marcus8
Contributor
Let me start this by saying I've been renting tanks for years from Glenn's Aquarius, indeed even before it was bought by these folks, on the Breakwater and never had any previous issue. My friend and I dove the Metridium Fields today (rather green but a solid 15 - 20' of viz at the dark bottom). We rented Steel 95s and set out for a very fun dive. Both my friend and I surfaced with roughly 400psi after a nice hourlong dive. This pressure was a bit lower than planned after our safety stop, but we certainly felt within a safe margin for error. Indeed, we pride ourselves on being good safe divers who very much enjoy this sport. OK, there's the setup and perhaps you can see where this is going.
Firstly, our mistakes. Glenn apparently has had an issue with folks returning tanks with very low pressure and having to perform expensive maintenance on his rental tanks. In the shop, there is a sign on the front counter saying that divers must return rental tanks with no less than 300 psi. Also, the rental agreement states in the fine print the same exact information. Divers whom do not comply with this will be charged $15 extra. I did not see this sign, and I confess I did not read the fine print as I've rented so many tanks in the past from virtually all the dive shops in Monterey, I guess I've just gotten fatigued of reading through them some time ago. I've never had an issue....so....anyways...my bad. Had I read this, I would have made sure there was more of a margin for error on the tank when surfacing. Even still, I really didn't see how this could be an issue, even after we blew water off our regulator caps with the tanks remaining air pressure. We certainly didn't blow through 100psi. But, an issue it absolutely became for us and them this afternoon.
Upon returning the tanks, the first guy checked to see that these tanks had remaining air. They certinaly did and thus was proceeding to charge us and complete the transaction. After a moment, a very abrasive tall bald individual came bustling into the shop having taken our tanks to be refilled. This person acuses us of trying sneak out after giving back their tanks with very short fills less than 300psi each. Sneak out? We're standing there at the counter trying to pay for our tanks with no idea what this individual's problem was. It was at that time that we were told of their policy about the 300psi rule. OK, we both replied that we had both returned out tanks with greater than this amount, albeit probably pretty close. But instead, they are now insisting that we pay $30 extra to cover the cost of a hydro inspection and that the tanks almost certainly had water in them. The tall individual claims that he verbally warned us of this rule when renting the tanks that morning, which was flat untrue to both my buddy and my memory. This person clearly had issues above and beyond anything to do with us. We were perfectly calm and stayed that way throughout this encounter, yet this individual was clearly agitated at us for reasons I could not understand. At this point, Glenn(owner) came into the shop and came up to speed on what was happening. Glenn informed us that this had been an issue for him and wanted to show us what a bad tank looked like from previous rentals. We were in a bit of a hurry so I suggested that we simply pay what was owed and leave as I didn't believe for a second that we had damaged anything. Look, I won't bore you all with the rest of the details to this rather long story, but the short story is that I flat refused to pay the extra fine over the next 20 minutes of discussion. I can be a stubborn SOB for sure and my take on this was that we were being picked on because they had suffered some loss recently due to empty returned tanks and were looking to stick it to people that were borderline cases to recoup their previous losses. I don't know that obviously, but that was my gut reaction and I absolutely felt it completely unfair to fine us an additional $30 for these tanks. I didn't believe for a second that these things were damaged in any way and well....the tall bald dude flat put me in a mood with his beligerance that lasted the entire process until he left the room. I felt we were being treated unfairly. But to his credit, after a long unsettling discussion and a shockingly arrogant lecture about diving safety, Glenn told us to be more careful next time and ended up not charging us the extra fine. Not a problem as we won't be back to this shop with so many excellent shops throughout Monterey. Fortunately, we have many excellent choices in the area.
Look, I'm all for supporting our local dive shops. Lord knows too many of them have closed down over the past few years. But this incident upset me and got me thinking pretty hard on the long drive home to San Jose this afternoon. To wrap this up, an observation and a question for you tank owners out there....
1. Be advised of this rule at Glenn's Aquarius and obey it less you be fined $15 per tank. Apparently, it has been a problem for them and the brick and mortar dive store is in enough peril these days.
2. My impression had always been, I suppose through some previous training, that only an empty tank was a threat to get water in it. Admitedly, I have always rented tanks through many years of diving and do not know. So for you tank owners, at what pressure point is a tank in danger of being contaminated?
Thanks,
Mark
Firstly, our mistakes. Glenn apparently has had an issue with folks returning tanks with very low pressure and having to perform expensive maintenance on his rental tanks. In the shop, there is a sign on the front counter saying that divers must return rental tanks with no less than 300 psi. Also, the rental agreement states in the fine print the same exact information. Divers whom do not comply with this will be charged $15 extra. I did not see this sign, and I confess I did not read the fine print as I've rented so many tanks in the past from virtually all the dive shops in Monterey, I guess I've just gotten fatigued of reading through them some time ago. I've never had an issue....so....anyways...my bad. Had I read this, I would have made sure there was more of a margin for error on the tank when surfacing. Even still, I really didn't see how this could be an issue, even after we blew water off our regulator caps with the tanks remaining air pressure. We certainly didn't blow through 100psi. But, an issue it absolutely became for us and them this afternoon.
Upon returning the tanks, the first guy checked to see that these tanks had remaining air. They certinaly did and thus was proceeding to charge us and complete the transaction. After a moment, a very abrasive tall bald individual came bustling into the shop having taken our tanks to be refilled. This person acuses us of trying sneak out after giving back their tanks with very short fills less than 300psi each. Sneak out? We're standing there at the counter trying to pay for our tanks with no idea what this individual's problem was. It was at that time that we were told of their policy about the 300psi rule. OK, we both replied that we had both returned out tanks with greater than this amount, albeit probably pretty close. But instead, they are now insisting that we pay $30 extra to cover the cost of a hydro inspection and that the tanks almost certainly had water in them. The tall individual claims that he verbally warned us of this rule when renting the tanks that morning, which was flat untrue to both my buddy and my memory. This person clearly had issues above and beyond anything to do with us. We were perfectly calm and stayed that way throughout this encounter, yet this individual was clearly agitated at us for reasons I could not understand. At this point, Glenn(owner) came into the shop and came up to speed on what was happening. Glenn informed us that this had been an issue for him and wanted to show us what a bad tank looked like from previous rentals. We were in a bit of a hurry so I suggested that we simply pay what was owed and leave as I didn't believe for a second that we had damaged anything. Look, I won't bore you all with the rest of the details to this rather long story, but the short story is that I flat refused to pay the extra fine over the next 20 minutes of discussion. I can be a stubborn SOB for sure and my take on this was that we were being picked on because they had suffered some loss recently due to empty returned tanks and were looking to stick it to people that were borderline cases to recoup their previous losses. I don't know that obviously, but that was my gut reaction and I absolutely felt it completely unfair to fine us an additional $30 for these tanks. I didn't believe for a second that these things were damaged in any way and well....the tall bald dude flat put me in a mood with his beligerance that lasted the entire process until he left the room. I felt we were being treated unfairly. But to his credit, after a long unsettling discussion and a shockingly arrogant lecture about diving safety, Glenn told us to be more careful next time and ended up not charging us the extra fine. Not a problem as we won't be back to this shop with so many excellent shops throughout Monterey. Fortunately, we have many excellent choices in the area.
Look, I'm all for supporting our local dive shops. Lord knows too many of them have closed down over the past few years. But this incident upset me and got me thinking pretty hard on the long drive home to San Jose this afternoon. To wrap this up, an observation and a question for you tank owners out there....
1. Be advised of this rule at Glenn's Aquarius and obey it less you be fined $15 per tank. Apparently, it has been a problem for them and the brick and mortar dive store is in enough peril these days.
2. My impression had always been, I suppose through some previous training, that only an empty tank was a threat to get water in it. Admitedly, I have always rented tanks through many years of diving and do not know. So for you tank owners, at what pressure point is a tank in danger of being contaminated?
Thanks,
Mark
