Is selling Life Support Equipment on the Net Ethical ?

[Nomaster]

I HOPE the troll reincarnates and continues to come back. I have learned sooooo much from it. And the amazing thing is that I had thought trolls feet were MUCH too large to fit into their mouths!!!! This one can fit BOTH.....it's incredible!

Imagine chewing on such big, hairy, dirty things.
Maybe they have regular pedicures.

Tom

 

[Mako Mark]

Coin Op gas in the States? I don't think ever. First our citizens would have to come to an understanding with a concept which has almost gasped its last after decades of dying, responsibility for our own actions.Tom

You cannot pump your own air, yet you can pump your own gasoline, because gasoline is a far safer and easier substance to handle than the dangerous and volatile "air"... ????? WTF??

 

[pennypue]

You cannot pump your own air, yet you can pump your own gasoline, because gasoline is a far safer and easier substance to handle than the dangerous and volatile "air"... ????? WTF??

Air must be controlled and regulated as you might not know how to breathe it. As with gasoline, if you fail to put it into your vehicle/motor operated device it won't work and therefore will not kill you. Must protect the idiots that forget to breathe. You see? If you don't know how to breathe you die.......if you don't know how to use the gas, well, hopefully you leave the cap open when you light up your cigarettes........God I love Darwin!!!!!
:god:

 

[jaardappel]

Firewalker, TEXAS RANGER!

Wow, I feel like an idiot. I missed my chance to reply to you early on. Damn! I was so excited before all the replies loaded up...thought I was going to get a chance.

This has GOT to be the best thread I've ever seen. There are so many good jabs here, great lists of internet life-support equipment, and even Larry from one of my favorite internet dive shops! Wow.

I think I'll visit this thread often, just to see what additional heapings of shame folks have thrown on you....you dinosaur of a man. Until then my friend, keep up your drivel and continue to provide us folks a great spot to lay waste to the real smart ones who are now "teaching" us young idots who buy (gasp) stuff from cheaper sources!

Do me a favor TEXAS RANGER, please e-mail your next thread to me first...I'd almost pay you to have the first reply to anything else you might come up with.


John

 

[Ishie]

Firewalker, TEXAS RANGER!

Do me a favor TEXAS RANGER, please e-mail your next thread to me first...I'd almost pay you to have the first reply to anything else you might come up with.

Considering his outdated business model, I'm sure he could use the money...

 

[mbeerski]

I have been in the dive business since 1975 (that’s when I took my ITC). Since then I have certified thousands of divers and sold millions of dollars of equipment. Most of my adult life has had to do with diving and diving safety.
My dive store has been in business now since 1978 (and we have made money every year).
The mail order business has been around since I first started diving in the late 60’s. Skin Diver Magazine had mail order ads in the back pages. The Internet is the same thing just a different bigger format(it was wrong in the late 60's and is wrong today).
I shop and some times buy on the net (books, camera’s, airline tickets, etc.) but never would I buy Life Support Equipment(there is a big difference).
Selling life support equipment on the net to “be quit frank” is unethical, it’s unethical from the stand point of dive instruction, unethical from a business stand point(I don’t know if there are really ethics in business, but there should be), and it’s unethical from the stand point of product safety.
When selling life support equipment to someone, the seller needs to sit up and evaluate the performance of the product (before they give it to the buyer). Then the seller needs to give the customer an orientation to how the product works. This is something that has to be done when selling life support equipment, and can’t be done on the net(the internet salesman are taking the money and running, with no thought to the safety of the divers or the safety of the product).
The mail order (internet) sales, takes away sales that the LDS could have made. Very often the LDS has introduced the product to the customer and has done most of the work in selling the product. And then the mail order house cherry picks the sale. This of course is just part of business. But it weakens the LDS (and the industry as a whole). It has caused a lost of expertise that has hurt the community in the last 10 years.
The very core of dive instruction is that we teach students how to use life support equipment. The student is certified in that use. When selling mail order or on the net there is no way to check for certification. Uncertified divers are being sold life support equipment on the net. This practice, under mines the whole concept of diving instruction as we know it.
Selling life support equipment on the net is unethical. It should not be supported by the dive community. It is harmful and maybe our undoing.

Firewalker

It's good to have the option of online price check. I prefer my LDS but some of them mark up their items more than 100%. That's a little too much .... so I will accept a resonable markup and buy from my local LDS but not when it's too ridiculous.