cjust
Registered
Hey guys, I've never posted here, and I'm not sure if it is appropriate. If not, just let me know and I'll remove it. But, I just thought you might like to be made aware of a serious issue with one of our local dive shops.
In November, I took my regulator in to Scuba Sciences for annual service. On November 28th, I took my newly serviced reg on its first dive in Grand Cayman. About 5 minutes into the dive we had reached 100fsw and I noticed some bubbles coming out of my 2nd stage. The bubbles started to get progressively faster and I switched to my backup octo to get a better look. While I was examining it, the mouthpiece blew apart in my hands. The hose started whipping around violently as my air was rapidly depleting. About 30 seconds later I was out of air. Luckily I was able to grab my buddy and share air as we made a controlled emergency accent. The dive master was able to retrieve the pieces from the ocean floor. To my surprise, there was nothing wrong with it! It has simply come apart because it had not been correctly reassembled. This is an extremely serious issue. We count on licensed service providers to properly care for equipment that our lives depends on. While everything ended alright in this instance, things could have gone horribly wrong. Major equipment malfunctions at that depth can be fatal. Scuba Sciences put my life in danger.
What makes this incident all the more disturbing is it isn't the first time this has happened with this shop. I was telling the story to another dive friend of mine a few weeks after it happened. The first words out of his mouth were "you didn't have it serviced at Scuba Sciences did you?". I couldn't believe what he said next. He went on to tell me that almost the exact same thing had happened to him after his regulator was serviced by the same shop.
I contacted the company about the problem and asked for a refund for the service. I'm not trying to scam them, and I'm not looking for any compensation for other 'damages'. All I want is the money returned for a service I paid for but didn't get. They replied that they cannot accept any responsibility for the condition or function of the equipment after it leaves the shop. They went on to say that I tested it in the shop and had signed a form saying everything was okay. They offered to take a look at it for free. Unfortunately, I have lost faith in their service department and I would not feel comfortable trusting my equipment to them again. I am obviously not a licensed technician and I am not qualified to make an informed decision on whether or not they had performed the service correctly. If I were to take my car to have the tires replaced and they didn't put the lug nuts back on the wheel, the company would still be responsible... even if I tested the car in the parking lot and everything seemed fine... eventually the wheel is going to fall of the car.
If anybody is curious, there is a short video of the event that can be seen at http://www.nvaria.com/hose_problem_small.wmv. In the video, you'll notice the bubbles coming out of the mouthpiece, then the camera pans away from me momentarily while you hear the hiss of the hose breaking apart. After that you can see the hose in a complete free flow because it doesn't have the 2nd stage attached any longer.
In November, I took my regulator in to Scuba Sciences for annual service. On November 28th, I took my newly serviced reg on its first dive in Grand Cayman. About 5 minutes into the dive we had reached 100fsw and I noticed some bubbles coming out of my 2nd stage. The bubbles started to get progressively faster and I switched to my backup octo to get a better look. While I was examining it, the mouthpiece blew apart in my hands. The hose started whipping around violently as my air was rapidly depleting. About 30 seconds later I was out of air. Luckily I was able to grab my buddy and share air as we made a controlled emergency accent. The dive master was able to retrieve the pieces from the ocean floor. To my surprise, there was nothing wrong with it! It has simply come apart because it had not been correctly reassembled. This is an extremely serious issue. We count on licensed service providers to properly care for equipment that our lives depends on. While everything ended alright in this instance, things could have gone horribly wrong. Major equipment malfunctions at that depth can be fatal. Scuba Sciences put my life in danger.
What makes this incident all the more disturbing is it isn't the first time this has happened with this shop. I was telling the story to another dive friend of mine a few weeks after it happened. The first words out of his mouth were "you didn't have it serviced at Scuba Sciences did you?". I couldn't believe what he said next. He went on to tell me that almost the exact same thing had happened to him after his regulator was serviced by the same shop.
I contacted the company about the problem and asked for a refund for the service. I'm not trying to scam them, and I'm not looking for any compensation for other 'damages'. All I want is the money returned for a service I paid for but didn't get. They replied that they cannot accept any responsibility for the condition or function of the equipment after it leaves the shop. They went on to say that I tested it in the shop and had signed a form saying everything was okay. They offered to take a look at it for free. Unfortunately, I have lost faith in their service department and I would not feel comfortable trusting my equipment to them again. I am obviously not a licensed technician and I am not qualified to make an informed decision on whether or not they had performed the service correctly. If I were to take my car to have the tires replaced and they didn't put the lug nuts back on the wheel, the company would still be responsible... even if I tested the car in the parking lot and everything seemed fine... eventually the wheel is going to fall of the car.
If anybody is curious, there is a short video of the event that can be seen at http://www.nvaria.com/hose_problem_small.wmv. In the video, you'll notice the bubbles coming out of the mouthpiece, then the camera pans away from me momentarily while you hear the hiss of the hose breaking apart. After that you can see the hose in a complete free flow because it doesn't have the 2nd stage attached any longer.
