I feel the need to chime into this old post because no, it is not all sunshine and rainbows over at the shearwater service center. I've been dealing with a button issue on my perdix for years. Basically, the computer works perfectly fine until you do a deeper (>200') dive at which point one of the buttons starts requiring more force than normal to get it to function although it does still function and then once some time passes after the dive, it returns to working properly.
I've dealt with this issue due to fear of how annoying and costly it would be to deal with a manufacturer service center. Until I found this thread which made me feel all warm and fuzzy about sending it on in. I explained to them in detail what was going on with the computer and of course they provide no insight into how much a replacement button might cost, they simply say "fill out these forms and send it on in, we'll have a look".
Once they received it, they tore it down and send me an absurd quote for repairs. They wanted $289.22 to fix my single, sometimes hard to press button. The way they justified this is by sending some very high resolution photos of a little bit of green corrosion on the battery compartment spring due to duracel battery leakage. They informed me earlier that this is a very common problem and that it "pays the rent" for them. Due to this, their plan was to replace the entire chassis of the computer and drop my circuit board in.
I informed them that all of that was completely unnecessary and that despite some evidence of slight battery leakage, I was having absolutely no trouble with the circuit board or electronics and that I just wanted the button taken care of. They scoffed at the idea of working on a computer with "clear signs of battery leakage" and provided a new quote for $310 to replace just the single button and not do the rest.
When I told him that I did not want to spend half of what I paid for the computer to replace a button that works just fine 90% of the time and still works just annoyingly the other 10% they reminded me of their policy to not put computers back together if we refuse service because well, we'll probably kill ourselves and sue them after diving our totally unsafe computers that had a spot of green on the battery spring.
I told him that was fine and received my computer with every single piece disassembled even beyond the disassembly done for diagnosis of the issue (which he sent picture of with the original quote).
I'm pretty disgusted with the service that I received from divetronix. This could have all been avoided by them telling me up front the cost of a "button replacement" and I never would have sent it in in the first place and avoided the entire hassle but instead the scheme is "oh for sure send it on it" where we will completely disassemble it and hold it hostage and if you don't pay our absurd invoice you'll get it back in pieces and good luck to you.
Anyway, these things are simple to reassemble and if anyone wants pictures I can upload them. Mine is back together and working just fine as it was before sending it in thankfully. If I were you I'd think twice about sending a computer in for service. Make sure you either know it's under warranty or demand a price quote first (which they likely wont provide). Of course if it's completely dead and not working then for sure send it in, nothing to lose there.
Regarding the battery issue, the advice is not to use duracel and to remove the battery during storage and don't let the battery stay in the device if it's low. If you do see corrosion, the spring on the cap unscrews and all of it can be soaked in vinegar and then cleaned off no problem. If you are going to send it in I would advise doing that cleaning first so they don't try to tell you that you need everything replaced when you don't unless you have reason to believe that the leak was bad and did seep up into the wires and is on its way to the circuit board then you may want to have it replaced to be safe.
