Mares EU customer service beyond dreadful

[Diver0001]

I seriously have to revise this.

I had two XR drysuits. Both of them were dreadful.

Initially I thought I was doing something wrong. I don't know why I thought that because I had been diving dry suits for 30 years....

I bought the XR at the advice of several divers I know who have them. The first one I bought started leaking on day one. After ... I'm going to say 10 dives ... It flooded to the point that I was wet from neck to toes...... It turned out that the wrist cuffs had become delaminated.

o.....k.... that can happen. So I sent the suit back and had it replaced. I have to say that this process took FOR EVER which is what I wrote about in my first post. This is what I wrote about in my first post.

What I didn't write about is this:

Mares didn't repair the suit, they replaced it. Yes, that process took 3 months and I was not happy about it at all but after 3 months I had a new suit and started diving it again.

On the second dive I made with it, the butterfly nut on my backplate caught the material and ripped it open over about 1cm. The suit flooded, thankfully on the descent, for non trivial technical dive. I aborted the dive and patched it.

After that I took it on vacation in Egypt (yeah... call me a pussy... but I did). I made 23 dives in a week with this suit and it flooded 23 times. Every time I patched a leak it sprong a new one. On LITERALLY every dive I made water was flowing in from a different point.

Thankfully the water in Egypt is warm.

When I got back home I sent the suit back to Mares and said (literally) "I'm done with this suit and I want my money back". Our Mares rep agreed immediately. Of course he offered solutions but when I held my back straight he was not difficult and Mares reimbursed my money (contrary to my expectations) without issue and without delay. This is a sign of good customer service to me.

What I also know is that Mares did not only take back my suit, they took back ALL suits from the series that were distributed in Europe. It turns out that they had a defective run and the trilam was defective.

Since then I've ordered a BARE suit. Since the BARE suites in Europe are made in Malta and they only work 6 full days a year in Malta it's taking forever to get it delivered. However, I've dived BARE suits since 1985 (before they were called BARE) and I've never had a single problem that looked like what I had with the XR.....

So I'm going back to what I believe I can trust with my life.....

R..

 

[Diver0001]

Looking back to the OP I've been frustrated trying to buy a "dry" suit for more than a year. I spent most of that time ******* around with Mares trying to fix or reimburse defective products.

No more. No more.

R..

 

[fozzy]

Old thread, but still... Might help someone in the future.

Bought my xr drysuit at the beginning of 2017, all well for about a year and a half, the it started leaking on the zipper, the single teeth came loose and rotated... However that can happen.
Mares told me to send it in through a shop (not the one I bought it in because at the time I couldn't get there easily) three weeks later I had a new one.

Fast forward a year and while in Egypt (there could be a pattern here ) it starts leaking massively, shop on site fixes three different leaks, two days later there's at least 2 more.

Sent in again and got a new one again.

They say the third is a charm.... let's hope.

 

[fozzy]

Quick update, at the Boot in Düsseldorf i had the chance to speak with someone from mares. basically they pushed everything to issues with some chinese manufacturer. The last batch (it changed name to XR1-NTS) should have some heavier bilaminate and be issue free, should. At the same time it seems like the XR Dry suit as it is will be discontinued.

 

[fozzy]

I know it's an old post but still wanted to give another update.
The third Drysuit i got was the newer XR1 NTS it is only slightly different but all changes seem to be for the bad. The external zipper is now as long as the internal with no overlap, so it is almost impossible to visually check if the internal zipper is closed. adding to it the cursor oif the internal zipper is fitted to a small rubber band with a metallic ring, exactly the size to go grip in the extanrl zipper, i broke a tooth of the external the first time i opened it... but whatever, i can live with that.
Due to corona and other things happening i didn't go in the water for quite some time. In the end 6 months later we went on vacation and i quickly noticed the suit didn't fit correctly, it is in fact a bit smaller and it leaked slightly on the left arm... well this should be an easy one... it wasn't.
I sent it in and Mares officially replied that the suit could not be repaired as the value of the zipper exceeds tha value of the zipper and on the other hand what do i expect outside of the 2 years warranty.

Anyome wants a slightly leaking drysuit missing a tooth on the xternal zipper for a very good price?

 

[Pearlman]

I just ordered a Mares regulator and came across this… this thread totally killed that “pride of ownership” thing in me.. even the anticipation of it! I am forever going to look at my Mares regs with a suspicious eye… hope they won’t kill me someday… makes me feel like I ordered a Harley but anticipating a 50cc moped in the parcel… Ugh!

 

[fozzy]

Don't worry too much. Bad experiences with equipment can happen, i am pissed because of the customer service... i didn't rent something for 2 years, i bought a drysuit not just barely out of the cheap side of the spectrum
I have my set of mares 52 and i love them, and lots of other stuff i love from them (hybrid protec , red devil XR backplate and wing and much more of the smaller stuff) and which works great.
I just won't be buying anything more because of my experience.

 

[Searcaigh]

I just ordered a Mares regulator and came across this… this thread totally killed that “pride of ownership” thing in me.. even the anticipation of it! I am forever going to look at my Mares regs with a suspicious eye… hope they won’t kill me someday

Mares make great regs, I've been using them since 1987.

My main single tank regs are Mares MR22s and I use MR42s as stage regs when deco diving.

 

[Pearlman]

Yeah ok thanks for the assurances.. both! I am waiting for a dual adj 62x on order pending availability in my country …

 

[pwfpaulo2]

Hello there!

old thread, but... due to the incidents, let's say, that are happening here also ( I'm in Brazil at this moment) with the Mares XR drysuit it's worth to share.

I have 2 former students that bought this suit, brand new from your local dealer. Well, one of them get out of the water in his first dive (drysuit course) more soaked than a fish, literally we had to help him doff the suit IN WATER, as he couldn't get in the boat, so filled it was.I assumed that since it was his first dive something was wrong, maybe a twisted seal, maybe a valve that came from the factory broken, so I took the suit out to check. There was nothing, no cuts, no valve leaks, nothing.

Second dive, and even so, this time I personally checked before he entered the water that everything was right, and the result was the same. After about 15 dives, he sold the suit to some unfortunate new owner and went back to the neoprene, what an experience huh?

The other guy was dry, or almost dry, with about 20 dives or so, he started to soak, and really soak, from chest to toe. It was leaking literally everywhere
The end of story, he bought another suit, I got this one to rip in pieces, zipper and rings for cuffs and neck are kept here and I'll install them on other suit some day.

A nice piece of garbage this one...