LDS -vs- Online purchases

This seems to be a sore subject on this board. LDS owners losing a sale and being P.Oed at customers finding better deals online, Not honoring warranties etc. This is just bad all arround for our sport. I think all the animosity could be avoided if we as customers give our LDS's the opportunity to match the online price! In my experience I have found if my LDS couldn't match the price, They would make other deals where they could Con. Ed, Trips etc. Put the ball in their court if they won't work with their local customers, They have no one to blame but themselves when their store is empty.

The other side of this, however, is where are we going to get air if the LDS is empty. Hopefully the good businesses will find a way to co-exist with internet age. I don't mind paying a little more to a local business if they have what I'm looking for but frequently I use internet sites.

and you will see a hundred others that agree with you. and you will also see a hundred others that disagree with you. What you are saying and proposing is not new to anybody here. It has been said many times in many threads. Many parts of our society thrive on the aggression and confrontation (more accurately I think this can be described as DRAMA) that arises from this changing market (or so I believe). This, IMO is why what you are suggesting WILL NOT end the flood of "LDS vs Online" threads any time soon. People will still come on here and open new threads on the topic just to say their piece about it.

What if I find negotiating price to be distasteful. I really don't like the rejection when they say "no, we can't match the price" (or even come close). Why should I put myself in the position of being humiliated for asking? Or harangued when I walk out and order it online? Why put myself through all that?

I just buy what I want, where I want, when I want. Sometimes it is the lowest price, sometimes not.

I don't worry about air. I'll just buy a compressor.

Richard

I take a slight different perspective on the situation. I believe that if you have a good LDS that you are working with, you must do your best to buy from them. A brick and mortar LDS has higher costs than an online store, so value in paying a little more for their service and information. Now, if the pricing is double what the online store is charging for basically the same item, than that becomes a personal financial decision.

I do believe that the LDS I go to has value. Information that I will not get from an online store and the pleasure of doing business with them. Don't get me wrong, I have bought gear from the internet, but when ever possible I try to buy from the LDS.

Thanks!
Blake

FATdiver:

A brick and mortar LDS has higher costs than an online store, so value in paying a little more for their service and information.

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That's really not true at all, especially since most online stores are also B&M stores. Online stores usually have many times the inventory in stock. Professional web services are not cheap, either. We aren't talking about a freeware shopping cart hosted on big daddy for $20/month.

As to the OP, giving your LDS a chance to compete on price/value is great... if the LDS is agreeable to it. But while many LDS's ask customers for this opportunity, many others resent being asked. Doing so only tips your hand that you shop online and opens you up for further problems. It's really in a diver's best interests to know the attitude and approach of their LDS before waltzing in with a quote from LP or ST.

I’ve read that several folks like dealing with S. Toys out of Dallas. I used them for my training, but I refused to do any business with them for gear.
Why? Nothing is marked! You have you ask and this allows the “sales guys” to work their magic. Now, this didn’t happen to me, but I could certainly see how someone was looking at a BC that retailed for 250, but since it isn’t marked, the new diver doesn’t know this and the item isn’t marked, so he asks for help.
The sales guys asks “how much you looking to spend?” the guy says “someone told me to get something around 300” sales guys tells him he is in luck; the BC you’re looking at normally sales for 325, but I’ll let you have it for 275 because you have such a nice face!

Again, I’m not saying they do this stuff, but with nothing marked, the un-informed could really get taken. Someone gave me a gift cert to them and since I didn’t know how much I had in my hands I had to keep asking. A real pain in the ass!! I will never do business with anyone who doesn’t mark their product. I know they have an on-line store, but since I live in the state I have to pay taxes, so I use scuba dot com. (they beat ST every time on my orders)
Anywho, my two cents

ST's prices are clearly marked... on their website. In print, publicly accessible to everyone. Would be hard to play pricing games. Been awhile since I've been in the store but I don't remember prices being unmarked.

How's the LDS suppose to honor "warranty" when warranties are voided because of grey market purchasing?

Why should the LDS fix your gear for free?

I firmly believe that if Joe or Larry caught one of their store workers (at Scubatoys, in Carrollton, Tx) 'playing games' with the prices of their merchandise, that employee (or soon-to-be EX-employee) would find himself bouncing down the sidewalk. I've found them to be straight-shooters through-and-through.
I've found most items I've gone in for to be marked. If not, all I had to do was ask to see it in their online catalogue (yup, they'll show you the computer screen), and verify the price. And they do this with a smile. In my opinion, those guys know the meaning of the term "customer service" much better than a whole lotta folks in the retail business, both in and out of the scuba market.