I must first state that I have no issue with B&H, although I will remark that the customer service representative's responses within this blog string are less than professional. As someone who has worked previously in customer service, one should never treat a customer in the way that they have here in this public forum. Regardless of whether comments from a customer are considered personal insults, a customer service agent should NEVER respond in kind, especially in public. The customer may or may not be right, but there is no license or reason for a business or their representative to verbally, and personally, attack a customer.
As Bruce has alluded, I have also experienced poor customer service from Equinox. I have been patient, professional, and respectful throughout my dealings with them and feel that I have not received the same in return. I did not experience catastrophic failure with my unit as Bruce did. However, I did experience problems with my unit that constituted manufacturer's defects that, as of this date, have not been resolved despite multiple contacts.
Upon first assembling the unit I noticed a small irregularity in the forward globe lens. After using a lens cloth to try and wipe the small white bit from the glass from the inside and outside, it appeared that the irregularity was within the glass. It did not appear to be a scratch or divot, but seemed to be within the glass itself. It was somewhat inconspicuous to the naked eye, but was very evident in recorded images taken in bright light, especially since it was an HD camera.
Additionally, I encountered several problems associated with the aft mounted LCD screen. At first, I was unable to adequately adjust the brightness after attaching the camera to the unit. I passed it off that it would be better to have it brighter when submerged than two dark and decided to use it as it was. However, once I was down, the screen began to "blink out" randomly while I was diving. Upon surfacing, I inspected every part of the unit including connections, potential interference with controls, timeout settings on the camera, etc. The battery for the LCD had charged for a full 12 hours before use so that didn't seem to be a problem. The connections for the camera seemed to work fine when connected to a TV in the dive lodge so it seems that the problem must be in the housing electronics.
Lastly, after my first dive I returned to the surface and placed the housing in the padded container containing fresh water that I had brought along. After transiting to the next site and awaiting our surface interval, my dive partner was looking at the housing and asked how long I had been using it. When I told him this was my first time he expressed surprise and pointed out the surface rust on the 4 screws securing the rubber screen shade for the LCD. This was quite disappointing to me as I would not have expected that anyting less than a non-corrosive fastener be used for this purpose. Moreover, I would never have expected corrosion to appear after the first dive. Upon returing to the lodge I cleaned the screws as completely as possible and applied silicone grease in an attempt to mitigate any further corrosion.
Due to the problems with the rear mounted LCD, I found myself spending most of the time looking around it at the screen on my camera inside the housing during the following dives. My last two dives I didn't even use the connection equipment or the rear LCD as a result.
On March 11, 2008, less than 24 hours after returning from my dive trip in Honduras and less than a month from receiving the unit, I contacted Equinox by email to see about getting warranty repairs done. Three days later after no reply, I resent the email with the return receipt feature. I received a one sentence reply 4 days after that from the customer service rep that I had initially worked with promising that he would respond to all the concerns and issues as soon as possible. After additional attempts to contact Equinox and the customer service rep I was working with, on April 14, 2008, tired of waiting for a response I sent the unit back with instructions requesting warranty repair on the items concerned. Note: I did not ask for a refund on the equipment - I enjoyed using the unit and wanted to keep it - I just wanted the problems fixed.
On July 30, 2008, after additional attempts to contact Equnox and little more than one sentence responses, UPS delivered a box from the
Housings Department of Soupcan, Inc. containing the Equinox 6 housing unit I had previously returned for warranty repairs. The unit arrived with the following problems:
1. The unit was inadequately packed with a minimal amount of packing peanuts and loosely bound within the box. Fortunately, there is no obvious damage, but there is no way to know for sure. I would expect that warranty servicing would receive no less care than the original unit when it is shipped new and certainly no less care than when I returned it for repairs.
2. No packing receipt was included indicating what parts had been replaced, repaired, or otherwise provided. Nor was any report provided as to what repair or service had actually been done.
3. Various parts had been packed into the interior of the housing with no indication as to what they were for. Items included:
a. Eight ¼ Philips head sheet metal screws
b. Battery Pack
c. Camera connection wiring
d. Backplate battery-screen connection
e. A spare (original?) globe lens for the front plate
f. A loose digital screen (original?)
g. Two O-rings for the front and rear seals (I know these were originals because they were vacuum sealed in the packaging I sent previously)
4. NO BACKPLATE was provided with the unit, rendering the unit WORTHLESS!
I was more than patient in this process giving Equinox the benefit of the doubt at every opportunity. I have also been clear about what repairs were necessary and what actions seemed reasonable. At the moment, I have a pile of parts that I cannot use even if I wanted to because a critical piece (the entire backplate) is missing. All I asked was that Equinox make this right and honor their warranty and instead I received a pile of parts and a non-functional unit.
Following this frustration, I became suspicious and began to research any other instances where people had problems with Wet N Rugged Sports, Equinox, or Soupcan, Inc. and came across Bruce's post and another post on a different blog that indicated similar problems. Additionally, I found the following reports on the Better Business Bureau's website:
Grand Rapids, MI: Check Out a Business or Charity
Grand Rapids, MI: Check Out a Business or Charity
BBB lists that Equinox is no longer in business, which explains why I received my unit back from a different company than I ordered it from - which, in itself, raises questions as to why the company was re-incorporated under a new name and, if so, why the Equinox website is listed in the banner next to what I'm typing. However, I was instantly concerned by the fact that they had received an UNSATISFACTORY rating from the BBB because of their unwillingness to respond to complaints.
In any event, customer service - with any business - should not be this difficult. And warranties are a promise from the business that, within reason, they will strive to ensure that customers are treated in a fair, timely, and respecful way. I think that in both Bruce's case and my case, that has not been so.
Alfred Lee "Bubba" Cook Jr.
