Did I get Screwed by Diveshop Hydro, who never inspected the tank?

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re: Scuba fills, etc. I've determine I'm going to do business elsewhere, except as a last resort. Since I now have 5 to 7 tanks (I'll be selling 2 soon), it sound be easy to avoid the shop, and just drive a little further for fills. DEFINITELY never doing anything else there, like VIP, Hydro, buying equipment, servicing equipment, etc. And if I do fill there, obviously check the pressure before leaving.

I may still ask to speak to the owner, and see if they wish to resolve the tank situation. A replacement tank would be nice, doesn't have to be a new one of course.

As far as calling 911, etc, it's a little late now.
 
What I am going to say will be a bother, and you might not want to pursue it because of the minimal gains compared to the effort, but you might find it worthwhile. It might not be much more work than continuing to participate in this thread. Here is what I would do, because I am retired and have time on my hands.

I would put in writing a statement summarizing what you learned here, that there was no reason for them to condemn the tank, they had no authority to condemn the tank, and they had no right to keep you from reclaiming your tank and taking it to another facility. You expect either to have your tank returned, get a new tank in its place, or get the monetary equivalent of a new tank.​
If they do not do this, you will sue them in small claims court for those above values.​

If nothing else, you will gain the satisfaction of knowing they won't do this to someone else again.
 
I wanted to make this point separately.

We have had many threads on ScubaBoard over the years about shops refusing to fill older aluminum tanks, and I always assumed it was the old alloy issue that was to blame. A thread last year changed my thinking. I did a Google search and found a whole bunch of old articles from past decades about the supposed dangers of filling older aluminum tanks. There really was a prevailing belief not all that long ago that aluminum tanks had a very short lifespan. Some articles suggested junking them after only 15 years. What was interesting was that you could see the change in thinking over the years in articles published citing the same authority. The authority that said 15 years a while before was later saying 20 and then later saying there was no specific lifespan. (I wondered if their estimate of the cost of replacing their entire stock of aluminum tanks might have been a factor.)

It is easy to see how someone who became part of that thinking years ago might have that thinking evolve from "maybe it's a good idea" to "it's the law." We saw something similar with reverse dive profiles. In 1972, the PADI OW student manual suggested that divers doing repetitive dives do the deeper one first, probably because doing so shortened the surface interval. Over the years, the language became stronger and stronger, and before long it was a hard and fast rule that the deeper dive must be done first, with the suggestion that you would die an agonizing death if you violated that rule. No one knew why the deeper one had to be done first, but, by golly, we knew it was a rule that had to be followed.
 
boulderjohn's suggestion might be an interesting exercise if you have no intention of using them again.
 
boulderjohn's suggestion might be an interesting exercise if you have no intention of using them again.
It is a route I have traveled down before. Ultimately I had to use a collection agency who filed a property lien.
 
I still say that you just ask to see your tank and then just walk out with your tank. If they want to make a physical deal and "take you down" for leaving with your personal property.......then maybe you end up owning a dive shop.
 
I still say that you just ask to see your tank and then just walk out with your tank. If they want to make a physical deal and "take you down" for leaving with your personal property.......then maybe you end up owning a dive shop.

Well, if you end up owning the dive shop, it might be a better idea to forget about your tank and cut your losses.
 
(1) I would put in writing a statement summarizing what you learned here.​
(2) If they do not do this, you will sue them in small claims court for those above values.​
(1) I might
(2) This sounds like a massive headache for no gain. Even worse, given I live an hour away. Even if we assume the most generous payout, the "time=money" calculation would be a massive loss. (There's also something else that I should be working on, and if that's successful, maybe I can buy my own fill-station.)
boulderjohn's suggestion might be an interesting exercise if you have no intention of using them again.
Right. While they may be on my last-resort list, there are still pragmatic reasons why I might have to use them on a rare occasion. It's a long story why, but I plan on using them as little as possible from now on.

As a random side-note, right before this incident I had asked them about their fill-cards (20 fills), and was thinking of buying one. However, that idea died real fast.

I still say that you just ask to see your tank and then just walk out with your tank. If they want to make a physical deal and "take you down" for leaving with your personal property.......then maybe you end up owning a dive shop.
Ok, now that is a serious threat!
Well, if you end up owning the dive shop, it might be a better idea to forget about your tank and cut your losses.
Well, that's an interesting thought.
 
You expect either to have your tank returned, get a new tank in its place, or get the monetary equivalent of a new tank.
This right here. OP, you keep talking about your $40 tank. What you originally paid is irrelevant. What you need is to have your property replaced…you need to be made whole in order to be OK with the shop. Whatever that costs them is not your problem.

Assuming, of course, that you want to talk to the owner to get satisfaction.
 

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