SCUBAPRO New parts for life program

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I used to believe this too.

After attending the Atomic Regulator Technician class last week, I have since found out I was wrong; it will not flood. In the class it was explained, and demonstrated, how it is no more susceptible than any other regulator. The seat saver releases the pressure of the seat, it does not remove the seat from contact.

All my stage regs are Atomic M1s. Just like everyone else, while underwater I occasionally find a reg that has depressurized. The interiors of my M1s show no trace of corrosion as would be expected from flooding.



All the best, James

Have you verified that with a vacuum check? My SP 2nds with seat saver will not hold vacuum in the best breathing setting but will hold it in the hardest breathing setting.
 
Yes, but for the life of me I can't remember the adjustment knob setting.

However, replacing the 2nd stage hose with tygon tubing, and immersing the 2nd stage in a bucket of water to a depth of roughly 1' results in no leakage after ~5 minutes.


All the best, James
 
Still, something seems to be influencing SP's direction in the last few years. Why change something that wasn't broken (except for the one-year service requirement)? Why the deterioration of their customer support, even to their dealers (as I have been told)? SP must be aware of the brewing discontent among their loyal customers, so my real issue is their utter disregard of this growing discontent. Something has changed at SP.

What is changing is the market. 1) Internet sales although they were successful stopping Leisurepro and DiveInn grey market imports. 2) Smarter clientele. BBS like this one allows us to get information from users of the products. We no longer need to rely on dive mags and dive shops for information. 3) Increased competition from companies like HOG and Dive Rite. The Beav can compare S600 vs HOG but that is not a dollar for dollar comparison. A dollar for dollar would be a HOG vs R295/MK2, which the HOG wins hands down. 4) eBay providing a national market for used equipment, which reduces demand for new equipment. 5) Two year service intervals by competitors. I am sure others can add more reasons but all of these are hurting profitability.

Again I think Scubapro was foolish for discontinuing the PFL program. They should have continued the parts for life program except not let people back into the program once they fell off. I am sure the vast majority of divers fall off the program at one time or another.
 
I suspect that Scubapro came to realize that the parts for life program was not as successful as they thought it was and the program was being abused by some of their shops. That is, I suspect that shops were claiming free part under the PFL program while they were charging customers for those parts. I suspect this realization occurred when scubapro started tracking their regulators by serial number which enabled them to see anomolies in service records.

No real data - just a hypothesis.
 
I suspect that Scubapro came to realize that the parts for life program was not as successful as they thought it was and the program was being abused by some of their shops. That is, I suspect that shops were claiming free part under the PFL program while they were charging customers for those parts. I suspect this realization occurred when scubapro started tracking their regulators by serial number which enabled them to see anomolies in service records.

No real data - just a hypothesis.

They just discovered this NOW? I don't think so. Most customers know about this program anyways. Even if there was some fraud, I don't think that it was significant nor was it the reason for this change. It is probably the state of the economy and the attempts of the owner holding company to cut fat and make it profitable.
 
Again I think Scubapro was foolish for discontinuing the PFL program. They should have continued the parts for life program except not let people back into the program once they fell off.
The Parts for Life program was never discontinued.
What changed was that they did not let people back in. We have clients that still get Free Parts for Life.

The Warranty and Parts for Life program are two different things. Warranty - Limited Lifetime of the original owner. Parts for Life - 100 dives or 24 months.

The bottom line is Scubapro is still taking care of their divers, Period!
 
They just discovered this NOW? I don't think so. Most customers know about this program anyways. Even if there was some fraud, I don't think that it was significant nor was it the reason for this change. It is probably the state of the economy and the attempts of the owner holding company to cut fat and make it profitable.

I don't see how the state of the economy would have that effect.

Cutting back - maybe. While I do believe the whole PFL program is a scam, I also believe it was reasonably successful in causing divers to pay dive shops to perform unnecessary service increasing their profits and motivating shops to carry the Scubapro line.

I'm just trying to hypothesis reasons for the change that actually make sense.

The 2-year service interval makes sense because their competitors have made that change and do not seem to be experiencing any reliability problems. The rational behind the PFL program is a mystery but you could just write it off to stupid management decisions.

---------- Post added November 27th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ----------

The Parts for Life program was never discontinued.
What changed was that they did not let people back in. We have clients that still get Free Parts for Life.

The Warranty and Parts for Life program are two different things. Warranty - Limited Lifetime of the original owner. Parts for Life - 100 dives or 24 months.

The bottom line is Scubapro is still taking care of their divers, Period!

So, if I were to buy just one of those new gold plated regulators would I be included in the Scubapro PFL program?
 
So, if I were to buy just one of those new gold plated regulators would I be included in the Scubapro PFL program?
Yes, Beaver Divers will give you Free Parts for Life if you buy one of the 50th anniversary " Gold " MK25/S600.

This offer is valid for anyone that Pre-orders their " Gold " reg. today.

This offer is exclusively from Beaver Divers, not Scubapro.
 
That is what I though - it is the BD PFL program, not the SP PFL program. Still makes sense that you would to that as it should bring service business back to your shop.

Maybe that is what SP was thinking with the change. Shops can still have their own PFL program to bring in the service business which was the main purpose of the program to begin with. And since the shops are the main beneficiary, they can eat the wholesale cost of the parts (or just pad it into the labor charges). Still, there will be potential Scubapro customers who will see this change as a step backwards in the perceived benefits of the purchase of new Scubapro regulators. Your offer should serve to offset that perception somewhat. Few new divwer ever think about what happens if they move or the LDS bites the bullet or just drops the SP line.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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