Galileo Sol Warranty **BEWARE**

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I had heard that this is how warranty service would be for Uwatec stuff from that Spanish shop. I looked into it myself a while back. I'm glad to have confirmation that you need to return the unit to Spain, though I am sorry for your hassle.

And quit harassing the OP about not shopping locally, everyone. That's about as constructive in this context as a "you don't even need a computer" post.
 
Except in very limited circumstances, I avoid Scubapro and Aqualung. When I do buy those brands I usually buy at a competitive price abnd know I have no factory warranty. I believe they actively support price fixing, although that form of price fixing is not currently illegal in the U.S.

Even more to the point, let's say I am on a dive trip outside the U.S. and my regulator or computer gets stolen or destroyed or lost. I want to buy a replacement, but if I do, I will have no warranty at home. I don't have time to have it shipped to me from the U.S., plus, remember that these companies, or at least Aqualung, don't permit mail order sales.

What can I do? Buy a product with no effective warranty or buy some other brand. There is very little that Scubapro and Aqualung make that cannot be equaled or bettered by another company, and often at a better price.

In my opinion, Scubapro and Aqualung remain in business because they place their products in stores by promising dealers they will have no internet or other reduced price competition and promising price protection and huge markups to those dealers who will carry their products and honor their pricing structure. They typify an anti-consumer corporate mentality that deserves to die and let more competitive manufacturers move forward.

Sorry for the rant, but this issue gets me riled. Mad Dane, good luck.
 
Hummm. My Scubapro manual from a Mk20/S600 I purchased from scubastore has a paragraph titled "5.12 Worldwide Lifetime Warranty". I can understand a local shop refusing to honor the warranty but I don't see how a Scubapro service center can get away with it.

If I understood the OP, he was not DENIED service by Scubapro. He stated that he had to send the unit in for service to Scubapro Europe. Am I reading that correctly?

To me, that still falls under a "Worldwide Lifetime Warranty". Your LDS deals with Scubapro USA. If you take it to a LDS their attempt to warranty it through Scubapro USA would be denied.

I agree with the OP that this doesn't seem fair but it is what it is.

I personally would be happy the warranty is still valid even though I have to send it to Spain to get service.

Considering you saved nearly $700 on your original purchase (great deal IMO), $50 to send it to Spain isn't so bad really, is it? I mean, you still have a valid warranty right?

If the warranty isn't valid then no, it isn't a "deal".
 
In keeping with the OP's original intent for this message, unfortunately many of our non-diving loved ones don't read Scubaboard. Then there's the issue of how to politely say, "hey, my [event] is coming up, if you want to buy me dive gear, don't buy from x,y,z".
 
Sorry to hear (read?) about your problem. Hopefully, your computer's trip to Spain and back won't take too long. Please post back when you've got your computer back. I (and others I'm sure) would like to know how how long it took and how much it cost. Saving $700 may be worth having to send the unit to Europe for warranty service.

Thanks,

Ron
 
Guess you might say the OP is SOL.
 
When you pay less to buy online/cataloge/grey market, you don't get what you don't pay for - IE: customer service & support. It is not a big deal if it a $25 mask, but a major issue for a $1500 computer. That it why you pay more to support your local dive shop. I bought a sol from my favorite dive shop, payed a little more, but got a personal course in using it and have talked to them a couple of times for pointers or questions. I have peace of mind knowing I can return it to a real live authorized dealer if there is ever a problem.
 
It is under warranty... in EUROPE!

The computer was bought from a dive shop in.... wait for it...... EUROPE. As far as I'm concerned, they didn't "not" tell you the full truth. Did your wife not realzie their location? Did she ask about the fact that you were in the USA and the computer was sold and shipped from Europe, how would that affect your warranty? Not to turn the issue back on the OP but I think that the dive shop offering a store credit shows how good their customer service is.

They didn't try to swindle you, if anything it was a mis-communication between the purchaser and the seller where maybe the wrong questions were asked?

I applaud you for bringing light to purchases made from that online store but to shame them for this is a little overboard.




The thing I think most people don't realize here is, regardless of any issues you many have with the SOL, no one can service it EXCEPT the manufacturer. A trip to the LDS will result in the LDS packing the item up and sending it in to Scubapro, providing it is under warranty. The time it takes to service the unit and ship it back direct to the consumer or direct to the LDS where the consumer has to pick it up is still the same.

The ONLY difference here is that the consumer has to foot the bill for the shipping instead of the LDS but the online dive shop even offered to give him a store credit for the shipping cost.


I agree it may be an inconvenience to handle the shipping yourself but it is what it is and you paid alot less for your SOL than I did so paying shipping once, maybe twice in the lifetime of the computer really won't kill anyone will it?
 
That it why you pay more to support your local dive shop.

If the actual value of local dive shop service lived up to the myth, it might be worth paying more. I do not get good service from most local dive shops and do not feel that they are worth the markup that they charge.

YMMV.
 
If the actual value of local dive shop service lived up to the myth, it might be worth paying more. I do not get good service from most local dive shops and do not feel that they are worth the markup that they charge.

I agree with this. I have authorized SP regs from a now defunct dive shop (actually new owners) and trying to get them serviced anywhere else for this year's annual was a nightmare. More and more shops are adopting an attitude of "didn't buy it from us, we won't service it; you want our service, then support us by purchasing it here".

They even get rude and beligerant if I don't walk in the door with the most impeccable recordkeeping that would make even the IRS jealous. So fine, charge for parts, but don't be a prick. I felt so humiliated walking out of those shops -- and I didn't even do anything wrong. I had a pipe leak in my house and lost many papers, but fortunately not the receipts or previous service record. God forbid that should happen, or thanks get burglarized, or a fire. Because I would be burned at the stake if I couldn't prove purchase authorized, they would crucify me under the assumption I purchased online.

That kind of treatment for a two SP regs I paid full MSRP for at an authorized location does two things for me:

1) Makes me question why I would want to do business with that shop anyway. They don't want my business, fine. The problem is, nearly all the shops in my area are like this.

2) Pushes me towards purchasing online. Depending on the brand, I may not have a free-parts warranty to even worry about in the first place. But those types of brands are not typically sold in local shops. Scuba.com is a local shop, though.


I realize it isn't always the shop, the manufactor has this stupid policy. But the shop could be less rude about it or they could verify the S/N for whether it was authorized or not.

I would feel no regrets to purchase life support equipment online in the future because of this. I'd rather much prefer purchase regs and computers locally, but those attitudes do not make me want to care enough to support the LDS with that kind of attitude.

If it keeps up and continues to prevail, I can't imagine how these shops would continue to survive and I wouldn't care if they don't. I don't even use them for airfills, but they are sweet and loving if I purchase from them. This kind of hypocracy is just nausiating. There can be a million reasons why I might just show up at another shop for an annual service. And since my original shop where from purchased is no longer existance, any shop could be fairgame but they make it sooooo difficult.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom