Local dive shop in Venice CA, refuses to fill tanks

[kelpmermaid]

Now that I think about it, I don't have a strong affiliation with any single dive store, really. Nobody I can stroll into and get free fills, shoot the breeze with for half a day and hang out with. None of that shop bonding and affiliation so many divers find comforting and "cool".

Whatever....

K

I like to do business with someone I know will be around next week if I have any questions/problems/issues...seems it's a rough business that way.

 

[headhunter]

Its not like I had been in his store before, wasted his time with equipment questions, and then purchased gear from someone else.

Not that it would make it right, but given that you had not "shopped" him and then gone and bought elsewhere, he should have been glad to get some of your business and build a relationship with a new customer. After all, unless we're talking about a new diver, we've all bought something somewhere else.

Christian

 

[Mo2vation]

How's HB been treating you in recent months? My buddy hasn't been able to get his HP120 filled to over 3200, and they will no longer Viz "while-u-wait"... it's an overnight stay.
This has all happened since the dive shop changed managers.
Used to get the 120 pumped to 3600 and a Viz took 10 minutes.

Another rant with these guys... last year, he took his kids in for SASY. No problem, kids had a great time.
This year, he got there and was informed that he had missed the orientation at 2pm and his kids could not participate.
The hours for both SASY and Bubblemaker were posted as being 2-4pm. Nothing indicated that there was a mandatory "orientation" at 2pm.

The store manager had no clue that people were being turned away.

He hasn't been back since then. I haven't used them for air since I quit using air

The Marina one recently stopped doing wet fills. That kinda hacked me off. I used to get 3500 straight up from them... not any more. Its always 3200 - 3300 or less sometimes now that they're doing dry fills...

K

 

[newtodive]

Is there any better/worse to get cetified by Sport Chalet than LSD around Venice? Or, in general, what do you guys think?

 

[scubacalifornia]

I've read nearly 50 posts in this thread and I too am curious who the LDS in Venice is. I would also like to know if there is an official Scubaboard rule of etiquette stating that you cannot mention the name of a shop that gives you poor service or a bad experience. If it's kept to the facts, why not? When it comes to praise, there doesn't seem to be an issue naming names. When it comes to LeisurePro, it seems like open game here on the board whether it's praise or scorn. We are each going to draw our own conclusions and I don't think withholding information is necessarily appropriate. I appreciate the discretion being used in regards to naming this shop, but are we unnecessarily walking on eggshells here? Just my opinion.

In regards to the question from Newtodive, my own experience has been that it's the instructor, not the shop, that makes or breaks the training experience.

Kevin

 

[Seabear70]

Gee whiz, I don't even want to think about how much my diving is costing (> 55 dives last month). All I know is I have to keep filling up my checking account with money from maturing CD's. Hmmm... buy my own compressor? Not sure I'd trust my fills!

Doc

The biggest things t oremember...

1. No, the compressor does not take 10w30
2. Make sure that the exhaust is higher than and well seperated from the intake.
3. Do your maintenence.
4. Do your Maintenence.

If you are really doing 55 dives a month, at $5 a fill that's $275 a month.

You'd be looking at spending arround $3000 for a basic compressor, shipping, and setup.

Consider cost of maintenece, and you'd likely be getting free fills in about a year.

 

[Seabear70]

So thinking out loud...

It would take 5 years at $50 per month to pay for a $3000 compressor. That's just air of course and no maintenance costs.

If you had 5 people that lived near each other and dove about same amount, your payback would be one year if you all split the costs.

Something portable in a truck and you'd could split the costs with everyone on each large group dive at maybe $3 per tank. As long as it was just offsetting costs with your "friends", you could probably claim that it was not a business.

Just some rough round figures, but it does make you think.

Christian

Actually, claim it is a business, offer fills to anyone for $5 but do not advertize. Then Itemize and decuct the compressor, maintennce, supplies, maybe even some of your dive gear off of your taxes.

A tax license can be a wonderful thing.

 

[YakSpout]

Interesting idea.

I would think that there would be liability issues to be concerned with. (We are in California, after all.)

 

[RichLockyer]

The Marina one recently stopped doing wet fills. That kinda hacked me off. I used to get 3500 straight up from them... not any more. Its always 3200 - 3300 or less sometimes now that they're doing dry fills...

While I'd be happy with that on an 80 (and unhappy with 3500 in an 80), I'd be making waves with HQ over short fills on the HP tanks that they were more than happy to shove into the market.

My buddy just dumped them and now gets his fills at ScubaToys in Cypress... always a good fill, and his nitrox mixes are usually within .2%

 

[HammerNoMore]

Point I'm making, everyone has their problems with various shops and shop owners.

Having a problem with a shop is one thing. Being told point blank you're not welcome there because you spent some money somewhere else is another entirely.

Really not nice to slam a shop by name.

I won't derail this thread with a discussion on naming names but you can find my thoughts on it here :http://www.scubaboard.com/t52855.html.

James