LDS vs. Internet

[Firewalker]

Here's what you do. Go to your LDS and talk to them about the equipment you want (really pick their brains, try everything on, if you can, go in the pool with the BC and regulator system you want, spend hours of the shops time). Remember your LDS has lot of expertise and you should use it!
Then go back on line and buy all of your gear. Don't ask the LDS to match prices (they have over head compressor, filtration, air certifications, electric bills, water bills, accountants, state tax, city tax (business licenses, alarm tax, fire department inspections), federal tax, instructor dues, insurance(building insurance, instructor insurance, store liability insurance, truck insurance, health insurance, etc. they will never be able to match prices).
It's all about the best deal. It's all about you.
If you want to make the shop happy buy an Al tank from them and get them to throw in 20 free air fills.
After 27 years in the business I have come to the conclusion that "divers are the cheapest SOB's on the planet". I'm so happy to be retired and out of retail. I really feel for the brick and mortar shops they are just hanging on by their finger nails. I'm afraid that the LDS are dying and when they die so will this sport(but you have to remember it's all about the deal. It's all about you).

 

[WeldonDowd]

Exactly. Does that happen or do LDS's honor the parts for life that the manufacturer promises just to get the work? I have paid my LDS a lot for personal gear and training and I plan to pay more for more training which an internet provider can't supply.

They should honor it but that doesn't mean they will. If you do choose to buy online do not be scared to tell your shop that you simply can't afford the price difference. I too would love to buy my gear from the shops here in town but usually they don't have what I want and they never have it at a price I feel it's worth.

 

[WeldonDowd]

And don't be one of those guys firewalker's sarcasm described.

 

[craracer]

but I'm worried I'll give up some local support

Don't be worried, simply count on it.

Personally, I try to divide up my purchases between the LDS and online. If the LDS price is within 20-30% of the online price, they get my business. I've actually found some of the best deals at my LDS, so don't automatically think that online is the cheapest.

 

[peterbj7]

The only LDSs in my area in England all refused to work on gear that had been bought via the internet. I was actually in one of the shops when someone came in with some boxes of regulator bits he'd just had delivered and said he didn't know how to assemble it. They simply asked him why he hadn't thought of that when he made the decision to buy. I don't know what the end result was, but I do know that shop wouldn't work on the gear.

Quality out-of-the-box is often pretty poor these days. When I was running my retail store here in Belize I sometimes had a 50% dead out of the box %age, and that's with household name products. That was a big enough problem for me (the dealer) to deal with, but how would an end customer have managed? With these internet suppliers there's often no return address or way of returning defective goods to the "store", and they tell you to return it to the manufacturer. Quite often the manufacturer will also refuse to handle it, and will tell you they give the retailers a generous margin precisely so they can and will deal with warranty issues.

Despite the potential savings, which arise simply because the manufacturer has paid the supplier to deal with problems and the supplier refuses to, I would only buy significant gear from a retailer.

 

[peterbj7]

They should honor it but that doesn't mean they will

No reason at all why they should, as they've not been paid to do it. In my experience most won't, and that applies to all sorts of goods, not just scuba gear. You try to get a grey import camera repaired under warranty.

 

[WeldonDowd]

I'm not sure where on the Internet these sites are that do not have return addresses or contact information; moreover, I can't figure out why someone would purchase from such a site. I also don't even know where one would go to get this "grey market" gear we all here so much about when it comes to Internet sales. I seriously doubt that leisurepro is getting their scubapro and aqualung gear from lds's that are going out of business. Sure would have to be alot of scuba shops going under and they'd have to have more inventory on hand then I have ever seen at a lds to supply leisurepro with all this so called grey market equipment.

I assure you that their are many online retailers that have excellent customer service. A few I've used and had excellent service from are Scubatoys, Northwest Scuba Supply, Leisurepro, DSS, and Piranha Dive Manufacturing. I would also use Dive Right in Scuba, Dive Sports and a host of others without hesitation.

 

[Stu S.]

I've supported two local dive shops. Tanks, masks, fins, BC, wetsuit, etc. When you support your local dive shop, you maintain your source of compressed air. That's worth paying extra for, right?

I will never buy from either store again. Both closed.

 

[TartanFrog]

I have split my purchases between online and the local LDS. I typically buy anything that may need servicing from the LDS and other things online. My LDS has decent prices but I agree, the lure of the cheap rates is very strong. I was just about to buy some new Dive Rite gear from the LDS but they just stopped carrying it. So that will most likely be an online purchase because I don't feel like making a day trip to get to a store that carries it.

 

[Jim238]

I've supported two local dive shops. Tanks, masks, fins, BC, wetsuit, etc. When you support your local dive shop, you maintain your source of compressed air. That's worth paying extra for, right?

I will never buy from either store again. Both closed.

At the risk of taking this discussion off on a tangent.........

It seems to me that dive shops are like most retail store-front small businesses. Some will suceed, some will do ok and some will fail. How can someone outside of the business know exactly why it failed? And how may owners of a closing store store might offer one explanation as an excuse, rather than admit to causes that he/she may be embarassed about?

Online stores have been around for sometime now and at least here in Florida, we have plenty of local stores. Some have closed lately, but how much of that is the normal ebb and flow of retail and has that been exacerbated by the current economy? When the economy recovers, I would imagine we'll see new stores open. That could be years, but will likely be the case.

To attribute a LDS closing directly to the existance of online stores is somewhat disingenuous, IMHO. Who's to say that the local store didn't close because of bad business practices, family issues, employee theft, loss of financing, poor cusomer service, owner burn-out or any of a host of other reasons?

Something else I haven't yet seen mentioned in the discussion of the online stores and the chain dive shops, is how they got where they are. There are 3 chains locally I can think of off the top of my head. They didn't start in business larger than the other guys, they got there by being good in their market. LP didn't get successful because the were big, they got big because their business model worked well.

All of that being said, out of the 4 independent dive shops in my area, I do business with 2 of them and give them the opportunity to compete with the online stores and decide from there. And there is always Craigslist and Ebay for used gear.