Suunto depth sensor failures

[hammer5]

I recently was told by Suunto through my LDS that my cobra was no longer under the warranty coverage and if i wanted to upgrade to a newer computer i could get $100.00 credit against full retail price. I would like to know how many other people have had this issue with the depth sensor. The unit had less than 70 dives and was rinsed out in fresh water after every dive prior to this failure. Never the less, If there is a SUUNTO MANUFACTURING Rep reading this, note....this disappointing customer service response from Suunto has definitely turned me off from purchasing any other Suunto products.

 

[CMAN]

They had a bad batch of depth sensors (I know of two personally) and they refuse to acknowlage it (liability I would guess). If you do a search for "beware Suunto" you will have plenty to read.

 

[ScubaSteve]

How old your computer? I have a Cobra that is about 6 years old and about 350 dives old......no issues. I am hoping that means that I am not one of the unlucky ones but no matter what, if something were to happen now, I would fully expect it to be "out of warranty".

 

[Skred]

I've got 2 Cobras that were purchased together. One of them has this issue and the other works just fine...for now. I got the same runaround from my LDS and Suunto as you did, hammer5. My response was to buy an Oceanic to replace the bad Cobra. I'm done with Suunto products as a result of this experience.

 

[HateCheese]

I have a Suunto Cobra and ran into this problem on approximately dive 80 with this computer. It was still under warranty and was fixed. This was a year and a half ago and I haven't had an issue since.

 

[theskull]

Suunto has excellent products and they are great with customer service if you are under warranty. Once the warranty has expired, however, all they really want to do is sell you another product to replace it. They have good service available but you must spend some time pursuing your issue through a number of responses until you get a reasonable answer.

I have been very happy with all of my Suunto products, and I believe their interface is one of the easiest to learn and use, but the customer approach could definitely use improvement!

theskull

 

[ScubaSteve]

The reality of it is, a warranty exists only for a set period of time and this period should be known before you buy the product. Once that period lapses, one has no right to claim poor practice if the company does not repair something under warranty because it is NOT under warranty. If the warranty is for a period of 2 years (just an example) and it breaks at 2.5 years, then why would the company fix it? I am sure there have been exceptions made by Suunto but if we can not live with the rules, then buy something else. If you had a car that broke down after 10 years even though you only put 5,000 miles per year on it, you would not expect the auto manufacturer to step up would you? Why should Suunto be held to different rules?

 

[tridacna]

The reality of it is, a warranty exists only for a set period of time and this period should be known before you buy the product. Once that period lapses, one has no right to claim poor practice if the company does not repair something under warranty because it is NOT under warranty. If the warranty is for a period of 2 years (just an example) and it breaks at 2.5 years, then why would the company fix it? I am sure there have been exceptions made by Suunto but if we can not live with the rules, then buy something else. If you had a car that broke down after 10 years even though you only put 5,000 miles per year on it, you would not expect the auto manufacturer to step up would you? Why should Suunto be held to different rules?

Nice logic (Not).

You buy a car. After your warranty expires, the car dies. You then find out that the manufacturer was aware of this issue (and had repaired similar models while under warranty), but chose not to tell you and countless others because they did not have to repair or replace after the warranty expired. And you're OK with that? That is so sick.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Nice logic (Not).

You buy a car. After your warranty expires, the car dies. You then find out that the manufacturer was aware of this issue (and had repaired similar models while under warranty), but chose not to tell you and countless others because they did not have to repair or replace after the warranty expired. And you're OK with that? That is so sick.

I liked the "(Not)" part of your post the best

The reality is, they built a product that lasted through the entire warranty product. That was all they promised you as the buyer. Guess what? This may come as a shock to some people, but manufacturers have been trying to cut costs for many years now in all industries. Those cost cuts come as an expense somewhere and in the business (quality is often a good example). If they designed a unit that would NEVER die, then where would they be? they would satiate the market and go out of business or go out of business because nobody would want to pay for thge perfect dive computer. . Good plan . Some people have bad examples of product....but there are fewer bad examples than good examples so you live with the lemon and move on.

Suunto fulfilled their end of the agreement. If a diver does not like that, then they are free to complain about another manufacturer.

 

[tridacna]

I liked the "(Not)" part of your post the best

The reality is, they built a product that lasted through the entire warranty product. That was all they promised you as the buyer. Guess what? This may come as a shock to some people, but manufacturers have been trying to cut costs for many years now in all industries. Those cost cuts come as an expense somewhere and in the business (quality is often a good example). If they designed a unit that would NEVER die, then where would they be? they would satiate the market and go out of business or go out of business because nobody would want to pay for thge perfect dive computer. . Good plan . Some people have bad examples of product....but there are fewer bad examples than good examples so you live with the lemon and move on.

Suunto fulfilled their end of the agreement. If a diver does not like that, then they are free to complain about another manufacturer.

Your logic is very strange. When you get a warranty, it covers the product during that period for repair or replacement. In this case, Suunto refuses to REPAIR after the warranty period. So following the logic of the car, you would be prepared to scrap the car and buy a new one from the same manufacturer? I think not.

In my world, if a manufacturer is aware that a product may break, especially one as critical as this, they should be obliged to inform the consumer and then replace or repair and not wait until the warranty expires. In this case, they were aware that there were problems BEFORE the warranty expired - this is critical - and they chose not to do anything about it.

I had thought about purchasing a SUUNTO computer previously - not now.