Let me first preface this by saying, my husband & I have been diving for more than 20+ years. Including, getting both of our daughters certified through the shop. We were members of the SubClub & although we did not travel with the shop we remained customers. This is why it makes me so sad to say what happened.
After being told a few years ago the Bob's had gone out of business, I decided to call, as we were once again getting ready for another trip & I needed to get a few things. When Mary answered I was thrilled to hear a familiar voice. I discussed briefly with her what I needed done & asked if they would be able to accommodate with the time frame I had.
Upon showing up soon after my call, I walked in and set the two sets of regulators on the counter, that I wanted serviced. Immediately the gentlemen, with the beard, was grumpy & began to lecture me about servicing my equipment before I store them. He wasn't sure they could do the work, but thankfully Mary came walking in, & I told him she & I had just talked on the phone. He continued to negative & down right rude, but having been a customer for so long, I decided he'd probably just had a bad day. He wrote up the paperwork & I left.
Returning on the day I was told to come pick them up, I was now greeted by another gentleman. This one, much younger & very friendly & acknowledged the presence of 3 customers & calmly explained it would be a few minutes. Of course, it was fine. In fact, I spent time looking at new merchandise. When it becomes my turn, I hand him my 2 tags for the regulators & off he went to search for them. Wondering what took so long, I began to get somewhat concerned. He came out several times & asked about identifying them. Finally, he found one of them & was off searching for the other. Eventually, he did find it and told me it was still hooked up to the tank for testing. Immediately, a red flag went up, wondering if they had even been serviced. 30 minutes later he was unable to find any paperwork, so I told him don't worry, & that I needed to go. The bill $170 for 2 regulators, one of which was only 1 year old. I was irritated & upset & wondered if they had even been touched. I paid without saying much & packed for my dive trip.
As my daughter got ready for her first dive of the trip, she looks at me & mentions her battery was low. Now, of course, I'm really going over everything & sincerely think the regulators were not serviced & there was no paperwork to indicate either way.
After returning from our trip, my son-in-law needed to rent a tank for some work in a pool. I called Bob's & once again the bearded, grumpy older man said they would charge $40. I decided to try another place in town & upon calling, they were friendly & kind and it would only be $12 to rent a tank. Shockingly, that is quite a difference in price. Sadly, with all that had happened & the way it happened it put a really bad taste in my mouth & I decided to not return to Bob's Dive Shop ever again.
I don't know what has happened at Bob's to change the attitude of a shop. But having been a customer for over 2+ decades I decided to not support this type of attitude or service.
I hope no one else has to have such a bad experience, like I did. Diving should be fun, exciting, & exhilarating. And a good dive shop should support that type of attitude. read more