[bazzadevlin]

Well I will give Ian Evans credit where it is due, he has found and sorted the problem. He emailed me the invoice which only showed I had paid £186 for the BCD and £46 for lead. He asked me to email him the credit card bill showing that I had paid £269. He then found the guy who had done the sale and discovered that he had only accounted for a trade price of the goods and the rest had not been recorded or accounted for. Some commission had been paid into the instructors account without his knoweledge as he received no paper work to say so. As far as he was aware it was a direct sale between me and ND which was transacted on my credit card. Ian said he will refund me the difference and for the £21 postage I paid he has aset up an account in my name to that amount and if I buy anything else from ND it will be at trade price.

 

[turbanator]

Nice result.
When I started at our BS-AC club, there was a struggling PADI instructor who brought kit to club from a not so local shop, did kit recommendations, returned faulty stuff (not that there was much), and arranged for us to go over for fittings for our first suits. Everyone knew he got a 'cut' but in my opinion, he earned it. I still use some of the kit I bought from/via him 20 years ago.

 

[bazzadevlin]

An instructor earning comission is perfectly fine as far as I am concerned, everyone has to make a living. No one has a gun to your head to make you buy anything. Thats why I bought an Otter Dry Suit after reading good reports of quality and customer service when I could of bought an ND one.

He gave me impartial advice on everything I have bought including helping me with my Otter Dry Suit when I bought an XLT instead of a LT.

The Guardian GTEK got a good review in a dive magazine for quality and value and when I saw one I thought I will have one of those at £200 not because I was told you buy it. Unfortunately it did not go to plan.

 

[Rupert Bear]

The Guardian GTEK got a good review in a dive magazine for quality and value and when I saw one I thought I will have one of those at £200 not because I was told you buy it. Unfortunately it did not go to plan.

Oh Bantin! was that you?...........

 

[Paul_c]

An instructor earning comission is perfectly fine as far as I am concerned, everyone has to make a living. No one has a gun to your head to make you buy anything. Thats why I bought an Otter Dry Suit after reading good reports of quality and customer service when I could of bought an ND one.

He gave me impartial advice on everything I have bought including helping me with my Otter Dry Suit when I bought an XLT instead of a LT.

The Guardian GTEK got a good review in a dive magazine for quality and value and when I saw one I thought I will have one of those at £200 not because I was told you buy it. Unfortunately it did not go to plan.

i dont think its fair however for an isntructor to be pushing gear he gets cash for over something which is better vallue or just better kit.

imy old club semi forced us into getting MTM drysuits from abloke they knew but tbh mine was a waste of the £300 was made to measure someone else i think, feet were to large, chest to tight o cross mya rms and reach valves.

i was sold tat which made diving hellish. now i wont dive in a drysuit again cause i hate them so much

 

[12480]

As you know Paul, I had a suit made by the same guy, it fitted me like a glove and I dived it for the best part of ten years.

I sold it last month to a guy who, after putting a new neck on it, is still diving it....

 

[Allan Carr]

Well I will give Ian Evans credit where it is due, he has found and sorted the problem. He emailed me the invoice which only showed I had paid £186 for the BCD and £46 for lead. He asked me to email him the credit card bill showing that I had paid £269. He then found the guy who had done the sale and discovered that he had only accounted for a trade price of the goods and the rest had not been recorded or accounted for. Some commission had been paid into the instructors account without his knoweledge as he received no paper work to say so. As far as he was aware it was a direct sale between me and ND which was transacted on my credit card. Ian said he will refund me the difference and for the £21 postage I paid he has aset up an account in my name to that amount and if I buy anything else from ND it will be at trade price.

That sounds a lot more like the Ian Evans that I've had previous dealings with. He's always been very helpful to me.

 

[billm]

this mailshot will also contain an exclusive special offer.
To be added onto this mailing list please email me at [email protected]

It's not that exclusive then is it?

Cheers
Bill

P.S. It might be worth you explaining what 321splash is exactly with regard to a Northern Diver thread. I've always had the impression that it is the online retail presence of ND, but could be wrong (I usually am).

 

[TerryH]

It's not that exclusive then is it?

Cheers
Bill

P.S. It might be worth you explaining what 321splash is exactly with regard to a Northern Diver thread. I've always had the impression that it is the online retail presence of ND, but could be wrong (I usually am).

They have nothing to do with ND, its just a repeat spam message that they put on loads
of threads. I'd be a bit miffed if I was ND though, reads as if 321 has taken over ND's
outfit.

Needs some mod deleting sharpish TBH.

 

[Duffy]

I've not read through this but it turned up whilst I was searching for something completely different but here's my experience with ND.

Thinking I was warming up into CCR I bought a Azimuth SCR from ND in 2002. I did the course with an instructor that was, well, not very bright (an example of this was a drawing he made explaining how the scr worked showed exhalation pipe leading directly into tank - I didn't bother to correct him, he never noticed).

I took the unit to Stoney for a play with a mate who was on a twinset. The flowmeter, whilst a lovely build quality wasn't sufficient to measure flowrate at 40m, I wasn't going that deep so set up, tested connections and jumped in. No problems at all. Second dive, I rechecked everything, much to my friends impatience, jumped in - at 10m signaled ok to buddy, then started sinking rather quickly. Thinking it was counterlungs compressing I injected, to no avail. Ended up on the hydrobox with a completely flooded unit - switched to bail out just as water was being delivered through mouthpiece. Just got back to surface with no air left.

Buddy explained that after I signalled ok, I looked down and as I turned my head the exhalation tube come off of mouthpiece. It was held on to a smoothbore and with a single cable tie. I boxed the unit up, declared it unfit for use and sent it back to ND. I received it back from them with TWO cable ties on it - hardly restores my faith in the unit. I finally got some money back minus a very hefty restocking fee of a couple of hundred if I remember correctly.

I've actively dissuaded students and anyone I meet from purchasing anything more than a snorkel from Northern Diver ever since. I'd not wipe my ar...bottom with anything that comes from them. You can find me at most dive shows walking past the ND stand whilst slagging them off. Feel free to say hi.

 

[BJ]

I haven't had any ND equipment sent in for revue by Diver Mag for about ten years. It has not been for want of asking. I did re-revue a drysuit that was not returned to ND (by mistake) about 15 years after I received it, but then it was made in the Standish Centre in Wigan.

 

[jackie de diver]

I have used a Northern Diver dry suit for the last three years and live just a few miles away from ND, I have never had any problem with my suit or ND. I have to speak as I find.

 

[Scubademon]

You should try one of their "dry" suits.

Indeed! Their quality used to be excellent, but the past 5 years, those dry suits don't stay dry for very long....

 

[barrygoss]

I'm now a V. P155ed off ND owner

My last three dives have been letting in water under the arms, it's only the fantastic Santi heated vest :-D that has kept me warm on the last few weekends and the assistance of a very nice man on a boat down south that has helped me find the leaks in the seams under the arms

So, I'm thinking that a two year old suit shouldn’t be leaking from the seams after 100 or so dives and maybe ND would be good enough to send me some suit tape and glue and I’ll fix it myself.

So I ring them…..

After a while on hold the phone is answered by some bird with a thick eastern european accent.

"You want what?"

"Seam tape to repair the seams on the suit."

"Oh, you send it us and we look at it."

"No thanks, I just want some tape and glue and I’ll do it."

"Oh, we don’t do that much, I’ll put you hold and ask"

"Ok"……..five minutes on hold before the phone goes live again

"Its ten...fifteen pounds"

"What is?"

"The kit"

"What kit?"

"The Kit"

"What is it? what’s in it?"

Long pause…..

"For repair your cuff"

"I haven’t got a cuff seam gone, it’s the under arm seam"

"Oh, we very busy with stock take, I take number and call back later."

This call was made on Monday........ I'm still waiting.

Northern Diver....£685 I wished I'd P155ed up the wall, I'd have got more enjoyment out of it.

B

 

[12480]

Odd time of year for a stock take..... Unless it has been 'requested'

 

[johnkendall]

Hi Barry,

I've got tape and glue. Come over next week and I can help try and fix it.

J

 

[ElvisTheKing]

Dunno end of end of year/January sales a couple of our customers are doing stock takes around now.

I do feel a bit weird defending ND perhaps I'm coming down with something?

 

[DiverMike]

Ben at Scapa suba fixed my crotch seam after it started letting water in. Dumped wet in his shop 5pm after a dive. Returned dried and fix to the boat at some ungodly hour in the night. Best £15 I ever spent - he made a really nice job of it.
To be fair to ND these things can happen at high stress/movement areas. Apart from the faulty dump valve and the sticky inflater valve the sea going was the only problem I've had. If you consider it normal to replace neckand cuff seals after a year. Had they not been unable to shorten the arms and had they shortened the legs enough it would probably be a nice suit to dive in now that it has O'Three seals on and new dump and inflate valves. It was their attitude over the leg shortening and then the seals that really annoyed me.

Has anyone tried returning anything to Amazon? That's how customer service should work. You get something duff and you start wondering what complex process there will be to return it and how much the post office will extort out of you for the pleasure. Then you go on their web site, click a few buttons and get a postage paid return slip to stick on. I even got my replacement flask before I put the faulty one back in the post.

APD have amazing customer service too. The lady on the phone (Zoe? Nicky?) always seams to remember who you are and sorts stuff out. Counter lung OPV jammed with sand - no worries we'll email you the exploded diagram so you can work out how to take it apart, you've removed the T-peice from the counter lung and can't get it back on - send it in we'll fix it don't worry it wont cost. It makes it a pleasure to deal with them

Apparently O'Three also has amazing customer service so I might well get my next suit form there (but then being cheap I might go to seaskin at 1/2 the price)

 

[Hickdive]

Just this week a certain drysuit manufacturer decided they didn't agree with my assessment that the suit I'd bought from them was leaking (refusing to even look at the video I'd made of the leaks).

They were so incensed by me pointing the leaks out that they refused to either fix the suit or return it to me. Effectively holding the suit hostage. A very helpful fellow YD-er retrieved it for me.

The same company also scoffed when I approached trading standards, pointing out that they'd gone bust in the interim and were now owned by a new company and so trading standards could no nothing.

 

[Doomanic]

Name and shame...