I was surprised that the new BC and the new regs I bought didn't come with any assembly (BC) or maintenance and care instructions. When I contacted each manufacturer, they were both very accessible, but I was told to watch YouTube videos which would explain everything. Huh? Is that the norm in the dive gear world now? Since the BC is a BP/W, maybe they assume buyers are experienced divers. Dunno. But even after watching the vids, I still had questions.
I sold a lot of BPW's over the years and I would say that 80% of the time, I set them up. But I always asked the buyer if that's what they wanted. If yes then, I'd get height, waist, and chest measurements from them.
I never assumed they knew what they were doing and just wanted the components.
Never an extra charge for putting it together.
Regs always got assembled and bench tested unless the buyer specified they wanted to do it themselves. Even then, I never sent a reg out without throwing it on the bench and checking to make sure everything was within specs.
Were you given the option of assembly? It literally took me 15-20 minutes to set up and adjust a BPW so that when the user got it, all they had to do was fine tune it. Once you assemble and adjust the first 10, the next 90 or so went even quicker.
To be fair, there's not much maintenance on a BPW. Rinse, dry, hang. Empty any water in the bladder and rinse like you should have been taught in your OW class and that's about it.
Regs, a little more maintenance but not rocket science. Ideally, rinse with fresh running water while pressurized on a cylinder. If no cylinder, dust cap on and rinse the 1st off.
Seconds - soak in warm water, swish around, drain and rinse with fresh running water. Hang to dry.
STAY AWAY from dunk tanks. Especially in salt water locations.
There's also a trend to stay away from printed (tree killing) instructions. And some mfg's don't want you assembling anything. They want you to take it to your LDS because threading a plate or using a wrench will kill you.