From Rodales (Manufacturer response - Diver's Union - TUSA and Aqualung!)

[Genesis]

Author: Pissedoffdealer
Date: 03-11-03 18:13

I got a nastygram from TUSA today(every dealer got one) telling dealers of their attempts to control the gray market. This paragraph is the "meat" of the letter:

"Since June 2002, we have been recording all serial numbers of regulators and BC's shipped out of TUSA. We will now commence a campaign of purchasing TUSA product from "gray" Internet sites and ebay and tracking the serial numbers to the point of purchase. Any dealer that is found trans-shipping TUSA product to non-authorized dealers or selling it on ebay will be automatically removed as a TUSA dealer."

While I have never sold to gray market I have discounted in the past and sold on ebay. Guess all that will come to an end.

Sorry.

Cute, and not entirely-unexpected response.

If you're a TUSA dealer and got one of these, PM me with a phone number. I've got a response for 'ya that might wake Steve Ashmore, President of TUSA up from his loud snoring and even more outrageous threats, and I'll call 'ya on my dime.

Oh, Aqualung called me the other day and was originally going to ask me to stop sending them the petitions. I told them I'd be happy to comply with that, but the effect of their doing so was that everyone who signed from that point on would get an email back with their President's name and phone number, along with a nice explanation of the fact that they had refused to listen to consumers and perhaps the signatory might want to express their opinion of that decision personally.

They expressed shock that I would do such a horrid thing - imagine that, informing the public of their decision to plug their ears! It was a hilarious discussion, actually - wish I had taped it.

Aqualung's decision ultimately was to continue receiving the petitions. They understood CLEARLY the possible implication (for their perception in the market) of people getting an email back from the system telling them that Aqualung had refused to hear from them......

We're having an impact folks - what we REALLY need to do is get about 10x the signature rate on that petition that we have now, and it will REALLY hit the fan.

 

[JDostal]

Keep up the good work...it's funny to see how these reactions are coming about. It's kind of depressing to see companies that are so anal about where their products are sold. It's kind of sad actually.

Oh well! Hopefully this campaign will help seperate the good companies that will stand by their product no matter where it's sold from the bad companies.

You'd almost think that the manufacturer wouldn't care at all where their product is sold - I mean, once it leaves the factory the company has already made all the profit on it that it's going to make.

It would be nice to see these companies start trying to seel their product with good customer service, quality and innovation.

 

[Aquamaniac]

Any Plans for DEMA yet Karl?

http://www.dema.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=16

Perhaps you should also try to organize a few people at some of the "hot" dive spot's.
Places like Vortex have a massive turn out on a warm weekend.
Quarries could be a good focus point as well!

Dave

 

[Aquamaniac]

Might also be worth have a few "Leaflet droppers" here as well

http://www.saintbrendan.com/exh03_info/exprop03.html

 

[Genesis]

I don't know about DEMA and whether they'd let me buy a booth, given the rather incestuous relationships in this biz. But the time in Vegas would indeed be fun - used to do shows there all the time in my former life...

I've been handling out stickers to people around here - this a really a grass-roots thing for me, and I believe its the most effective way to get people's attention anyway.

Grass-roots ("grassfire") types of things are the most difficult for manufacturers to counter or dismiss out of hand, because they can't find a "head of the snake" to cut off. This is one of the reasons why I have eschewed any direct support or involvement with any of the big mail-order folks, because that would do nothing more than poison the water.

The real success of this campaign, if its going to come, is going to happen because DIVERS vote with their wallets and start showing up with tanks to be filled at their LDS with these stickers on them. You can bet that when I went into my local shop for fills the other day with the stickers on the tanks the guy who filled 'em went and took a look at the web page as soon as I departed.....

Folks engaged in commerce DO get messages like this - loud and clear. The reactions I'm seeing now are to be expected - they're trying to figure out how significant this is and if its "safe" to ignore or even tell customers to pizz off in response.

The best answer to that question is made with a few thousand petitions in response...

 

[jbm]

Genesis once bubbled...
But the time in Vegas would indeed be fun - used to do shows there all the time in my former life...

So that was you doing the Elvis tribute act.............

 

[Genesis]

-

 

[MechDiver]

Omicron once bubbled...

Oh well! Hopefully this campaign will help seperate the good companies that will stand by their product no matter where it's sold from the bad companies.

You'd almost think that the manufacturer wouldn't care at all where their product is sold - I mean, once it leaves the factory the company has already made all the profit on it that it's going to make.

It's called liability exposure and a gross overabundance of out of work attorneys in the US.

This petition is a stupid waste of time and will most likely just iccrease what everybody has to pay for equipment.

 

[Genesis]

Liability exposure?

You mean like GM's when I buy a set of brake pads for my car? Or when Autozone sells me a set? Over the counter, no questions asked (other than for the money to pay for them, natch)

You work for or own a LDS Mech?

 

[JDostal]

I've never studied law (and ignore it more often than not). Could you please explain what you mean by liability exposure?

Why would the liability of the manufacturer change based on where I bought the goods? Especially if the product was new, in the box? Or am I missing the point entirely? They way I understand what you are saying, the manufacturer has an increased risk of liability when it is sold through someone other than a registered dealer.

Am I understanding you correctly? If not, could you please explain it in a fashion that a non legalese speaking person could understand?

Thanks for the help...