LeisurePro's Charging Policy Stinks!

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I'm glad your having good experiences with ScubaToys. Personally, being a Texas resident, they have an 8.25% disadvantage due to sales tax laws. I've also met divers who drive down to Lake Travis that complain they don't like the direction the shop is going. They report that it's a combination of scuba and something else (ski I think) and that the in store sales associates don't always know diving very well. That said I am going on a BlackBeard's trip through them next week.

I was aware of LeisurePro for 10+ years before I actually ordered anything from them. I've had positive experiences including a no questions asked wetsuit exchange. My main issue with LeisurePro is their gear selection is more mainstream then I like.
 
You put that in exactly the way I was searching for! Thank you.

You were searching for the term "big swinging dicks" weren't you? :rofl3: So poetic.

As for the OP, it is strange.....I have MANY times gone places or purchased from places that reserved a charge amount but never have I seen it on my statement. I think the difference is that I am using a credit card and not a debit card / bank account.

---------- Post added September 5th, 2013 at 09:02 AM ----------

Personally, being a Texas resident, they have an 8.25% disadvantage due to sales tax laws.

I cannot guarantee it, but I think they have no disadvantage at all.....I believe you are just not claiming the use tax that you are supposed to.....I could be wrong about the law though. And this is said tongue in cheek because I doubt many people claim anything unless it is forced on them.

What is Use Tax - Definition of Use Tax - When You Have to Pay Use Tax
 
Some people got offended by my use of the word "real" credit card but all I meant was the way Clark Howard says it. He calls them "piece of trash fake visa and fake Mastercards" as opposed to a "real" credit card. As far as big swinging.... I'm afraid I'm merely average in that area for those who want to know.

As far as sales tax goes.... that has to be one of the least enforced laws on the books and I'm not about to be the first boy scout to actually keep my receipts and pay up. I hate paperwork... especially considering I live in a state where I don't even have to file income tax and my annual business report is one page saying I'm small potatoes, still exist and don't owe Texas anything.
 
As far as sales tax goes.... that has to be one of the least enforced laws on the books and I'm not about to be the first boy scout to actually keep my receipts and pay up. I hate paperwork... especially considering I live in a state where I don't even have to file income tax and my annual business report is one page saying I'm small potatoes, still exist and don't owe Texas anything.


And this we agree on. Right or wrong, I am keeping my money to disperse as I see fit for as long as I can (i.e. I would never willingly pay the Use tax - not until it, or something like it - is forced onto me). My money will get released into the economy but to the retailer, not the gooberment.
 
Conversely if 8.25% shows up on an Amazon purchase.... so be it. I don't like tax but I'll pay it if it's being applied uniformly and equally.

FWIW, I work for a large retailer (bigger then Amazon) that wants it to be applied across the board for their own playing field leveling reasons. I understand their point but can't participate in the PAC since I don't really agree.
 
UPDATE: In the interests of keeping everyone updated on the status of my original gripe that precipitated this thread about LP - I checked and the authorization for $463.15 has suddenly disappeared overnight from my account. I do not know if this had something to do with my complaint with the agent on the phone who said she would send a request to their credit department to expedite the cancellation of the authorization, or whether it was the discussion here on SB that played some role, or whether it was just the way it worked out by itself. In any case the situation seems to have been resolved somehow although it does seem strange that what was said to take 7 business days to work itself out took less than 24 hours after I started kicking up a dust storm about it with PayPal, LP, and discussing it here on SB. I have not had any communication from LP but if I do receive any I will update the thread to keep it all fair and transparent for future readers.

I'm glad your having good experiences with ScubaToys. Personally, being a Texas resident, they have an 8.25% disadvantage due to sales tax laws. I've also met divers who drive down to Lake Travis that complain they don't like the direction the shop is going. They report that it's a combination of scuba and something else (ski I think) and that the in store sales associates don't always know diving very well. That said I am going on a BlackBeard's trip through them next week.

I was aware of LeisurePro for 10+ years before I actually ordered anything from them. I've had positive experiences including a no questions asked wetsuit exchange. My main issue with LeisurePro is their gear selection is more mainstream then I like.

I guess the fact that I normally know exactly what I need and/or want makes a difference when I order something so I cannot speak as to how knowledgeable the staff are at ScubaToys in general. When I have had questions about gear the staff I spoke to at ScubaToys seemed to give me solid advice so... The orders that I placed with LP in the past have all been fine and I have been happy with their service up to this point.

---------- Post added September 5th, 2013 at 06:48 AM ----------

My main issue with LeisurePro is their gear selection is more mainstream then I like.

Yes, I agree with you on this as well. I normally check my LDS for deals and try to work with the owner to see if we can work something out and if not I then usually check ScubaToys first, then LeisurePro, and then lastly Amazon.

---------- Post added September 5th, 2013 at 06:55 AM ----------

Some people got offended by my use of the word "real" credit card but all I meant was the way Clark Howard says it. He calls them "piece of trash fake visa and fake Mastercards" as opposed to a "real" credit card.

I actually have a dedicated debit card linked to an isolated account that I use for online purchases. I know that credit cards have more protections for the consumer but I intensely dislike debt and was brought up to only spend what I actually have. So I load my card with a budgeted amount of money for purchases and use it as I need it. If the card details are compromised the funds are isolated from my normal accounts and while I might take a hit the damage will be limited. I have worked with more than just one client who I found stored credit card details in clear text format in violation of PCI compliance requirements on their eCommerce systems; I know a little about information systems and security since I hold two degrees in this field so I do not entirely trust even the larger companies these days with this kind of information. It's not a perfect system but I feel more comfortable with it this way than any other way while it still gives me some sense of convenience without having to resort to mailing off money orders for payments.
 
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I'm glad your having good experiences with ScubaToys. Personally, being a Texas resident, they have an 8.25% disadvantage due to sales tax laws.

Because of the "use tax" you still owe the state of Texas 8.25% on anything you purchase from outside Texas.

Use Tax

So Scuba Toys is only "disadvantaged" in your mind because that they will not allow/help you to break the law. Just might want to be clear about that.
 
I'm happy to hear everything worked out in the end. Since we were closed from the time you posted this until today, I can assure you this post had nothing to do with the reversal of the authorization, but was just how the process works on its own. We do our best to handle customer concerns as soon as we are contacted with them, we don't wait for public complaint to act.


For what it's worth, in the last two weeks I've purchased from four different online retailers, one of which includes Amazon. All of them authorized my various cards (some debit, some credit) the full amount, then charged the amounts when they shipped. At least across the four cards I used, all of the authorizations showed up as authorizations and didn't have any impact on my credit utilization on any of the cards. Aside from a Citi credit card, all of the authorizations have disappeared from my online accounts. That's the same card that shows an authorization from 6 months ago still, but also isn't impacting my available credit on the card. I didn't do any of my transactions through PayPal though, so I'm not sure how that may have impacted things.

If anyone has any other questions or concerns about how our system works, please don't hesitate to contact me at nickb@leisurepro.com.
 
I'm glad your having good experiences with ScubaToys. Personally, being a Texas resident, they have an 8.25% disadvantage due to sales tax laws. I've also met divers who drive down to Lake Travis that complain they don't like the direction the shop is going. They report that it's a combination of scuba and something else (ski I think) and that the in store sales associates don't always know diving very well. That said I am going on a BlackBeard's trip through them next week.

I was aware of LeisurePro for 10+ years before I actually ordered anything from them. I've had positive experiences including a no questions asked wetsuit exchange. My main issue with LeisurePro is their gear selection is more mainstream then I like.

You can neutralize the TX 8.25 sales tax by claiming your automatic 10% discount for letting Scubatoys know you're a SB member.
 
UPDATE: I received a phone call this morning from Leisurepro. The person told me that this issue was escalated to him for resolution and insisted that they do not double-charge.

Let me be clear about this whole thing, I agree that I might not have been double-charged in the traditional sense of the term. However, the original authorization for the full amount (that consequently reserved that amount from my available balance on my bank account), combined with the two *additional* and *separate* charges for the two items that were levied against my account when the items were shipped in practical terms resulted in a "double-charge" in my view. Granted the authorization was said to expire in 7 business days so it is not that LeisurePro took double the money from my account; the way this worked out just meant that LP took their funds when the items were shipped, which is fine, but the authorization that was set up was still active for the full amount as well and I was told that this would be released within business 7 days by the people I spoke to at LP last week.

My gripe about this situation is that I effectively have to remember in the future that if I ever were to make use of LP again that I have to make sure I have double the amount of money transferred to my online purchases account because of this round-about way LP seems to go about charging for purchases; i.e. the authorization they activate against my available balance at the time of the transaction, while it will be credited back to my account and LP never touches those funds, combined with the item charges when they ship the items still means that my account receives a request for funds for double the amount initially.

As a side note, I purchased in excess of $500 worth of items from another SCUBA gear vendor online yesterday and no problems like this at all. I also purchased several items from Amazon over the weekend and still no such issues either. Believe me I was looking for this scenario to be duplicated during both those two purchases and I only see one single charge in both cases.

Since this issue has been resolved by the authorization having disappeared off my account I consider this matter closed. LP has their rightful amount of money and the authorization has been released against my account which means the money that was held has become available again for me to use so nobody owes anybody any money. This matter is now history for me. :coffee:
 
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