ReefHound:
Dive Rite is not ScubaPro/Aqualung. You could have bought that kit from Dive Sports for $399 and get full warranty. You could buy from DiveRiteExpress.com and get full warranty. You don't have to buy local to get full factory warranty. Which is highly unlikely you will ever need anyway.
I asked the shop owner about that in the case of the Suunto, and he gave me a printout that Aqualung gave to them that says "Support your Authorized Aqua Lung Dealer", and a litany of reasons to buy from the local shop owner. Believe me, I am far from convinced that I need to buy from the local shop. I have been paying through the nose (out of ignorance) for years. First you pay for all the courses, all the manuals and the local shop trips, then you pay for local shop gear, the gear that the shop owner reps. I know this stuff is expensive, but I sometimes wondered if I couldn't do this on my own cheaper, and even better.
The Aqua Lung flyer goes on to say "When is a Bargain Not a Bargain?" and this is a quote... "... Any business that offers to sell and ship Aqua Lung or affiliate branded Scuba products by mail, telephone or Internet is NOT AN AUTHORIZED U.S. AQUA LUNG DEALER. If you purchase Aqua Lung Scuba products by mail, telephone or internet, you are purchasing from a non-authorized retailer and your products will not be covered by Aqua Lung America warranties."
It lists the following as affiliates: Aqua Lung, APEKS, Aqua Sphere, SUUNTO, Drager, Sea Quest. Deep See, U.S. Divers.
So, according to this, Aqua Lung won't supply any warranty, but the retailer must be supplying the warranty. I know that Aqua Lung and others "factory-trains" equipment techs, so this is not the issue that they proport it to be. But this is the message that is going out from the local dive shop. Obviously the Internet is hurting their businesses. When I pointed out to my local dive shop owner that I could get the Suunto D9 online for $1300, he asked "with the transmitter"? and I said yes. His price is $1700. I don't know what different lattitudes the Internet retailers have over the local dive shops, but you also don't have to pay tax on out-of-state on the Internet, and above a certain price, it is usually free shipping. So the local shop owners are at a great disadvantage in my opinion, unless they also have Internet sales, and view their shop as the high-end channel, and Internet as the commodity channel of business.
