jobowker
Guest
I personally don't see much value in the warranty. My Aqualung, my brother's Oceanic, and my dive buddies Sherwood all were bought from local dive shops. Each had a warranty. Unlike the scubapro warranty NONE of them offer free replacement parts for life. Each reg was between $75-$100 to get overhauled. Each reg was less than 3 years old. And in each case the warranty didn't save me anything. My next reg will probably be from DiveInn, and my tanks too. Leisurepro and divers direct both had PST HP100 tanks for around $300 with shipping, my LDS quoted $425. If I'm buying 2 tanks and a new reg (Apeks TX100) I'm looking at a huge price difference. If the difference was just a little more, then I'd go local, but when the prices are that glaringly different, followed by the LDS saying there's no markup on their tanks, then they shouldn't mind me buying them somewhere else. Yes, I bought my $75 mask locally and saw it mail order for $45. Maybe the mail order companies will help the dive shops become more competitive, as it has in other industries. The people that are really hurt by protectionist attitudes are the consumers. When the US car makers began losing market share to cheap reliable Japanese imports, it forced the US car makers to improve quality and control cost - basically a win for the consumer who now gets a better product. That said, I would never try on a wetsuit at an LDS and then go buy it mail order - that's unethical to me. If the prices are close, I'll go through a local dive shop. I wouldn't be surprised if places like diveinn, divers discount, leisurepro, etc force less profitable dive stores out of business, and force others to diversify, like a LDS with a web site that you can order from.
