LDS VS Internet Sale!!!

[PhilEllis]

..........Yes I'm sure there are remote areas where the only shop has closed and now it's hundreds of miles but one might question if such areas have the demand to support a shop in the first place.

BINGO!

In my view, one of the top two or three reasons why dive shops are failing ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. Failure to measure market supply and demand prior to opening a small business is a major cause of failure.

Major market test future shop owners: If the place where you are planning to open your dive shop can't support a WalMart, a Target, 3 major grocery stores, and 200 other small businesses, what makes you think it can support a specialty dive shop?

Phil Ellis
DiveSports.com

 

[ahava]

If your entire region only needs a dozen tanks filled each week then why haven't you bought a compressor and get the word out that you do fills 1 evening/ week and charge $20 a fill? (or whatever price the demand allows) Seems it would be worth the investment of my time and money for a small compressor and bank. I'd bet after doing that you'd even start looking to get more people in the area involved in the sport so you'd have more fills to do.
Stop crying gloom and doom!
Make some lemonade!

Its a little more complicated then that. DOT,OSHA And local authorities are all involved in selling air, legally. No way to stay in business. Also if you bank air to sell you must pay tax.

 

[ahava]

If your entire region only needs a dozen tanks filled each week then why haven't you bought a compressor and get the word out that you do fills 1 evening/ week and charge $20 a fill? (or whatever price the demand allows) Seems it would be worth the investment of my time and money for a small compressor and bank. I'd bet after doing that you'd even start looking to get more people in the area involved in the sport so you'd have more fills to do.
Stop crying gloom and doom!
Make some lemonade!

Oh yeah, I forgot about the large insurance premium you will have to pay for when a tank explodes and take a part of someone with it. Dive shops cannot survive on air alone.

 

[Adobo]

Why should I buy from LDS when the same thing is available on Scubatoys / Leisurepro for so much cheaper?

What is the difference between Warranty offered by the manufacturer and the one offered by Internet merchents?

Pros and Cons of both please ...

I didn't bother reading the other replies so sorry for any redundancy..

I think doing a generic LDS vs internet dive shop is not all that useful. The reason is that it assumes that all LDSs are all largely created and behave equally. It assumes the same about IDSs.

Divesports and Scubatoys are really good internet retailers. I don't have much information on the service that Leisurepro provides but I do know that they are generally not an authorized dealer for many of the major lines they offer. That makes Leisurepro substantially different than the other two.

If you take two dive shops in my area.. one called AnyWaterSports and the other I will refer to as dive shop b.
At AnyWaterSports:
- They have "good guy" price for all the regulars.
- They occasionally give away freebies (got a mask strap this weekend, got free fills a couple of weekends ago)
- They tell you to buy from someone else when going through AnyWaterSports is going to be significantly more expensive
- They have a competent service department - sometimes performing less complex service right there on the spot. (They serviced my inflator for me for free right in front of me. They installed dry glove rings and only charged me for the additional o-rings that they used)
- Their fills are generous - never ever taken home a tank that was filled to less than the service pressure of the tank. By the way, 32% fills can be had for $7/tank.
- They understand tech gear - doubles, manifolds, canister lights, reels, etc
- They stay late and welcome customers in even if people are walking in slightly late
- And so on

At dive shop b:
- Prices are steep. 32% fills are $10/tank. And the fills are always short due to a defective pressure gauge. Always short. (And don't bother asking for a generous fill as you get told about the exploding burst disks and whatever else.)
- They love the new diver who needs the $400 snorkling kit. Not much love for a guy like me who owns a lot of gear already.
- Service department is okay I guess. They serviced a valve for me once.. then when I took the tank in for vis at AnyWaterSports later on, I was told that all kinds of mismatched parts and o-rings were on the valve.
- They have Halcyon now but they don't really know much about the tech gear. Until they brought Halcyon in, none of the sales staff I talked to knew anything about canister lights and doubles. They did tell my buddy one time that an 80 cubic foot tank has 80 cubic feet of gas in it regardless of what pressure you fill it to.
- They close at 7. And lights start getting turned off by about 6:50. You know, so everyone gets the hint.

As you know, there is definitely substantial differences from one dive shop to another. I go out of my way to deal with AnyWaterSports. And I go out of my way not to deal with dive shop b. If all I had was dive shop b, I would likely purchase all of my gear from Divesports or Scubatoys. Or, I would probably give up diving.

 

[Splitlip]

On another forum, similar thread, a poster spanked his LDS where he books his trips when he purchased his regs on line. Poster said that the shop said "you should have come to us first to see what we could do." Poster said he already knew what the shop could do with Aqualung gear.

Well, don't know what the poster's shop would have done, but one of the aqualung shops I know comps the buyers with boat trips. A couple of trips, $120.00 and still have all the support.
My local ScubaPro shop gives me air for free, will tweak my regs for free, discounts my nitrox and more. I built a relationship. The benefits I receive for giving them my business far outweigh any discount I could have received from Leisurepro and other on line sites.

I once needed an octo holder for my daughter. They had one dropped off to my office for free. I mean free delivery and free octo holder (well, we use snorkel keepers, but you get the picture.)
Recently they gave me the use of a new BCD for my kid for free with no strings to see if she liked it. She liked it. I bought it. Another nitrox card was filled.

 

[redacted]

Its a little more complicated then that. DOT,OSHA And local authorities are all involved in selling air, legally. No way to stay in business. Also if you bank air to sell you must pay tax.

So don't sell the air. Give it away. Just charge $5 admission to your scuba museum where you can show pictures of extinct LDSs

 

[RAWalker]

Its a little more complicated then that. DOT,OSHA And local authorities are all involved in selling air, legally. No way to stay in business. Also if you bank air to sell you must pay tax.

DOT is only involved if you are a business transporting pressurized cylinders on the roadways.
OSHA is only a problem if you hire employees.
If you put your bank in a proper safety cage and keep customers a safe distance away you won't have any unusual insurance problems either.
As for the tax man you sell anything you must deal with him.

 

[ahava]

DOT is only involved if you are a business transporting pressurized cylinders on the roadways.
.

You are incorrect. Who do you think requires visual and hydro on tanks??

 

[redacted]

You are incorrect. Who do you think requires visual and hydro on tanks??

I believe he is correct. The fill operator requires hydros and vis on most of my tanks. I have a pony which I fill with an equalizer hose as needed. Hydro and vis on that tank is entirely up to me.

 

[mkutyna]

Visual inspections are certainly a scuba industry standard and have nothing to do with the DOT.