Recent Experience with On-Line Purchases

[Drewski]

Hi All:

Over the past few months, I've bought some equipment on-line with some good and "less-than-good" experiences. I thought I'd share these experiences with everyone for comparison purposes.

Keep in mind that most of the stuff I buy is considered "technical" gear, often manufactured by OMS and Dive Rite. My two local dive shops carry some stuff, but most is "special order." One shop meets any on-line price you show them, provided the stuff is in-stock. I've also bought some "sport gear," mostly for relatives who dive.

Here's my experience with each store and a listing of the gear I've recently purchased from them:

Scuba Toys
Dive Rite: Nitrox Duo
Poseidon: 7 FT LP Hose

Positive: Excellent website for ordering, good description of products, GREAT attitude when speaking on the phone. Some prices are significantly less than other dealers. Ordered the computer on-line, received confirmation, shipping and tracking details without asking. Reasonable shipping costs, received product quickly and without issue. ScubaBoard discount applied to product.

Negative: Ordered the 7 FT LP hose by phone, website indicated they had product in stock, but call taker said they "had to order them." To the date of this post, it's been 4 weeks since my order with no contact, no updates. Price was 1/2 of other sources, so I'm not too unhappy yet.

Dive Sports Online
Highland Millworks: Tank Bands
Dive Rite: Deluxe Stage Kits (3)
Xs Scuba: Small pressure gauges (2)
Luxfer: 40 CF cylinder

Positive: Good website for ordering, excellent description of products, EXCELLENT attitude when speaking on the phone. Prices are comparable to other dealers and, in some areas, they carry stuff that others don't. Ordered the tank bands by phone, received confirmation, shipping and tracking details by e-mail without asking. Reasonable shipping costs, received product quickly and without issue. ScubaBoard discount applied to product.

Negative: Ordered the Stage Kits, cylinder and pressure gauges by phone, website indicated they had products in stock, but call taker said one stage kit "was on back order." Days passed, then weeks. I contacted dealer by phone 3 times and was updated each time. 4 week delay until I received product. No confirmation, shipping or tracking details were e-mailed to me for this order.

Tech Diving Limited
TDL: LP BCD Custom Hoses (2)
TDL: Hose hats (4)

Positive: EXCELLENT website for ordering, EXCELLENT description of products, Prices are comparable to other dealers and they carry a WIDE range of products including lots of stuff that others don't. Ordered everything on-line, website indicated current stock levels, received confirmation, shipping and tracking details by e-mail in less than one day without asking. Reasonable shipping costs, received product quickly and without issue.

Negative: None that I've experienced.

A-1 Scuba
OMS: Small Utility Pocket (2)
OMS: BCD Valve
OMS: Zipper Pull Balls
OMS: Book Screws

Positive: EXCELLENT website for ordering, BEST on-line OMS product offering that I've encountered. Fair description of products. Prices are comparable to other dealers and they carry a WIDE range of products including lots of stuff that others don't. EXCELLENT attitude when speaking on phone. Website indicated they had all products in stock, but received BOTH a call and e-mail indicating the Utility Pockets were backordered. Received confirmation, shipping and tracking details of remaining order by e-mail without asking. Reasonable shipping costs, waiting for delivery of products.

Negative:This dealer seems to have supply issues with OMS, in that they are told one thing but something else happens. I've uncounted this on 2 occasions, the first time I decided not to order. The website indicates a wide variety of OMS products, but I'm uncertain how much they actually have on-hand.

Leisure Pro
OMS: Comfort Harness
OMS: Back Plate Pad
OMS: Fin Spring Straps (2)
OMS: Large Utility Pockets (2)
TUSA: Booties (3)
TUSA: Fins (3)
TUSA: Masks (2)
TUSA: Snorkels (2)

Positive: EXCELLENT website for ordering, EXCELLENT to POOR description of products. Prices are the LOWEST I've found and they carry a WIDE range of products. Website ALWAYS indicates stock levels and warns you when they are low or out of stock *** ONLY on-line dealer I've seen do this other than TDL *** Received confirmation, shipping and tracking details of all orders by e-mail without asking. CHEAP shipping costs. I've done multiple orders through Leisure Pro and have ALWAYS received new products in OEM packages quickly and without issue. Website product ordering to shipping is seamless and very reliable.

Negative: Some products are very well documented, others are poorly documented. All photos are from OEM websites. In some cases, buyer needs to be educated about what he or she is getting.

Overall, I'd say that I've had a GOOD experience buying products on-line. I've never really been unhappy with any of the dealers and, for the most part, encountered only a few "issues."

My biggest complaint continues to be that dealers need to show REAL stock levels upfront on their websites and NOT take "backorders" unless the ordering mechanism clearly shows this. Only a few sites do this.

For what it's worth, here's some more advice:

Always KNOW what you are buying, don't buy blindly just because something LOOKS good. Keep in mind the concept of an "authorized dealer" and how this may work for your purchase.

SHOP around. Some on-line dealers have better prices and selection than others. Don't be shy to mention ScubaBoard and see if they offer a discount.

Give your local shop a CHANCE. Some will MATCH on-line prices if you ask or may offer other incentives for purchasing from them.

That's my recent experience, for what it's worth...

THANKS!

 

[fjsala]

Excellent information! thanks for the reviews and suggestions.
If you dont' mind, I'll add my expereince with one other on-line retailer that you did not mention/do business with:

www.divers-supply.com
Oceanic Alpha GT3 w/ CDX-5 DVT
Oceanic Slimeline 2 Octo
Oceanic Navcon
Aeris XT BCD

Positive: Authorized Dealer. Excellent website, lots of products and good descriptions of all products. Competitive pricing and willing to match any offer from any other Authorized dealer. Easy on-line ordering. Attentive order takers with good comunication. Did not have Octo in-stock and offered to up-grade to the Swivel 180 for same price.

Negative: Site does not show if items are in-stock or available quantities. Did not send tracking information or up-dates via e-mail, unless requested. Acctually shipped originally ordered Octo and not the up-grade.

Overall, GREAT prices and happy with all products as described, in general good experience except not receiving the "up-graded" octo left a bit of a sour tast in mouth.

http://www.scubadiscounters.com

 

[PhilEllis]

Drewski....good comments and useful analysis.

I don't think I have ever taken an order with the expectation that it would go pear-shaped. That said.....sometimes they go pear-shaped.

In a small operation with a very limited staff, things are more likely to get lost in the shuffle than in larger operations with unlimited staff. We work hard to minimize these issues, but they still happen. Here in my store, when things go wrong, I am usually to blame. This is not just figurative......I for real am to blame. I do the ordering, the stocking, the selling, and I usually answer the telephone. I am also responsible for sending out the shipping emails. I would expect to get better and better at this stuff as I go along, but I actually seem to be getting worse and worse. lol

On the issue of showing real-time availability and inventory on the website. That is very simple to do for operations that are on-line only or for operations with lots of support personnel. Most small operations have a completely different point of sale and inventory database, not associated with the online sales database. They cannot be merged on shared servers for security reasons. Unfortunately, I don't think this will become universal feature from smaller online dealers. For many of those that do show this feature on the website, it is often not at all related to reality.

I wish you had not had to wait so long for your stage kits. Offering low prices come with a disadvantage......inventory problems with small items often have to wait for larger, freight-qualified orders to arrive. This is essential to the lower price strategy. Let me know if I can do anything to sooth this little burr about our service. Thanks.

Phil Ellis

 

[ucrtwf]

I've found that in many different hobbies.... there are a lot of on-line "Stores" that are little more than an authorized distributor of gear. Even though they might say "in stock", you never really know who's holding the stock (it should say "I think we can get it"). I know it would be a huge capitol investment for all these places to have everything they carry in stock, I'm not blaming anyone... I just think a lot of times, customer service suffers from too many middle-men. IMHO

 

[PM-Performance]

I dealt with Leisure pro cuz they were cheap. They got my order and processed it accurately and fast, but IMO the service wasnt really there for answering questions or getting back to emails. But the product and shipment was deff as promised.

I also dealt with Diversdirect. They also have great prices, but the difference there was the service was excellent. The guy I talked to on the phone was very helpful. Even told me a flat out review on many of the items I was looking at and why he suggests those over or under others. Gave me tips on my dive computer uses and all that. Overall my experience was awesome with them. They just dont have as big of a selection as Leisure pro.

 

[mike_s]

website indicated they had product in stock, but call taker said they "had to order them."

For those you used this reference with, I don't think any of those shops keep an "updated inventory onhand" available to the general public. (meaning I've never seen stock numbers on their websites).

Sometimes it's not the LDS's fault. Sometimes the manufacturer, who OEM's it to another company, is behind on shipments. Try ordering something from Dive Rite right now. All of their shipments are behind from what I've seen from people waiting on stuff with them.

It's a big operation to maintain your databse along with your external web interface. I can't blame smaller shops like ScubaToys, etc for not doing it. It's just not a needed expense.

Leisure Pro: Website ALWAYS indicates stock levels and warns you when they are low or out of stock

I wonder how accurate this really is. I mean in both terms of accurancy on how often they update it and how accurate it is on when they are trying to "move" some certain piece of product.

For example, they want to move a certain regulator that they have really cheap but isn't allowed for online sales, such as the AL Legend LX. Change the inventory level to "LOW" and it might prompt someone to go ahead and buy now so they don't run out. This is just creative advertising. LP isn't the only company that does it and neither is the scuba industry.


Still overall, I enjoyed reading you review. It was a good overview of what shopping is, regardless of whether it's online or at the counter.

good job.

 

[Cacia]

excellent, thanks for taking the time.

 

[paulwall]

It's a big operation to maintain your databse along with your external web interface. I can't blame smaller shops like ScubaToys, etc for not doing it. It's just not a needed expense.

I'm not sure this is 100% accurate. If the DB's are kept in the same format and structure, a nightly copy (of the inventory DB only) will provide at least a reasonable approximation of actual inventory without compromising the interior security. Hmmmm. Do I sense a niche software market opportunity? I'll get right on it!

 

[mike_s]

I'm not sure this is 100% accurate. If the DB's are kept in the same format and structure, a nightly copy (of the inventory DB only) will provide at least a reasonable approximation of actual inventory without compromising the interior security.

You are correct, but I don't see it happening. Why? see my reply below.

Hmmmm. Do I sense a niche software market opportunity? I'll get right on it!

Niche software market opportunity? Yes... maybe... if all dive shops only used the exact same point of sale system. Some don't even have point of sale systems.
Some don't even have inventory systems, or even databases. To nothing to link to.

But the overall reason they won't do it is for the most part it's an overhead expense for the small LDS and most of them are cheap when it comes to stuff like that. Meaning I just don't see them spending the money for this.....

 

[rongoodman]

My overall best online experience has been with wreckdiversupply.com. They're carry Halcyon and DUI among many others and the service has always been good.