Info Aqualung Financial Troubles

[LandonL]

My LDS for instance will not work on brands that sell direct to the public and sell parts to the end user.

So they are basically doing it out of spite? Not a very logical business decision.

What brands do they service?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

So they are basically doing it out of spite? Not a very logical business decision.

What brands do they service?

I don’t know if they do it out of spite or it’s just not worth it to them. The big shop in LA is Aqualung and Scubapro. They have racks of parts ready to go for each brand and model (maybe not AL too much at the moment but that’s improving). If they start servicing other regs then they have to order parts somewhere, get the service sheets, etc. and figure it out. Not very efficient.
And spite? I’m sure there’s that too. Someone shops online and gets what they consider an “off brand” then expects their LDS to work on it for them. Some will I’m sure. I personally wouldn't be jumping on it ahead of my loyal customers, I’d be taking care of my customers first who bought from me and the brands I carry and service regularly, that’s part of why you buy from your LDS.
I’m personally not against non LDS brands at all, in fact I’m testing out the SG 316 stainless piston reg right now and it’s great so far. But I also know that I’ll be the one servicing it.
My LDS tried to keep an open mind and work on a Hog that someone brought in. The new HP seat was all screwed up. It was a slightly different color and the surface was wrinkly looking like it was deformed, I saw it. It wouldn’t lock up, so they had to reassemble it and give it back with the old seat.
They did not have extra kits around because they don’t normally service those. The customer supplied the kit. So the shop lost money on that deal just in the amount of time it took to screw with it, so they said never again to off brands and will only service what they sell based on a calculated business decision.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

So they are basically doing it out of spite? Not a very logical business decision.

What brands do they service?

I would suspect that their margin on servicing over time would be higher than on the initial sale.

But I've had a local scuba pro shop go so far as to look down their nose and tell me straight to my face that I was not competent to change a hose on a reg. I didn't tell them I inspect my tanks all on my own or rebuild my own regs when needed (which is not necessarily on the shop's recommended cycle).

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

I don’t know if they do it out of spite or it’s just not worth it to them. The big shop in LA is Aqualung and Scubapro. They have racks of parts ready to go for each brand and model (maybe not AL too much at the moment but that’s improving). If they start servicing other regs then they have to order parts somewhere, get the service sheets, etc. and figure it out. Not very efficient.

Point taken.

But there is a huge difference in the two messages:

"We won't work on it if you didn't buy it here"

and

"We sell XYZ brand and have a good stock of XYZ parts on hand and work on them every day so we know them inside and out. Your brand PDQ will not sell us service parts since we're not in their network and we don't have techs that have trained on the PDQ regs."

The first one is kinda snotty and turns potential customers off. The second would make sense to most folk without distancing the customer.

(But folks that know, know that servicing scuba regs is not rocket surgery.)

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Point taken.

But there is a huge difference in the two messages:

"We won't work on it if you didn't buy it here"

and

"We sell XYZ brand and have a good stock of XYZ parts on hand and work on them every day so we know them inside and out. Your brand PDQ will not sell us service parts since we're not in their network and we don't have techs that have trained on the PDQ regs."

The first one is kinda snotty and turns potential customers off. The second would make sense to most folk without distancing the customer.

(But folks that know, know that servicing scuba regs is not rocket surgery.)

Let me fix the first one. They will work on brands that they sell regardless where you bought it because they (switch to the second part) are familiar with those brands and have parts on hand.
I worded the first one wrong in my post.
Yeah, someone moves into town from somewhere else and needs their regs serviced and our local LDS happens to sell and service that brand, sure!!, welcome aboard! How can we help you?

Then a regular comes in to the LDS with a reg that they bought online but it’s a brand that the LDS also sells and services, so how do they deal with that? Some get pissed but grit their teeth and work on it. Some tell them to F off.
Some might just be happy to get to keep the service dept busy.
But I’m pretty certain of one thing though, if the customer did buy the reg there more than likely they will get priority service when that reg needs to be serviced before that big trip.
I guess it depends on the LDS owners mood that day and the attitude of the customer.

 

[LandonL]

My LDS for instance will not work on brands that sell direct to the public and sell parts to the end user.

What brands do they service?

The big shop in LA is Aqualung and Scubapro.

That didn't exactly answer the question I was more curious about, as that isn't the LDS. I wanted to know what brands they sell/service. Either way, ScubaPro sells direct to public, and parts restriction is only an American phenomenon.

Those DIY factory direct brands are keyed for people who do their own work and/or don’t trust shops to touch their stuff.

When DIY is one of many different options available, why do people seem to gravitate to continually stating it is the ONLY option?

Dealer service, factory direct service, or service from your own LDS of choice is always an option as well.

Someone shops online and gets what they consider an “off brand” then expects their LDS to work on it for them.

Perhaps the rhetoric is part of the problem. Calling a brand itself "off-brand" is intentionally pejorative.

I highly doubt one car dealership calls a customers car 'off-brand' when they drive on the lot with something different.

My LDS tried to keep an open mind and work on a Hog that someone brought in. The new HP seat was all screwed up. It was a slightly different color and the surface was wrinkly looking like it was deformed, I saw it. It wouldn’t lock up, so they had to reassemble it and give it back with the old seat.
They did not have extra kits around because they don’t normally service those. The customer supplied the kit. So the shop lost money on that deal just in the amount of time it took to screw with it, so they said never again to off brands and will only service what they sell based on a calculated business decision.

Do they apply the same logic to Apeks after entire runs of bad seats? What about now when they can't even get service kits?

But I've had a local scuba pro shop go so far as to look down their nose and tell me straight to my face that I was not competent to change a hose on a reg.

I would find a new shop. There is no need to support that kind of attitude with your money.

I don't want to get to far off topic here. I just thought I would weigh in on a few things I noticed in the word choices and narrative. I do appreciate the follow up later with clarification, as it makes an entirely different point that was originally implied.

Cheers,
Landon

 

[tbone1004]

Let me fix the first one. They will work on brands that they sell regardless where you bought it because they (switch to the second part) are familiar with those brands and have parts on hand.
I worded the first one wrong in my post.
Yeah, someone moves into town from somewhere else and needs their regs serviced and our local LDS happens to sell and service that brand, sure!!, welcome aboard! How can we help you?

Then a regular comes in to the LDS with a reg that they bought online but it’s a brand that the LDS also sells and services, so how do they deal with that? Some get pissed but grit their teeth and work on it. Some tell them to F off.
Some might just be happy to get to keep the service dept busy.
But I’m pretty certain of one thing though, if the customer did buy the reg there more than likely they will get priority service when that reg needs to be serviced before that big trip.
I guess it depends on the LDS owners mood that day and the attitude of the customer.

The irony here is that that type of mentality was created by the brands like Scubapro and Aqualung and despite seeing many things posted over the years that they would never sell direct, they now are. Seeing comments like "off-brand" is also amusing and unfortunate to see the lack of information that these dealers have, very sad to see but alas, here we are. I hope Aqualung comes out of it, but unfortunately it is also the bed that they made and they have to lay in it whether they like it or not.

 

[iliketopetsharks]

Idk about the situation in the US, but here in Europe, SP parts and service kits are easily available on the internet.
Servicing a piston reg yourself is easy, just handle the piston like the finest china and you're good.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Idk about the situation in the US, but here in Europe, SP parts and service kits are easily available on the internet.
Servicing a piston reg yourself is easy, just handle the piston like the finest china and you're good.

Europe also has some decent "Right-to-Repair" laws/regulations/rules that don't exist in the US thanks to the powerful, oppressive trade guilds and their paid-off corps of crooked lawmakers/regulation writers. Also enforced by a bunch of parasitic litigators.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

How about “alternative” brand, is that better?

They still are not main line brands. LDS’s here do not consider Hog, deep 6, Oxycheq (if they even still have regs?), Diverite, IST (Costco’s pop up dive kiosk), and now this new one Scuba Gaskets, and a host of other obscure brands, they call them “off brands”, they are not main line brands no matter how badly you want them to be. They are not mainstream, they are mostly marketed to the tech community who need many sets (value) and they need to be able to get parts because they work on their own stuff out of necessity.
Some LDS’s have never even heard of some of these brands.
Scubapro, Aqualung, maybe Oceanic, and a few places sell Atomic. Those are the primary brands you will see in LDS’s in California. There might be a few that sell other brands like Zeagle or Sherwood but they seem to be increasingly rare.

This scubaboard internet world is not the real diving world or the real LDS world.