Newly certified, looking for gear... abroad?

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Ahah makes sense. :)

Well Scubapro just confirmed their warranty works worldwide, just need to keep the receipts!
And so far no luck on getting lower prices in the US, the couple resellers I talked to said Scubapro locked the prices.

Just so you know if you go to register your gear, SP will look at your address, the serial number and where you bought it and WILL NOT register it.
;:
The warranty once registered is good worldwide (i use aqualung/apeks but the same applies). So if I go to any other country and have an issue the shop will check the warranty and say yup warranty is good and do the repair. If I had gotten them from Europe they would be not be warrantaid. Its up to you.
 
Buying local vs overseas/ online was another thing I commented on. I prefer to give my money to local businesses even if it costs slightly more. I can’t however fault or judge someone for trying to get the best price possible. It’s a personal choice.

The advice that I gave in that arena, was based, mainly, upon my servicing of European equipment; and the inherent difficulty in obtaining some obscurer parts or products in a timely manner, even from their US distributors, one of whom, quite suddenly, fled California for Maine.

If I could readily find things locally, I'd probably go with US dealers, and avoid the femoral artery bloodbath that is the euro . . .
 
Whenever the warranty argument comes up, I always wonder what it is that you expect to need the warranty for. Like, for the chinesium junk I'm buying off amazon, I really need the store's no-questions-asked-we-pay-shipping return policy. The manufacturer's warranty? -- not so much.
 
Whenever the warranty argument comes up, I always wonder what it is that you expect to need the warranty for. Like, for the chinesium junk I'm buying off amazon, I really need the store's no-questions-asked-we-pay-shipping return policy. The manufacturer's warranty? -- not so much.

Aside from manufacturers who provided complementary regulator service kits, I have found most companies' warranties to be fairly useless -- and never had a client who ever placed a warranty claim, for mechanical defects, that I can recall . . .

Chinesium -- oh, I'm using that . . .
 
Chinesium -- oh, I'm using that . . .

Well, you know... the stuff that shines a million lumen off of a 10KmAh coin-sized battery on a 20,000 grit water stone... and half of it is DOA.
 
Aside from manufacturers who provided complementary regulator service kits, I have found most companies' warranties to be fairly useless -- and never had a client who ever placed a warranty claim, for mechanical defects, that I can recall . . .

Chinesium -- oh, I'm using that . . .

I take it you don't sell suunto products.
 
Warranties can be useful, and good local shops are awesome. I had a second stage that was dribbling air for a few seconds after I stopped breathing from it. I brought it back to the shop where I had bought it and had it serviced. It turned out to have a small crack in the balance chamber. I wasn't charged anything. It was a top reg from one of the top brands.

I think the first reason I was charged nothing was that that shop, AnyWaterSports, standing behind their service. The owner, Frank, is considered very knowledgeable locally and had serviced it and also diagnosed the issue when I brought it back in. He was not happy with the manufacturer's service procedures as none of the service tests the manufacturer had seemed to reveal the issue. I imagine that part got sent back to the manufacture with a note about the incident. I suspect the cost of the replacement part was covered under warranty as well, so that was not a cost to the shop.

Some shops are very good. Some are not.
Some people on the internet are clueless and have agendas that do not take much regard for the impact on others.
Some people on the internet are well informed, trying to help, and have no other agenda.

If you have one shop in your area, if they are your only source you rolled the dice and you take the results.
If you can read and you can evaluate what people tell you and have access to the internet, you have several more sources of information you can sift through to get good advice if needed.

ETA: If you have a lot of gear, the cost of that part and even the service would have been small in one's overall diving costs. And the odds of it occurring were low.
 
Scubapro being a US company, I thought the prices would be more expensive (or at least the same) abroad.
Am I missing something or should I actually be getting my gear overseas?
Scubapro is an US/Italian company, with its main production site in Casarza Ligure (near Genoa), ITALY - Most SP regulators are manufactured here.
This explains (at least partially) why you can find very good bargains here, for example a friend recently purchased online from an Italian well known shop a kit of MK17+G260+R195+SPG+Bcd hose+bag for 480 eur, tax and shipping included, and two-years warranty.
The regulator arrived with regular sale documents ("scontrino fiscale" in Italian), which ensures worldwide warranty.
I am not sure how such a document will be evaluated by an official SP repair center in the US, indeed. But if the regulator is shipped back for repair to the Italian shop (or to any EU shop), they will definitely honour the warranty.
It must be understood, indeed, that the warranty does NOT cover wearing parts, those included in the periodic service kit.
And all the other parts of a SP reg are, in my experience, designed for lasting forever: it would be very, very rare to see them break apart within the warranty period.
So really this point regarding warranty is quite irrelevant, in my opinion. The real point is periodic servicing. Does your LDS provide service for SP regs not sold from them? They should and in this case there is no problem. But if they refuse, you have a problem.
You can solve it deciding to service your regs yourself, as I am doing since 1977, and as many others here on SB will also suggest. Finding the SP original kits on the Internet is easy, however they are quite expensive nowadays.
 

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