I am surprised to hear about all these issues with SANTI. In my experience and from all the diver's I know who dive theirs, the SANTI suits appear to have less to no issues compared to other dry suits. I have an Elite and boy am I rough on it in the caves. This is my 5th dry suit and the best I have ever owned! It certainly keeps me dry and other than replacing the latex seals, I have had no problems! I can speak for Peter who has owned his longer than I have owned mine and he had no problems either.
I sincerely wish you good luck and speedy resolution with your issue.
---------- Post added September 15th, 2015 at 12:43 PM ----------
This same complaint was also launched on another forum. Peter does not participate SB but I took the liberty to post his response from TDS here:
Re: Santi and terrible service.I'm sure some will feel that I am supporting Halcyon/Santi due to the fact that they are supporters of this forum and that I am a dealer for both of their products. To those who feel this way, you are clearly entitled to your position, but it will not prevent me from not defending a product or a company that I feel strongly about.
For years I have sold Santi products. For years I have been diving them and subjected to them to the most unkind conditions. Hands down its the best suit I have ever had because it survives me all the time. Same is true for my dive team.
As a dealer for Santi, i have sold so many of these suits that I have lost count. I have never had one returned for defects of any kind. This is not imply that there have been no defects, but I have never seen it. I only wish I could say the same for all of the other manufacturers listed in this post...those products are less than perfect. I know this as a retailer and a diver. So for those who abandon a Santi for another product...best of luck.
Most of all, to attack the integrity of Halcyon is seriously laughable. As a dealer for currently over 50 manufactures and probably another 100 over the years, Halcyon always sets the standard for customer service and integrity.
There are always those special kinds of people that will ALWAYS blame everything on the manufacturer. The reason they do this is they want something for free. It is clear to me that the gentleman that started this post is just that sort of person. He should learn to take responsibility for his own actions and not ask others to pay for his mistakes.
I know the remarks are coming..so bring it on...
---------- Post added September 15th, 2015 at 12:48 PM ----------
Robert, here is the response from today 14:52 on TDS where you posted. I am including it here since you did not and I don't want people to think there never was a response.
Originally Posted by rosborne
I have to say I agree with you Cameron. I had a terrible experience with Guy the other day. My suit is leaking like a sieve. Some of it is clearly the material coming away from fixed points. I sent the suit to Halcyon and asked them to look into it. They decided it was "mechanical failure" which as near as I can tell means its somehow my fault. I thought the suit was under warranty and the repairs and shipping would be covered by Santi. Guess again. I had a rather unpleasant conversation with Guy who essentially told me they could do nothing to help. So now I'm the hook for the repairs, the shipping and I still have a suit that developed leaks every time I so much as look at it. For the record, I've owned two Whites' suits and in eight years I had only three leaks. I also spoke with someone from a drysuit repair facility in Canada and he says he's seeing the same thing with the Santi E-motion, the material might be too light. Anyone else have similar experiences?
Robert,
As per the photos of your suit which we took at our factory and forwarded to Santi HQ, your suit leaks were deemed to be “mechanical” in nature which means that they are not caused by a failure in the suit material but by an outside source. We couldn’t speculate on what would cause these holes and cuts but Santi and Halcyon dry suit experts agree on the nature of the damage. One mark on the back of your suit lines up perfectly with the bolts that attach a set of double tanks to a back plate and I would be willing to wager that this is the problem in that one area. I have personal experience with this but, again, this is just a best guess on my part after viewing the several photos we forwarded to Santi. With respect to your comments about the warranty, it does not cover mechanical damage. As the Santi experts wrote, Emotion material is tough but it isn’t indestructible. We were not the Halcyon dealers when you purchased your suit approximately two years ago but the better choice at the time may have been the Enduro suit or even the Elite. The fabric in both of those suits is not as flexible or as light as the fabric in an Emotion but it is more durable, much like a truck is more durable than a sports car.
Regards,
Guy Shockey
Sales Director
Halcyon
I responded to both of these quotes. I've never said anything critical of Halcyon products so I don't know what the first guy is talking about. I own several and am very happy with them. As for the second quote, its very easy for them to just say we looked at the suit and decided it was mechanical failure. All holes are mechanical failure. What caused the failure is the question they won't address. Several of them are the product of the fabric coming away from a fixed point on the suit. That's not wear and tear, that's substandard fabric. I noticed it first on my left pocket which began to fray from the first time I used it. I've pointed this out. I'm not saying that all Santi suits have problems, but mine does, and the real issue is they're response has been to refuse to have the warranty cover the problem and blame the diver (figuratively speaking.) I'm not the only one who's run into this. I didn't start this threat and I've spoken to one repair facility and one shop owner who say the problem is not as uncommon as Santi likes to suggest.
