Gray Market and Your Opinion

[terrillja]

If LP is your LDS, I could see why someone would but from them, but if they aren't, then it would be a PITA to get warranty service done, where otherwise you could just go to any dealer, anywhere rather than shipping your gear back to NYC. The highest failure rate for gear is when it is new, as things are breaking in, it sure would be annoying if you have to pay for your regs to be adjusted at an authorized dealer while on a trip, while if you had bought from an authorized dealer in the first place, it's under warranty.

Another thing is annual service- Oceanic charges $30 for the parts for the yearly service, if you buy from LP then you have to pay that $30 every year. Adds up after a few years considering that regs will last for a long time.

 

[ClayJar]

That is true, smaller stores probably won't get that larger discount, but for instance LP still gets their aqualung stuff but aqualung says they do not deal with LP because they are gray...now why would they still allow them to sell it....

Look up concepts such as "first-sale doctrine" and "exhaustion of rights". Basically, once AquaLung has legitimately sold an item to anyone, they have no more right to say what becomes of it. If they sell 30 regulator sets wholesale to an LDS, and that LDS liquidates and sells its remaining stock to LP, LP is free to sell it. There is nothing AL can do about it, as their rights ended once they sold it to the original LDS. They can choose never to sell through that LDS again, of course, but that's between AL and their retailer and has nothing to do with LP, since LP does not *have* an agreement with AL.

If LP goes to Europe and buys 100 dive computers, they have every right to do with those computers what they want, even if that is selling them in the US, where the manufacturer will not support the computers. The manufacturer has no right to prevent the resale. The only way the manufacturer would have a right is if LP had a contractual obligation, which they would not have as they have not elected to become an authorized reseller.

This only becomes a grey area (pun intended) when you swap *licensing* for *sale*, such as in software. That, however, is a far more complicated topic that is *well* outside the scope of a thread on ScubaBoard. (There are plenty of cases actively being litigated on that front, so feel free to enter law school to get on that train. ) Thankfully, scuba equipment is *sold*, not licensed, so that's all irrelevant.

 

[shoturtle]

If LP is your LDS, I could see why someone would but from them, but if they aren't, then it would be a PITA to get warranty service done, where otherwise you could just go to any dealer, anywhere rather than shipping your gear back to NYC. The highest failure rate for gear is when it is new, as things are breaking in, it sure would be annoying if you have to pay for your regs to be adjusted at an authorized dealer while on a trip, while if you had bought from an authorized dealer in the first place, it's under warranty.

Another thing is annual service- Oceanic charges $30 for the parts for the yearly service, if you buy from LP then you have to pay that $30 every year. Adds up after a few years considering that regs will last for a long time.

I still will have pay the $30 if I brought it form authorize dealer, I have a cressi and they do not have the free lifetime parts, only some company have free lift time part for their products and the oceanic website said it is optional from the shops sending the reg in. LP also discount the service part price too.

I dive in South East Asia alot, there Oceanic is not that big. Did not see a single oceanic product when I was in Khao Lak Thailand. So to do and adjustment on an oceanic reg would have cost me anyway. But at the dive shop I use, they did some fine tunning on my wifes genesis 2000 reg for free since we were doing trips with them. There is some validity to your point, but there are holes to it also.

 

[shoturtle]

If LP is your LDS, I could see why someone would but from them, but if they aren't, then it would be a PITA to get warranty service done, where otherwise you could just go to any dealer, anywhere rather than shipping your gear back to NYC. The highest failure rate for gear is when it is new, as things are breaking in, it sure would be annoying if you have to pay for your regs to be adjusted at an authorized dealer while on a trip, while if you had bought from an authorized dealer in the first place, it's under warranty.

Another thing is annual service- Oceanic charges $30 for the parts for the yearly service, if you buy from LP then you have to pay that $30 every year. Adds up after a few years considering that regs will last for a long time.

PS

LP is an authorize seller of Oceanic product.

 

[saltysupply]

I knew it had to be in a thread somewhere but couldn't seem to find it anywhere....I see how it all works now, just haven't had to deal with something like that in my business as I deal direct when possible and don't deal with any warranty or defective issues.

 

[saltysupply]

Look up concepts such as "first-sale doctrine" and "exhaustion of rights".

Interesting I never knew about that, but can bite you in the a** if you aren't careful

 

[DennisS]

It would be interesting to find out where LP gets it's merchandise that it's not an authorized dealer for. The manufacturer doesn't care, they're the biggest mover of their product. Do they have to have fronts to buy or is it shipped directly from the manufacturer to LP.

 

[tridacna]

It would be interesting to find out where LP gets it's merchandise that it's not an authorized dealer for. The manufacturer doesn't care, they're the biggest mover of their product. Do they have to have fronts to buy or is it shipped directly from the manufacturer to LP.

That question has been posed more often that almost any other. It is probably easier to solve GUT.

 

[terrillja]

PS

LP is an authorize seller of Oceanic product.

Not for online sales according to Oceanic:

Authorized Dealer Locator - Oceanic Worldwide - Scuba and Snorkeling Gear, Scuba and Snorkeling Equipment and Dive Gear

Though they are an authorized retail seller now, which must be new, they were not on there last summer as far as I can remember.

 

[Scott M]

It would be interesting to find out where LP gets it's merchandise that it's not an authorized dealer for. The manufacturer doesn't care, they're the biggest mover of their product. Do they have to have fronts to buy or is it shipped directly from the manufacturer to LP.

They get it from the manufacturer more or less. Most manufacturers work through middlemen or distributors. The distributors send them to places like LP and if you think the manufacturers don't know about it or allow it your sadly mistaken. It's business and they are going to sell to whoever is buying. Period.

When I first came to scubaboard this was a hot hot topic for a long time. I was told if there was a recall because I bought grey market I would never know about it. My regs had a yoke recall and I found out about it at the same time as the ones who bought from the LDS. Do you think for one second that if the so called grey market reg that has the Apeks name or any other name on it was to have a defect the manufacturer would not get that taken care of right away? Of course they would because if it ever went to court the sale would be trace dback to the manufacturer because they manufactured it and no amount of posturing or saying they will not be waraanteed can get them out the liability involved.

I am not saying not to buy off your LDS just be informed and make smart choices. It's your money.