eastsidevillian:
Do you recommend buying my gear online or going to my local dive shop?
A very frequently asked question on SB, yet a surprisingly difficult one to answer.
soltari675:
It all depends how helpful your local LDS is and how willing they are to work with you.
Exactly, with emphasis on the word, 'your'. It is hard to group ALL local dive shops together, and ALL on-line vendors together, because there are differences. Several posters have shared a negative experience with their LDS, while others indicate a preference for 'local'. Likewise, there are SB posters who have had a bad experience with particular online vendors, and others who sing the praises of those very same vendors. So, before making a decision, find out what 'local' is, for you. Is it an environment where you want to do business? Are the staff helpful, knowledgeable, customer-oriented? Do they ask questions - about what you want, what you are trying to accomplish in your gear purchases, where you are in your development as a diver - and then offer alternatives / choices? Or, do they merely tell you what you need (aka, what they want to sell to you)? In the long run, price becomes less important, and price differences can be far more trivial, than some might think.
I was fortunate enough to affiliate, for OW training and my first gear purchases, with a particular LDS that turned out to be right for me. I made a point of getting to know the owner, and shop manager, early on, and that has paid off handsomely. But, I also am the type who values the personal interaction in business, and I get that at my LDS. For many things outside of scuba gear, I prefer to buy online, because it is much quicker and usually less expensive - not because the purchase price is necessarily lower (when you add in shipping, it usually isn't), but because I can find exactly what I want without driving all over town and burning expensive fuel, and time, to end up only with frustration as the result. For scuba gear, almost everything comes from my LDS. Having said that, I have also had good experiences - buying specialized items - with Deep Sea Supply (which most people have had as well), and from Northeast Scuba Supply (which not everyone has had). Therefore, although it is not the most satisfying answer, 'it depends' is probably the best response to your question.
