LDS cost to trim neck seal

[dvleemin]

Hi,
I need to trim a ring off of my neck seal of my drysuit. I'm a bit nervous of doing it myself, so I asked my LDS how much they wanted to do it for me. They wanted $25. When she told me how much it was, she also said that if I had bought the drysuit from them, they would have done it for free. It seems to me that $25 is a bit excessive, and she's charging me that much as a 'penalty' for buying the drysuit from her. Isn't it going to take them about 2 minutes to trim the seal? When I first started looking at buying a drysuit, I wasn't sure if I was going to buy used or new. So I got her to send me what she carried, with prices. I then decided to buy a used one, so she knew I was looking. As well, in the past few weeks, I've spent quite a bit of money there - 2 tanks hydroed and vised, a new neck seal on my wife's suit.

Am I way off base hear for not being happy?

Darryl

 

[Waterlover]

It costs a $1 to actually Trim the seal and the other $24 is for knowing how and not being afraid to do it.

 

[jonnythan]

$25 is excessive. I've trimmed lots of neck and wrist seals, it's a pretty simple procedure.

Get yourself a big coffee can (the ridges help) and an exacto knife.

Be careful and be sure not to leave any nicks. If the $25 isn't a big deal, just fork it over (so they can be responsible for screwups), but I'd do it myself. That way, I'm not tempted to have them cut more off so that I wouldn't have to pay again.

One ring at a time.

 

[dvleemin]

Waterlover once bubbled...
It costs a $1 to actually Trim the seal and the other $24 is for knowing how and not being afraid to do it.

Yeah, I was thinking about it that way a bit as well. However, then I thought, yes, they are the experts. But does that mean they should be charging me $300 per hour ($25 * 12 (assuming 5 mins to do it)). And I guess you could say something about having a minimum charge, but that still doesn't fly with me.

Darryl

 

[Big-t-2538]

I'm no expert, but I would think placing the neck seal over an AL80 tank would be a good method too...it would provide a solid backing, and it would be easy to trim with an exacto knife.

 

[Waterlover]

dvleemin once bubbled...


Yeah, I was thinking about it that way a bit as well. However, then I thought, yes, they are the experts. But does that mean they should be charging me $300 per hour ($25 * 12 (assuming 5 mins to do it)). And I guess you could say something about having a minimum charge, but that still doesn't fly with me.

Darryl

If they mess up the cut will you get a new seal put on from them? If you mess up the cut you have to pay $$ to have one put on. Might be a question you want to ask them.

 

[dvleemin]

Waterlover once bubbled...

If they mess up the cut will you get a new seal put on from them? If you mess up the cut you have to pay $$ to have one put on. Might be a question you want to ask them.

Good point. I would hope that paying them would include the assumption of liability if they screw up.

Well, you know what they say about assumptions - they make an A$$ out of U and Me.

Darryl

 

[SeaCobra]

Is that $25 Canadian or US?

We do charge a service fee for repairs and adjustments on equipment we did not sell. However, we usually waive that fee regardless of where someone got the suit, if they were a customer of mine I would trim the seal at no cost. If they were new, then again, no cost, in an effort to win a new customer.

However, I have a one or two customers who come in and get my opinion on things and then go buy mail order. I also had them come in with the boxes from another source and ask me to assemble them for them. For those, the fee will stand.

 

[Bob3]

Having them assume liability would sound like a good way to assure that the seal would get trimmed and still be too tight.
I sure wouldn't trust a shop with an attitude, buying used gear shouldn't get a person on a **** list.
Do you have any other dive shops in the area, or are you over a barrel?
Next time you need a hydro, bring it to the tester & save some bucks.
Go ahead & grab the snips & do it your self, once you get over the hump & make the first slice, it's not that scary anymore.

 

[runvus4]

The base action of trimming the neck seal is pretty trivial, but if they take the time to size out the neck (ie cutting to ballpark on the conservative side and trimming one ring at a time from there to get a good fit), it can take a while. $25.00 is a little high, but for time/effort/assumption of risk, if I was a LDS, I wouldn't think it unreasonable.