There is a certain degree of false economy with regard to both getting your regulator serviced via mail and by “saving” money by purchasing equipment on line rather than from the local dive shop.
LP stays in business with low market, high volume and, compared to a brick and motor dive shop, low levels of customer service. In contrast a local dive shop stays in business with a high markup on a low volume of sales but seeks to make that increased cost worthwhile by offering a higher level of customer service combined with local knowledge and expertise regarding local conditions, etc. Admittedly some shops do a better job of this than others, while LP has it pretty easy as they serve you only with low prices and makes no bones about it, so people expect less from them and if it arrives and is not dead on arrival they are more or less happy.
What this means to the average diver is that they can save $100 or more up front by purchasing a regulator on line, but they also have to accept that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Scubapro for example does not offer the free parts for life program on regs purchased from other than authorized dealers who do not, by definition and dealer agreement, sell things on line or by mail nor are they able to discount more than 10% below retail.
Some divers will say that it is not fair or not good business for a local dive shop to charge substantially more than an on-line retailer for the same product and these same divers would feel very vindicated if they knew that the average markup over dealer cost was around 100%. The thing is they do not consider that the shop has to pay for the merchandise up front and then stock it for months so that prospective buyers can look at it, try it, discuss it with the sales staff and then walk out the door with it the same day when and if they decide to purchase it. That level of service costs money as does the overhead in having and maintaining the shop’s service area, classroom, sales floor, compressor, rental department, etc.
From the shop’s perspective, these divers often come in, look at a regulator. Try it, discuss it with the sales staff and then go buy the same model from leisure pro. Then when it needs service or adjustment they more often than not come back to the shop because they are leaving on a dive trip next week and expect the shop to provide service as they are a Scubapro dealer. Most shops will do it, but don’t be surprise if you see a 100% markup on parts that would have otherwise been free if you bought it there and don’t even consider complaining since you are getting a level of service you cannot get on-line (and don’t forget that you already saved all that money buying it on line – and there is after all no free lunch).
In their defense, a few shops are really tired of being used by divers who take advantage of their showroom and sales staff service and then buy on-line and will consequently not service on-line gear at all as they feel they owe no loyalty to on-line equipment buyers who show no loyalty to local businesses or respect the costs involved in providing that level of service. It’s a little extreme and a little vindictive and may not be in the shop’s long term interest, but it is a free country. You have a right to make an informed choice to buy online or locally and to accept the savings or costs as well as the potential consequences or benefits of that decision. In turn, the LDS has a right to provide service to whoever they want, as long as it does not involve a civil rights issue and so far on-line buyers are not a protected minority group.
Some shops do an excellent job of competing with on-line retailers by taking advantage of close out deals that are not subject to pricing restrictions, by offering perks such as 10 free air or nitrox fills with each major equipment purchase, or by offering really good package deals where they meet the minimum price restrictions on controlled items by practically giving away the non price controlled items they are sold with in the package. So it is always worth your time to see what the shop can offer in terms of both price and service before considering buying on-line. This may include some of the more intangible things like calling the good or more recent customers first about a great deal on a dive boat spot this weekend that came up due to a last minute cancellation.
When you consider all the money you will spend over the life of a regulator or your career, the $100 you save buying on-line is peanuts, so you need to look carefully at the longer term costs and benefits.
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Similarly, skipping an annual service is not always as cost effective as it appears. A Mk 2 first stage for example may go 5 years without service if it is well care for, little used and properly stored. First stages have a long shelf life as the seat rests off the orifice when the regulator is not pressurized. So if it is clean, dry and dust free, it will be fine even after several years on the shelf.
The same is not true for most second stages as the seat rests on the orifice under spring pressure. A nicely tuned R190 for example will develop an excessive seating groove in not much over a year and will develop a slight freeflow. An R190 tuned to breathe harder may last a little longer but the same problem will eventually occur. The reg can be adjusted to breathe harder and/or the seat can be flipped to get you another year or two of use, but some minimal skill and tools are required to adjust the reg and access the seat. The alternative is to store the reg with the purge depressed, but then that introduces dust, moisture and creepy crawly things into the system.
More importantly, servicing a reg is cheap compared to repairing it. You may save money by skipping a service or two but that savings stops when you discover your reg does not work (or when the tech who eventually services it discovers a problem) because there was apparently water in a tank or the dust cap was less than tight when you rinsed it and the resulting corrosion has had another year or 2 to damage critical (and expensive) areas of the reg.
There are also the indirect costs of skipping an annual service such as the cost and inconvenience to you when your reg dies in the middle of your next dive trip. You are going to most likely miss at least one dive even if a loaner or rental reg can be found and with a 5 day trip with 8 to 10 dives costs $2000, that non working regulator is essentially costing you at least $200 per missed dive. Even on a one day 2 tank boat dive costing $125, if it dies while gearing up for dive one, you are out $125 plus travel expenses and if the problem occurs prior to dive two, you are still out half that amount.
You also have a choice of servicing options – mail it out, have it serviced locally or do it yourself.
If you service it locally it will probably cost $20 to $25 per stage for labor plus parts (if you are not covered under a free parts for life program). But it will be adjusted the way you want it, and will be readjusted until you are happy with it and if you have a peculiar preference in reg performance the local tech can set it up that way for you.
If you go the send it off route, you are going to pay for shipping both ways for the initial service and also for any later adjustments. That cost will more than outweigh any savings on possibly lower labor charges or parts costs.
Doing it your self is a great option – for some divers, but not others. It requires a reasonable degree of mechanical ability and some knowledge about the specific regulator. It also requires an investment in specialized tools. So for the average recreational diver with one reg serviced annually, $200 in tools and the time needed to learn what needs to be learned may be a bit much to save $60-75 per year on labor (and you will be buying your own parts – often off e-bay at about twice the dealer cost). For a technical diver with numerous regs it may be very cost effective while for a diver who likes to work on mechanical things it may not be cost effective but may just plain be fun to do it yourself.
So again, the diver needs to carefully consider all the short and long-term costs, benefits and consequences of a decision to service a reg or skip a year as well as deciding where to have it serviced.
LP stays in business with low market, high volume and, compared to a brick and motor dive shop, low levels of customer service. In contrast a local dive shop stays in business with a high markup on a low volume of sales but seeks to make that increased cost worthwhile by offering a higher level of customer service combined with local knowledge and expertise regarding local conditions, etc. Admittedly some shops do a better job of this than others, while LP has it pretty easy as they serve you only with low prices and makes no bones about it, so people expect less from them and if it arrives and is not dead on arrival they are more or less happy.
What this means to the average diver is that they can save $100 or more up front by purchasing a regulator on line, but they also have to accept that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Scubapro for example does not offer the free parts for life program on regs purchased from other than authorized dealers who do not, by definition and dealer agreement, sell things on line or by mail nor are they able to discount more than 10% below retail.
Some divers will say that it is not fair or not good business for a local dive shop to charge substantially more than an on-line retailer for the same product and these same divers would feel very vindicated if they knew that the average markup over dealer cost was around 100%. The thing is they do not consider that the shop has to pay for the merchandise up front and then stock it for months so that prospective buyers can look at it, try it, discuss it with the sales staff and then walk out the door with it the same day when and if they decide to purchase it. That level of service costs money as does the overhead in having and maintaining the shop’s service area, classroom, sales floor, compressor, rental department, etc.
From the shop’s perspective, these divers often come in, look at a regulator. Try it, discuss it with the sales staff and then go buy the same model from leisure pro. Then when it needs service or adjustment they more often than not come back to the shop because they are leaving on a dive trip next week and expect the shop to provide service as they are a Scubapro dealer. Most shops will do it, but don’t be surprise if you see a 100% markup on parts that would have otherwise been free if you bought it there and don’t even consider complaining since you are getting a level of service you cannot get on-line (and don’t forget that you already saved all that money buying it on line – and there is after all no free lunch).
In their defense, a few shops are really tired of being used by divers who take advantage of their showroom and sales staff service and then buy on-line and will consequently not service on-line gear at all as they feel they owe no loyalty to on-line equipment buyers who show no loyalty to local businesses or respect the costs involved in providing that level of service. It’s a little extreme and a little vindictive and may not be in the shop’s long term interest, but it is a free country. You have a right to make an informed choice to buy online or locally and to accept the savings or costs as well as the potential consequences or benefits of that decision. In turn, the LDS has a right to provide service to whoever they want, as long as it does not involve a civil rights issue and so far on-line buyers are not a protected minority group.
Some shops do an excellent job of competing with on-line retailers by taking advantage of close out deals that are not subject to pricing restrictions, by offering perks such as 10 free air or nitrox fills with each major equipment purchase, or by offering really good package deals where they meet the minimum price restrictions on controlled items by practically giving away the non price controlled items they are sold with in the package. So it is always worth your time to see what the shop can offer in terms of both price and service before considering buying on-line. This may include some of the more intangible things like calling the good or more recent customers first about a great deal on a dive boat spot this weekend that came up due to a last minute cancellation.
When you consider all the money you will spend over the life of a regulator or your career, the $100 you save buying on-line is peanuts, so you need to look carefully at the longer term costs and benefits.
-----
Similarly, skipping an annual service is not always as cost effective as it appears. A Mk 2 first stage for example may go 5 years without service if it is well care for, little used and properly stored. First stages have a long shelf life as the seat rests off the orifice when the regulator is not pressurized. So if it is clean, dry and dust free, it will be fine even after several years on the shelf.
The same is not true for most second stages as the seat rests on the orifice under spring pressure. A nicely tuned R190 for example will develop an excessive seating groove in not much over a year and will develop a slight freeflow. An R190 tuned to breathe harder may last a little longer but the same problem will eventually occur. The reg can be adjusted to breathe harder and/or the seat can be flipped to get you another year or two of use, but some minimal skill and tools are required to adjust the reg and access the seat. The alternative is to store the reg with the purge depressed, but then that introduces dust, moisture and creepy crawly things into the system.
More importantly, servicing a reg is cheap compared to repairing it. You may save money by skipping a service or two but that savings stops when you discover your reg does not work (or when the tech who eventually services it discovers a problem) because there was apparently water in a tank or the dust cap was less than tight when you rinsed it and the resulting corrosion has had another year or 2 to damage critical (and expensive) areas of the reg.
There are also the indirect costs of skipping an annual service such as the cost and inconvenience to you when your reg dies in the middle of your next dive trip. You are going to most likely miss at least one dive even if a loaner or rental reg can be found and with a 5 day trip with 8 to 10 dives costs $2000, that non working regulator is essentially costing you at least $200 per missed dive. Even on a one day 2 tank boat dive costing $125, if it dies while gearing up for dive one, you are out $125 plus travel expenses and if the problem occurs prior to dive two, you are still out half that amount.
You also have a choice of servicing options – mail it out, have it serviced locally or do it yourself.
If you service it locally it will probably cost $20 to $25 per stage for labor plus parts (if you are not covered under a free parts for life program). But it will be adjusted the way you want it, and will be readjusted until you are happy with it and if you have a peculiar preference in reg performance the local tech can set it up that way for you.
If you go the send it off route, you are going to pay for shipping both ways for the initial service and also for any later adjustments. That cost will more than outweigh any savings on possibly lower labor charges or parts costs.
Doing it your self is a great option – for some divers, but not others. It requires a reasonable degree of mechanical ability and some knowledge about the specific regulator. It also requires an investment in specialized tools. So for the average recreational diver with one reg serviced annually, $200 in tools and the time needed to learn what needs to be learned may be a bit much to save $60-75 per year on labor (and you will be buying your own parts – often off e-bay at about twice the dealer cost). For a technical diver with numerous regs it may be very cost effective while for a diver who likes to work on mechanical things it may not be cost effective but may just plain be fun to do it yourself.
So again, the diver needs to carefully consider all the short and long-term costs, benefits and consequences of a decision to service a reg or skip a year as well as deciding where to have it serviced.
