Mares service kits

[tfsails]

I need help. My dive shop is not a Mares dealer, but the owner wants us to be able to service Mares equipment. Of course, the factory won't sell us any service kits because we're not dealers. :no We have a sporadic source, but getting parts from them is a slow process and I can tell they really don't want to sell to us.

Does anybody know of a reliable source of Mares service kits and shop manuals? I have a lot of manuals already but don't have them all.

If you don't want to answer this publicy, then you can PM me. I'll treat all correspondence as secret.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

TF

 

[Zak OHara]

TF,

We can't tell your dive shop how to conduct business but they should think about the following.

If a store is servicing Mares products and is not certified by Mares, this increases the stores liability should something happen to a customer using serviced product.

If your store would like, we can have our district sales manager make contact. If so feel free to PM me the information.

Best regards,

 

[tfsails]

We have a Mares-trained technician on our staff so we're covered in that aspect. Thanks for the information.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Don't know about MARES but as an Oceanic tech I can say that even as a factory authorized tech I'm still required to perform service at an authorized dealer in order for the warranty to be good. That's the only way I can get parts on the up and up. If I get backdoor parts and put them in a reg the serial numbers will not jive and the warranty will be void. I'd advise telling your owner to take out a bigger liability policy if he insists on doing this.

 

[Scuba Cowboy]

Don't know about MARES but as an Oceanic tech I can say that even as a factory authorized tech I'm still required to perform service at an authorized dealer in order for the warranty to be good. That's the only way I can get parts on the up and up. If I get backdoor parts and put them in a reg the serial numbers will not jive and the warranty will be void. I'd advise telling your owner to take out a bigger liability policy if he insists on doing this.

I don't understand, what do service parts have to do with serial numbers? The OP of this thread is probably not worried about warranties, sounds like he just wants to put the right parts in regs.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Shops purchase a certain number of service kits. For warranty repairs they are credited by the manufacturer. In order to do this they turn in the serial number of the reg that has been serviced. This is also how a record of annual service according to warranty terms is kept track of or is supposed to be. If kits are being bought and no numbers turned in it's for one of two reasons- regs are not under warranty for some reason or the shop is passing kit costs onto customer and not worrying about the credit. Manufacturers like scubapro( I see you are a dealer,would you risk selling SP kits to a non dealer or individual) and aqualung forbid sales to other than authorized dealers. It does occur though. However a dealer risks losing his dealership if they find out he's selling the kits to other shops or individuals. I don't know if MARES is like this. From Zak's reply it sounds like they have a similar policy. It also sounds like they "strongly discourage" their dealers from selling to a non dealer shop regardless if they have a trained technician on staff. Fact is they sell to shops- not the tech.