How much are you willing to pay your LDS over online?

[Cinemaniac]

If it were me I would buy it online for that much of a savings but another option is if you really feel she did a great job and was worthy of a little extra then give her a chance and go in and explain your financial delima of 175 dollars savings and aske her if she can even come close to meeting it. Ive been to dive shops where they would come down on prices if it means they make 25 dollars in profit or no profit at all.

Had a chance to that last night. She remembered my daughter's name, took the time (came in 5 minutes before closing) to help us with the purchase (not the BC but a hooded vest) and even gave us a 10% discount. I told her I was impressed with the service but was finding it hard to justify the price difference. She was sympathetic. She said when we were ready to buy she would work with us on price.

The point is, it should be a win-win. I don't want to pay retail, and she needs to make some reasonable profit to stay in business. Seems like this LDS might be a workable place after all. I gotta think though that since she was one of the owner's she has more wiggle room and has a deeper understanding and vested interest in the value of happy customers than her hired hands.

 

[TomNativeNewYorker]

0%, generally, but if they provide some service or product that I can't get on-line I am happy to pay what the market will bear. For example, I have paid quite a bit for quality private training. For a product that is completely fungible, however, it seems silly to pay more to support my LDS. There are a few charities that I am happy to support financially, my LDS is not one of them. A well-fit custom dry suit might qualify as something you can't (or are less-likely to) get on-line.

I almost drank the 'support the LDS' completely, but I had to spit the kool aid out.

I recently deployed here to Kuwait, and there are not many options here as far as dive gear is concerned. I was even told by a local dive op that ordering online from the states would probably be the best option for me.

So keeping to the 'support the LDS' rhetoric that I see here all the time, I decided to place my order with a LDS that also has an online department and shopped their local brick and mortar store while living in Georgia. Divers Supply


There online prices were comparable to the strictly online dive stores. I placed my order, and after a month of runaround, lack of communication and no responses to numerous e-mail inquiries looking for any type of status updates; I spit the kool aid out and canceled the order.

I ended up buying from lesiurepro got a better deal. the order was shipped the same day and I had my package here in Kuwait in 6 days.

Divers Supply blew a smaller order of about $400 that was leading up to a second order of around $2000. Not only that, but they shot one of their LDS brick and mortar store in the foot because the kool aid left a bad taste in my mouth and I wont use them when I am back in the states. I would drive 30 minutes to a different company before making the 5 minute drive to visit them again.