Disappointed

[DavidRDiver]

Well....

i gave the owner of this shop over a month to respond to a letter I wrote him. No response

Here's the story,

Mid July myself and two other divers from the. Memphis area, came up to. Beaver Lake to enjoy a weekend of diving. One of the group is an instructor, and the other two of us experienced divers. All of us own our own gear including cylinders. We arrived at Beaver with our gear and full cylinders. We dove on the Saturday morning and then took a lunch break went to a local dive shop, ate, and had our cylinders filled. Here's where the troubles start... We were later than the "rush" no big deal as we were not punching a clock, we waited an hour and a half for Nitrox fills. No big deal, the owner of the shop apologized for our wait and told us that they had a big weekend and that they had some compressor problems earlier in the day. He alluded that pump jock had depleted the cascade system and the compressor was "working overtime to catch up" This didn't bother us, although it should have been the first red flag. He also told us he'd sold more Nitrox that weekend then he had all year. Again no big deal, nice weekend. After an hour and half wait we finally got our cylinders back, at that point the compressor operator asked us if we had an O2 analyses, he told us theirs was not working. Really??? He tells us this AFTER filling our cylinders? He tells us this and continues to say we should be good because they are always spot on with their blends. We did have our own tester and the blends tested ok. We did our afternoon dive, during dive I tasted something that did not taste right. After the dive I mentioned it to the other two guys and they did not comment about the taste, but we all smelled our cylinders and notice the smell of pencil shavings. I had smelled my cylinder prior to the dive and it smelled normal. We stopped diving for the day packed our gear and stopped back by the shop. The owner was "not there" we asked the compressor operator if they had any problems, described our issues and he replied, stating "we had to change our filters today"

I had two cylinders filled, one of which I picked up new from my local dive shop on the way up to the trip. Both smelled of pencil shavings, and both I had VIP'd and in turn cleaned after that trip. I sent the owner of the dive shop a letter, (yes an actual letter not an email)

this is has been well over a month now, and I have received absolutely no response. Not an "I'm sorry, an are you sure we caused this nothing....

Im im not going to list the shops name but it should be easy enough to figure out.


Sorry for for the long post but if you are diving Beaver Lake, beware....

 

[WeldonDowd]

You should send him an email asking for confirmation that he got your snail mail.

 

[Avonthediver]

I go through this shop all the time and have good service it's a shame you are not happy but call Jim is a great guy and tell him your concerns. But here's my question did any of you get sick or really tired? I have had bad air before and both time with a bad taste this is what it has done. Two, did you get the gas checked out that was left in your tanks? I would suggest dumping all remaining air and getting your tanks checked just to be safe. And lastly how was your diving?

 

[yardpro]

I would also email as well. and see what happens...

I am much slower to respond to any letters that are not a bill or a check..

 

[DavidRDiver]

I go through this shop all the time and have good service it's a shame you are not happy but call Jim is a great guy and tell him your concerns. But here's my question did any of you get sick or really tired? I have had bad air before and both time with a bad taste this is what it has done. Two, did you get the gas checked out that was left in your tanks? I would suggest dumping all remaining air and getting your tanks checked just to be safe. And lastly how was your diving?

Yes all three of us were really tired, I had some cramps at the end of the dive. All three of us dive regularly and are in good shape I rarely ever get cramps while diving.

Both of my tanks were emptied at my local dive shop cleaned and inspected.

Diving was good. We had a good trip otherwise.

---------- Post added September 19th, 2014 at 03:42 PM ----------

I would also email as well. and see what happens...

I am much slower to respond to any letters that are not a bill or a check..

Really? I own a business and ALWAYS respond to someone that takes the time to compose an actual letter. Slower to response I can appreciate, but I sent the letter 8/11/14. I think 5 weeks is plenty of time to have responded if he intended to. I also enclosed business cards from my local dive shop so he could call and speak with them if he so desired. I included all of my contact information including my cell and office phone numbers. My opinion he is just ignoring.

 

[redacted]

Did anything in your letter specifically request or warrant a response?

 

[DavidRDiver]

Did anything in your letter specifically request or warrant a response?

I would think the fact that his shop filled at least 5 cylinders, between 3 divers with bad air that would be enough to elicit a response. Even a phone call saying "I got your letter and unfortunately we can't do anything at this point" would have been better than just ignoring it completely.

Does anyone really find this acceptable that you could good a bad fill and the shop just ignores it when you call them on it?

 

[yardpro]

Yes all three of us were really tired, I had some cramps at the end of the dive. All three of us dive regularly and are in good shape I rarely ever get cramps while diving.

Both of my tanks were emptied at my local dive shop cleaned and inspected.

Diving was good. We had a good trip otherwise.

---------- Post added September 19th, 2014 at 03:42 PM ----------



Really? I own a business and ALWAYS respond to someone that takes the time to compose an actual letter. Slower to response I can appreciate, but I sent the letter 8/11/14. I think 5 weeks is plenty of time to have responded if he intended to. I also enclosed business cards from my local dive shop so he could call and speak with them if he so desired. I included all of my contact information including my cell and office phone numbers. My opinion he is just ignoring.

it is quite possible that he is ignoring you. He may have the attitude that you will never be back anyway so why bother responding....I don't agree with this approach, but that may be hit thoughts.

He may also be ot responding in fear of litigation.. he may not want to help any potential case you may be preparing against him.

he may just be a crappy buisness owner that is in a niche where he can succeed without being a customer oriented provider.

Here for example there are only 2 dive shops....

they have completely opposite "personalities".. discovery is laid back, someplace you can chill and have a beer after a dive... they have a more relaxed atmosphere.

Olympus is more professional, no nonsense and to the point. Both have their pros and cons. With only two places to get tanks filled or rent gear, they will both stay really busy regardless of their attitudes.

if one has worse service, the other will increase business to beyond the point that they can handle then they will have service issues, driving people back to the other... it will be like a sea saw.

i agree that he should have responded, but he may be in a position that he does not have to deal with it.

 

[redacted]

I would think the fact that his shop filled at least 5 cylinders, between 3 divers with bad air that would be enough to elicit a response. Even a phone call saying "I got your letter and unfortunately we can't do anything at this point" would have been better than just ignoring it completely.

Does anyone really find this acceptable that you could good a bad fill and the shop just ignores it when you call them on it?

I suspect you were not alone in informing the shop they had an air quality problem and I expect they dealt with it as soon as they learned of it. (So, sometime before your snail mail arrived.) But unless you did something like tell him you expected compensation for the cleaning and inspection of your tanks (why didn't you demand that) it does not surprise me that you received no written response.

 

[ChickenFried]

I just wanted to comment on a couple of things.

First, my son and I were also diving at Beaver Lake that day and we also had to wait on an air fill from the shop in question. We were just on plain air, however, and not Nitrox. I didn't notice that the air smelled weird or had any kind of bad taste to it myself. We also didn't seem to have any symptoms that would lead me to believe that we had bad air. Maybe this filter only affected the Nitrox fills, I don't know.

Second, I've gotten fills plenty of times from Jim in the past, and this is the first time I had ever experienced any issues there. While your issues are very serious and certainly give me pause, I think this is an anomaly, and not the normal operation of that dive shop. I do find it very odd that they did not have a functioning O2 tester, though. I wonder how long this has been the case and if it continues to be so.

Finally, I agree with you completely that a response was warranted here. I'm also a bit disappointed that this shop didn't provide you with one.