CWC
Contributor
I am a part-time scuba instructor at a local shop. I only do it for fun and because I enjoy it; I have a full-time “real job”. I have no experience on the retail and sales side of things. This week I unfortunately got a disappointing insight into some of the behind the scene workings of the dive industry. I am posting this because I am curious if what I experienced is the industry standard.
I had purchased a BC from a well-known manufacturer. I quickly found that one specific claim they made about it on their website was not true. I pointed this out in a Facebook post. The manufacturer responded to my post and, surprisingly, directly admitted that what they had claimed was false. I expected that they would then apologize for the misleading claim and change the product information on their website. Nope.
Instead, they dug through my Facebook profile until they found out I instruct for a shop that sells their products. They called the dive store sales manager and threatened to cancel their dealer agreement if the shop did not stop me from making any further comments online. The sales manager asked me to stop posting because it is a violation of the dealer agreement to have an employee saying negative things about a product.
So, I am curious if it is normal for dealer agreements to prevent an instructor from expressing a negative opinion about equipment? Students and other non-professional divers put a lot of trust in the opinion of instructors. If it is normal for there to be behind the scenes agreements that prevent instructors from giving a true critique of a product, then I feel like this violates the trust that is put in us. What do you guys think?
I had purchased a BC from a well-known manufacturer. I quickly found that one specific claim they made about it on their website was not true. I pointed this out in a Facebook post. The manufacturer responded to my post and, surprisingly, directly admitted that what they had claimed was false. I expected that they would then apologize for the misleading claim and change the product information on their website. Nope.
Instead, they dug through my Facebook profile until they found out I instruct for a shop that sells their products. They called the dive store sales manager and threatened to cancel their dealer agreement if the shop did not stop me from making any further comments online. The sales manager asked me to stop posting because it is a violation of the dealer agreement to have an employee saying negative things about a product.
So, I am curious if it is normal for dealer agreements to prevent an instructor from expressing a negative opinion about equipment? Students and other non-professional divers put a lot of trust in the opinion of instructors. If it is normal for there to be behind the scenes agreements that prevent instructors from giving a true critique of a product, then I feel like this violates the trust that is put in us. What do you guys think?