badmrchris
Contributor
or alternatively, "Why I now hate Sherwood"
A year ago, I purchased a Tortuga BC. I put about 30-40 dives on it and loved it. It always worked like it was supposed to and I liked the setup. I never had a problem with it or the Sherwood regulators I have used.
I took it in for the annual service two weeks ago to my lds. The tech examined it and told me there was a manufacturers defect in it. Apparently when they were welding the seam together on the lower right side underneath the dump valve, they welded part of the air cell too, causing the BC lose air. He filled the BC up and within a minute it was ¾ empty. I had noticed a slight problem with air in the BC on my last two dives, but it did not seem drastic. Good thing I did not run in to trouble and have to inflate on the surface, huh?
The tech told me it would take about six weeks to get the BC back from Sherwood. Naturally being suspicious of this, I tried to call Sherwood and get some sort of verification myself. Funny though, they dont have a customer service number on their website. Nor do they offer one through 411, their manual or anywhere else on the web, as I hunted for about a half hour and could not find anything. Finally, after lying to the employee at a local sporting goods store, I managed to get a number for Sherwoods parent company (name escapes me). I called them, and asked to speak to somebody in their Scuba service department. The receptionist seemed taken aback, probably because I, a customer, was able to contact their company personally. After a few minutes of talk, she patched me over to one of their service techs. I dont recall his name, but I had no problems dealing with him. He was informative and polite, a polar opposite from the receptionist. He basically told me that Sherwood was swamped and it would probably only take them three weeks to fix the BC, but it could take six so they quoted me on the high side. Then I found out their headquarters is located in Santa Ana, CA, about 2 miles from my house. I suggested that I take the BC in myself and pick it up so as not to have to wait for unnecessary shipping time. Apparently though, this is taboo because this idea was met with much resistance. Perhaps they dont want their customers to know where they are headquartered, either.
When I had a recall on my Oceanic computer, it was six days TOTAL until I got it back. 4 days in transit to and from, 2 days repair time. When my mask buckle broke on my Aqualung Quartz 3, I called them directly and a new one was sent to me free of charge within a week. When my Ocean reef Q strap broke, a new one was sent to me in a week. When I had problems with purchasing my Mares Proton Ice regulator, I was able to call them directly and they helped me out on the spot. And theyre located in Italy! In all of the above instances, I was able to contact the manufacturer directly without being forced to go through my lds or play private detective.
I understand that manufacturing is not perfect, and flaws occur from time to time. It has happened to me several times before. But to spend the kind of money one does on Scuba gear and be told that I will miss nearly half the summer of diving is ridiculous! So what if theyre swamped! In my industry, as well as most others, you bust your hump for the customer! Hire more people, pay overtime, have more parts/BCs in stock! Albeit farfetched, what would have happened if this defect caused injury or death? I bet Sherwoods legal and PR teams would have reacted at lightening speed. Furthermore, not being able to contact them like some sort of clandestine cloak and dagger organization is beyond ridiculous.
Is this typical in the dive industry? I dont believe so. For these reasons, I wont so much as purchase a $.99 O ring from Sherwood, let alone something of substance and value.
oh and in case you missed it, those with a Tortuga may wish to double check the area just below the dump valves on the lower right hand side. Mine is probably an isolated incident, but just in case
A year ago, I purchased a Tortuga BC. I put about 30-40 dives on it and loved it. It always worked like it was supposed to and I liked the setup. I never had a problem with it or the Sherwood regulators I have used.
I took it in for the annual service two weeks ago to my lds. The tech examined it and told me there was a manufacturers defect in it. Apparently when they were welding the seam together on the lower right side underneath the dump valve, they welded part of the air cell too, causing the BC lose air. He filled the BC up and within a minute it was ¾ empty. I had noticed a slight problem with air in the BC on my last two dives, but it did not seem drastic. Good thing I did not run in to trouble and have to inflate on the surface, huh?
The tech told me it would take about six weeks to get the BC back from Sherwood. Naturally being suspicious of this, I tried to call Sherwood and get some sort of verification myself. Funny though, they dont have a customer service number on their website. Nor do they offer one through 411, their manual or anywhere else on the web, as I hunted for about a half hour and could not find anything. Finally, after lying to the employee at a local sporting goods store, I managed to get a number for Sherwoods parent company (name escapes me). I called them, and asked to speak to somebody in their Scuba service department. The receptionist seemed taken aback, probably because I, a customer, was able to contact their company personally. After a few minutes of talk, she patched me over to one of their service techs. I dont recall his name, but I had no problems dealing with him. He was informative and polite, a polar opposite from the receptionist. He basically told me that Sherwood was swamped and it would probably only take them three weeks to fix the BC, but it could take six so they quoted me on the high side. Then I found out their headquarters is located in Santa Ana, CA, about 2 miles from my house. I suggested that I take the BC in myself and pick it up so as not to have to wait for unnecessary shipping time. Apparently though, this is taboo because this idea was met with much resistance. Perhaps they dont want their customers to know where they are headquartered, either.
When I had a recall on my Oceanic computer, it was six days TOTAL until I got it back. 4 days in transit to and from, 2 days repair time. When my mask buckle broke on my Aqualung Quartz 3, I called them directly and a new one was sent to me free of charge within a week. When my Ocean reef Q strap broke, a new one was sent to me in a week. When I had problems with purchasing my Mares Proton Ice regulator, I was able to call them directly and they helped me out on the spot. And theyre located in Italy! In all of the above instances, I was able to contact the manufacturer directly without being forced to go through my lds or play private detective.
I understand that manufacturing is not perfect, and flaws occur from time to time. It has happened to me several times before. But to spend the kind of money one does on Scuba gear and be told that I will miss nearly half the summer of diving is ridiculous! So what if theyre swamped! In my industry, as well as most others, you bust your hump for the customer! Hire more people, pay overtime, have more parts/BCs in stock! Albeit farfetched, what would have happened if this defect caused injury or death? I bet Sherwoods legal and PR teams would have reacted at lightening speed. Furthermore, not being able to contact them like some sort of clandestine cloak and dagger organization is beyond ridiculous.
Is this typical in the dive industry? I dont believe so. For these reasons, I wont so much as purchase a $.99 O ring from Sherwood, let alone something of substance and value.
oh and in case you missed it, those with a Tortuga may wish to double check the area just below the dump valves on the lower right hand side. Mine is probably an isolated incident, but just in case
