It's a long story, but I'll try to make it "medium" here. It was the first time I ever had to replace seals at all, and at that time I trusted my LDS (they were just beginning the long road to not caring about their customers, but I didn't see it until after the drysuit incident). When I tried to send it straight to USIA, and got refused by their phone person, I went to the LDS because I needed it in three weeks for another trip. They said no problem, they would do it there and cheaper than USIA would. I asked if it would be as good a job, and they said absolutely. I was ignorant of seal replacement at that time. I also asked how long it would take them, and they said a week, ten days max, which was fine because then I could try it out in the pool to make sure it didn't leak. I didn't know about superior or others at that time, and obviously the LDS didn't offer it up
I called ten days later, they didn't have it done. fourteen days later, not done. seventeen days later, not done. I got a little irate because time was running out on me, and I talked to the owner, who snippily said When are you going? and then said Don't worry, it'll be done by then, do you have any other questions? to which i said nope, no more questions, ever. So, I get the suit back the day BEFORE a trip, not enough time to try it and dry it. And although, thankfully, the seals didn't leak, they used old seals and they only lasted one season.
So, never again did I set foot in the LDS, and I blame USIA for the whole incident because of the support they show a supply chain that doesn't represent them well.
I had a friend show me how to replace them (figuring that was the only way to make sure this didn't happen to me again) and although a sloppy job, at least it doesn't leak.
I just HATE working on stuff. I'd rather pay, and then have it done when the person paid promises it. If you tell me how much and I say OK, and I ask when it's done and you tell me and I say OK, as long as you hold up your end of the bargain I'll hold up mine.
LDS owners are so frickin' amateurish when it comes to customers. It really isn't that hard, and the manufacturers better start leaning on them to rep right, or they lose customers as they get more sophisticated. I can't think of one other industry that has as many victims of the shops that support the sport as scuba.
Postcript: to top it off, USIA actually defends their position as benefitting the customer. Let's see, give it to an LDS, who HAS to mark stuff up, to ship when they darn well please to a manufacturer, to fix it, then send back to the LDS, to call the customer when they darn well please. You can find better, but you can't pay less. So, I won't buy USIA again. I'll just keep looking 'till I find a manufacturer who cares how the ultimate customer is taken care of. That's why I bought a DSS bp/w. And White's gets a B- in customer service on this one.
