Buying gear online

[ilee1990]

How do you know if an online dealer is a legit source for BCs and regs? I may or may not buy my gear from my LDS. It will depend on their prices and customer service. I'll support my LDS but I can't afford to spend a huge amount of money and if I can save a couple hundred dollars online than that would be extremely helpful.

There was a post in the last couple of days for an online shop that offers free shipping--as an example--how do you know that their gear isn't a fake?

What do you all do--generally speaking? If you see a piece of gear online much cheaper do you buy online or spend the extra money locally? Is it better to buy stuff like lights and wetsuits online and stick to the LDS for the life support stuff?

Looking for advice from the experienced wise ones on the forum.

Irene

 

[Wildcard]

Try it on at the LDS, price it on line, go back to the LDS with the price and see what they will do. They usualy come close, you get it now and you know you have a warrenty.

 

[diversteve]

How do you know if an online dealer is a legit source for BCs and regs? I may or may not buy my gear from my LDS. It will depend on their prices and customer service. I'll support my LDS but I can't afford to spend a huge amount of money and if I can save a couple hundred dollars online than that would be extremely helpful.

There was a post in the last couple of days for an online shop that offers free shipping--as an example--how do you know that their gear isn't a fake?

What do you all do--generally speaking? If you see a piece of gear online much cheaper do you buy online or spend the extra money locally? Is it better to buy stuff like lights and wetsuits online and stick to the LDS for the life support stuff?

Looking for advice from the experienced wise ones on the forum.

Irene

Buy from Scubatoys - they're the real deal. They're an authorized dealer for everything they sell since they're also an LDS in Dallas. Service is a different deal though, they do offer reg service if you send it back to them.

For me that's not a big issue as my LDS services anything I bring in no matter where I bought it w/o comment. But they also have a tie-in with an online supplier through their website so they're more Internet buyer friendly than some.

www.scubatoys.com

I wouldn't buy a wetsuit w/o trying it on first - somewhere.

 

[cummings66]

Try it on at the LDS, price it on line, go back to the LDS with the price and see what they will do.

I would price it first, use the charts they give so you would be in the ballpark as to size. Now when you go in the LDS you can say with authority I like that BCD or whatever, what kind of deal can you make me on it? Dicker a bit and if the price is to your liking then try it on. This will keep you and the LDS on friendly terms, i.e. if you try it on there and buy it online no amount of talking will ever convince the LDS that you didn't just use him and his time to try a device on/out and then bought it online because it was cheaper.

That said, sometimes it's well worth buying at the LDS because some of them have very good service and that is worth something. If the service is non existant or very slow, then I'd let my feet do my talking.