Atomic Blade Fins - FAIL; Atomic Customer Sevice - FAIL

[Wookie]

Seems a bit short for a company that prides itself on quality, doesn't it?

Well, they are making them in China, after all. Funny, my Mares are 20 years old, are my daily divers, and I'm not the first owner. And you can still buy the exact same model today.

Aside from that, I'm not too impressed. I love my regulators, I'm a regular fan-boy, but I don't think much of the rest of the line. I've sure seen a lot of Cobalt complaints.....

 

[BoltSnap]

How much do these blade fins retail in the US now?

 

[tridacna]

Buy low and sell high-one of marketings oldest maxims. Seems to work for Apple, Nike, and
many others.

Too funny. I had the same issue with a pair of bio-fin XTs some years back. Ruined a days diving. Happened in Belize. I had to buy a new pair of fins for the trip.I never saw "Apple and the others" bash you for selling $200+ fins.

 

[buddhasummer]

---------- Post added May 4th, 2015 at 09:18 PM ----------

I would think it's hard to give a long warranty on fins given manufacturers have no idea how customers treat their fins. Left on boat decks in the baking sun, left in hot cars, doing repeated giant stride entries etc I'm sure some fins have a very hard life. The fact that Atomic has offered to replace the fins is in my opinion a resolution. I have no idea as to rights re refunds etc however. If there was a known issue of them breaking I might push for refund via dealer but as a seemingly one off (?) personally I'd call a new set of replacement fins a win and an example of good, reasonable, customer service.

 

[Rockne]

---------- Post added May 4th, 2015 at 09:18 PM ----------
If there was a known issue of them breaking I might push for refund via dealer but as a seemingly one off (?) personally I'd call a new set of replacement fins a win and an example of good, reasonable, customer service.

If you think about Atomic's customer service on scale of minimum to maximum, with "good" being anywhere above middle, I cannot agree with you. A quick recitation: I emailed them about fins and they emailed me back about MASKS (visually move that slider toward "minimum" or maybe even lower). I had to email them again (keep sliding). I spent a couple of hours on a beautiful day in a car to and from the dive shop (still sliding?). There was no "immediate replacement", but instead I have to play a waiting game (in this day and age, can we not make virtually instantaneous decisions via smartphone pics, or MAYBE even take the dive shop's word for it). The MINIMUM that they have to do is repair or replace according to their warranty. So if they're doing the bare minimum and I had to jump through hoops to get them to that point, I would consider this below minimum customer service. You may be only looking at the end result. I think of this type of scenario in the same way that most automobile lemon laws: If a product is SO OBVIOUSLY POOR, and it is recognizable SO QUICKLY, the purchaser of the automobile (fins) should not be expected to keep the car (and should not have another one of the same model foisted upon them).

If I had had them for 11 months, I might have a different feeling, but this was the first trip. I'm still giving them F's for Customer Service and Quality. I just realized that I haven't even gotten a call from anyone at Atomic, and they've had the photo for at least 48 hours. They're certainly not moving that slider up that scale.

 

[staggsSevin]

I have around 80 dives on my blade fins and they are holding up just fine with no issues. Speaking of which I need to list my Atomic split fins on sb.

Most of my gear over the years has been Oceanic/Aeris, Mares, Atomic and Aqualung. I will say that while I've had some issues with Atomic's gear in the past their customer service has been one of the best I've dealt with from a customer service perspective.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed an issue on one of my dive computers (Oceanic). I filled out the contact for more and waited a week and didn't hear anything. Instead of coming to SB and making a thread I decided to make better use of my time. I picked up the phone and called Oceanic. Guess what? They took care of the issue and gave me a rma number on the phone.

I've emailed and phoned into Atomic before and had success every time. I've had them replace a cobalt, split fins and a mask over the years and never once did I have to come and bash them on the forums let alone need to involve my lds.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Sorry, but I believe that the dive shop he bought the fins from would win a chargeback. He bought a pair of fins. They were defective. They would be replaced if he would allow it. So he would still have a pair of fins. There is no cause for a chargeback here. Chargebacks only work if he didn't get what he paid for, but he did. He's just unhappy with the terms for which he bought them, but the terms were available before he ever spent the money, if he read them.

Generally, I won charge backs anytime I made an issue of it after getting a defective product in exchange for my money, regardless of what is offered short of a refund for said defective product. As a theoretical matter there's merit to what you're saying, but it hasn't been my experience practically speaking.

In any event, I find the idea of 'OMG, one pair failed so I can never again feel secure with this fin model on my feet!!11eleven' to be hilarious. If you like the fins, get a new pair and get on with life. If you don't, get a new pair, sell them, buy something you like better, and get on with life.

---------- Post added May 4th, 2015 at 07:07 PM ----------

If you think about Atomic's customer service on scale of minimum to maximum, with "good" being anywhere above middle, I cannot agree with you. A quick recitation: I emailed them about fins and they emailed me back about MASKS (visually move that slider toward "minimum" or maybe even lower). I had to email them again (keep sliding). I spent a couple of hours on a beautiful day in a car to and from the dive shop (still sliding?). There was no "immediate replacement", but instead I have to play a waiting game (in this day and age, can we not make virtually instantaneous decisions via smartphone pics, or MAYBE even take the dive shop's word for it). The MINIMUM that they have to do is repair or replace according to their warranty. So if they're doing the bare minimum and I had to jump through hoops to get them to that point, I would consider this below minimum customer service. You may be only looking at the end result. I think of this type of scenario in the same way that most automobile lemon laws: If a product is SO OBVIOUSLY POOR, and it is recognizable SO QUICKLY, the purchaser of the automobile (fins) should not be expected to keep the car (and should not have another one of the same model foisted upon them).

If I had had them for 11 months, I might have a different feeling, but this was the first trip. I'm still giving them F's for Customer Service and Quality. I just realized that I haven't even gotten a call from anyone at Atomic, and they've had the photo for at least 48 hours. They're certainly not moving that slider up that scale.

I see the main problem here (really through no fault of your own, as AA doesn't have a big banner that screams CALL US DIRECTLY FOR BEST SERVICE) as being that you're going about this all wrong. Email is a crap shoot, and going to an LDS for anything not involving a tank fill strikes me as just begging for more hassle than necessary.

One of the best things about AA service is that you can always deal with the factory guys directly: call them up, tell them the problem, get an RMA number, and either ship them the fins back or go to the LDS once you've talked out a resolution directly with AA for the LDS to implement.

 

[Deco Duck]

As a fanatical, shoestring budget DIYer may I suggest gluing the foot pocket in place then laying up some fiberglass/carbon fiber along the exterior?
I mean, think of the resale value! Custom CFRP foot pocket Atomic Blade Fins. I put that up for $250-$300 retail. Am telling you fact.
Less QQ, more Pew Pew, bro.

 

[RJP]

If you think about Atomic's customer service on scale of minimum to maximum, with "good" being anywhere above middle, I cannot agree with you. A quick recitation: I emailed them about fins and they emailed me back about MASKS (visually move that slider toward "minimum" or maybe even lower). I had to email them again (keep sliding). I spent a couple of hours on a beautiful day in a car to and from the dive shop (still sliding?). There was no "immediate replacement", but instead I have to play a waiting game (in this day and age, can we not make virtually instantaneous decisions via smartphone pics, or MAYBE even take the dive shop's word for it). The MINIMUM that they have to do is repair or replace according to their warranty. So if they're doing the bare minimum and I had to jump through hoops to get them to that point, I would consider this below minimum customer service. You may be only looking at the end result. I think of this type of scenario in the same way that most automobile lemon laws: If a product is SO OBVIOUSLY POOR, and it is recognizable SO QUICKLY, the purchaser of the automobile (fins) should not be expected to keep the car (and should not have another one of the same model foisted upon them).

If I had had them for 11 months, I might have a different feeling, but this was the first trip. I'm still giving them F's for Customer Service and Quality. I just realized that I haven't even gotten a call from anyone at Atomic, and they've had the photo for at least 48 hours. They're certainly not moving that slider up that scale.

In the time it took you to type that email you could have picked up the phone, called them, gotten transferred to the right department, spent two minutes on hold, and spoken to someone directly.

But that's not as much fun as bashing them online, I suppose.

 

[buddhasummer]

Storm in a tea cup.