Mares EU customer service beyond dreadful

[Diver0001]

So.... this year I bought a Mares suit (an XR) to replace my BARE suit. I've been using BARE suits since 1985. I feel loyal to BARE and it took a lot to make me decide to buy a Mares drysuit instead of a BARE.

The good news is, It fits like a glove... no... better than that.... it fits like the perfect glove. I've never had a drysuit that felt like I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt but the Mares XR is like that. The product is (assuming it stays dry) well above expectations.

... but it leaked. Shortly after I got it, it started to leak..... then it flooded. I'm not talking about a little bit of water from the shoulder valve being in the squeeze, I'm talking about flooding to the point that your toes are wet from a 20 minute dive. It turns out the one I got was a lemon. The cuff seals were not attached correctly and they were coming unglued and letting buckets of water in..... Thinking, "ok, that can happen" I sent it back to Mares Italy for repairs.

It took them... and I kid you not..... 3 months to fix it. In fact, they didn't fix it at all..... after 3 months they sent me a new suit. They could have done that in 3 days!

3 months! The #fail in that was HARD... REALLY HARD. Hard to understand, hard to accept, hard to defend.

I decided to step away from BARE and buy a Mares suit because Mares makes good diving gear but this kind of thing cannot pass. I don't even know what they were thinking because they KNEW I would write about it on the internet!

A la. The Mares suit is unbelievably comfortable but be prepared. The customer service in Europe utterly abysmal. I can't think of any other words to describe it.

R..

 

[Vicko]

I have a simmilar problem but with their other brand (pure instinct line) their pneumatic spear gun (cyrano evo air 120) has a messed up piston locking system that can easily missfire, the forums are full of the complaints and the serive centers can't fix the problem as the piston head is to narrow. They refused to exchange it for a functional model and I kept geting pulled around untill I gave up.
Shame, Mares brand used to stand for something but now in Europe it's equivalent to bad customer service and design flaws.

 

[BenZed]

Hi Diver0001,

How do you like the replacement suit they sent you? Still pleased?
(Apart from the customer service)

Local diveshop (Schiedam, actually) has one in my size, going cheap ... so I may take my chances.

 

[chris kippax]

My personal experience with mares mimics yours. I will never again purchase a mares product!

 

[Diver0001]

Hi Diver0001,

How do you like the replacement suit they sent you? Still pleased?
(Apart from the customer service)

Local diveshop (Schiedam, actually) has one in my size, going cheap ... so I may take my chances.

The last few weeks I've been using my old suit because I didn't have time to drop by the drysuit repair people to get the neckseal done. I just got it looked at and the neckseal done today so I'll be trying it out this weekend.

My experience with the first one is that it fit me better than any other drysuit I've ever had.... aside from the leaking I was very impressed with it. I'm sure once these problems are behind me that I'll have much better things to say. The drysuit people said that they haven't had many of these suits in so I think I just got unlucky.

That said, All in all it took Mares MONTHS to deliver on their warranty service. Why they did this is beyond me because the rep knows who I am and he knew I would write about it on the internet. This is not really the kind of advertising they need.

R..

 

[BenZed]

I went ahead and took the deal, based on your initial good review, and one other that I found on the web. Hoping I did not buy a lemon

It is my impression that the whole Mares XR product line has been largely ignored by techies, simply because it's Mares. But it's hard to find good independent reviews of any scuba gear, unlike cameras or cars.

 

[Diver0001]

@BenZed

I'm curious how this eventually worked out for you.

To finish this story, I sent my 2nd XR suit back and asked Mares to reimburse me. In the span of about 25 dives it developed 9 leaks, one of which was a tear of about 1.5cm, which could have cost me my life in the 2C water I was diving in if I had been well over the NDL at the time. (fortunately I was not -- it was a "technical" dive but I was not yet over the NDL). It was the second time in maybe 10 dives that the suit flooded to the toes.

Something very similar was happening to a buddy of mine. The inside of his suit looked like polka dotted Aquasure art. He sent his suit back as well and will have it replaced.

What I know from the grape vine is that Mares quietly recalled ALL of the XR suits that were part of that production run. Every suit from that run distributed to the Netherlands has been silently recalled. Customers who have already bought suits have not been informed of this because Mares obviously doesn't have records of who bought what. That said, they appear to want to keep this recall off the radar and are not communicating publicly about it.

I knew something was wrong when I mailed the Mares rep for the Netherlands and asked him to reimburse me and he agreed immediately without asking a single follow up question. I sincerely appreciate what he did for me but it was also immediately clear to me that there was more happening here than just a leaky suit.

My impression is that Mares knows that the run is defective and they are taking measures to fix the issue. My opinion is STILL that the XR suit fits like "jeans and a T-shirt". I've honestly never been in a more comfortable drysuit.... but as a customer, if you have one that leaks a lot then you need to contact Mares and have them replace it.

R..

 

[taimen]

That reminds me of stories I have heard about early breathable drysuits by another manufacturer. More recently they have fixed those issues.
Does anyone have idea who actually makes the XR drysuit for Mares?
Prehaps the same cut and fit IS available with another name, without Mares customer service?

 

[Diver0001]

That reminds me of stories I have heard about early breathable drysuits by another manufacturer. More recently they have fixed those issues.
Does anyone have idea who actually makes the XR drysuit for Mares?
Prehaps the same cut and fit IS available with another name, without Mares customer service?

I'm under the impression that Mares makes their own suits. Again, the suit fits like a glove. The issue appears to be limited to limited number of suits that have had problems with leaky Trilaminate.

R..

 

[taimen]

I'm under the impression that Mares makes their own suits. Again, the suit fits like a glove. The issue appears to be limited to limited number of suits that have had problems with leaky Trilaminate.

Some posts in a german messageboard hint that Mares XR drysuits are actually made by Rofos in Italy.
And now when I look carefully at some online images with details like pocket flap piping etc. they are identical.
Rofos doesn't offer a breathable drysuit with their own name anymore... But the great fit may be available as Rofos 450 in a more durable package if my assumptions are true.