Do NOT do any business with EZ SCUBA in Tampa

[I Dive]

ANYONE can make a mistake and rent faulty equipment they THOUGHT would perform. What makes one shop better than another is WHAT THEY DO AFTER THE MISTAKE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO THEIR ATTENTION. In this case, in my opinon, they could have done FAR more than they have.
Safe Diving!

BINGO! The dive was on Saturday and I didn't post this until later yesterday. Reason? As I originally stated, the weight thing is clearly debatable. And, equipment failures can and do happen. I was giving the shop the benefit of the doubt until I heard back on how they handled this. When I heard that they blamed her, I quickly concluded that this is a shop divers need to be aware of. Where there is smoke, there is fire. A few people have pointed out that the diver should have put the reg on a cylinder and checked it before departing. Maybe I missed a post or two, but I didn't see anyone say the shop should have done the same. The few times I rented gear, I didn't even have a chance to test the gear myself because an employee assembled it right in front of me and tested it. That way, we both saw that it was operating correctly. I think it's bad enough that the shop rented this gear in the first place, but to not even accept responsibility for it when they were told it failed is totally inexcusable in my book. This is not the type of shop I want my friends or any of my dive buddies getting anything from. Beyond that, with all of the wonderful dive shops around here (many of which are struggling right now with the slowed down economy), I hate to see a shop like this get a single "dive dollar". I'd much rather see our diving money spent at shops that care more about their customers than this one seemingly does.

 

[cruiser]

They sold me the weights to go with the BC I bought from them. It was clearly 30lbs. They even place the weights in the bc pockets themselves.

Clearly selling a newby gear they don't need--30 lb. of weight. That could have been dangerous, too.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

i think it's the responsibility of every diver even those newly minted to do a proper weight check for themselves, so the 30 lb issue, while a really bad recommendation, is IMHO a non-issue.

When you are new, you depend on your training from the shop much more than you would as a seasoned diver. When I was new I thought everything the shop told me was gospel. Now that I have been certified a couple of years, I would say they were pretty close on the mark to most things. I am only a couple of pounds off the weight my instructor set up with a few years ago. He did a pretty good job of getting everyone very close to ideal weight. Had he put more weight on me I would have been none the wiser.

Had they told me to mount my tank upside down and my reg backwards when we set up things in class I would have followed right along. That is after all why you take the class to learn. If someone is teaching you the wrong way, it will take you a while to figure out on your own or for someone to step in and tell you.

 

[ScubaSteve]

What was the conversation that transpired before, during and post purchase? Did they clearly state that you must wear 30# od weight to get yourself down safely with no exposure protection at all? Did they say that it would be a good idea for you to have 30#?

Did you certify with these people? What weight did you have and what equipment (including exposure protection) did you have when you certified? Did you tell them in no uncertain terms exactly what you had during your certification dives and they simply ignored it? Did you say "I need equipment and weight!" and they sold you 30#? Good or bad, many LDS will try to sell you lots of equipment AND upsell you on lots. It is called SALES!! We need to be a strong buyer in these cases and know basically what we need. It is called sales. My LDS wants you to buy MARES no matter what you want. I am sure he gets better incentives from them. I have the cojones to say no and buy whgat I want (after hearing why HE feels it is better for me).

To jump on them like everybody has is a little ridiculous....there is SO much information missing for us to make a sound judgement. Let's get ALL of the information, then take the EZ shop out back if needed. Otherwise, if it settles where it was not negligence, then we can move on with life.

The incident happen to me and there was no misunderstanding. They sold me the weights to go with the BC I bought from them. It was clearly 30lbs. They even place the weights in the bc pockets themselves.

 

[John_B]

Right now we've only heard one side of the story, so I'll reserve judgement for the time being (and would advise others to do the same)...

But an OW certified diver is certified to dive in OW. They should know how to measure or calculate how much weight they need -- by themselves -- at that point. If this woman wasn't aware of how much weight she would need and didn't know how to figure it out on her own, there is another, much larger problem that needs to be addressed.

 

[letterboy]

I blame Hillary . . . Thats who we should blame, it is no ones fault but Hillary's . . .

 

[stinggirl]

Right now we've only heard one side of the story, so I'll reserve judgement for the time being (and would advise others to do the same)...

But an OW certified diver is certified to dive in OW. They should know how to measure or calculate how much weight they need -- by themselves -- at that point. If this woman wasn't aware of how much weight she would need and didn't know how to figure it out on her own, there is another, much larger problem that needs to be addressed.

"That woman" is me. And I've been told how much weight I needed by my instructor when I bought my equipment. But NEVER told or explained how they come up with a number.

 

[stinggirl]

What was the conversation that transpired before, during and post purchase? Did they clearly state that you must wear 30# od weight to get yourself down safely with no exposure protection at all? Did they say that it would be a good idea for you to have 30#?

Did you certify with these people? What weight did you have and what equipment (including exposure protection) did you have when you certified? Did you tell them in no uncertain terms exactly what you had during your certification dives and they simply ignored it? Did you say "I need equipment and weight!" and they sold you 30#? Good or bad, many LDS will try to sell you lots of equipment AND upsell you on lots. It is called SALES!! We need to be a strong buyer in these cases and know basically what we need. It is called sales. My LDS wants you to buy MARES no matter what you want. I am sure he gets better incentives from them. I have the cojones to say no and buy whgat I want (after hearing why HE feels it is better for me).

To jump on them like everybody has is a little ridiculous....there is SO much information missing for us to make a sound judgement. Let's get ALL of the information, then take the EZ shop out back if needed. Otherwise, if it settles where it was not negligence, then we can move on with life.

When I can into the shop I told them that I need a BC. He had me try on the Zeagle Zena. He adjusted it so it would fit my shoulders(short torso). I was charged $50 to have the shoulder straps changed to a smaller size. I told him that I had never dived in salt water before only springs. Asked him how I can figure out how many pound I needed. I told him the amount that I have been using and he told me how much more I needed and I took his word for it. I DID tell him that I would be using a "skin". My previous dives had been with wetsuits, I made him aware of that too. I was not certified with them I only went there because it was the closes shop to my home. The only thing that I have heard is that your body weight affects the amount of weight you need. I am a very large woman (for now). I don't want to bad mouth them. But, I am disappointed. It is my wish that they would have taken a little more time to educate me. I told them MANY times that I am new and need ALOT of help.

 

[stinggirl]

I've contacted Eric the owner of EZ and made him aware of this thread.

What was his reaction?

 

[AstroDad]

No exposure suit... no weight needed there. The only weight that you would need to counteract would be the tank and possibly the BC material itself.

Not accurate. Many of us us in the 40+ category are naturally "buoyant". Without weight, my wife pops to the top like a cork, chest first. I assure you, 38 DD's do float. OK, make a joke or two, but it's true. Heck, my own layer of "bioprene" needs a few extra pounds of lead. There is more that needs to be counteracted than just a tank and BC material...

Since there was no suit I would presume there was no other neoprene worn, so if the BC lift capacity is 30lbs, it would have to be almost fully inflated to even keep her neutral underwater, especially at the beginning of the dive when the tank is full of air.

The wife needs ~24lbs of lead to get neutral (without wetsuit), so, if she were wearing a BC with 30lbs of lead in it, the BC is "lifting" about 6lbs. Well within limits.