I'm mostly inclined to agree. It is mind boggling to me though when I go to or hear about a local shop that screws their customers with bad service or over MSRP I will take me 30 seconds in this day and age to find MSRP.
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Some people just suck at business and they fail. Someone took over an existing shop, after the previous owner went to jail. He bought everything, he kept the name and phone number. He promptly pissed off all the old clients because he declined to honor the old fill cards and charged money to try on gear (which would be credited the purchase of gear). He failed to read the market he was serving, alienated the customer base so that despite being the only dive shop on a destination resort town. He went out of business in a couple of years.I'm mostly inclined to agree. It is mind boggling to me though when I go to or hear about a local shop that screws their customers with bad service or over MSRP I will take me 30 seconds in this day and age to find MSRP.
Some people just suck at business and they fail. Someone took over an existing shop, after the previous owner went to jail. He bought everything, he kept the name and phone number. He promptly pissed off all the old clients because he declined to honor the old fill cards and charged money to try on gear (which would be credited the purchase of gear). He failed to read the market he was serving, alienated the customer base so that despite being the only dive shop on a destination resort town. He went out of business in a couple of years.
I talked with him a couple of times and he seemed like a decent fellow, but he created a negative energy online because of the fill cards. He could have changed the shop name to make it clear he was a new owner and offered a discount to those trading in cards from the previous owner and incentivized old customers to stick around. He was so focused on making money, he failed to realized he needed customers first.
I am in the market for a specific dive computer, when I saw it on sale for a little over $1,000 both on the manufacturers website and Leisure Pro. I went to one of my LDS's to check it out and they quoted me over $1,500 for it even though they would get a credit for the manufacturers sale. Plus the manufacturer was including a free mask with the computer but the LDS denied that there were any deals being offered. Unfortunately I ended up spending a couple thousand at the vet so the new computer will have to wait but when I do buy it I will get it online. Other dive shops are willing to bring the price on most products down to where I am willing to pay for the customer service so they get my business but I don't see myself spending money at that particular shop when they won't even honor a manufacturer sponsored sale.
He didn’t know it but I happened to see their price vs my price. I was amazed at the difference about half of retail.
Glenn