Cobalt compass problem and warranty service via BARE Sports

[maddog2]

Hi, I bought an Atomics Cobalt computer just about a year ago. In Canada the Cobalt product is serviced through Bare Sports.

Before a day of diving I would notice that the Cobalt compass did not point to magnetic north and I would have to recalibrate it. This happened all the time, but I didn't keep track of when the compass went askew. Eventually, I started to carry along a regular compass, because I didn't always remember to recalibrate the compass on the Cobalt before every dive.

About a month ago I tried recalibrating the compass again, but this time I wasn't successful. I tried several times, but after each calibration the compass would not point to magnetic north. If I recall correctly it pointed to East or South and would not deviate more than 20-40 degrees from that direction.

I took the Cobalt back to my lds, who sent it off to Bare Sports. That was on Nov. 6th. The Bare Sports company headquaretered in Burnaby, Canada couldn't fix it, so they sent it off to Bare in Salt Lake City. I just heard back today from my local lds that it may be another 2-3 weeks, before anything gets done :depressed:

I'm not too happy with having to go through so many other parties to get warranty work done. Should I have just bypassed my local lds and Bare in Canada and shipped my Cobalt directly to Atomic Aquatics? If so, what's the procedure to do that?

 

[RonR]

You can always contact Atomic directly which your information via email or phone. From what you are saying the compass may have needed a six point recalibration. Bare should have been able to do that in Burnaby, so perhaps they did not get good enough results and sent it on. It may seem like a lot of links in the chain, but Salt Lake is actually the location for the parent company for both Bare and Atomic, so in essence it was forwarded to Atomic. Hopefully the LDS was just being pessimistic as to time.

Ron

 

[maddog2]

I received an update from the Bare rep about where my Cobalt is and the timeline of what happened with it.
As mentioned I took my Cobalt into the lds on about Nov 6th (or 5th).
RA Nov 9^th
Received Nov 15^th by Bare (so about a 1 week delay caused by the lds)
Reviewed and processed on the 19/20^th, issued determined to be greater than our capabilities.
We shipped to Atomic on the 20^th of Nov.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Atomic about a progress report.
I inquired about a loaner program for warranty or service work, but Atomic, Bare, nor the lds provide loaner equipment.

I will definitely consider Shearwater for any future purchases. They are headquartered in Vancouver and I heard that they provide excellent service with quick turnaround times of 1 or 2 days, even for out of warranty service (no questions asked is what I heard?).

 

[Dr. Lecter]

And you didn't just contact Atomic directly and ship it straight to them... why?

Which is not to say SW isn't the way to go--I love my Petrels, have had nothing but great support from SW, and in many ways it's a less limiting/paternalistic computer than the Cobalt--but all problems I had with my Cobalts were quickly and easily resolved by calling Atomic directly.

 

[Sevenrider860]

Shearwater is a great company, but my experience with Atomic was also very good. My problem was also the Cobalt compass. It showed an incorrect reading. A factory calibration did not work and they swapped it out for a new one.

 

[maddog2]

And you didn't just contact Atomic directly and ship it straight to them... why?

Which is not to say SW isn't the way to go--I love my Petrels, have had nothing but great support from SW, and in many ways it's a less limiting/paternalistic computer than the Cobalt--but all problems I had with my Cobalts were quickly and easily resolved by calling Atomic directly.

In hindsight that is probably what I should have done (still waiting after almost 6 weeks), but I didn't for a few reasons.
.
1) I bought it at my lds, so I thought that would be the best option for warranty work. At least that's what I do for most of my other retail purchases that are covered under warranty ie. contact the retailer first and then contact the manufacturer, if warranty work after x number of days has to go back to the manufacturer.
2) The shipping costs and insurance would be expensive from Canada to the USA, unless I could get Atomic to agree to pay for shipping and insurance.
3) Not sure if I could get a RA number if I didn't got through my lds and Bare first.
.
So, considering the above, the path of least resistance was through my lds. Unfortunately, it may have also been the path of the most delay (slow and easy).

 

[maddog2]

Apparently, my Cobalt was shipped to Costa Mesa, California on Nov 20th, not Salt Lake city. I've been dealing with a Bare/Atomic rep here in Burnaby, who said that he has been sending emails to Atomic (and cc'd GM) making inquiries.
Yesterday I phoned Costa Mesa with the intention of inquiring about who would pay for shipping and insurance charges on a warranty return (for any future return scenarios). I was put through to Don, who I was told would know the most about warranty work etc. He told me that I would likely have to pay for shipping from Canada, even for warranty work. He said that local lds in Washington state pay for return shipping of items to Atomic (?).

During the course of our conversation, Don asked me if it was my Cobalt for which inquiries were being made. He said that they received it about the time that he was leaving for vacation. When he got back he fixed it by doing a 6 point calibration! He held onto it while he did a repair on another Cobalt from Bare here in Canada, so that he could ship them both back at the same time. They were both sent (Fedex) back to Canada last week and show as being received! I immediately emailed the Bare rep here with this information, but have yet to hear back from him.

My hope is that Bare will find this misplaced (?) Fedex shipment and that I'll be able to pick up my Cobalt this week (after Christmas). I hope that it has been fixed - permanently. I really don't want to have to deal with Bare/Atomic again.

Learning opportunities from this experience and New Year's resolutions:
- try to avoid dealing with Bare/Atomic here in Canada (for a variety of reasons)
- there are process/procedure flaws at Bare/Atomic regarding tracking items and shipments
- Companies are not as big as they seem on their Web site ie. only one repair tech?
- will not patronize this lds who offered no relief whatsoever

 

[RonR]

I talked to Atomic about this just before the holiday, and as far as I can tell you suffered a kind of perfect storm of missteps and missed timing at every step. And yes, the more links you have in the chain the more opportunity for compounding errors. There were delays getting Your Cobalt shipped at each stage, and it did arrive just as Adan, the main Cobalt repair tech, left for a vacation. My experience is that if a customer lets Atomic know they need a repair done by a specific date, Atomic pulls out all the stops to get it done. But if a message was left with the LDS, it did not make it to Atomic.

Most divers would be surprised at how incredibly small the diving industry is, and at how small even very prominent equipment companies are. That has a plus side with companies like Atomic, as you can talk directly to those responsible.

I hope your Cobalt made it back. Please message me if you have any further issues with your compass and I will help you to resolve it more easily. It should not have been necessary to go through this.

Ron

 

[maddog2]

My experience is that if a customer lets Atomic know they need a repair done by a specific date, Atomic pulls out all the stops to get it done. But if a message was left with the LDS, it did not make it to Atomic.
Ron

I didn't mention a specific date with the LDS. I brought the Cobalt in for service on about Nov 6th and expected somewhere between a 2 - 4 week turnaround time. After a month had elapsed and with no specific details of the problem, or progress on repair, I became concerned that the repair was going to take a lot longer than I had expected.

I picked up my Cobalt on Dec 31st from the LDS. The compass was stuck on a South or SSE heading and I had to do a 3 point calibration while at the LDS. It seemed odd that this was required when considering that it just went through a 6 point calibration. But, maybe the Cobalt was subjected to a strong magnetic field during transport (?). Later at home, I checked it with a regular compass and set up a permanent bearing marker, so that I can check whether it loses its bearing. If I have any further problems I'll let you know.

BTW, is there a way to delete dive information from the Dive log? I think that an extra dive was logged (Nov 18 - 104 feet for 10 minutes) for testing purposes and I'd like to be able to delete it, if possible.

 

[RonR]

The Three point calibration would be required any time the Cobalt travels a long distance, particularly north-south. The three point calibration senses the direction of the local magnetic vectors in relation to gravity, that's what enables the compass to work in three dimensions. For instance, when I live, north flux lines are actually inclined over 60° down.

The six point calibration (what you needed to have done and what can be thrown off by strong magnetic fields) sets the gain and offset for the magnetic sensor, but it doesn't eliminate the need to calibrate for the local conditions.

Unfortunately there isn't any way to eliminate a single dive from the log. We can wipe out the entire dive log memory and start fresh, but not clear dives selectively.

Let me know if you have any other issues or questions.

Ron