You left out the cost of the eddy machine and laptop connected to it and the cost to pay employee to do the work. Dive shop is in business to make money, you really think the $8 it makes before expenses really is too much money ?
they should be profiting that $8.
Rough SWAG cost for VIP breakdown
$1 ish in raw materials. Lube, o-ring, sticker
$20*.3=$7 in labor
$4 for air fill
$12 ish in costs, the balance goes to fixed shop costs and profit.
The Eddy current testing is usually an extra $10-$15 if it requires it.
The shop is in the business to make money, they should charge appropriately to cover their costs and make a reasonable profit. I have 0 issues with that despite what you may believe.
My issue is when the industry adopts things solely for shops to make money. Annual VIP and service, and refusal to sell parts to consumers is there for the sole reason of supporting an antiquated business model and forcing consumers to needlessly spend money by fear mongering.
If you have an issue with that? Sorry, but you need to stop drinking DEMA's Kool-Aid. If you have a business that is set up properly and justified, you don't need to use fear-mongering and restrict access to parts to force people to spend money with you. Cave Adventurers, Dive Right in Scuba, Northeast Scuba Supply, etc etc all survive just fine because they embraced the way modern business is conducted. The scuba industry as a whole refuses to do that and because of that is largely failing.
Annual VIP is simply not necessary if you believe that they don't make money doing VIP's, A. either you're wrong or they need to fix their pricing so they are making money because it is a commercial service not a charity, and they need to profit, and B. you should encourage them to use BSAC as precedence to abandon the industry requirement in the US.
