So I'm a bit befuddled with the way things have been going at our LDS recently, and wanted to obtain some opinions from people outside of our local community.
Over the past two years I've purchased some 10,000 + CF of Nitrox from one of our local shops. When I get home and assemble gear in my 70F garage, my HP100 doubles are almost always at 2900-3100 PSI, which I've attributed to them not being topped off after a fill. No big deal; that extra 300 PSI realistically isn't making a difference on our typical dives, and I'm almost always back to the shop between 800 and 1600PSI anyway.
The rub comes when I (and my buddies) started noticing that it appeared we were being charged as if it were a 3400PSI fill. That in and of itself wasn't the problem (it's at most a few bucks difference on doubles, and less on a single); it was the responses we received when we asked questions about it. The shop has one gauge for customers to use - but if you use that to check your pressure and get a different answer from the fill whip gauge, you're just told that gauge isn't accurate and they can't go by it. Of course, you can't (as the customer) check your cylinders from the fill whip gauge and the person who checks you out has been unwilling to hook your cylinders back up to the fill station to get a new pressure reading for you. If you use the SPG on your regulators, you're told that those gauges are frequently inaccurate, and they can't use that as a pressure either. This leaves you with no way to verify what quantity of nitrox you purchased, which is somewhat important when you're paying by the CF!
And that's only part of the problem. Up until yesterday when I demanded clear answers, we had always been unable to get an answer on what the price per CF of nitrox actually is. I've been told everything from "I don't know" to "It's in a spreadsheet, but you can't look at it and I don't know what the CF price is" to "The owner knows, but he's not here". I kept a log for a while and compared the pressures I noted at home (in and out, on the same gauge each time, at room temp) to what I was charged, and came up with anywhere between $.17 and $.19, depending on the day. It wasn't consistent, but I averaged it out to $.18 and at least I was able to ballpark check if I was being charged correctly. Turns out it was $.175. But it should not have been that hard to get an answer!
Several of us have brought these concerns up over the years, but have always been brushed off or given excuses. It came up again last week, and in what I can only believe is out of sheer frustration from dealing with this argument over and over again, the shop owner has responded by converting to flat rate fills. Up to 100CF is now $15, up to 130CF is $20, etc... Double cylinders are $30 for 200CF or $40 for 260CF. It makes no sense why we can't have a $15, 100CF fill in our doubles - when we drop them off we're require to place them by the fill station, and when we pick them up, we move them from the fill station ourselves. It's labor wise no different than a single cylinder...
Diving a single AL80 and returning with 800 PSI? It's now $5 more.
Diving Double 100s and returning with 1600 PSI? It's now $11.50 more.
Everything has now increased in price, and it's basically only possible to not be paying more if you bring in a totally empty (or at least below 500 PSI) cylinder. As another unintended consequence - it's now less expensive to just rent a single cylinder (since it's $15 for nitrox in those anyway), instead of owning your own cylinders!
I suggested creating a log where customers checked pressure when they dropped tanks off, and again when they pick them up. I even made a matrix that does the PSI => CF conversion and assigns it a price based on the new flat rate math (but without a penalty for double cylinders). Too much hassle and will result in lower income, he says... but he also clearly did not do the math. I did and there are only a couple of pressures where it drops below $.175 per CF (the old price). Overall my proposed fix is a 10% increase - which I would gladly pay for the ability to verify the quantity and correct price for what I'm purchasing!
Who's being unreasonable here - us or the shop?
-B
Over the past two years I've purchased some 10,000 + CF of Nitrox from one of our local shops. When I get home and assemble gear in my 70F garage, my HP100 doubles are almost always at 2900-3100 PSI, which I've attributed to them not being topped off after a fill. No big deal; that extra 300 PSI realistically isn't making a difference on our typical dives, and I'm almost always back to the shop between 800 and 1600PSI anyway.
The rub comes when I (and my buddies) started noticing that it appeared we were being charged as if it were a 3400PSI fill. That in and of itself wasn't the problem (it's at most a few bucks difference on doubles, and less on a single); it was the responses we received when we asked questions about it. The shop has one gauge for customers to use - but if you use that to check your pressure and get a different answer from the fill whip gauge, you're just told that gauge isn't accurate and they can't go by it. Of course, you can't (as the customer) check your cylinders from the fill whip gauge and the person who checks you out has been unwilling to hook your cylinders back up to the fill station to get a new pressure reading for you. If you use the SPG on your regulators, you're told that those gauges are frequently inaccurate, and they can't use that as a pressure either. This leaves you with no way to verify what quantity of nitrox you purchased, which is somewhat important when you're paying by the CF!
And that's only part of the problem. Up until yesterday when I demanded clear answers, we had always been unable to get an answer on what the price per CF of nitrox actually is. I've been told everything from "I don't know" to "It's in a spreadsheet, but you can't look at it and I don't know what the CF price is" to "The owner knows, but he's not here". I kept a log for a while and compared the pressures I noted at home (in and out, on the same gauge each time, at room temp) to what I was charged, and came up with anywhere between $.17 and $.19, depending on the day. It wasn't consistent, but I averaged it out to $.18 and at least I was able to ballpark check if I was being charged correctly. Turns out it was $.175. But it should not have been that hard to get an answer!
Several of us have brought these concerns up over the years, but have always been brushed off or given excuses. It came up again last week, and in what I can only believe is out of sheer frustration from dealing with this argument over and over again, the shop owner has responded by converting to flat rate fills. Up to 100CF is now $15, up to 130CF is $20, etc... Double cylinders are $30 for 200CF or $40 for 260CF. It makes no sense why we can't have a $15, 100CF fill in our doubles - when we drop them off we're require to place them by the fill station, and when we pick them up, we move them from the fill station ourselves. It's labor wise no different than a single cylinder...
Diving a single AL80 and returning with 800 PSI? It's now $5 more.
Diving Double 100s and returning with 1600 PSI? It's now $11.50 more.
Everything has now increased in price, and it's basically only possible to not be paying more if you bring in a totally empty (or at least below 500 PSI) cylinder. As another unintended consequence - it's now less expensive to just rent a single cylinder (since it's $15 for nitrox in those anyway), instead of owning your own cylinders!
I suggested creating a log where customers checked pressure when they dropped tanks off, and again when they pick them up. I even made a matrix that does the PSI => CF conversion and assigns it a price based on the new flat rate math (but without a penalty for double cylinders). Too much hassle and will result in lower income, he says... but he also clearly did not do the math. I did and there are only a couple of pressures where it drops below $.175 per CF (the old price). Overall my proposed fix is a 10% increase - which I would gladly pay for the ability to verify the quantity and correct price for what I'm purchasing!
Who's being unreasonable here - us or the shop?
-B
