Middle Tennessee Scuba & Swim: Ugh... Where to begin? I walked in there, being a newly certified diver, a little over a year ago. I needed weights for myself and for one other diver. I picked up a total of thirty pounds of weights, and the guy working the counter said, in a pretty snotty tone, "You don't need that much weight!! That's CRAZY!! Why would ANYONE need that much weight?!" Maybe I was diving with a dry suit. Maybe I was picking up weights for a whole class. What difference does it make to him? He didn't know me, my level of certification, or the kind of diving I did.
This past weekend, I happened to be at that end of town, so I stopped in, just to see if there was anything that "I couldn't possibly live without." LOL
Directly in front of the entrance, there's a glass case with a couple of underwater digital cameras. (DC500, I think...) I wasn't seriously looking for a camera, having just bought a Sea & Sea MX-10, but the guy there is VERY pushy, and begins pulling all of the cameras out of the case. I don't even care to see them and even told him that I wasn't looking for a camera, but he keeps pulling stuff out and insisting that I need to take HIS underwater photography class. I tell him, once again, that I am not interested, and he STILL keeps on going on and on about how I "really need" to take his class. I'm getting irritated by this point, especially since all I really want to do is browse a little.
In a little alcove to the right, I see a Sea & Sea MX-10 in a Pelican box. I look at the price tag:
$1,042!! Again, Mr. Eager Beaver comes trotting over and telling me how fantastic this camera is, and AGAIN tells me that I need to take his photography class. I tell him that I'm willing to experiment on my own, and that I saw the same camera on Scuba Toys for $375, and furthermore, that I got the whole camera, strobe, wide angle lens, Pelican case, extra gasket, two tubes of gasket lube, and new batteries for the strobe AND the camera, for a total of $152.50 on eBay. FINALLY, he stalks off and leaves me alone. A quick browse through the rest of the store showed HUGE mark-ups on everything. I expect a bit of mark-up on stuff, because after all, dive shops need to make money too, but this stuff was truly outrageous. The overpricing and the pushy attitudes, plus the lack of any real variety: Three strikes and you're out. I won't go back there again.
Now for some of the good: Dive-Rite Express will ALWAYS get my business. They have been nothing but courteous, quick, and they've had everything I've wanted, and for reasonable prices, plus free shipping. Just yesterday, I called them up because I needed some smaller shoulder straps and a shorter cummerbund for my Trans-Pac II. I talked to Mark who said that they no longer carried parts for the Trans-Pac II, but he told me to call Dive-Rite and talk to Jeffrey, and to tell him that I had been referred by Mark. I phoned up Dive-Rite, and they were courteous, had what I needed, and even gave me a discount on the shoulder-straps. I'm awaiting delivery now, but I have every faith that I will receive my order in a timely manner.
For local servicing, I use Off The Map Scuba, which is my LDS.
http://www.offthemapscuba.com/
They've been very friendly, and fortunately, I've gone in, knowing exactly what I wanted, needed, and what I'm willing to pay for it. I bought a light from them that crapped out, and they were good about giving my money back. I've bought quite a lot of other equipment from them too. I originally bought my Cressi BC through a catalog, and when I showed up at the pool with Jerry, the owner, he said, "Hey! Nice BC!" (He uses the same one.) I'm no longer using the Cressi BC, and instead, I'm using the Dive-Rite Trans-Pac II. I asked him if he had thought about becoming a Dive-Rite distributer and he said he would look into it. All around, it's been a very positive relationship.
