Using LDS for a fitting room

Do you use your LDS as a fitting room and then purchase online

  • Never

    Votes: 136 78.6%
  • Anytime I can save a buck

    Votes: 9 5.2%
  • Only if LDS is 10% more expensive

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • Only if LDS is 20% more expensive

    Votes: 17 9.8%
  • Only if LDS is 30% more expnenive

    Votes: 8 4.6%

  • Total voters
    173
  • Poll closed .

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Getting back to the poll question, would you use the LDS as a changing room?

The real issue is one of courtesy. It is not very courteous to go to an LDS, try on their wetsuits, then go and but the same suit online. The price of the suit is irrelevant to the actions the consumer. If you want to buy the suit online, buy the suit online. Leisurepro has a 100% fit guarantee, if the suit does't fit you send it back and get a different one until you find one that does fit. Don't take up the time and inventory of the LDS just becuase they are close by if you already know ahead of time you won't be buying from them.

How much more the LDS is charging is irrelevant to trying on the suit. How much more the LDS is charging is a separate question to whether or not their prices are fair or are they shamelessly marking up the ticket to make a profit. But don't try to justify consumer bad behavior because their prices are more expensive than online.

You wouldn't like someone to use you or take advantage of you in the same manner.
 
You wouldn't like someone to use you or take advantage of you in the same manner.

I should think that the savvy small business owner would WANT you to come through the door (especially if you intended to buy online) otherwise it's a lost sale that they never had the chance to impact or change. The opportunity to sell something to a person dead set against it doesn't always arise. It's a lost opportunity when the LDS doesn't meet (or approximate) the price of the alternative. Most large brick and mortar retailers have a 'low price guarantee'.
 
If my LDS charged me $25 bucks to try on wetsuits, I would do so, and buy online without guilt. At that point, I am paying for a service. Otherwise, I would not. The owner of my LDS is making an effort not to be too unpleasant about internet purchases, and just wants a chance to make money and stay in business. He has a yearly swap to help out local divers where he makes no money. Since my wife took a course with him, providing I continue to purchase from him (not necessarily everything), allows me to come out to his pool sessions. He runs an excelent training program, and I really appreciate all the work he is doing with my wife.

That being said, I won't pay super high prices for items I can get elsewhere for a lot cheaper but I would never take advantage of him by trying on gear at his shop only to buy it elsewhere.
 
Recent post on an LDS charging $25 for trying on a wetsuit brought up an interesting point - how often do divers use the LDS for a fitting room and then purchase on-line any why?

Never in a million years would I pay to try on a wet suit..and if an LSD asked this of me I would tell them to get BENT.
 
Never in a million years would I pay to try on a wet suit..and if an LSD asked this of me I would tell them to get BENT.

Agreed Id pay after I tried it out if I wanted to buy it but other then that they say pay to try it on Id come back later on to window shop wearing a leisurepro TShirt, Hat and if I could find some pants or shorts Id have the leisurepro logo on their too!

They apparently are looking for an early retirement by pulling a stunt like that.
 
IMHO it is a simple matter of moral, ethical, and courteous behavior. The price is right there on the item. If you don’t plan on buying it there, don’t try it on there. Buy it from the online guy and if it doesn’t fit keep sending it back until you find the right size. Or at least until you spend in shipping what the price difference was to begin with.
 
Don't we all get tired of trotting out the same old, tired crap on these types of subjects? Do you trumpeting moralists seriously think that blasting the "sinners" in your righteous indignation is really going to "convert" them to your point of view? What tactic is that, "shame them into joining me"? Now I like to think I have morals and ideals myself, but the way they're used on forums like this is just ugly. And besides that, it's really just a cop out since you can't think of a real way to solve the problem, which is more an economics version of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object than a moral dilemma.

Let's please put this one to rest -- the "support your LDS" mantra is simply not going to work. It never has. If you can give me a good historical example of protectionism beating out efficiency in the long run, I'd love to hear it. So if you want to contribute to the solution, start thinking about ways the industry can CHANGE to survive. Otherwise, all you're doing is venting. And that's using us readers and our time, without asking. Shouldn't YOU be paying a THERAPIST for that? That's my industry, so maybe I should start whining about that.

Here's another one virtually everyone agrees with, so let's quit repeating it: it's lame/poor taste to knowingly take advantage of someone. That includes a dive shop whose equipment you use with no realistic intention of buying. It's my belief that very few people actually do this. In other words, almost anyone would pay a reasonable markup to support the store that is offering the service of trying the gear. Problem is, most stores haven't figured out a successful business model that allows them to limit their markups to what's reasonable. And the guy or gal who walks into the store, knowing that they might buy it online if the price isn't reasonable, does so with a conscience unburdened by the fact that they know that in their heart of hearts, they would support the dive shop if it wasn't so ridiculous. And they're giving the store the chance to change and earn their business every time they walk in the door, even if they know the shop most likely won't. That's the shop's fault, not theirs. And there's nothing wrong with continuing to give them the chance if you honestly would buy at an *honestly* reasonable price.

Really, exorbitant prices are the result of shop owners who cannot/will not come up with a more successful business strategy. Whine all you want about how there's nothing they can do, but how are you going to explain the class-act brick-and-mortar dive shops that also make significant revenue selling gear online (ahem...ScubaToys, CaveAdventurers, etc.)? I personally witnessed a local "internet only" dive shop start small, then get big enough to branch into a brick-and-mortar store with training and the whole bit. That might be part of the solution. Maybe dive shops are starting at the wrong end of their sector. Maybe they need to become good businessmen AS WELL AS great dive mentors to succeed. If a dive shop owner can't do that, maybe he or she will have to get another job, just like the rest of us have to when things don't work out. But whining and despising the unwillingness of their customers to pay more than something's worth is NOT a winning long term strategy.

So take that to the bank, stick it in your pipe and smoke it, or do whatever you want with it, but please stop crying about how life isn't fair for you as if the same isn't true for all of us.

Now, to practice what I preach (and man is this a long sermon--sorry), let me introduce a new idea. Maybe dive shops are not the answer. Maybe independent dive CLUBS are the answer -- co-op kinds of things. With an organized club, deals can be made with manufacturers, compressors (and their expenses) can be shared, and divers will have to become more responsible for themselves and their equipment. There would be waivers galore so no one could sue for their own stupidity. And then only the serious and competent individuals would be in the sport, bringing down a large proportion of diver-error accidents, cattle-boats, and manufacturers who refuse to sell o-rings and plastic seats to surgeons, engineers, and transmission mechanics because they don't have the "proper training" available only to those who have enough time (and lack of need for much money) to work at least part time at a dive shop. Sure, there would probably be volunteering, donation drives, the whole bit. But there would also be the dignity of not being gouged, of being treated as an equal, of being worthy of buying o-rings directly from the manufacturer gods who grant us underwater breath!

END RANT:dork2:
 
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Any wonder the Koran has overtaken the other Bible

My LDSeses let me take a few suits home to try them at
a comfortable leisurely pace, whether I buy them or not
 
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...
We have two LDS in Southern New Hampshire. One has an absolutely flawed and completely corrupt business model, the other has figured it out. LDS(a) attempts to make its living on retail, discounts things like training and runs day trips to the beach for shore diving (guided, unnecessarily) for a song. LDS(b) has no retail, gives away fills on a regular basis and makes a killing selling training and diver services.

I live in Southern NH and think your post may be a bit confusing. There are more than 2 shops in Southern NH so some folks might make an incorrect guess about who you are talking about. There are shops in Manchester, Londonderry, Atkinson, Portsmouth, Rye and Merrimack.

I deal with the one in Londonderry and they've been reasonable and very supportive.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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