Let me expand. If I use my own LDS as an example, part of taking a class or classes from them includes ongoing support. I am welcome to "audit" any course I have taken if there is something I feel I have missed or want a refresher (for example if I want to go out with the rescue classes for annual practice or spend some time with the AED and oxygen unit, all I have to do is ask).
These are classes you've bought and paid for. This doesn't tie into other products and services you might have purchased elsewhere (or there, for that matter)
Now the promise to "make it right" and to do check-out dives with you when you purchase new pieces of kit has value. For me, the latter doesn't have much value, but the former has a LOT of value.
In fact, as I've noted, the LDS might have made the sale had they been willing to promise an instant swap if the unit failed while in warranty. That kind of support has value! Whether it was worth the entire price gap is a difficult call, but it would have been considered. The Nitrox card would have done the job. There probably are other things they could have done that would have done the job as well.
The point was that they declined to offer
anything beyond being a box-pusher. They want to earn that profit not from superior service, but just for carrying the line and being there.
This shop doesn't allow this kind of "auditing" of classes, nor does it provide the kinds of services that you, and a few others, have pointed out. One guy here was talking about his shop allowing him to use their fill station - no charge - if he wants. Now THAT kind of thing has VALUE!
I can come up with dozens of ways for the LDS to make the value equation work, with the utility - and value - of each possibility varying from customer to customer.
However, what doesn't work, almost universally, is not providing ANY of that, and simply selling product out the door, with no real local support - oh sure, they'll ship a defective unit back to the manufacturer for service, but they won't take responsibility for the failure themselves, give you another one, and deal with the manufacturer themselves, keeping you from being disadvantaged or inconvenienced in the meantime. It is the latter that constitutes value - the former is just a matter of stuffing something in a box and mailing it! That's worth what - $10 per failure for postage?
LDS's who want to know why LP is selling so much stuff, and why their putative customers are eschewing them for online ordering, need only look at this issue. You don't get paid for displaying things in a case - anyone can do that online. You also don't get paid for not having items in stock, expecting people to pay you a premium price to do nothing more than order a product and have it pass your hands for 15 minutes. That doesn't fly either.
How do you establish value?
Set up a customer satisfaction policy of some kind. I understand that you can't take things back in many cases if they've been used, but you can certainly stand behind the warranties and offer immediate replacements or "like for like" loaners during the warranty period, with you dealing with the manufacturer on the issue. (No, allowing someone to use your $200 rental reg set while their $1,000 titanium one is in the shop due to a warranty problem doesn't cut it!)
There are a number of things that can be done here, and the LDSs I've had experience with have simply refused to do any of them.
Its unfortunate, but its how things work around here.
YMMV, but frankly, I think LP, SimplyScuba and Diveinn will be getting a lot more of my money in the future...
