Aluminum 80 Cost - Is this reasonable?

[ZzzKing]

Really? I think Larry at Scubatoys will be quite surprised to find that Scubapro is trying to shut him down. he's an authorized SP dealer, and in compliance with the terms of that he does not sell SP on the net. He does sell products online for which he is an authorized dealer & which the manufacturers allow online sales. I don't know if he sells Aqualung or not, but if he does he doesn't sell them online either.

Your claim sounds an aweful lot like flat out slander against someone who has done nothing to warrant it.

He does not sell Aqualung. He does sell a number of products through the shop that are not listed on the web site that are not allowed, by their manufacturor, to be sold over the net.

 

[JS1scuba]

i am putting them in the same group b/c i have had people in my shop who have bought from eather of them online and that kills a LDS that is all i am sayng

Dear Cleveland,

The latest stats on the scuba industry from Leisure Trends (a market research firm) is that on-line purchases moved from 5% in 2004 to close to 12% in 2005. If you take a hop over to the UK and Europe its pushing 30% because their dealer arrangements are different there for online sales than they are here in the USA.

I own a full blown professional dive center in the middle of the desert. We are one of the top dealers for Aqua Lung in the country. It's a line we embrace for our store product line. And while we make a very nice living from our retail store WE the owners want more in our lives. We like to support projects and conduct exploration, and do pro-bono work, and send our kids to college, and save for retirement and buy our families nice things. That's why we expand our markets outside our own towns and cities with on-line companies.

We have an online company that I am sure you are familiar with; Tech Diving Limited . With that company we manufacture, import, and distribute a variety of products for the advanced and techincal diver. We don't sell masks and snorkels and fins online because it's not our focus. However, make no mistake about it we sell a LOT on-line. We support the dive center concept and we support the free consumer concept. We specialize in the areas we are experts in and the consumer seeks us out because of that. We are here to serve.

If one is in the dive business today and does not recognize the power of the internet, newsgroups, and powerful message boards like this one they are doomed to fail. This is a statement it's a fact. I'm not saying you need to get into the on-line business, that may be too difficult and not your area of expertise. (Besides most fail at it.) But, the best thing you can EVER tell a customer who brings in an internet-purchase piece of equipment is: "That's a nice XXXX, do you have any questions about it that I can answer for you?" WOW customer service. You may get that guy back for something else. You may also ask why he chose that "particular item" but never ask why he bought it on-line that would insult the consumers intelligence and turn him from buying from you again.

If you take the approach that YOU have overhead, YOU need to be paid, YOU despise on-line sales and YOU will have no customers because the customer does not care. She knows you don't do this for free. Retailers today need to try harder and smile more. In the end you will do well.

As you read the boards here you will find that folks like Larry Dague, Phil Ellis, Tobin George, even Sol at Liesure Pro, and myself all seem to "get it." Divers in our towns are not "MY" customers, they are global consumers that seek out products and services from the companies that can serve them at the right time with the right product. Go look at what we sell, look at our markets, see how we work. Most important realise that each and everyone of us plays by the rules that are set out for us by the companies we purchase from and the lines we sell.

Welcome to the new world........

Regards,

 

[staticcornflake]

These posts are not really relevant to the thread topic. I bought tanks yesterday from my LDS for $179 w/ a free year of air.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Buying the tanks tomorrow.

Soft weights

No kiss. $300 mares plana avanti quattro, $200 tilos w/ purge, $100 boots, $50 dry snorkel, Knife, $80, +Tax.

I'm not bitter, just don't understand why they still overcharge me after all the money I've spent.

Don't know about the mares fins but just met with a tilos rep last week. Most expensive purge mask was 29.95 dealer cost.Add another 199 to the 200 and you could have gotten an ocean reef full face from some on-line places.Tilos is a good mask but hardly top of the line. Most are around 19 bucks. Maybe yours is gold plated or some thing. I have never seen $100 boots are they air jordans? we sell oceanic neoclassics and they are the most expensive we have and they retail for 69.95, Dry snorkel cost if it's tilos is around 15 bucks for their most expensive.Our most expensive dry retails for 39.95(Scuba Max). These are prices for ONE if a shop orders it. Quantities are at significant discount off of these.

Hope your DM discount is significant. And 6 bucks a lb for weights. WOW! 1.50 a lb here for hard and just slightly more (2.25) for soft. They overcharge you because you let them. And maybe I missed what shop in San Antonio you are talking about but I was at Deep Blue Adventures on Townsend Avenue on Sept 30 when I was in town for my son's graduation at Lackland and I only paid $6.00 for two one pound soft weights. Still high but I always check out a shop when I travel and try to at least spend a couple bucks with them. Looked at a few of their item on display and prices did not seem too out of line. At least on the items I looked at specifically.