Gray Market and Your Opinion

[shoturtle]

I'd like to check out their store...where exactly is it?

The exact address is on their website, it is manhattan. 18th street between 5th and 6th ave. Their show room is small, but they have a large stock in the storage floors and they have a warehouse in NJ also. They have a huge inventory.

 

[SeaHound]

My only concern buying from Leisurepro is that if you check their stock, you will see that they are running out of items! Scubapro regulators have been out of stock for months! As manufacturers are tightening their noose around grey market, they can create occasional shortage of stock / parts! I dont want to buy an AQUA LUNG regulator from them only to find out that they cant service it anymore because they stopped carrying that item! Where would I go with a 400$ purchase???

Anyone else had experience like this?

 

[PvtStash]

Ooooh that grey market will getcha' if ya' don' watch out!!!

You'll Die on Fake Gear!!??

The Sky is Falling!!



Not buying it. I think the one REAL danger here is LDS' missing out on the sale. Danger to consumer? Maybe... you wont have a warranty... *cue ominous music*


Soon as my LDS guy tries this scare tactic on me I'm going to say "Really? you wouldnt mind sending me a link then of all the divers who died last year on "fake" gear? or the year before?"

I'm betting this is where he'll start to backpeddle and bluster...

 

[surfsidedav]

Do most gray market items involve essentially low ticket items. I'm not implying that scuba is cheap, but I've never heard of a gray market Ford or Chevy for example.

 

[SlowRain]

Have I bought from Leisure Pro? Yes...wetsuit, mask, things that I call "disposables" for lack of a better term. Items which I accept they are going to probably over a period of time, wear out and I am not going to have a heartache over it.

When it comes to life support gear...which in my feeble mind is regulators, computers, BC or BPW, tanks, valves, etc., I don't screw around with looking at price as a first consideration. My first consideration there is whether or not they are an authorized dealer (and that means they are listed as such on the equipments home website) customer service and reliability are next. Is that a few more bucks? Most of the time sure. But over multiple years of use, it returns the investment. I have a couple of Poseidon regulators I use in my tech rig. It scares me to think how much I would be paying to have those serviced had they not been bought from a dealer (Scubatoys in this instance which is by the way a brick and mortar store) where I can send them in and get them serviced for 50 dollars each with free parts included.

I understand the whole "support your local LDS" after having taught for many years, but it is a competitive market and while I am not looking for them to beat internet pricing everytime on any given item, they ought to be able to get reasonably close, at least on high dollar purchases. Example...I bought a wing from one of the local LDS's in Atlanta. I could have gotten it from the internet for 50 dollars cheaper, but I wasn't too sure about the internet dealer being authorized. The LDS got the money. A number of years ago I bought a Delta VR3 computer and the same LDS wanted close to 350 dollars more over an authorized internet dealer, and the internet dealer was including a travel kit with spare o-rings, battery, switch hardware, etc. The LDS didn't want to budge. They didn't get the dollars. It's give and take.

The ability to buy over the internet is a wonderful thing, but common sense needs to prevail sometimes over the number of dollars coming out of your pocket. Will I give a local LDS a shot? Absolutely...but if there is a significant difference in price on a high expense item, I have no qualms about putting forth "You are charging me X number of dollars, and I can get it here for -X dollars, can you get close or match?"

 

[The Logic Theorist]

I guess it may depend if you are there in person, when I have called LP by phone they have sounded like I was wasting their time and just wanted to be done with me. ST was either able to answer my question, put me on hold to ask someone else, or took my info and called me when they had the answer, being courteous the whole time.

I have bought a significant amount of gear from LP and have had to call them a few times for returns or other issues. Every time I have spoken to them on the phone they have been great and I could not have asked for better service. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but as far as I can tell that's the exception and not the norm.

 

[ClayJar]

Do most gray market items involve essentially low ticket items. I'm not implying that scuba is cheap, but I've never heard of a gray market Ford or Chevy for example.

A very good friend of mine had a grey market Mercedes. The fact that it had a German VIN instead of the VINs used on American-sold Mercedes gave her headaches when she registered it, when she insured it, and *every* *single* *year* when it was time for the state inspection sticker. She liked that car, but you would be ill advised to bring up the whole VIN thing. :biggrin:

As far as the grey market in photography goes, it depends on whether you call an $1800 lens "low ticket". It's certainly cheaper than the $10k lenses, but it's not one of those dinky variable-maximum-aperture push-pull "consumer" super zooms.

 

[shoturtle]

Do most gray market items involve essentially low ticket items. I'm not implying that scuba is cheap, but I've never heard of a gray market Ford or Chevy for example.

There is allot of gray market ford from canada. People living by the Canadian border would go to canada and buy it and drive it back to the US.

 

[shoturtle]

Have I bought from Leisure Pro? Yes...wetsuit, mask, things that I call "disposables" for lack of a better term. Items which I accept they are going to probably over a period of time, wear out and I am not going to have a heartache over it.

When it comes to life support gear...which in my feeble mind is regulators, computers, BC or BPW, tanks, valves, etc., I don't screw around with looking at price as a first consideration. My first consideration there is whether or not they are an authorized dealer (and that means they are listed as such on the equipments home website) customer service and reliability are next. Is that a few more bucks? Most of the time sure. But over multiple years of use, it returns the investment. I have a couple of Poseidon regulators I use in my tech rig. It scares me to think how much I would be paying to have those serviced had they not been bought from a dealer (Scubatoys in this instance which is by the way a brick and mortar store) where I can send them in and get them serviced for 50 dollars each with free parts included.

I understand the whole "support your local LDS" after having taught for many years, but it is a competitive market and while I am not looking for them to beat internet pricing everytime on any given item, they ought to be able to get reasonably close, at least on high dollar purchases. Example...I bought a wing from one of the local LDS's in Atlanta. I could have gotten it from the internet for 50 dollars cheaper, but I wasn't too sure about the internet dealer being authorized. The LDS got the money. A number of years ago I bought a Delta VR3 computer and the same LDS wanted close to 350 dollars more over an authorized internet dealer, and the internet dealer was including a travel kit with spare o-rings, battery, switch hardware, etc. The LDS didn't want to budge. They didn't get the dollars. It's give and take.

The ability to buy over the internet is a wonderful thing, but common sense needs to prevail sometimes over the number of dollars coming out of your pocket. Will I give a local LDS a shot? Absolutely...but if there is a significant difference in price on a high expense item, I have no qualms about putting forth "You are charging me X number of dollars, and I can get it here for -X dollars, can you get close or match?"

LP is a brick and mortar store also, I go to their store and buy new gear and service my existing gear. Most of the internet operations have real store fronts. They just choose to have an internet operation also.

 

[shoturtle]

A very good friend of mine had a grey market Mercedes. The fact that it had a German VIN instead of the VINs used on American-sold Mercedes gave her headaches when she registered it, when she insured it, and *every* *single* *year* when it was time for the state inspection sticker. She liked that car, but you would be ill advised to bring up the whole VIN thing. :biggrin:

As far as the grey market in photography goes, it depends on whether you call an $1800 lens "low ticket". It's certainly cheaper than the $10k lenses, but it's not one of those dinky variable-maximum-aperture push-pull "consumer" super zooms.

I have had a gray market bmw that I brought new in germany when I was station there, had no problems when I brought it back to the States. NY state gave me no grief with my title and regg. Guess it my be a state to state thing. I just fill the import papers, that was all.