Dive Store Sold.

[Swamp Rat]

Well, I had my BC and Regs in the shop for the annual service and to get a valve on the bc replaced (factory recall). I get a letter in the mail yesterday and its a promotion from another dive shop. Wonder how they got my name? Well, they bought out my normal dive shop. The people that is taking it over, I did not care for at there other shop. So I went down to check on the gear nothing had been done to the equipment since Dec. 14. OK. Now it gets good. I go ahead and pick up the equipment because I dont have a good feeling about the people working on the equipment. Probably nothing but I go by my feelings. Since this shop is so close to home I asked how much the air fills would be now. Well they went from $4 old shop prices to $7 new shop prices. Come on now $7 for a air fill. Any way there is another shop about 20 miles away that have very good people and a good rep. I’ve been wanting to switch over to them but wanted to support my old dive shop guy. With the old shop out of business so to say. I went to the other shop. Guess what, I have Genessis gear, They do not work on Genessis gear. But they did check the reg for me and said it needed to be over hauled. Didn’t charge me a penny. So now I’ve got to find another shop to work on my gear. Fun, Fun, Fun ticked off about my guy going out of business and not letting anyone know. I suppose I’ll end up mailing my equipment somewhere to be fixed. Talk about scary.

 

[Bob]

are usually right on. I trust mine. $7.00 for a air fill, they must be kidding! Divers Supply here in Tampa gets only $2.50 for a air fill. I pay only $6.00 for a Nitrox fill. Must not be any competition around there. :tree:Bob

 

[large_diver]

Hey, don't complain.....air fills at my LDS are available for the bargain rate of $10.....

 

[herman]

Hi Rat,

Sorry to hear about your LDS. If you need a good place to send it, drop me an email. There is a very good repair center here in Raleigh that services almost everything (he actually does most all of the work for the LDS's here and in the area). The going rate for air here is $5.

 

[Ferrara]

Air prices - An air station near water (filling many tanks with a big system) can make out charging $4.00 or $5.00. For a store like ours and many others it works out like this: To be a dive center you must sell air.
We must be able to pump air for our classes
since we are not near a dive site, we don't fill many other tanks
A fill station is big bucks
The bigger the station the more economical (if you fill enough tanks) but bigger bucks.
I charge $5.00 per fill and each fill COSTS me money I make nothing selling air. I need the air to teach and to provide that service to you. But selling air fills does not even pay for the filters.
I will never make back the cost of the compresser (on air fills)

For us filling walk-ins just puts hours on the machine we can't afford ( I need the compressor working or I can't teach). Sometimes I even fill my own tanks at the dive site. The cost is about the same and it keeps the hours off of my machine putting off costly repairs.

BTW we charge $10.00 for paintball air. With so much on-line equipment sales, air is one of the things that will go up in cost. Maybe way up.

 

[Swamp Rat]

Thanks Herman, I sent word to a dive shop a mear 100 miles away that should be able to take care of me. If that does not pan out I will give you a holler. Thanks.

 

[dc4bs]

...<snip>...

Oops, post moved to the "Air Fill Cost/Price" thread where it should have been had I noticed it soon enough...

 

[seaangel]

Gee, I thought $6.00 for air fills wasn't too bad. Oh, well live and learn.