Groupon Deal - is this course recommended?

[Kingpatzer]

I'm not trying to suggest that Groupon is necessarily problem for a well run business in particular sectors. Indeed, it can be a great tool for the right business.

However, I need to stress that to use Groupon successfully a business has to fully understand their own costs, the impact of different types of advertising on their revenue stream, their customer's ability and willingness to be up-sold or buy add-ons, and so forth.

And few small businesses really understand those things. Groupon preys upon poorly run small businesses.

Within the realm of scuba instruction, I would not trust a shop that uses Groupon to provide quality instruction. This is an area where you do get what you pay for. An instructor is going to be spending 60 or more hours with a student. Ask yourself how good can that instructor be if he's going to do that for pricer per student that this sort of discounting generates?

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

I can only speak for me, but getting my classes free made me spend more on my gear. And when I did a price comparison I still saved. So you will get some that will just take the classes and leave. And some who will spend more because they saved on the classes. Does anyone really know anything about this shop? Or are we all just giving personal opinions? Looking on-line you really can't find any reviews about them. But since they've been in business 25 years, and certified hundreds of students shouldn't have been hard to find some that could tell you more about them.

 

[nimoh]

Why is everyone jumping on Groupon and the shop. With this shop being in Canada, there probably is a very long down season for diving. It's just a small business trying to stay in business, by any means necessary. Yes they probably know they will loose money on the lessons, but hoping they make it up on the gear and repeat sales, and setting up travel for their students. Just because something is on sale doesn't mean that the quality isn't the same. If I buy a truck at the beginning of the model year I'm going to pay full price for it, but if I wait until the end of the model year, I will save thousands, does that mean one is inferior?? And once in the class does that mean everyone used Groupon?? So will the students who didn't use groupon get better lessons than the ones that didn't? You know the things about most things unless everyones had a bad experience with it, you don't find out until after the fact that, and everyone isn't going to happy with everything. Even the best instructors get complaints sometimes. I know the post was about Groupon, but he would have been better off if he asked about the shop.

you raise a good point, what if the business is losing money in the off season anyway, but by running a Groupon promotion, they lose less money?

I am not jumping on Groupon and/or the shop. I have been defending Groupon, by saying that if the shop is offering inferior services (I am not saying that it is), it is not Groupon's fault.

---------- Post added April 19th, 2012 at 11:10 AM ----------

I'm not trying to suggest that Groupon is necessarily problem for a well run business in particular sectors. Indeed, it can be a great tool for the right business.

However, I need to stress that to use Groupon successfully a business has to fully understand their own costs, the impact of different types of advertising on their revenue stream, their customer's ability and willingness to be up-sold or buy add-ons, and so forth.

And few small businesses really understand those things. Groupon preys upon poorly run small businesses.

Within the realm of scuba instruction, I would not trust a shop that uses Groupon to provide quality instruction. This is an area where you do get what you pay for. An instructor is going to be spending 60 or more hours with a student. Ask yourself how good can that instructor be if he's going to do that for pricer per student that this sort of discounting generates?

One might argue that Groupon is doing a service by putting those poorly run businesses out of business. I mean, its not rocket science, if it costs you $300 to teach someone to dive, and you receive less that $300, you are losing money.

 

[captjohnr]

I'm not trying to suggest that Groupon is necessarily problem for a well run business in particular sectors. Indeed, it can be a great tool for the right business.

However, I need to stress that to use Groupon successfully a business has to fully understand their own costs, the impact of different types of advertising on their revenue stream, their customer's ability and willingness to be up-sold or buy add-ons, and so forth.

And few small businesses really understand those things. Groupon preys upon poorly run small businesses.

Within the realm of scuba instruction, I would not trust a shop that uses Groupon to provide quality instruction. This is an area where you do get what you pay for. An instructor is going to be spending 60 or more hours with a student. Ask yourself how good can that instructor be if he's going to do that for pricer per student that this sort of discounting generates?

You are correct. This needs to be discussed by Instructors that have been in business for a number of years and understand the math. Most of the questions and responses by the newbies are somewhat obtuse and downright trollish (please don't feed the trolls). Russell

 

[elan]

I can only speak for me, but getting my classes free made me spend more on my gear. And when I did a price comparison I still saved. So you will get some that will just take the classes and leave. And some who will spend more because they saved on the classes. Does anyone really know anything about this shop? Or are we all just giving personal opinions? Looking on-line you really can't find any reviews about them. But since they've been in business 25 years, and certified hundreds of students shouldn't have been hard to find some that could tell you more about them.

As I understood the deal is published by Shannons family, they operate several shops in the area. I did not have a chance to do any classes with them although I dealt with Robert who owns one of the shops in Oakville as I was buying gear from him. I had nothing by good experience with his shop. He runs a charter in the area on one of the sites. The price is low especially given the charter in relatively close to Toronto. I used to go to his shop quite often but after I relocated I have not been there for a while. He was always giving a good advice never pushed any sale. He is also a commercial diver AFAIK.

 

[DukeAMO]

I think Discover Scuba is a great option for a Groupon. We chose our dive shop over any other because they offered a Groupon for Discover Scuba. We liked the instructors, so we signed up for OW. Now we're taking AOW and we bought some gear.

Our LDS ran *hundreds* of Discover Scuba sessions. I think most of them had 4-8 people in them, 1 instructor and 1 DM. They had to pay for a lane in the local pool, so they probably lost money on every single DS class.
However, they ran it in January-March, the off-season, and they had enough people sign up for OW and purchase gear, that they made money in the end.
For example, our OW class in the off-season had 8 people. Normally they might not have any people in an off-season class.
I was talking to the store manager the other day, and they're planning to do it again next year.

You might have a harder time making the math work for OW certification.

I also know a photographer who says it costs her about $300 to run a family photo shoot including prints, so she won't do them for less than $500-600. She seriously worries about photographers who offer a family photo shoot Groupon for $100.

I think, to make the math work with Groupon, you have to limit the number of deals to a number you can handle, and also have a good indication that people will come back after the first time.

 

[nimoh]

I think Discover Scuba is a great option for a Groupon. We chose our dive shop over any other because they offered a Groupon for Discover Scuba. We liked the instructors, so we signed up for OW. Now we're taking AOW and we bought some gear.

Our LDS ran *hundreds* of Discover Scuba sessions. I think most of them had 4-8 people in them, 1 instructor and 1 DM. They had to pay for a lane in the local pool, so they probably lost money on every single DS class.
However, they ran it in January-March, the off-season, and they had enough people sign up for OW and purchase gear, that they made money in the end.
For example, our OW class in the off-season had 8 people. Normally they might not have any people in an off-season class.
I was talking to the store manager the other day, and they're planning to do it again next year.

You might have a harder time making the math work for OW certification.

I also know a photographer who says it costs her about $300 to run a family photo shoot including prints, so she won't do them for less than $500-600. She seriously worries about photographers who offer a family photo shoot Groupon for $100.

I think, to make the math work with Groupon, you have to limit the number of deals to a number you can handle, and also have a good indication that people will come back after the first time.

good info, seems like it compares well to photography. I agree that discover scuba is a good option for Groupon, maybe even so far as to offer free discover scuba to get them hooked