Aqualung and gray markets...FYI

[Web Monkey]

I know -- those fill prices are utterly ridiculous.

Same prices as here.

Aside from the air, there could easily be 100 cu ft of O2 in there, depending on the mix.

Terry

 

[8thElementDiver]

I find the resistance to internet retailing by some manufacturers curious and ill-placed. One argument I've heard is that they want to support local dive shops, and internet retailers aren't local. By that token, dive shops shouldn't be allowed to sell their Aqualung gear to anyone on a dive trip, dive vacation, or at a dive expo, since many of those folks wouldn't be local, either.

From my own experience, we tried to find a local dive shop that would allow my wife to try on a BCD in the water before committing to buying it. Not one would do it. (It's like buying a car and being told you can only test drive it around the car lot, and once you take the car on the street you can't return it.)

The closest 'local' dive shop we found that would allow her to try it in the water was over 400 miles away. So rather than drive 400 miles, we ordered from Scuba Toys, who said we could return it if we weren't happy after trying it in the water. They got our business because they were happy to meet our needs and were reasonable about it; the local dive shops weren't reasonable, so they lost a $500 sale.

Aqualung makes a great reg, but it's not so great that I'm willing to bend over backwards to accomodate their archaic policies. Eventually they'll have to accept internet retailing or they'll go out of business.

 

[mike_s]

Authorities raid flea markets for knock off movies, purses, jeans, and shoes all the time. Why would they care less about BC's than they do about jeans? You don't hear about counterfeit dive gear because there just isn't very much of it out there.

true. very true. But the reason that there isn't much ounterfeit gear is that its hard to make for the profit in return. At least for the volumes required.

knock off movies (DVD's, purses, shoes, etc) are easily made in large volumes. People buy blank DVD's and make movies and sell them all the time. I've gotten copies of movies before for example on DVD before they even came out in the theatre.

This makes me wonder if Divers Direct knows something we don't about AL's distribution policies?

I wondered if something new was coming also, but DD has been selling AL gear in some of their stores for a while and also other big vendors such as Sports Chalet have been selling it. AL moving to put their product in all these stores is just AL expanding their market. I don't think it has anything to do with changing their stance on online sales. I'm sure they won't allow any of these other vendors to do online sales of this product either and these vendors have a big enough "walk in customers" to sell lots of AL products.

Ultimately, they are - if you follow the supply chain to its root, there's only one possible source, or else Oceanic or Mares is getting away with some SERIOUS trademark and patent infringement. AL knows where those uncharacteristically big orders are going.

oh heck. AL knows exactly where they are going and who's getting what and hows it's done. They don't need to check any SN's because they are the ones shipping it. It might not say "Leisure Pro" on the invoice, but for AL to say they don't know is just lying. LP prob sells $500,000, a $1million or more of AL and Apeks and Suunto products a year. Any AL sales rep who's moving that much merchandize through a tiny dive shop knows the product is going out the back door. Yet they still fill orders. Why? they don't want to loose the business.

Because if AL isn't sold at LP, then the customer will just buy another brand.

This post on their website about LP is just a smoke-screen to make a statement to appease 'list price brick-n-mortar' shops.

 

[DwayneJ]

I thought I would post the statement as an fyi and not a for and against argument. I would have qualified the post earlier but the replies just began to get too interesting to do it
And for those who wanted to make it personal, I could care less about who you choose to buy your products from.

Oh please - No back tracking now. Your second and third posts pretty much clarify what your opinion is.

 

[PM-Performance]

I saw this on Aqualung's site the other day as I was researching new BC's.
I was gonna get from Leisure Pro and save $200, but then I thought about it more.
Although the warranty on a BC doesnt really mean much to me as I dont think much can go wrong with it. My main thing when I saw "Grey Market" was possibly counterfiet equipment. I pussed out and spent $200 more practically on my scubapro Knighthawk this week to get from my LDS because I didnt want to take the chance on Safety equipment.

Just sucks though that stores cant really sell for under retail without getting hammered from the manufacturer.
My LDS gave me %10 off so they are "Still OK" per say. he said he can knock more off if I dont want the warranty as a joke.

Its just a hard choice these days because Leisure Pro could be a typical NYC store that gets counterfeits from China, Taiwan, Phillipines ect.
The prices are great, the service is so so, but certain things that are safety related makes me rethink saving some money.

With this being said Divers Direct has an ecommerce site. Does that mean their stuff has no warranties?

 

[buckybwhiplash]

Those evil click-n-mortar, LDS-killer stores must be Really good at covering all the loose ends from all the Dangerous Gray Market Gear that gets sold every year...

Where ARE they hiding all the bodies? with all this dangerous, cheap, knock-off gear being sold DAILY you'd think we have stories every week on the divers who die trying to save a few bucks on their gear...

But I havent heard one... Not a SINGLE, solitary one...

So how "dangerous" is this gray market stuff Really ?

Show me the Bodies/data , or keep it to yourself... don' try to scare me with your BS "gray market" fearmongering, you only impugne your own credibility .

Yea, no kidding.

Insert Cuba Gooding Jr's voice from the movie Jerry Maguire: "Show me the Bodies!!!"

 

[SparticleBrane]

Same prices as here.

Aside from the air, there could easily be 100 cu ft of O2 in there, depending on the mix.

Terry

Just because the prices there are the same as here doesn't mean they're not ridiculous. Especially if you take into account that the tanks were all at least 1/3 to 1/2 full. I'll whine some more about it vs. prices in cave country...


</whine>

One of these days when I'm not a student, I'll set up my own fill station. :14:

 

[cuddlefish]

Someone called my LDS to get pricing on a Suunto D9 (or maybe it was a Stinger). They decided to save a couple hundred bucks and got it online (I think from Leisure Pro). My LDS did not make him feel bad about getting it online...they just did their best to make the sell. Well, the computer was a lemon (not because it came from Leisure Pro...just because that happens sometimes). They were unable to get a replacement! If they had paid a bit more to get it from a dealer, Suunto would have allowed the dealer to hand them a brand new replacement in a matter of minutes. Just an example that I witnessed.

 

[Charlie99]

They decided to save a couple hundred bucks and got it online (I think from Leisure Pro). .... Well, the computer was a lemon (not because it came from Leisure Pro...just because that happens sometimes). They were unable to get a replacement! .

Are you sure it was bought from Leisure Pro? They have a pretty good reputation of standing by their warranty. Their general policy is to match the warranty of the original manufacturer.

 

[Splitlip]

With this being said Divers Direct has an ecommerce site. Does that mean their stuff has no warranties?

Aqualung and atomics not sold on line.