In Reply to: Support your local dive shop??? posted by Eric S on August 28, 2008 at 20:36:24:

steamed about it.

I don’t normally take my tanks to this particular shop for tank fills, but my usual shop has compressor maintenance scheduled right now. I wanted to have full tanks before my dives this weekend so I bit the bullet and took them elsewhere which was about 11 miles out of my way.

So on Wednesday morning right, I took 3 low pressure steel tanks to a Sport Chalet to get fills for this weekend. I dropped them off a little before 11 in the morning. I was asked if 3200 psi was OK. 3200 in low pressure tanks? Sure. My burst disks were high pressure and I had a high pressure DIN valve on them, never mind the DOT regulations. This guy was a goof for even offering to fill them that high. I asked the guy how long it would take to fill them. He said they would be filled in about 45 minutes. I said that’s fine. I’ll go to lunch and come back for them.

I went to lunch and did some shopping. I returned a little after 12 to pick up the tanks only to discover they had not been filled, they were right where I left them in fact.

The person who took the tanks over an hour ago was not there. In fact there was no one in the scuba department at all. I walked up front to the register counter and asked for someone to help me get my tanks filled. She said that there isn’t anyone there to fill them. She said guy who can fill them will be back from lunch in 20 minutes. I asked why they weren’t staffed with someone else who can fill them like a manager or anyone else. She said that they were starting to get out of the scuba sports and they were not really staffing someone on site to do regular scuba sales all days.

Disgusted, I told her that I would be back to pick the tanks up in another 90 minutes as I now had an errand to run. I also told her to let the fill guy know I will be back for them then so that he takes care of them when he returned from lunch.

Did my errand and took care of the business. I drove back to the Sport Chalet. I walked in. Again no one in the scuba department and my tanks looked as if they had not been touched. Now being pissed off, I went to the register and was directed to a woman at the customer service desk. She wasn’t the manager, but she was in charge I was told. She said that they had no one available to fill the tanks until Thursday morning. She seemed confused as to why I was upset. She was nice about it though.

I left the tanks there since I was running out of time. I had to get back to work on my split shift. I was promised by the woman that the tanks would be filled first thing in the morning.

Today I drove out of my way another 11 miles to the Sport Chalet. When I arrived I found my tanks were indeed cooled, filled and ready. I asked to borrow a pressure gauge so I could check them. He handed me a regulator gauge. One tank had 1850 in, one had 3300 and the other had 3425. I noted to the really big and fat guy who filled the tanks that one of the tanks was under pressure, he apologized for the short fill and put it back in the tank. 15 minutes later it had a 3500 top off.

I would like to say this was a new miserable experience for me at Sport Chalet, but I had it worse in the past. That’s why I try to go to other shops for my weekly diving supplies and fills.

• 'Starting to get out of the scuba sports'? Diver Z 06:59:45 08/29/08 (1)
  • Re: 'Starting to get out of the scuba sports'? scjoe 14:39:52 08/29/08 (0)