do you ever notice negativity between dive shops?

[redacted]

Everyone seems to be an expert on how a dive shops should run their business. LDS should just give their products and services for free. I'll bet that most of you will be doing the same, if not more, if you had your own money in an LDS. It is always easy to spend other people's money.

No one has asked or expects a dive shop to give away products of major services for free. But they also don't expect to pay 50% to 100% more for the privilege of supporting their local dive shop. As long as the consumer has options that are clearly better for him, the businessman better expect he will exercise those options. And attempts to hold the consumer hostage by controlling access to services, training, parts and gas are not long term solutions to survival. But they are long term irritants.

 

[peterbj7]

attempts to hold the consumer hostage by controlling access to services, training, parts and gas

This is unbelievably crazy. Were you victimised as a child?

 

[BoltSnap]

No one has asked or expects a dive shop to give away products of major services for free. But they also don't expect to pay 50% to 100% more for the privilege of supporting their local dive shop. As long as the consumer has options that are clearly better for him, the businessman better expect he will exercise those options. And attempts to hold the consumer hostage by controlling access to services, training, parts and gas are not long term solutions to survival. But they are long term irritants.

This is amazing, when you go to a restaurant, do you yell at the waiter or chef for starving you and controlling you access to your nutrition??

"hold the consumer hostage by controlling access to...." Isn't this a bit dramatic?

 

[aquaregia]

I can go to the grocery store and buy carrots. I cannot buy a service kit for my regulator.

 

[BoltSnap]

Try buying fertilizer for your carrots you are growing in your backyard.

 

[knowone]

Training recreational divers are not dives and the sour grapes
are over from the carrots in amongst all the excess fertilizer

 

[redacted]

This is amazing, when you go to a restaurant, do you yell at the waiter or chef for starving you and controlling you access to your nutrition??

"hold the consumer hostage by controlling access to...." Isn't this a bit dramatic?

You may not own and operate a dive shop now, but it is still in your blood.

In what other market do you find customers being denied service because of where they bought their gear? It is just too bad that dive shops can not compete on prices and service rather than who can get by on the least income.

 

[Paladin]

No one has asked or expects a dive shop to give away products of major services for free. But they also don't expect to pay 50% to 100% more for the privilege of supporting their local dive shop. As long as the consumer has options that are clearly better for him, the businessman better expect he will exercise those options. And attempts to hold the consumer hostage by controlling access to services, training, parts and gas are not long term solutions to survival. But they are long term irritants.

Examples of this I have encountered:

An LDS refusing to fill a tank if it does not bear that shop's VIP sticker.

An LDS refusing to service (or charging a higher rate to service) gear not purchased at that shop.

An LDS that will not fill a tank that is more than ten years old unless that tank was sold by that shop. Regardless if that tank is steel or aluminum. Of course, they have several new tanks you can purchase at premium prices.

An LDS that does not rent gear or supply gear to students and requires students to purchase a complete set of gear as part of a certification package.

Equipment manufacturers that restrict the sale of their products to "authorized dealers" then force those dealers to charge premium prices for their gear and punish the dealers who have the audacity to choose competitive pricing based on their customer base.

An LDS that will only book trips and activities for those who were certified by that shop.

An LDS that sells only one or two brands of equipment and will not deal with owners of other brands. Again, the shop has plenty of new gear made by the "right" manufacturer.

Fortunately, there are plenty of good, honest shops a diver can go to without being blackmailed by the bad ones.

 

[BoltSnap]

Owning a dive shop for 10 years made me see for real how very little dive shops made and how much of struggle it was to make ends meet on the other side of the barbed wire. We did fairly well as far as dive shops, however, except during the time when 9/11 happened.

Dive Shop will NEVER be able to compete on prices against the internet prices, never. They can only compete on service.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I can go to the grocery store and buy carrots. I cannot buy a service kit for my regulator.

... actually you can easily buy a service kit for your regulator ... you just cannot buy it from your LDS. Therein lies the problem.

Why is that? Well, it's because the big manufacturers play by two sets of rules ... one set which restricts what their dive shop outlets can purchase, how much they can sell it for, and what products they're allowed to sell to consumers. The other set of rules applies to the large internet outlets, whom the equipment manufacturers like to pretend they don't do business with. And yet these internet retailers frequently get new product from these same manufacturers before the shops they purport to be "protecting" get them. They are not restricted to MAP pricing. And they have no limits on being able, for example, to sell regulator service kits ... I can purchase them on almost any regulator out there on the Internet.

If an LDS tries to play by the same rules as the Internet retailers, they risk being dropped by the equipment manufacturer. The manufacturer claims these rules exist to "protect" the local dealer ... when in fact, it puts them in a position where they cannot compete with the Internet retailer.

So why this double-standard? Simple ... it's very lucrative for businesses like ScubaPro and Aqualung to pretend they don't condone Internet sales ... while supplying "gray market" items in large quantities that they then don't have to warranty. The unfortunate side-effect is that the local guy gets screwed ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)