4 years ago, I purchased a "Seago" brand, 6 person, vacuum packed raft in a canister, in England. The cost then was under $1000 and adding the shipping charges, the total cost came to about $1500.00 - Seago is a well known brand over there and I bought based on a recommendation from PBO, the English boating magazine. 4 years later, I realized that I am 1 year past the certification date. So... thinking, no problem... I contacted 2 well-known places in New England. Come to find out, neither place recognizes Seago and neither place would agree to handle the job. When I contacted Seago I learned that they do not have a service station in the USA. Only in Europe. Now, I am facing the prospect of shipping the raft back to England and pay roundabout $1500 for the roundtrip, customs clearance, documentation and what have you. Does anybody know of any US service station, which will re-certify an unknown brand? The places I contacted told me, they handle only rafts for which they are factory certified. No doubt, this has got to do with liability insurance. All this is a learning experience. Perhaps, the saying "you get what you pay for" is applicable here. On the other hand, even paying $1500 to have the raft sent back, seems like considerably less money than any new offshore rated raft I found on the web. Typically, they seem to go for from $2500 and up.