Scubapro annual service fee

[DrSteve]

I don't dive scuba pro - I have an old US Divers which works great. HEre's my experience with servicing:
1. Buy reg second hand - get it serviced at shop I took my OW. The guy who serviced it was recommended to me as doing a good job.
2. One year later my buddy and the owner of another LDS open up my reg as a courtesy before I did a dry suit dive. OMG! That IP is way off they say by about 40 psi (I think). They correct it and mutter that whoever serviced it before didn't know what he was doing. I dived with the reg many times that year
3. I took almost a year off diving. Equipment stored in material friendly conditions and go to Cozume and the O ring in my first stage fails. Not badly - just leaked a bit. I give it to the guy who runs the dive operation and he tells me the O ring was "smooshed". Whoever serviced it before didn't know what they were doing!

That's why I hate the idea of having my reg serviced. Something is perhaps not done right and everyone blames the person who looked at it before. Even my new LDS states they recommend checking out recently serviced equipment in a safe environment prior to any big dive trips. What does that say about the confidence in their servicing abilities?

/rant off

 

[LesN]

I hadn't mentioned that the very first time I used my new Scubapro gear, one of the gauges was leaking. We were at Lake Rawlings. I took the fitting apart and one O-ring in the swivel coupling was severed. I guess during the manufacturer's assembly process it was pinched our something. I walked up to the Rawlings 'office' (steel building) and the lady there happened to have an O-ring that matched. She gave it to me. I stuck it in and went diving. So even new out the box doesn't mean no troubles. I never followed up with the LDS since it was just a simple fix. Plus I plain forgot about it.

 

[astreopora]

I don't get the fuss. How much do you spend on car maintenence in a year? What about your central heating system?
No- one ever said diving was cheap!
Your life depends on this equipment whether it was a .75c o-ring or $65 + parts for a full service.
How do you explain to your family when your dive trip is cut short or you suffer some injury 'cos you were too cheap to keep your gear maintained?

 

[LesN]

I buy the parts and always do my own car maintenance. We had 185,000 miles on our Ford Explorer when we sold it for something new. I also do the PM on my A/C system. My big complaint about Scubapro is that you MUST have the service performed every year by a LDS or lose the free parts deal. So you are forced into a decision. I just don't like that. I'm not cheap, just don't like wasting money. I just don't believe that the gear needs completely new stuff every year. If they are willing to replace the parts every year for free (free except for the $150 I spent), then why not replace the parts for 'free' when they are actually needed? You mean to tell me that Scubapro equipment really only lasts one year? After that it is untrustworthy? I want to get the equipment serviced when I feel it needs it, and not lose the parts deal.

I started rock climbing in 1980. I climbed very seriously for about 12 years. There was no one requiring you to get your rope an annual service or have your camming devices checked for a fee. You depended on yourself. You checked your gear because in the end it was YOUR life depending on it. You monitored the falls and wear on your rope and when you felt something needed attention or replacing, you did it. I guess that is the way I think of diving. It is my ass on the line, not the guy back in the shop. Bottom line is I'd rather be working on my own stuff really.

And get this.... now our regs are free-flowing more than they did in the past. At Morehead just after the servicing my wife's pony reg free-flowed when she jumped off the boat. We always jump in with our BCs empty so we don't bobble on the surface. But it still free-flowed even though she went directly under. And we went diving at the quarry this past weekend. My wife's main reg free-flowed every time she walked into the water. It didn't do that before the servicing. My Octo free-flowed every time I got in, but it was just a trickle of air. Now I guess we take them back, for yet another tune-up.

 

[redkev]

When did this occur? A change in the warranty reinstatement process is cetainly news to me.

My wife hand carried the regs with the "plastic cards" (whatever scubapro calls them), and called me shortly after dropping them off in Washington DC. She was upset about the news from the National Diving Center but we needed the regs serviced and she only had 10 days in the states. No time to shop around.

 

[PurduEE]

I don't get the fuss. How much do you spend on car maintenence in a year? What about your central heating system?
No- one ever said diving was cheap!

True - in fact, I can remember my SSI open water class saying 'diving is an equipment intensive sport'. I read that to mean it was expensive..

However, the example you used isn't exactly on point. You have to consider both the cost of the maintenance AND the cost of replacement. It seems regulator annual maintenance runs around 8-10% of the replacement cost every year.

That would be like owning a $20k car (pretty run of the mill in the states) and putting $1600-$2000 in maintenance into the car every year you had it... I've had some junky cars, but I've never had one that junky. If you had one like that, you'd probably never buy another from that company again....

Central air/heat - I pay a guy to do a yearly maintenance on the 2 ACs and the 2 furnaces for ~$75. I put in new filters every 3 months ($4 a piece x2 x4 times a year). That's $107. This, again, is substantially less than 10% of the cost of 2 furnaces and 2 ACs.

I have no problem with the cost of service, but parts costs are out of line in some cases. Look at Sherwood - their parts are cheap as dirt. There's 2 possible reasons for this (a) their parts are of substantially lower quality than SP, even though they both last a year or (b) they're not trying to make a business out of selling parts.

 

[DrSteve]

Can we also bring in hat it's not so much the cost (for me at least - although I am a cheap skate) it's the quality! I don't trust anyone to touch my reg now, period! Show me someone who can be trusted to do a good job and I'll use them...but until then...