Reef Seekers reply to John Wolfenden


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Posted by Reef Seekers Dive Co. on August 20, 2002 at 15:01:13:

We have finally (after leaving two phone messages with him) talked to John Wolfenden, the man who complained in a thread lower down about the loose hoses on his serviced reg. Since John chose to make this a public issue, we feel the resolution should be public as well.

First off, our apolgies to John for this inconvenience. He's absolutely right that he should expect hoses to be tightened, in the same way he should expect new o-rings, corrosion to be removed from metal, the IP to be adjusted correctly, the magnehelic to be adjusted correctly, etc.

For the record, John brought us TWO regulators to be serviced. Although he didn't mention this in his initial post, the second one (his wife's) worked perfectly, he said.

After talking with John and even though the loose hoses apparenrtly didn't cost him a dive, we have agreed to refund him fully (roughly $100) for the service on the loose-hosed regulator to compensate him for his inconvenience. Although this may seem extreme, our policy is "Satisfaction Guaranteed." If you're not happy, we're not happy, and we'll do everything we can to make it right.

We also explained to John (and will as well to you) our repair procedures and why we find it puzzling that this could have happened.

Once we're done servicing a reg, we put it on our test bench and leave it for about 3-5 minutes under 3000psi of pressure. If there are any leaks, we should hear them in that time frame. Then we do a final bench check on the pressurized reg, checking the IP and magnehelic (inhale/exhale) at 3000, 1500, and 500psi. Assuming all is well, we inform the customer the reg's ready for pick-up.

When the customer comes in (and we won't swear this happened) he's SUPPOSED to be told, "Here's your reg. Hook it up to that tank and make sure it breathes to your satisfaction." Even if we hadn't said that, John certainly had the option of asking to check out the reg before he paid for the service and walked out the door. This would have been ANOTHER opportunity to check for leaks.

John told us he and his wife then flew to Hawaii. When he got there and hooked up his reg, it leaked. Now it's certainly possible that the airplane flight, and the resultant pressurization and depressurization caused a semi-tight hose to become loose. But we'll never know for sure.

Johnm said the DM tightened the hose and he did his dive with no problem. As he geared up for the second dive, the other three hoses were all leaking. We've at a loss to explain this, especially after he made a no-leak dive, as well as why ALL three other hoses would leak but we're certainly willing to take John at his word on this.

But the bottom line (and this is not meant to excuse us if we didn't fully tighten the hoses) is that this was a minor problem that any diver who's gone through a basic equipment repair class could have fixed himself in literally 30 seconds. (And that's if you take your time to find the wrench.)

With that in mind, we're going to make John this public offer. We'd like you to be our guest in our Saturday, October 19, Equipment Repair class (taught at Reef Seekers) so that if this - or a host of other simple maladies - should ever happen again, you'll know what to do. Please feel free to contact us directly if you'd care to accept.

Our final thought that we expressed to John was one of disappointment that he chose as his first response to slam us in a public forum rather than try to let us work something out. It would be different if he had called us and we had just blown him off. But we were not even aware of the problem, let alone offered an opportunity to do something about it, before John chose to vent his frustration publicly. Hopefully, should something similar happen to John with us or any other store he deals with in the future, he'll call first.

Anyhow, we hope that our actions satisfy John as we feel that this matter is now put to rest.

Ken Kurtis & Bill Wright
Co-owners
Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, CA




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