Terrible service. I went there in Dec. of 2013 to get two of my regulators serviced and was THOUROUGHLY disappointed.
The person that I was working with this entire time was named Ralph. I am in the industry and I work on regulators and have been around regulator servicing for quite some time now and have never really come across a situation like this. I am moving out to the Philippines in just a few days and was travelling through Illinois to see my parents before leaving. On this trip I figured I would get my 2 Mk25's, G250v, S600 serviced. I called around to a few Scubapro dealers and decided on a dive shop about 30 minutes away since they seemed like they knew what they were talking about.
I took my regulators in and dropped them off and got a date at which they were going to be completed. I waited a couple of days and got a call telling me that they were serviced and ready for pick up. I went in, paid $250 (Not too reasonable in the first place for 4 stages) and left. Once I got back in the car I realized that he never gave me my old parts so I began inspecting them and really didn't feel that anything had been done to them. I went home and removed my hose from the second stage and saw a lot of corrosion. Clearly they hadn't even been opened. So I looked in the first stage at the high pressure chamber and saw old o-rings covered in old cristolube that I put in there. I normally service my regs, but didn't have time or the tools to do so in Illinois.
So I called the dive shop back and explained the situation. He seemed hardly surprised to hear what I had to say, but did apologize and told me to bring the regulators back and he would make sure that they got taken care of. With some reluctance I decided to take the regs back and see what would come of it. In a few more days I got them returned and they were serviced, quite nicely I have to say. The problem started when I asked for a price decrease due to the bad service. He told me that his hands were tied because he goes to a third party source for his servicing and he couldn't refund me anything. If I was in his position I would have my tail between my legs and be trying to find a reasonable compromise to the mistake. Instead his offer to me was that I could have a free T-Shirt or Hat. I left without taking either, because truth be told that really offended me. He told me that he would service my regulators as long as I paid. I paid him and he gave me my regulators back without ever being opened. Mistake or not, that is unacceptable. As a dive shop owner you should know what a serviced regulator looks like.
This is a major safety issues as these are the regulators I use for my mains in trimix. I also teach trimix diving, so to have inadequately serviced equipment is not only a major risk for me, but for my students as well. Luckily I knew what I was looking for when he returned them to me. It took me having to reach out to him for him to realize his mistake. If I was just an average customer he would've made his $250 and been on his way and I would've been out the money and have potentially faulty regulators.
Sorry if I went on a bit of a rant there, but I just find this a terrible business practice and to tell the customer that there is nothing he can do about quite honestly trying to rip him off and then offer him a t-shirt or hat is just unacceptable. read more
