hawaiian.hokie
Registered
So I just wanted to post about my very painful experience with my Blacktip DPV and Dive Xtras customer service. I'm not one to write super long articles bashing products or companies, but this whole experience has been bizarre and frustrating to say the least. Hopefully this may prevent another diver from experiencing the same thing I have.
Full Story: Honest Blacktip DPV Review (Dive Xtras)
TLDR: My personal experience with the Blacktip DPV has been a series of headaches and poor customer service. I'm out $2,500 and my scooter is being held hostage unless I pay to have the broken unit shipped back to me. With so many capable DPV competitors on the market, I personnaly wouldn’t gamble my money on Dive Xtras, and I don't recommend them for my students any more. Until the company fixes their quality control issues, backs their products, and starts caring about their reputation, it’s just not worth the hassle.
My issues started immediately after my first use when I bought the Blacktip Travel. When I came back up from my dive, I noticed a small amount of water pooled at the bottom of the Blacktip Tech DPV tube. The local dealer I bought the unit from had given me a class on proper use and maintenance, and I had taken all the recommended extra steps to ensure the unit was sealed. Confused, I cleaned up the water and reached out to the dealer. He said I must have not fully sealed it, but since the unit hadn’t fully flooded, it should still be okay to use. I just needed to fully dry it out.
The second dive was no better. After spending extra time inspecting and double-checking the o-rings, I still found water pooled in the bottom post-dive. This occurred two more times before the unit started exhibiting glitchy symptoms, dying and restarting during dives. The whole time, I was in contact with the local dealer who insisted I must be doing something wrong.
I brought the unit back to the dealer to figure out what was going wrong. Being a local diver, he cared about his reputation and wanted to help take care of me. He watched me assemble the unit and admitted I was doing everything right. He stuck the unit in a dunk tank for 24 hours, but it came out dry on the inside. After some prodding, I finally convinced him to take the unit diving. He sheepishly admitted the DPV died on him within the first 20 minutes of the dive when they descended past 40 feet.
It turned out Dive Xtras had a “bad batch” of tail sections. Water was infiltrating from the tail part of the unit, and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. The local dealer filed a warranty with Dive Xtras for me and had the whole unit replaced. Unfortuately this took some time, since they whole unit had to be shipped back to Dive Xtras (who were experiencing manufacturing delays at the time).
When I finally got the repaired unit back. I hoped that this was just a one-off problem. And for a while, it appeared that it was; I had about 35 successful dives. I slowly started building up confidence in the unit, trusting it to take me out further. At this point, the DPV was technically out of warranty since it spent so much time in repair, in addition to the back and forth trying to troubleshoot with the local dealer.
Then, with no warning, the DPV died mid-dive. Luckily my buddy and I planned for this issue, always making sure we had enough reserve power to tow us both in on a single DPV. When I got to land, there was nothing obviously wrong with the unit. It was just plain dead, even though the batteries still showed a half-charge.
I reached out to the company for assistance. The initial response was underwhelming. It took multiple emails before they finally responded. Unfortunately, the original Blacktip dealer on Oahu had passed away, so there was no one who could look at or help diagnose the DPV. The company directed me to reach out to my “local representative,” even though he was located on a different island and couldn’t really offer any help.
After finally walking me through some troubleshooting steps via email, Dive Xtras informed me that I would have to send the unit in. Shipping from Hawaii was absurdly expensive, costing me close to $150 to have it professionally packed and shipped. The USPS customer service agent and I went through a whole roll of bubble wrap just to ensure the unit was properly protected.
A few weeks later, Dive Xtras reached back out. They informed me the VSEC board (electronic brain) on the DPV had died. They also claimed that the tail had somehow been damaged during shipping, and I’d now need to pay $600 to repair the unit.
At this point, I was incredibly frustrated. I had owned the DPV less than two years, and most of that time had been spent trying to fix issues. Now, after finally getting the replacement unit back and working, it suddenly died again. I pressed the company for an explanation as to why the VSEC board would suddenly die, and was told “this just happens sometimes.” They offered no explanation as to what could have happened and no guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again in the future. The company representative made sure to mention that the limited 1-year warranty had expired, despite the fact that the DPV had spent half that time in diagnosis or repair.
I tried to make my case with customer service, explaining that it was absurd that a DPV with less than 100 dives should abruptly fail for an unknown reason. I was hesitant to pay for repairs, especially considering they couldn’t give me the root cause of the failure to begin with. The idea of paying $600 for a DPV I had barely used was beyond frustrating. Dive Xtras has stubbornly insisted that this whole issue comes down to the damage that alledgedly occurred during shipping. They completely glossed over the fact that none of us would be in this position had the DPV not broken (twice) in the first place.
This is where things took a really bizarre turn. I let things cool off for a few days, then continued trying to negotiate with them. They finally sent me an offer: if I returned the rest of the DPV parts, they would refund me the original purchase amount. I immediately accepted, figuring it to be the best possible outcome. They sent me a shipping label, and I started getting the remaining parts ready to send. The next day, they sent an email saying they changed their minds and canceled the shipping label.
To say I was shocked was an understatement. I had everything boxed up in my car and ready to ship, and now they decided they no longer wanted to honor the agreement we had made. To this day, they have refused to do anything to help me. I was told I’d have to pay to have the broken unit shipped back to me, or else it would be considered “abandoned property.”
In all fairness, when the system actually works, it's performs well as a recreational DPV. The variable speed system is nice, and it has plenty of power and range for recreational diving. I've been able to get two-hour dives exploration dive off of the DPV running at a moderate pace, which is great for shore current in Oahu. The problem is that the system seems prone to quality control issues (even with the most delicate of care), and once you start having issues, the system is completely done for. Then when you ask the company for help, you're more or less told to pound sand.
Full Story: Honest Blacktip DPV Review (Dive Xtras)
TLDR: My personal experience with the Blacktip DPV has been a series of headaches and poor customer service. I'm out $2,500 and my scooter is being held hostage unless I pay to have the broken unit shipped back to me. With so many capable DPV competitors on the market, I personnaly wouldn’t gamble my money on Dive Xtras, and I don't recommend them for my students any more. Until the company fixes their quality control issues, backs their products, and starts caring about their reputation, it’s just not worth the hassle.
My issues started immediately after my first use when I bought the Blacktip Travel. When I came back up from my dive, I noticed a small amount of water pooled at the bottom of the Blacktip Tech DPV tube. The local dealer I bought the unit from had given me a class on proper use and maintenance, and I had taken all the recommended extra steps to ensure the unit was sealed. Confused, I cleaned up the water and reached out to the dealer. He said I must have not fully sealed it, but since the unit hadn’t fully flooded, it should still be okay to use. I just needed to fully dry it out.
The second dive was no better. After spending extra time inspecting and double-checking the o-rings, I still found water pooled in the bottom post-dive. This occurred two more times before the unit started exhibiting glitchy symptoms, dying and restarting during dives. The whole time, I was in contact with the local dealer who insisted I must be doing something wrong.
I brought the unit back to the dealer to figure out what was going wrong. Being a local diver, he cared about his reputation and wanted to help take care of me. He watched me assemble the unit and admitted I was doing everything right. He stuck the unit in a dunk tank for 24 hours, but it came out dry on the inside. After some prodding, I finally convinced him to take the unit diving. He sheepishly admitted the DPV died on him within the first 20 minutes of the dive when they descended past 40 feet.
It turned out Dive Xtras had a “bad batch” of tail sections. Water was infiltrating from the tail part of the unit, and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. The local dealer filed a warranty with Dive Xtras for me and had the whole unit replaced. Unfortuately this took some time, since they whole unit had to be shipped back to Dive Xtras (who were experiencing manufacturing delays at the time).
When I finally got the repaired unit back. I hoped that this was just a one-off problem. And for a while, it appeared that it was; I had about 35 successful dives. I slowly started building up confidence in the unit, trusting it to take me out further. At this point, the DPV was technically out of warranty since it spent so much time in repair, in addition to the back and forth trying to troubleshoot with the local dealer.
Then, with no warning, the DPV died mid-dive. Luckily my buddy and I planned for this issue, always making sure we had enough reserve power to tow us both in on a single DPV. When I got to land, there was nothing obviously wrong with the unit. It was just plain dead, even though the batteries still showed a half-charge.
I reached out to the company for assistance. The initial response was underwhelming. It took multiple emails before they finally responded. Unfortunately, the original Blacktip dealer on Oahu had passed away, so there was no one who could look at or help diagnose the DPV. The company directed me to reach out to my “local representative,” even though he was located on a different island and couldn’t really offer any help.
After finally walking me through some troubleshooting steps via email, Dive Xtras informed me that I would have to send the unit in. Shipping from Hawaii was absurdly expensive, costing me close to $150 to have it professionally packed and shipped. The USPS customer service agent and I went through a whole roll of bubble wrap just to ensure the unit was properly protected.
A few weeks later, Dive Xtras reached back out. They informed me the VSEC board (electronic brain) on the DPV had died. They also claimed that the tail had somehow been damaged during shipping, and I’d now need to pay $600 to repair the unit.
At this point, I was incredibly frustrated. I had owned the DPV less than two years, and most of that time had been spent trying to fix issues. Now, after finally getting the replacement unit back and working, it suddenly died again. I pressed the company for an explanation as to why the VSEC board would suddenly die, and was told “this just happens sometimes.” They offered no explanation as to what could have happened and no guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again in the future. The company representative made sure to mention that the limited 1-year warranty had expired, despite the fact that the DPV had spent half that time in diagnosis or repair.
I tried to make my case with customer service, explaining that it was absurd that a DPV with less than 100 dives should abruptly fail for an unknown reason. I was hesitant to pay for repairs, especially considering they couldn’t give me the root cause of the failure to begin with. The idea of paying $600 for a DPV I had barely used was beyond frustrating. Dive Xtras has stubbornly insisted that this whole issue comes down to the damage that alledgedly occurred during shipping. They completely glossed over the fact that none of us would be in this position had the DPV not broken (twice) in the first place.
This is where things took a really bizarre turn. I let things cool off for a few days, then continued trying to negotiate with them. They finally sent me an offer: if I returned the rest of the DPV parts, they would refund me the original purchase amount. I immediately accepted, figuring it to be the best possible outcome. They sent me a shipping label, and I started getting the remaining parts ready to send. The next day, they sent an email saying they changed their minds and canceled the shipping label.
To say I was shocked was an understatement. I had everything boxed up in my car and ready to ship, and now they decided they no longer wanted to honor the agreement we had made. To this day, they have refused to do anything to help me. I was told I’d have to pay to have the broken unit shipped back to me, or else it would be considered “abandoned property.”
In all fairness, when the system actually works, it's performs well as a recreational DPV. The variable speed system is nice, and it has plenty of power and range for recreational diving. I've been able to get two-hour dives exploration dive off of the DPV running at a moderate pace, which is great for shore current in Oahu. The problem is that the system seems prone to quality control issues (even with the most delicate of care), and once you start having issues, the system is completely done for. Then when you ask the company for help, you're more or less told to pound sand.
