Buying gear online...

[Freds@Aquanauts]

Hi everyone!

I wasnt sure if this thread belonged in a different forum, but then I figured I might get a faster answer here anways! Has anybody bought any gear from Scubastore.com? I've never bought anything more than dvd's and cd's online, but I have found that the BCD, and mask that I want are vastly cheaper at this site than anywhere else I have found even with the postage etc etc. But I was wondering whether this might be too good to be true, after all I dont want to spend close to £400 on this website to find my card details spread all over the 'net (not that they would get much being a diver is a poor life...) So any feedback about their service etc would be great, or any other suggestions of places to get the gear!

Freds

 

[mike_s]

Scubastore.com is operated by Diveinn.com

Not sure what country you are in....

Anything you buy from them is shipped out of Spain or something. you'll have to pay Customs Duty(tax) on it when it arrives. Duty can be as high 35-40% if you live somewhere like the bahamas.

If you have to return it to them, you have to ship it back to Spain (or wherever). Here's the catch, though you've paid Duty on it already, the shipping company (UPS, etc) will require you to pay Duty on it to ship it back.

Do yourself a HUGe favor and buy it from a more local source if you can.

 

[divingjd]

Another issue with buying online is that you may be buying from someone who is not an authorized distributor, which means that you may not get the benefit of the manufacturer's warranty and service programs. Make sure you understand what warranty you will get before you buy.

 

[Scuba Brad]

They are in fact out of the country. The are some quality web sites nationally. We hope we are right there close to the top.......however that is up to you to decide. We offer a 10% discount to Scuba Board members.

Happy Diving

 

[BarryNL]

They give the information about US tax on this page:

http://www.scubastore.com/eng/faq.asp

They state they are also a registered dealer for all products so there shouldn't be a problem there. You lucky people in the US actually seem to get the products cheaper from this website than we can in Europe because although you pay import duty you don't pay any European sales tax, which means you pay only 4.2% to our average around 18-19%.

Then again, I just noticed you talk about the price in £ so you're probably in the UK, so you don't have to worry about import duties. Tax only has to be paid once somewhere in Europe.

I've never ordered from them personally but I've heard them recommended elsewhere - I think they are a perfectly legitimate business.

 

[Cudabait]

You can always compare what you are considering with www.scubatoys.com and www.leisurepro.com. Scubatoys will almost always give a 10% discount to scubaboard members from their stated price. Then do what's best for you.

Regards,

 

[BarryNL]

If the original poster is in the UK then they should probably note that Scubatoys wants about $70 to ship to Europe. You need to be ordering something pretty big for that to work out cost effective.

 

[Freds@Aquanauts]

Cheers guys...Logged and duly noted!

Freds

 

[RICHinNC]

Yep..I noticed the pound sign too.

I have ordered from diveinn....I got fins and masks and have no problems with them. From the states they have an 800 number and are great to work with. Just remember the time diff.

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

£400? Whats the conversion?