are no longer officially affiliated with.

Bill

[jonny shaw 16]

Just wondering whether anyone has any news on the Marine Visions / H20Underwater Pro's shops. Both websites are down and Joe's Underwater Videography site is also down. I've sent Joe a few email and nothing, I even think he has dropped off Facebook.

I hope everything is ok for them.

 

Jon

[sjspeck 3]

Just wondering whether anyone has any news on the Marine Visions / H20Underwater Pro's shops. Both websites are down and Joe's Underwater Videography site is also down. I've sent Joe a few email and nothing, I even think he has dropped off Facebook.

I hope everything is ok for them.

 

Jon

IDK anything about what happened to Joe but afaik H2OPhotopros is changing over to www.whitesharkimaging.com

 

It's currently showing:

White Shark Imaging Production Specialists is coming soon

but if you google White Shark Imaging you can see that most of the cached links are the old H2O site with a changed top header.

 

That's all I know except for this fairly recent post on SB: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/underwate...l-business.html

 

Hope things are ok for Mike, he was my dealer.

Edited January 20, 2011 by sjspeck

[spaceflight 1]

Just wondering whether anyone has any news on the Marine Visions / H20Underwater Pro's shops. Both websites are down and Joe's Underwater Videography site is also down. I've sent Joe a few email and nothing, I even think he has dropped off Facebook.

I hope everything is ok for them.

 

Jon

 

As of August 2010 I am no longer associated with Marine Visions / H2O Photo Pros.

[pmooney 6]

Hey Joe ,

Good to see you still hanging in there.

Well catch up soon.

P

[Steve Douglas 16]

Hi all,

 

Gates have just sent this out:

 

 

Who did they send this out to? I never saw it. Thanks for posting.

Steve

[echeng 0]

Who did they send this out to? I never saw it. Thanks for posting.

Steve

They sent it to Wetpixel staff.

[scaper 2]

Joe,

 

Hope you are doing well. I enjoyed being a Marine Visions customer, your customer support was outstanding. If you get back into that business I'm sure you will find that a lot of Wetpixel folks would be happy to bring business your way.

 

Pat

Edited January 22, 2011 by scaper

[furby076 0]

I ordered some gear from them (about $5500 worth) over the summer and didn't have an issue. They were helpful in ordering, and even gave me phone support to setup the gear properly.

 

The only post-order/setup I had issues with is they didn't respond to my multiple requests to order a save-a-dive-camera kit. Not a big deal at this point thought I will want to get one.

 

With regards to the credit card charge - did you ask them what happened? Was it a data entry error? They should probably give you an answer to that, if for no other reason so they don't get a bad rep.

 

Side note: Yes this is my first post on this forum, no I am not a shil for H20photo.

 

Regards

 

Furball

[Steve Williams 0]

Hi Furball,

Welcome to Wetpixel! It appears that the H2O photo folks haved closed down the website and are out of business. They were/are changing to a company called White Shark Imaging but that website is currently down for maintenance.

 

Cheers,

Steve

[scuba e 0]

I am in their backyard and it made no difference. I played nice and then after months I got aggressive. it worked but I had a very poor experience. I never did get what i ordered. I ended up with a great product but I think it was just to keep me quiet. After reading these complaints I think I was wrong to stay quiet.

[echeng 0]

(merged the two H2O Photo Pros threads)

[Drew 0]

I merged all 3 now.

[dbramley 0]

Mike is a joke, I ordered a used gates housing and Z1U from him, it was one of his customers. It took over 2 months to get it from California to Arizona, after I had paid him!!! He would never return my calls and on one occasion when I did talk to him he told me he would get right on if after he got back from his 2 week dive trip!!! I called my awesome sales rep from gates and after that he finally called right back and I got my stuff. He is a horrific business individual and I wouldn't spent a dime with him!!! If you are friends with him and reading this, sorry to be this way but he also did the same thing to a friend of mine about some video lights. Stay Away!!!

[scuba e 0]

I jest rode by the shop. It is gutted. They are gone. It is a bummer, these situations will continue to push people to the mega-online stores and kill the small "mom&pop" places. My experience sucked but at least having a shop tp walk into and talk options I ended up with a much better unit than I would have if I just ordered the Ike housing I was going to. So I guess there was some good to it.

[furby076 0]

Hi Furball,

Welcome to Wetpixel! It appears that the H2O photo folks haved closed down the website and are out of business. They were/are changing to a company called White Shark Imaging but that website is currently down for maintenance.

 

Cheers,

Steve

 

 

Hey Steve,

 

So they shut down from H20 and are re-opening as White Shark Imaging? I will have to contact them. One of the reasons I bought from them is because they said they were purchasing a dive shop in my area (Philadelphia) which means they would have a repair shop. The advantage is they would do free repairs since I bought from them. I hope that wasn't a pipe dream.

 

Thanks for the info though!

 

Regards

 

Furball

[Steve Williams 0]

So they shut down from H20 and are re-opening as White Shark Imaging? I will have to contact them. One of the reasons I bought from them is because they said they were purchasing a dive shop in my area (Philadelphia) which means they would have a repair shop. The advantage is they would do free repairs since I bought from them. I hope that wasn't a pipe dream.

Furball

 

I would consider that clearly in the pipedream category. The shop is closed and they may be reorganizing under the Whiteshark name to do some commercial video shooting or ???. First I've heard of a Philadelphia connection.

 

The closest full service underwater photography shop to you may be Backscatter East in Derry NH. They provide lifetime tech support with every housing they sell. I never heard of anyone doing free repairs. Derry would be a long drive but if you want to hold the equipment and get good advice it might be worth the trip for you. (Might have to wait for spring to get there ) Reef Photo and the other advertisers here are only a little brown truck away.

 

Cheers,

Steve

[Ryan 48]

I never heard of anyone doing free repairs.

 

Free repairs would be a really good way to end up out of business...

[Drew 0]

For those who've paid and not received their goods, you can file a complaint against them at the ICCC. The ICCC will forward your complaint to the relevant authorities.

Alternatively, you can make a direct complaint to the AG of CA state.. That should get the ball rolling on the complaints side. But seriously, if you paid by credit card, just claim fraud and report the incident. Then buy again if you can from more reputable stores.

Don't expect to get anything back from this store. It's gone!

[CoastalRick 0]

I'm another "former" H2Ophotopro customer who got hosed...they sold a Gates housing for me - however, I never got paid! I got tons of excuses during the last month before they well out of business. Bought about $6,000 of stuff from Mike when he first opened in NB. Hoped he was going to make a go of it, however, all we got in the last six months was promises. If he sticks his head up again hope someone will post the info on this forum to insure that "we" can file action against him!

[Drew 0]

Seriously, all those aggrieved must make a report to the ICCC for internet fraud. Then there'll be a case file on him with the FBI as well. Do your part for the community to stop fraudsters from getting away.

[Steve Douglas 16]

It's a sad day when some one, purporting to be a part of our community, rips us off. I am still of the believe that a person's word is their bond and one that should be taken seriously. Where are the morals of these individuals? I'd be embarrassed to show my face.

Steve

[TheRealDrew 0]

FYI, some other websites that Mike was/is involved in from what it seems:

 

 

freedivingunlimited.com

h2ocamerarentals.com

whitesharkimaging.com

riffespeargear.com

 

 

If those sites are up (one is still up, so it seems) or become active again you may want to check to see who is involved with them. I have kept quiet and out of the thread, but I have had similar (negative) experiences with Mike. Like Coastal Rick, Mike sold my equipment and the money appears to be gone.

[echeng 0]

I second Drew's suggestion that Luzansky be reported for internet fraud. In case it helps, the public WHOIS information shows this, as contact information:

 

##################

Registrant:

Mike Luzansky

14 monarch bay plaza

#361

monarch beach, California 92629

United States

 

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)

Domain Name: WHITESHARKIMAGING.COM

Created on: 23-Dec-10

Expires on: 23-Dec-11

Last Updated on: 23-Dec-10

 

Administrative Contact:

Luzansky, Mike mike@h2ophotopros.com

14 monarch bay plaza

#361

monarch beach, California 92629

United States

(818) 535-3251

 

Technical Contact:

Luzansky, Mike mike@h2ophotopros.com

14 monarch bay plaza

#361

monarch beach, California 92629

United States

(818) 535-3251

 

Domain servers in listed order:

NS1.SECURE.NET

NS2.SECURE.NET

 

 

Registrant:

H2O Photo Pros

 

2429 W. Coast Hwy

#101

Newport Beach, California 92663

United States

 

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)

Domain Name: FREEDIVINGUNLIMITED.COM

Created on: 26-Sep-06

Expires on: 26-Sep-11

Last Updated on: 04-Oct-10

 

Administrative Contact:

Luzansky, Mike mike@h2ophotopros.com

2429 W. Coast Hwy

#101

Newport Beach, California 92663

United States

8185353251

 

Technical Contact:

Luzansky, Mike mike@h2ophotopros.com

2429 W. Coast Hwy

#101

Newport Beach, California 92663

United States

8185353251

 

Domain servers in listed order:

NS1.SECURE.NET

NS2.SECURE.NET

 

 

 

Registration Service Provided By: Enom, Inc

Contact: CustomerSupport@enom.com

Visit: www.enom.com

 

Domain name: h2ophotopros.com

 

Registrant Contact:

H2O Photo Pros

Michael Luzansky ()

 

Fax:

2429 West Coast Highway

Newport Beach, CA 92663

US

 

Administrative Contact:

H2O Photo Pros

Michael Luzansky (mike@h2ophotopros.com)

+1.9496422900

Fax:

2429 West Coast Highway

Newport Beach, CA 92663

US

 

Technical Contact:

H2O Photo Pros

Michael Luzansky (mike@h2ophotopros.com)

+1.9496422900

Fax:

2429 West Coast Highway

Newport Beach, CA 92663

US

 

Status: Locked

 

Name Servers:

NS1.SECURE.NET

NS2.SECURE.NET

 

Creation date: 17 Aug 2004 09:33:07

Expiration date: 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00