A couple of months ago Penny picked up a nice dive light from a friend of mine in Indiana. He was forced into a dive hiatus by sinus issues and a newly expected addition that would be joining his family, so he was liquidating much of his dive gear.
He'd only owned the dive light for a few months with a single digit amount of dives on it. The light is a Halcyon 18W 9ah HID. When Penny dove the light for the first time, she found about an inch of water a few days later in the bottom of the canister. Sometimes this happens if the O-ring on the canister isn't lubed lightly or perhaps has grit preventing it from sealing. Unfortunately, the battery had sat in the water for a few days. Grimacing, I advised her to dry it out and later try to charge it anyways (I'd had this happen on a 10W HID a couple of years early and the battery was toast.) Luckily, the battery took a charge and she awaited the next chance to try it.
The following week, I met Penny again for diving, and after looking over the light carefully during assembly, she dove with it. The same thing resulted. She opened the light canister shortly after the dive, and there was about an inch of water that poured out of the bottom. Ugh!!! There was something else wrong that wasn't immediately apparent. It could be things like "light switch boot" torn, or poor "gland seal" on the light cord going into the battery pack.
I took her light home and looked it over. When I decided to cut open the plastic on the bottom of the battery pack, there was a dismal amount of corrosion that was certain to doom this battery in short order.... dang!! I told her to send it Barry Miller (owner of Salvo Diving) to check it out and see what he could do. (Barry had made me a nice battery for my old 10W a couple of years ago, and had treated me well on other small purchases.)
So... A few weeks ago I'm doing electrical/programming training for some folks at the Jeep plant in Toledo and get a message from Barry at Salvo saying that Penny gave him my number and wanted to discuss her dive light. I called him back on lunch break and he says that the light is practically brand new and he hates to touch it since it should be covered under warranty. I advised him that she was the second owner, and he says "So what? If it was a Salvo light, I'd repair it under warranty no matter how many people owned it!"
So, rather than ship it back, we stopped down at Salvo to pick up the light (before Penny's cave training) and take it over to Halcyon about 1 mile away. Halcyon was closed, but Extreme Exposure next door was open, and they are a duly authorized Halcyon representative and repair coordinator. We told them the situation and they told us that since Penny wasn't the original owner, Halcyon would NOT warranty the work. Trying not to get disgusted, I reiterated that the light was about 4 months old and was only used a handful of times. They said sorry, that's the policy.
Okay... deep breath... how much do you think it will cost to repair and what would you guess is wrong with it. They took some best guesses about the problem (as good as anyone could have done), and also said that the battery would have to be replaced. The battery alone was going to be $400!! Yikes!! (Understand, that this light brand new is just over $1500 and Penny got hers used for around $900. Still, I couldn't help but wonder why I advised Penny not to go with a brand new Salvo light, and instead get this used Halcyon 18W HID instead. Perhaps I thought my experience with my Halcyon 18W HID I bought used a few years ago would mean hers would be positive as well.
So I continued to talk with the folks from EE. So... this looks like it's less than a year old right? Oh, definitely, you can tell by these newer features on it... Okay, is it typical for cords and switch boots to fail with less than a year on them? (The light has very few marks on it from diving) ...well no, it isn't. So... wouldn't it make sense that this would be a warranted item for this and also the battery since it caused it to corrode? Sorry sir... the warranty only applies to the original owner. But maybe you can get a hold of the person in charge of repairs and come up with a special arrangement, or talk the original owner into talking to Halcyon for you. {Deep Sigh} Okay (remaining polite despite being awake for about 36 hours and driving twelve hours to Florida)... thank you very much for your time and for looking at the light.
We walked out of EE/Halcyon and drove the mile back up to Salvo. A few years ago I had to battle tooth and nail for a couple of weeks to get warranty repair done on a 10W light that I WAS the original owner on, so guessing what the end result would be I wasn't about to advise Penny (or anyone else) to spend more time or another dime on Halcyon if this is how their warranty policy was going to be to deal with.
The lady at Salvo was like... uh oh... you guys are back quickly... so I explained the situation and said since Barry had treated us fairly and tried to help us do the right thing, that we'd rather that Salvo, not Halcyon, get the money for the light repair. She told us the battery alone would be around $200-250, but wasn't sure what else Barry might find. So we accepted that, hoping for the best, and Penny went off to do her cave training.
Penny received a call on her second day of training that the light was ready, so while she continued class, I drove back to High Springs (from Luraville) to pick up the light. Barry was there to greet me and explained to me what they'd done. Okay, I'm thinking, what's the damage... cringe... Barry says $150 repair cost, including battery replacement. Huh?!? Well now...this wasn't even his model light, and he was treating us more than fairly. So I asked if they carried Aluminum backplates and harness kits since Penny needed one anyway. Sure, right over here all put together... You can have it for the Sale price too (I think the sale was over in December). Wow.... okay!!
So... as you might understand, even though I've purchased 1000's of dollars of Halcyon product over the years and recommended them to buddies, I may never spend another dime with them again. Between warranty disputes with lights and discussions with the Halcyon personnel (that prompted me to sell my two Halcyon Explorer wings and buy a bright red Oxycheq), I think I'm done. (In fairness to JJ, CEO of Halcyon, he did send me a nice and very well written follow-up email after my discussion with one of his personnel.)
So... if you're looking for unsurpassed service... you may want to consider Salvo as one of your options.
Safe Diving
Bob Overstreet
BTW... Salvo did an awesome demonstration with their HID canister light head. They joked it was a 'roach-killer' and proceeded to smash it repeatedly on the counter with a great deal of force, then turned the light on. (Don't even think of trying that with any other HID light unless you have a spare bulb!!)
