VIP / Fill

[Tribal]

Is that the fill station near the bridge in Zeeland Netherlands?

it is

 

[mmerriman]

Good day all, not coming to complain, hoping to learn.

I just bought a used set of HP100's for a pretty good deal. Drove up and got them. The shop the seller took them to did a fresh hydro / vis, but did not fill the tanks? So now I'm thinking, no big deal, I'll get them filled. I got my wife to take them to my LDS today. He say's he needs to do a vis because they're empty.....ok how much. $20 for the vis (even though it's clear as day it was just done 2 days ago) and another $12 for the fill.

$32/tank.....does that seem reasonable? A total of $64 for 2 freshly hydro'd tanks?

I know it's an expensive hobby, but dang.....maybe I'm just cheap?

I declined to have it done.

did you go to the shop that did the hydros? It doesn't sound like it

 

[rob.mwpropane]

did you go to the shop that did the hydros? It doesn't sound like it

No I did not. I thought I said that in that first post. Why?

 

[abnfrog]

I walked into a shop once they said there was less than 100 psi so they would have to vip it , I said no walked out told all my students for the last 10 years not to deal with them .....

 

[aviator8]

I walked into a shop once they said there was less than 100 psi so they would have to vip it , I said no walked out told all my students for the last 10 years not to deal with them .....

The shop that got me once operates under the less than 500psi you have to pay for a VIP on tank return. It was buried in the fine print of course, we all read that right? I will never be back there. Their VIP prices were completely unreasonable too.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I found another shop, stopping by tomorrow morning. I talked to them over the phone, seems like their cheaper and more understanding....we'll see.

I get that it's about making money, but to me fills is the absolute thing that most divers need, if you kept that reasonable then nothing is stopping us from coming back and buying a knife, keeper...vacation??

There's a friend of a friend who owns a compressor....I'm trying to make new friends....I hope he is too

 

[Bob DBF]

There's a friend of a friend who owns a compressor....I'm trying to make new friends....I hope he is too

I find that bringing good beer and making myself usefull at every oppournity works wonders.


Bob

 

[abnfrog]

yeah I found I had LOTS of new friends when I bought a compressor ......less when I put it in a store !!!!!

 

[Bob DBF]

yeah I found I had LOTS of new friends when I bought a compressor ......less when I put it in a store !!!!!

I don’t give up my friends just because they have to make a living.


Bob

 

[markmud]

Hi OP,

Good day all, not coming to complain, hoping to learn.

​

Don't feel too bad. I just got charged for a tank tumble. I had the valve off before taking it to get a VIP; the pony was on an airliner. I looked inside the tank and verified that there was no FOD or other issues before corking it and then used the transfill whip to pressurize it.

When I went to pick-up the bottle, they charged me for a tumble and stated that the bottle had a small spot of corrosion under the top of the bottle where the hydro stamps are. Today, I uncorked it as I will be travelling on an airliner again. It looks exactly as it did when I took the bottle in for a VIS. It is an aluminum tank. Except for a slight haze under the crown, it is spotless.

I would have been OK with the charge had I been called and asked permission to tumble the bottle; but I did not get a call.

Marketing and customer service is not a priority for many dive shops. An LDS needs to make money; but they need to communicate stuff and be reasonable.

Your tanks were just hydroed in November 2019. They had new VIP stickers. The LDS should have uncorked the tanks, looked inside real quick and then filled the stupid tanks.

cheers,
markm