Bad Customer Service

[msedivingdoc]

DIR is that a Psychiatric acronym like OCD?

I guess this is the most appropriate comment.... We seem to have OCD here... What is the rest of the story. LOL
Also, I agree with the last that those of us that have seen what Oceanic is doing now for customer service is appreciated. Thus we will defend that reputation, since they did something above and far beyond what we have experienced elsewhere. Efforts can only be truely felt appreciated when customers constantly monitor and praise the positve efforts of a good team. How many times have you had a customer say thanks and really mean it? This is what are posts are about!!! If another manufacture did the same we'd praise them as well.... but so far Oceanic has been the best in the industry IMHO.

 

[Matsya]

..............................
All I ask is that Scubaboarders understand that Doug and I are doing the Scubaboard stuff in addition to our normal jobs, we enjoy it tremendously and will do all we can to answer questions or resolve issues quickly. Sometimes it may seem slow compared to INTERNET speed but we always have to get other members of the Oceanic team involved(service,shipping,our dealers) to do anything more than answer a question.(and even then we sometimes have to do some digging)

Doug and Chris I know how sincerely you take up your "duties" in connection with ScubaBoard. Keep it going. I became a convinced Oceanic buyer quite some time back.

I understand what you are saying but I, respectfully, disagree. No it isn't an Oceanic fan forum. However, when I see a company trying so hard to provide GREAT customer service it needs to be showcased. There are so many companies that have a, you bought it now go away look on life. Oceanic, from what I have seen so far, isn't one of them. Yes, problems happen. But they happen with everything in life. It isn't that things go wrong it's how the company responds when they do go wrong. Yes, some have had longer problems than others. But ultimately didn't they get resolved in the customers favor?

I totally agree with you Maule. My issue is not with Oceanic at all. I am a keen follower of the Oceanic forum and I genuinely recommend Oceanic to all & sundry (based on the posts about their customer care). Actually I don't think Oceanic need anybody to even speak out in their defense. Oceanic's responses to customers speak for themselves. They have an overwhelming number of loyal, satisfied customers. And yes their customer service needs to be showcased and I too take every opportunity to do so.
The only point I was trying to make was that probably out of this sense of loyalty towards Oceanic has there been a tendency on this thread to pounce on the OP just because he dared to complain?
The OP posts a complaint (maybe strongly worded). Immediately you get posts that question his integrity and intentions. He states that he will post a response once the issue is resolved. Chris posts stating that a couple of mistakes were made and that the issue is now resolved but he is still to hear if the OP has collected his new gear. This obviously means that there was an issue that Oceanic resolved. We immediately have a post that wants to hear the antecedents of the issue, why the OP didn't go to the LDS blah blah blah. It is apparent from Oceanic's post that the issue is now resolved and Chris himself hints that he would like to change the topic. So why stir things up?

 

[Scared Silly]

This is an iteresting thread that perhaps needs part of it moved to a more general forum. Currently, I have three issues going on with dive related products, one with a material supplier, one with a mfg and one with a distributor. One is public, one is private, and one is semi-public. By public I mean I have posted comments to scubaboard. Will the others become public? Parts of both will because it deals with a usage issue the other parts will not because I believe steps are taken to deal with the underlying usage issues.

A couple of years ago a I tired another dive product. Found lots of issues with it and sent it back. I was pretty bummed after spending alot of money. I wrote privately to the mfg what I will admit was not my best letter. The mfg owner gave me a not so good response. Then after talking to a couple of others who also recently bought similar products I decided to post a review. I got burned really really bad by folks who said I was being anti "insert mfg". Which was not the case, I just tried to relate what I found in a factual manner. The disscussion went on for few weeks including some posts by the mfg. Many of the posts were about how great the customer service was. Which is great but if the product does not work out of the box to start with where does that leave people? About a month after that another person with the same product noted having most of the exact same problems I had, a week latter the same with another person who was on their dive vacation and was really bummed. The mfg said hmm and said they would look at the problem but there was never any public or private follow up.

Sorry if this is all on a tangent. But I took a couple things away from all of this. If you have problems I think it really pays to work them out privately first. In several cases, I have gone to the top of the company to voice concerns. Then waited for the trickle down affect. Going public can help greatly but it really pays to think about how you word your posting otherwise your concerns are going to get lost. I think has happened a bit in this thread.

The OP was really bummed about what happened and from their point of view they are seeing their money being pissed away. And when that happens you either want your money back or the problems fixed ASAP and ASAP is typically not soon enough. In the case where I posted the product review I had to get my credit card company involved to get my money back. So give the OP a bit of break and give everyone at Oceanic some time to work through the situation.


Edit - just for clarification none of the current or past issues listed above are with Oceanic products. So these types of issues happen across the board.

Also one of the issues listed above, the material supplier, is now closed. I just talked with them. As the material supplier for the dive suit they were not able to resolved the problem because they only supply the material and not the manufactured garment. They were disappointed that the manufacturer (AeroSkins) did not warranty the garment even though it was the material that failed.

 

[paulwall]

It is clear you missed my whole point, But yes exactly!, So why come down on Third-coast-diver for not posting any thing and not Oceanic? That was my point.
And that people should not be brow beat for using this media as a means to a resolution if possible.
I am sure it was one of the things Oceanic considered when they volunteered to have a forum.

Well, I haven't come down on 3rdCD, (and I know you weren't accusing me of that). I don't exactly agree with his process of resolution (I myself would have been raising holy hell at the Dive Shop). However, that is the only objective comment I can make. I wasn't party to both sides of his conversations.

This is another one of those "3 sides to a conversation" situation. Oceanic's posts seem more reasonable in tone than 3rdCD's original and most recent ones. But this, admittedly, is only a small slice of the entire scenario.

 

[dashmatrix]

Guys give it a rest...
Third-coast has not posted again because he's out diving on his great new Scuba gear from Oceanic, and Oceanic isn't going to fill in your enquiring minds because ...well it's really none of your dang business suffice it to say it's been taken care of.
I say we change the subject like Cerich suggested.... PADI rocks. SSI licks it. Now wait I know....

Who is better Norton AntiVirus or McAfee AntiVirus ?

 

[cerich]

Guys give it a rest...
Third-coast has not posted again because he's out diving on his great new Scuba gear from Oceanic, and Oceanic isn't going to fill in your enquiring minds because ...well it's really none of your dang business suffice it to say it's been taken care of.
I say we change the subject like Cerich suggested.... PADI rocks. SSI licks it. Now wait I know....

Who is better Norton AntiVirus or McAfee AntiVirus ?

I just installed Norton over AVG Free, I'll let you know....

 

[third-coast-dive]

The equipment has been replaced, picked it up yesterday. The delay was not due to Oceanic, it appears that the new equipment was delivered to the wrong address by UPS, and the new dive shop I deal with needed time to assemble and test. I extend a sincere thanks to Doug. He is indeed a man of his word.

It is a shame that it had to come to all this, as I tried in earnest to resolve first with the dive shop, to no avail, then six hours of phone calls to customer service, and THEN AND ONLY THEN made my post. For the money I spent, I am more than entitled to have posted what and how I did. Everything in my post was factual, with I might add, ZERO embellishment. Perhaps if my issues were addressed properly I would never have had to be here in the first place.

So here is how it goes, it seems that the general opinion is that I am an *** for posting in the fashion that I have. So fine, I will leave my posts up for one week, so all can get there digs in on me, then I will remove my all my posts, as I do not like to offend anyone.

I certainly appreciate all the support that the members here have provided.(sic)


He who sits in judgment of another man is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
-Albert Einstein

 

[cerich]

The equipment has been replaced, picked it up yesterday. The delay was not due to Oceanic, it appears that the new equipment was delivered to the wrong address by UPS, and the new dive shop I deal with needed time to assemble and test. I extend a sincere thanks to Doug. He is indeed a man of his word.

It is a shame that it had to come to all this, as I tried in earnest to resolve first with the dive shop, to no avail, then six hours of phone calls to customer service, and THEN AND ONLY THEN made my post. For the money I spent, I am more than entitled to have posted what and how I did. Everything in my post was factual, with I might add, ZERO embellishment. Perhaps if my issues were addressed properly I would never have had to be here in the first place.

So here is how it goes, it seems that the general opinion is that I am an *** for posting in the fashion that I have. So fine, I will leave my posts up for one week, so all can get there digs in on me, then I will remove my all my posts, as I do not like to offend anyone.

I certainly appreciate all the support that the members here have provided.(sic)


He who sits in judgment of another man is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
-Albert Einstein

Leave the postings. You shouldn't have had to go thru what you did. When we agreeded to exchange the product the first time it should have been that way, service got concerned that somehow the product was tampered with (as were you, except fingers were pointing in different directions) and we made that your problem. When Doug was made aware of the situation he overruled the change of mind on how it was to be handled and arranged a 30 day replacement.

We have learned from this and you have your gear, there is no need to edit or remove anything because what happened is what happend.

The six hour call is what blows me away....:huh:

I realy hope you enjoy your gear.

Best,

Chris

 

[third-coast-dive]

Six hours of calls ,that being multiple calls.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

I know a lot of folks would now sooner see this thread fade away, and it will (unlike the exploding tank thread...). Maybe though we can see this thread as another example of how special our dive community really is. Can you imagine if our car problems or other consumer issues were tackled in such an open, responsible corporate manner as this issue was? Sure, folks say things in a thread like this out of frustration, anger or just to be smart alecks ("On ScubaBoard?? I'm shocked..."). But mostly folks seem to say what's on their minds or in their hearts because they give a rip about other divers or they feel they can offer some assistance.

I wouldn't buy Oceanic because I think they have great customer service. I'd buy Oceanic because they have a lot of reliable products. The fact that I can see they have great after the sale service is hopefully something I wouldn't have to experience directly--but like a reliable octo, there is added confidence in having that kind of backup. Now if only we could get more companies to be as responsive and responsible as Oceanic is... (Is that a chorus of "LOL" I hear?) Well, this soap box is getting too slippery. I'm going to go see what the scuba babes thread is doing...