WOW.. How incredibly rude

[ScubaScott]

Absolutely. This is always forgotten by those who cry the loudest about people buying from LP and Ebay.
Guess what... it's a free market, and a free market will always find the best VALUE... perhaps not the best price.

Value includes:
1 - Price
2 - Convenience
3 - Service

1 - The LDS cannot compete based on price... the Internet will blow him away every time. If he DOES try to compete based on price, he's not going to be running a dive shop for very long.
Prices need to be reasonable, but I'm perfectly willing to pay 10% or 20% more if....

2 - ...the item I want is in stock and not a dusty demo that's older than Jaques. Many of us are "Mr. Instant Gratification" who will pay extra for 2nd day delivery for an item that we may not use for a month. This money CAN be diverted to the LDS, but the LDS needs to be well stocked OR needs to be able to get the item into the shop nearly as quickly as an internet supplier can provide it. Padding the estimate makes for a happy customer. Don't tell him it'll be there in two days when you know it's going to be a week. Tell him it'll be 10 days, then he will be very happy when you call after 5 or 6.

3 - Service? This is an area where the internet cannot hope to compete against the LDS. The problem is, lumped into the "service" category is also "attitude". I've been browsing dive shops and have overheard attitude being given to a customer on the phone. No money spent, no return visit.
Often the attitude stems from a customer who wants to do something themselves... they're inquiring about overhaul kits, or trying to hammer a price down, or whatever.
This is the time to show the service skills, instead of insulting the customer and driving them off.
"Oh wahhh... when I'm out of business, who are you going to get your VIP and air from?" Uhh... the guy who I'm getting them from today, and it isn't and won't be you.

Rich - Excellent post. I wish I could print it off and nail it to the front door of the only shop in town.....

SS

 

[RIDIVER501]

Sorry you had that experience, but unfortunately some LDSs out there are that way. They aren't in the business to be a businessman or satisfy the customer or provide a service, They are in the business because they like to dive and thought it would be a good way to make a living at a hobby.

Kind of like how most teachers got into teaching becuase they thought it would be cool to have the whole summer off.

 

[AnemoneJane]

Kind of like how most teachers got into teaching becuase they thought it would be cool to have the whole summer off.

:11: Good grief, RiDiver! I bet you catch some waves from a few teachers over that comment.

But as a newbie diver who's just purchase a complete set of equipment, I was FLOORED by the rude, "know-it-all", "my brand is better than theirs" comments I received from every LDS in my 100-mile region. I went to 6 shops in that radius and felt like a ignorant dimwit when I left each of them, because of the way they trashed the equipment I had mentioned looking at with the other shops. One shop acted like he would only bring in a couple of different style ScubaPro wetsuits for me to look at if I SWORE I'd buy all my other stuff (BC/Reg/Computer) from him. I found another shop!

And by the way, I chose the ScubaPro reg. MK25/X650 system. Here's hoping it's a good one!
I also bought a ScupaPro Ladyhawk BC
An Oceanic VT Pro computer, and a
Henderson hyperstretch wetsuit

THIS shop choose not to "stock" the SP wetsuits & Uwatek computers, even tho they're a SP dealer!

Brand mixing, but I got what I wanted. Hope I love them for LOTS of years.

 

[Gussy]

My LDS is not giving me grief, but my dive instructor told me that I should not buy from the Internet as it is dangerous! Now, I know that my instructor is a little weak on the computer side, and my being a computer geek (purchased almost everything on the Internet except the wife and kids) makes me braver...but is that the reason or is it $$$? I asked him directly if he gets something there, because if he does I will try to buy everything there so that he gets a commission. Guess what? Either he did not hear my question or did not want to answer and pretended that he did not hear. I guess one good turn deservers another. I'm going to buy online and tell him that a generous and rich friend gave them to me as gifts for fixing their "Internet problem".

 

[bgi]

im not sure what the guys problem was. he mentioned 3 brands he carries. i remember him saying oceanic and 2 others whic i dont recall. one of them started with a t. he said that brand was basically designed by folks that used to work at SP and left because they wanted to create the best equipment available.

he siad that is exactly what they have done, so he refers to this brand as scuba pro done right. that is when i laughed and said goodbye.

Probably atomics. Good stuff.

 

[Northeastwrecks]

What you went through is, unfortunately, an example of poor business skills. Let's face it, SP probably makes perfectly decent gear. For that matter, so do other manufacturers.

My personal experience with Apeks has been great. I use ATX200's on my doubles, and ATX50's on my singles and deco bottles. They are fairly bulletproof and, when something does go wrong, can be rebuilt in the field.

Find a dealer you like, who seems to be honest, and ask them. Personally, I'd stay away from exotic metals that are not compatible with high O2 blends. I'd also be careful of upstream regs for backgas and I'd make sure that you can get the brand serviced by more than one shop in your area.

 

[Diver Dennis]

We only have one dive shop in town. I'm lucky the owner is someone who NEVER says a bad word about equipment they don't carry unless he knows they had a recall or problems he has actually seen. I just bought all new equipment from him. I also bought some small stuff he didn't carry from Larry at Scubatoys because of what I read here on the board. Seems like a solid guy and he didn't slam anyone either. I agree with your point of not buying anything from someonewho spends more time telling me why I should not buy from the competion rather than telling me why I should buy from him.

 

[scubadobadoo]

I'll step in and add that I have had my mk25/s600 and mk25/550 scubapro regs down to 44 degrees repeatedly without any issues. Both are very smooth breathers. What is my point? While SP regs may have a bad rep for cold water according to some, MOST divers will not be able to truly test this theory because most divers don't truly dive in COLD water. IMHO, 44 degrees isn't really that cold compared to say Ice Diving. So will my SP regs freeflow in 34 degree water? Maybe! I don't really know. I have no idea and NO INTEREST in finding out because even at 44 degrees my hands freeze! LOL. I just read that "SP regs are bad in cold water" way too much here and believe this type of general statement to be possibly misleading for some. Heck, some people think 72 degrees is cold. I would hate for those people to think that a SP reg would be bad in 72 degrees because they read that here.

I think my observations are particularly interesting given the amount of posters here in this thread that have mentioned how useless they think bashing another LDS's gear is. Is it possible to discuss how wrong it is for a LDS to bash another's gear and how bad SP regs are at the same time? Ofcourse, I am just making an observation in a very light hearted manner and am in no way pointing my comments directly at ANYONE. Seriously. I'm not trying to pick a fight It's just that I would hate for some to do to the original poster here what was done to him by the LDS he mentioned.

Take this quote for example...

"Here in my area (cold water) ScubaPro has an extremely bad reputation!! I would never ever buy one! That said, my LDS says that it is a good reg for recreational warm water diving (only)..."

Maybe this guy went into the actual above mentioned LDS and BELIEVED what he was told?

DSAO!

 

[Stirling]

I started diving with a bunch of ScubaPro gear and always loved their stuff. In fact, I just found an old SP depth gauge that has been carefully stored away for ages with some other stuff of historical interest only, and am wondering whether I should take it down to the sea and try it out, or just donate it to a museum.

I can't bear to deal with LDS types who trash the competition *or* (my other big peeve) try to impress me with how hardcore they are. I've been surprised at how many times people launch into stories about leading dive trips that involve angry (and mostly pointless as far as I can see) confrontations with boat crews or dive masters or other divers or whoever, and "quien es mas macho?" tales that would be laughable if they weren't spoiling somebody else's vacation experience. I don't know why they think this would encourage me to do business with them.

 

[Spratman]

It's a strange world out there....Two years ago, I was investigating new equipment and went to an LDS. All they carried was SP and extolled the virtues of greatness. Late last year I swung by the store again, and they were selling Aqualung....I don't know what happened to the greatness, but now APEKS is the bests.

The LDS I go to know will suggest what you need and sell you what you want. If it's SP, then he'll order it from the guy down the road. The guy told me that SP has gotten to touchy with all the flandabands and springs it in and it's a hump to tune. I bought a Titan LX, so I reckon there are no bragging rights involved...:-D

As AnomoneJane said, my gear looks like a quilt:

SP Knighthawk BC
Akona wetsuit
AL Blades II
Cressi Archimedes

Maybe I'll change my moniker to HoboDiver....

Jack