Mail order vs dive shop?

[shoturtle]

I agree after visiting my LDS who told me he could put the Wife and I in gear for about $1500 each. This was on the phone. When I got there it was all about this is what we sell the most of this is that this is that BS. His price was about 1K over what I could get similar gear off the net. (close to 2k for BC, Computer, Regulator and alternate breather) He only sold one label ( Bad in my opinion) and talked bad about ALL of the others. Saying Aqualung is the best. I told him all gear is GOOD just some have features then he calmed down. I think I have now decided to get all of our gear from the net. I have built race car engines to include carbs and fuel injectors and a regulator is very simple compared to those.

My question can I purchase parts (OEM) from the MFG for our regs and do my own service?? I can always go to our local rubber and gasket dealer and get the sizes I need if that is what I need to do. Hell I even have an ionic cleaner to do everything I need. You know the machine that cleans jewerly?? The heck with the warranty I would rather do it myself. A reg cannot take much more than 15-20 min the rebuild....

Love Diving going to do more now tha I have decided to bypass the only LDS we have where I live.....

I see it was a complete waste of your time, got you going down there on a lie. I have to say it is typical of the old guard LDS.

Some MFG are more helpful then others, I guess it comes down to which reg you are diving. But it seems most MFG to want the service done at a dealer. But the Internet is out there you may be able to find a dealer that will sell you a kit if you developed a relationship with them. Hope it helps, I just order an environment kit for my reg. I had not problems getting it.

 

[Seachicken]

I've seen too many "small" problems that a local shop could fix quickly (less than 24 hours) take 3 or 4 weeks to fix because of "shipping" and not being able to drop in and see how the work was comming.

I have had one problem with my online purchased dive gear, a computer watch strap broke, my online distributor didn't even ask me to return the original strap and gave me a free update to the bungee strap because he personally didn't like the watch band type and posted it quick.

 

[Bottomfeeder Brodie]

I buy online from Leisure pro. They are an authorized Oceanic dealer , among other things, and I have saved tons of money. The LDS is Oceanic also and take care of any problems I might have. Bought an Oceanic Pro 2 computer for 499.99 brand new. Compare that to the "sale price" of 750.00 at the LDS. I get my tanks local though. Saved over a grand on 5000.00 worth of equipment!

 

[Jandee]

Anything that needs to be maintained by someone at a dive shop or needs to fit correctly such as BCD, wet and dry suit, or mask I buy at a local dive shop. I would never go to a dive shop, try something on, then order it on line.
Other stuff I will order on line.

 

[shoturtle]

Anything that needs to be maintained by someone at a dive shop or needs to fit correctly such as BCD, wet and dry suit, or mask I buy at a local dive shop. I would never go to a dive shop, try something on, then order it on line.
Other stuff I will order on line.

on the bcd size, if you have are going to save 150 buck, the cost of shipping back to some online shop of 15-30 bucks you will still save. Smiles

 

[scubapro50]

Do not get scare by what allot of people tell you on here about lifetime warranties. Allot of people do not know the facts and spit out hearsay. If you buy oceanic or aeris form an online dealer, the company will honor it. I sent my Aeris Elite T3 with transmitter that I brought at LP at a really good price back to Aeris/Oceanic some warranty issue. Aeris/Oceanic fix the problem without any issue free of charge. LP is one of their biggest AUTHORIZED DEALER in the world. You can check it out for yourself on the Aeris or oceanic website under dealers.

I live 10 minute from LP, I know that their overhead is way higher then any LDS and allot of other online retailer. The have there showroom and sales office in a very pricey part of town, and manhattan is one of the pricey places in the country. And they have a huge warehouse in NJ.

The reason that they can sell a mask that is 90 buck at a LDS for 25 dollars is that they buy by the palate full of them. They will stock 600 mask vs. a LDS that stock 20. You get a big discount form them and they still make a profit on it. On other brands, they get them form the European distributors so they are gray market, but it is still the real deal again they buy in bulk. And they have their in house warranty program that is just as good as the companies. Also LP stands behind everything they sell.

For me I buy allot form LP, but since I live in NYC if an online retailer has the same price for the product I want and offer free shipping. I get it form the online, I save 8.65% sales taxes. ST, Divesports and LP are all very good online shops, I have had great dealing with them all.

While it's true that "on paper" your warrenty for Aeris/Oceanic is good at any location that is an aurthorized dealer lets face facts : buying online and then bringing back to your local shop will not make you many friends at the shop. If you book trips, get your air fills or just hang out around the shop don't expect much respect. You created a "hostile enviroment". In many locations like Florida or California there several shops to pick from. In my part of the country the number of shops have dropped from 5 to 2 over the past several years. I can always drive 100 miles to and find a dozen shops in Houston but that's really too far to travel. The local sporting goods store (Gander Mountain) tried to sell scuba equipment without offering leasons or instructions but soon found that price alone wasn't enough to keep the customers comming back.

 

[shoturtle]

While it's true that "on paper" your warrenty for Aeris/Oceanic is good at any location that is an aurthorized dealer lets face facts : buying online and then bringing back to your local shop will not make you many friends at the shop. If you book trips, get your air fills or just hang out around the shop don't expect much respect. You created a "hostile environment". In many locations like Florida or California there several shops to pick from. In my part of the country the number of shops have dropped from 5 to 2 over the past several years. I can always drive 100 miles to and find a dozen shops in Houston but that's really too far to travel. The local sporting goods store (Gander Mountain) tried to sell scuba equipment without offering leasons or instructions but soon found that price alone wasn't enough to keep the customers comming back.

But the level of service you get does not justified the greater price that some LDS charges or paying the silly overprice MSRP they are trying to push imho. Does grander mountain do airfills if they do you are in good shape. That is the next thing that propionate of LDS bring up.

I just pointed out the facts that allot on this board seems to conveniently leave out, and disprove the hearsay that is rampant form old school lds propionate so quickly utter about online sellers. I have reinforce these point with the facts. That is all.

All I am saying is for the OP to do his research and see how best to use his money. And I think it does this board and the OP a HUGE disservice not to give him the REAL story about warranties and keep the BS of the scare tactics about buy gear out. If he feels it worth supporting a GOOD LDS, which there are some. That is his choice. But if he feels that he is being rip off, or being lie too that allot of newbies have encounter. There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying online. It is up to the LDS to earn our business, not for us to blindly pay through the nose.

In NYC there are dozens of LDS excluding LP. There is only one other that I would go to, because they give you the truth and it is a 30 min drive for me.

 

[jpsexton]

lets face facts : buying online and then bringing back to your local shop will not make you many friends at the shop. If you book trips, get your air fills or just hang out around the shop don't expect much respect. You created a "hostile enviroment".

Instead of making it a "hostile environment" a good retailer would realize he was looking at a lost sale and do whatever is necessary to make you a future customer.

 

[PvtStash]

Ah so its the Customers who's created the "hostile enviroment" ... right...

not the mfg/lds trying to hide behind outdated, ignorance/fear-based sales tactics, but the Customer who does his homework in his attempt to not get fleeced...

gotcha.

 

[ReelDuel]

In my confusion where did my LDS go from being a ScubaPro and AquaLung dealer to just one or the other. But he no longer sells one of those brands. Told me he didn't see eye to eye with, or some reason very close to that. So now he sells just one brand.....