Divetank closes its doors... what gives?

[jtardani]

I was wondering with the stories of "I can't get my credit card refund from Dive Tank" if they closed and left any charges to anyone that never got settled.

They closed without delivering a dry suit that I ordered in January 2008, leaving me with credit card charges that I'm trying to get cleared. Before placing my order, I read everything I could find about divetank on scubaboard and got the general impression that they were a reputable company, though maybe a little slow. I talked with Richard (the owner) and placed an order for a 2007 Bare Trilam HD Tech suit that was on closeout. Once they charged my card, I assumed that it had been shipped. But after several weeks, I received nothing. I contacted Richard and was told that Bare had some back order issues. OK, no problem. Two more weeks go by... nothing. I contacted Richard again and was told that divetank was moving its store and that Bare was holding orders until the move was completed. (The red flags are flying by now!) Well, after over two months of getting the run around, Richard finally tells me that the order will be drop shipped from Bare. I contacted Bare and was told that the order was completed but was waiting shipping instructions from divetank. I tried to contact divetank again but got an email from Larry at ScubaToys stating that divetank is out of business and that Richard is now over seas! I contacted Bare again to see if Richard had ever sent payment and shipping instructions to them. Nope!!

I guess the great deal wasn't so great after all!

 

[spectrum]

Let us not loose site of the many past threads where the prices and customer service of Divetank were highly praised. The threads repeated over and over as potential customers wondered if the pricing were too good to be true. Many of us are diving DT goods that we acquired at the most competitive prices of the period

Unfortunately aggressive pricing an who knows what else we are not privy to has led to the demise of the operation. I sounds like things really slipped in the waning months and it's too bad they were not able to close down with dignity.

Pete

 

[Web Monkey]

And this is the beauty of the consolidation of LDS's into mega-online/brick&mortar sites. They will become powerful enough to demand changes with some of the manufacturers and thier methods.

Not likely. In fact, the high-end brands (if they're smart) are unlikely to ever sell to powerful stores because they're more difficult to control, and the inevitable downward pressure on prices will kill off the manufacturer's smaller dealers, making the big dealer the tail that wags the dog.

Many consumer electronics manufacturers went down the toilet thanks to consolidating retail stores in the 70's and 80's. As a manufacturer, once your customers become powerful enough to dictate prices, you're screwed.

The manufacturers that are left were the places that were strong enough to resist the price pressure, the big dealers and the buying groups.

Terry

 

[bfw]

Many consumer electronics manufacturers went down the toilet thanks to consolidating retail stores in the 70's and 80's.

I was selling consumer electronics in the 80's and I can't think of a single manufacturer that went under. Some BRAND NAMES disappeared from the market, but they were simply labels discontinued by big multi-brand conglomerates like Matsu****a (which makes Panasonic and JVC, and dropped their Quasar brand in the 80's) Samsung and LG were just starting in the American market at the time. Many brands that were relatively unknown, being only in high end specialty shops, grew because of places like Best Buy.

Larger retailers will bring more free market economics to the industry. It's outrageous that Aqualung won't sell to anyone that discounts across dive shop territories. The reason they don't have that policy anywhere but the US is other countries don't allow it.

 

[all4scuba05]

Well I guess I got lucky. In the last 3 years I've bought 2 drysuits from DT. They were great experiences for me. My last drysuit was a new DUI CF200x with pockets for 1400. Perhaps he went bankrupt giving me that deal?

 

[vladimir]

I had a good experience with Divetank; they gave me an excellent price on my Suunto D9 and good service when it was recalled. I guess that a relatively small business like Divetank, with narrow profit margins and a lot of exposure to USD/CAD, found the recent currency fluctuations difficult to manage.

 

[mike_s]

Let us not loose site of the many past threads where the prices and customer service of Divetank were highly praised. The threads repeated over and over as potential customers wondered if the pricing were too good to be true. Many of us are diving DT goods that we acquired at the most competitive prices of the period

Unfortunately aggressive pricing an who knows what else we are not privy to has led to the demise of the operation. I sounds like things really slipped in the waning months and it's too bad they were not able to close down with dignity.

Pete

call it "agreesive pricing" or whatever, but it appears that any business that doesn't evolve its business model to keep up with a changing economy and the changing way that consumers do business, is dooming itself to fail.

Add poor customer service and you've just add mutiplied your chances for failure.

My wife worked in a business (non dive related) where she brokered large contracts for services. The praises of work of yester-year were easily lost in customers eyes of "what have you done for me lately". It's competitive out there and if you can't keep up service, folks don't care about how great you did things for them last year. They want it now.

 

[The Kraken]

I was saddened to hear of DT's problems, issues and closing.

I got fantastic service, support and pricing from DT when I bought my dry suit.



"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones." (Shakespeare - "Julius Caesar")

the K

 

[all4scuba05]

So someone here actually knows what happened that he ended up closing?

 

[mike_s]

So someone here actually knows what happened that he ended up closing?

see what the owner told Larry in post #24.

But does that mean it's the "whole truth" that was told? I doubt it. It rarely is.