Blew $400 on a busted Kirby Morgan regulator last month

I bought a used Kirby Morgan 19 regulator off a guy on Facebook Marketplace for $400, claimed it was freshly serviced. Got it in the water on a bridge pier job near Norfolk and the second stage freeflowed so bad I had to abort the dive. Has anyone else had luck getting refunds from private sellers on dive gear?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray_campbell4628d ago

Man, that really stinks especially with a Kirby Morgan 19 which is not a cheap piece of gear to begin with. I actually heard from a dive shop guy out in Houston once that a lot of those "freshly serviced" listings on social marketplaces are just people who wiped down the outside and called it good, you know? They might have swapped a face seal but never touched the internal parts like the diaphragm or the seat. For $400 I'd be hot too, but most private sales are as-is unless you can prove they knew it was busted, which is tough. I'd try filing a dispute with Facebook though, I've seen stories of people getting their money back if the listing had "serviced" in the title and the seller can't show receipts.

ryantorres27d ago

Man that's rough. Honestly I had almost the same thing happen with a used Scubapro Mk25 I bought off Craigslist last year. The guy said it was recently serviced but it leaked air like a sieve on my first dive. What worked for me was going through PayPal Goods and Services and filing a claim right away with screenshots of the listing saying "serviced." They actually refunded me after I showed them a shop receipt for the repair cost. @ray_campbell46 is right though, most private sales are as-is unless you can prove they lied about the condition. Your best bet is Facebook's buyer protection if you paid through their checkout. Otherwise you're probably stuck.

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the_lee27d ago

That PayPal refund trick actually changed my mind about ever trusting a private sale again.