Soggy Limp Pickles

I am a professional pastry chef but possess very little kn owledge on the topic of canning. Grocery prices are getting out of hand and growing up on a farm is bringing me back to my roots. My family always canned but I was too young to comprehend and store the knowledge.
I found an online recipe for "Copycat Claussen Pickles". My first blink of the eye was it called for cider vinegar to which Claussens clearly indicates distilled vinegar on their label and is quite visibly identifiable by the color-CLEAR!
The recipe calls for soaking the pickling cukes in ice water then draining and putting into the Ball Canning Jars alond with dill, garlic, and some spices. It calls for boiling the salt, water, and vinegar.........then allowing to cool.........then pour over the cukes............put the lids on..............let sit in sunny area 3 days...........refrigerate and eat.
My thoughts were "bacteria" and so I used canning jars instead of old mayonaise jars. I also sterilized the jar, boiled the liquid & salt, poured over the cukes hot, then sealed the jar with ring and lid and right into a boiling pot for 10 minutes. After I followed standard canning method for an acidic product, I allowed them to sit on the countertop about a week as my mother always made pickles and we kept them in the basement on shelves and not the fridge...........both dill and sweet!
When I opened a jar to test the flavor I noticed my cukes were very limp and soggy and not firm and crisp as I had expected. I have NO CLUE as to what happened.
I have read some recipes that call for Alum but I did not use it as I thought the canning process would be sufficient for preservation. As a child, my mother canned everything........fruits, jams, vegetables, pickles, beans, tomatoes...............nothing ever spoiled outside of an occassional circumstance that was very obvious even to the ameteur.........DON'T EAT IT!
I would like to know if you have any suggestions of what I may have done wrong?? Possibly hot mixture over cold cukes??? Doing a water bath canning process that may not have been required???
I know for sure I had Pickling cukes! I used canning salt, Hienz White Distilled Vinegar (5%), fresh garlic, fresh dill, filtered water, and a few basic spices .........mustard seed, celery seed, etc.
The flavor was very good however, they aren't Claussens! Maybe I should have used the cider vinegar although Claussens cleary indicates otherwise.
I can tool around with the spices to get a better Claussen clone but I want fresh crisp pickles................just like Clasussens!
Thank you very much for any insight you may care to lend!