Have you been scammed at the dive shop on tank service work?

[moneysavr]

Wish I could get a poll going but just looking for feed back on tank service work as in inspections,Hydro's,tumbling and so on?

Basically l have been one to always support the local LDS but with lack of service and shoty practices, servicing my own life support equipment became the only option sad to say.

We all know if your LDS rips you a new one on Hydro's go to your local welding or fire ex shop for hydro's and deal direct if they dont do in house they still will do it for less,,

Next not to bash the tank inspection agency's and or any inspectors out there but man you get a few books of stickers and for years & years you can proclaim your a valid inspector! GO to their web site and check your inspector name is he current in training???? seems like the past two owners of a local LDS for years just self proclaimed old salts with a book of inspection stickers and =NO CURRENT TRAINING!

How many divers have been told OH BOY them *AL 80's are junk and you need new tanks now-we have a sale on them today?
* some were or are but they have no#s that can be checked not all old 80's are bad alloy and need to be out of service! they need to be inspected by some one that knows how to inspect that type of vintage tank.


A new great one is on tanks a year or so back a tank inspection training agency or instructor stated and or suggested to be politically correct a way to make more shop money was to rebuild tank valves as a practice,it in fact is a manufacture basis not a requirement of the DOT or any government authorities.


Divers you need to know all about your equipment who or whom services it,how's it done,proper forms,paper work,old parts back? how is the work preformed,and who is preforming said work and all charges for service. If you deal with a shop that that keeps you in the dark seek out a shop that is transparent as this work is not rocket science and many good books by divers that have been fed up by poor service or lack there of can be found on the web to make you a informed consumer!

Divers chime in and or shop owners go ahead your comments too!

 

[k ellis]

Well dive shops are a business. Some owners know how to operate them so do not. But the one thing is they are in business to make money. I for one shop around for the best deal because my money does speak to me the way a bottom line speaks to a LDS. I do give first choice though to LDS simply out of loyalty but I wont pay triple what I can get it online for. I got bills to pay too.

 

[chrpai]

Ya, I recently started a thread talking about an LDS claiming that a 5 y/o Luxfer couldn't be hydro'd because it had a (factory) clear blue coat for paint.

But you have me thinking, what are all the agencies that do VIS training? I was looking at PSI's web site and not a single person in the Austin area ( save San Marcos which isn't really Austin ) was listed.

 

[GROBIOG]

When you take your car for a simple oil change, the mechanic very often comes back and tells you about something else that needs to be done, I often feel that it's an unecessary thing and they're trying to get more money out of me, what do I know about mechanics, they can tell me anything, but it doesn't mean they are telling the truth or not.
The point though, is that if I refuse to take the advice and not do the service, whenever a failure occurs, it will be on my hands, if the breaks fail, I will be the one suffering an accident.

If a tank fails, it will most likely be on the filling process, noticed their hight standing, you wouldn't want to have your pair next to it. The greater risk here is for the operation, not the user.
In south florida, most shops will not fill AL tanks older than '88, regardless of hydro date and manufacturer, that does not mean it's correct, but it's their policy, Catalinas for example have no problem with alloy related to the '87 and older problem.

Most people will feel the same way as you do, and like I do with the car example. But it has a lot to do with liability and safety, lately, there's been a trend of "generic" VIP stickers appearing in a lot of tanks, you can not tell who did the inspection, no phone number, adress, website, name, nothing on it, so how can you tell if that tank was properly inspected? Even hydro stamps has been faked.
To make matters worst, we see "legit" stickers, from local shops that have been in busyness for decades, the ones you would define as "reputable", I've seen countless times, steel tanks with the sticker marked for visual eddy done on it, so, if the tanks being inspected on otherwise "reputable" facilities makes you doubt the safety of it, how do you think one feels about filling a tank they have no idea who the inspector is? I have been told many times by costumers, they will just place a new sticker on it, after I told them the visual is expired, am I filling their tanks when they come back, hell no.
I don't think it will be unreasonable for shops to only accept tanks inspect by themselves in the future.

Of course your point on knowing who is inspecting your tanks is very valid, just look at my example above. I will not attempt on arguing about prices, taking your tank directly to the company who hydro test tanks will obviously be cheaper, the hydro facility is charging the LDS for that service, LDS charges you for that service plus their service, what were you thinking?

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Dive shops offer you value and thus charge a little extra than the hydro shop charges. They take care of getting the tank there and back, and handle the communication with the hydro shop. It's not always a lot of extra value, but for some people, it's a lot. Sometimes I drop my tanks at the dive shop, sometimes I take them direct, it just depends on how much value I need.

There are a lot of shops that have stickers but no training. There are a lot of shops that don't do a good job. I take my tanks to a guy who will give the details of the inspection to me, and I love it. I know it's safe when it comes back from him.

Valve rebuilds every 5 years is not often enough for many tanks. I rebuild mine about every year or two. I wish more dive shops pushed this service on people, rather than letting them wait to have a burst disk fail early or the valve begin to leak.



Talk with your feet, if you like a shop, go there, if you don't, then don't. Easy as that

 

[ianr33]

I don't think it will be unreasonable for shops to only accept tanks inspect by themselves in the future.

I do!

Drive 14 hours to Florida (Millpond) get maybe 7 tanks inspected. Carry on to High Springs. Get those 7 tanks inspected again..................

Not going to happen.

 

[Superlyte27]

Yikes, that's a lot of whining.
If you're not happy, shop elsewhere.

 

[GROBIOG]

I do!

Drive 14 hours to Florida (Millpond) get maybe 7 tanks inspected. Carry on to High Springs. Get those 7 tanks inspected again..................

Not going to happen.

Well, sure, it is very unlikely to happen.
But what is a reality right now, is that shops are more restrict on whos sticker they accept.

The thing is, both the shops and users need to be more educated about it. Users who seek saving extra money by inspecting their own tanks should understand about these policies, and accept the fact that they might be refused a filling.

---------- Post added May 8th, 2012 at 11:03 PM ----------

Yikes, that's a lot of whining.
If you're not happy, shop elsewhere.

Where is your like button?

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

I found out that I paid $60 for a $20 hydro last weekend. I'm not happy with that for sure.

Sent from my DROID X2

 

[GROBIOG]

I found out that I paid $60 for a $20 hydro last weekend. I'm not happy with that for sure.

Sent from my DROID X2

That does sound expensive, are you sure nothing else was needed/done? o2 clean, tumble, valve rebuilt/parts?

Most places here charge around $45, that's hydro/VIP/air fill
And now that I am on prices, vis is usually about $15 bucks, including an air fill, which costs 5 bucks, and you wanna tell me this is expensive??? Once a year??? Give me a break!!!

Of course someone will want to say... well, but if you have an x amount of tanks that's 15 times x, it gets expensive.
More tanks = more time spent = more parts, simple math.