captainmorgan
New
I purchased a Scubapro RecTec BC a few years ago from my LDS, I have enjoyed the BC on about 20 dives and caring for it like it was one of my children. I noticed after my last dive that some of the stitching on the harness was breaking loose and a grommet had fallen off leaving a hole in the fabric that was beginning to fray.
I e-mailed Scubapro to ask them about making a repair and they instructed me to take the BC to a Scubapro retailer and have them ship the BC to Scubapro headquarters in California. That Scubapro rep said they would either repair or replace the BC if it could not be repaired. They no longer make the RecTec so he offered to replace it with a similar BC which I would assume would be the Knight Hawk. A couple of weeks after the BC was shipped to Scubapro the dive shop got a call from the same guy I spoke with and they said they found a additional problem with a cracked plastic piece used to connect the deflator hose to the air cell ( a critical piece with the crack causing a air leak) and they no longer had parts in stock to repair the BC and that they were now unwilling to replace the product.
I was originally impressed when they were offering to repair or replace a BC that was a few years old, I would have been willing to pay for a repair. However I am faced with now owning a unrepairable BC because they no longer have a $5 part and a company now unwilling to stand up to their original offer to replace the product.
Do I have a leg to stand on here, should I ask the dive shop owner to talk to his Scubapro Sales rep. Should the manufacturers have some type of plan in place for spare parts once items are discontinued, this is not a cheap sport and we shouldnt have to throw out hundreds of dollars in equipment because we cant get a $5 part.
I e-mailed Scubapro to ask them about making a repair and they instructed me to take the BC to a Scubapro retailer and have them ship the BC to Scubapro headquarters in California. That Scubapro rep said they would either repair or replace the BC if it could not be repaired. They no longer make the RecTec so he offered to replace it with a similar BC which I would assume would be the Knight Hawk. A couple of weeks after the BC was shipped to Scubapro the dive shop got a call from the same guy I spoke with and they said they found a additional problem with a cracked plastic piece used to connect the deflator hose to the air cell ( a critical piece with the crack causing a air leak) and they no longer had parts in stock to repair the BC and that they were now unwilling to replace the product.
I was originally impressed when they were offering to repair or replace a BC that was a few years old, I would have been willing to pay for a repair. However I am faced with now owning a unrepairable BC because they no longer have a $5 part and a company now unwilling to stand up to their original offer to replace the product.
Do I have a leg to stand on here, should I ask the dive shop owner to talk to his Scubapro Sales rep. Should the manufacturers have some type of plan in place for spare parts once items are discontinued, this is not a cheap sport and we shouldnt have to throw out hundreds of dollars in equipment because we cant get a $5 part.
