Waynne - nice post and rational way of looking at business. Should give you a head start when you start your own.
LDS Bashers
- Thread starter 1fastcat
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Eagle-scuba
Contributor
Service , Service, Service.... ...when the little guys are gone.....who will be around to fill your tanks, inspect and service your equipment , let you have hands on products to compare and try, book those great dive trips,.......and just be there with their friendly faces to greet and assist you in person.....Both have place in the business world, but manufactures should make the rules the same for pricing for both,...
Eagle-scuba:
Who will fill my tanks? LOL who does fill them? Having to sell my compressor has put a serious kink in my diving that's liable to continue until I get things streightened out and buy another.
Eagle-scuba:
You are right. But this is not just about the manufactures (important part, but not everything).
To have any successful business, you have to have a growing market (one of the best words of wisdom I have every been given is: "Your business is either growing or dieing, if you do not know which it is, you are dieing").
That falls to the hands of the LDS, to have an active training program, good instuction and easy access for their customer base.
Once one has a growing customer base, then talking about how to effectively sell becomes important, but only then.
Too many shops expect the customer to just fall at their feet, and that is the reason that threads like this exist.
There will have to be changes in how goods are sold, so staying where we are is not one of the available options.
i agree with this to a point, with an lds i was very unhappy though i liked some of the people there i felt i was taken on several occasions, so i went internet when i could, i was then introduced to my present lds and to this day only buy through them, when i purchased my camera set up i could have got my ike-lite housing a LITTLE cheaper online , but i did not as buying it through my lds i still got a great deal on all of the equipment and the owner and a pro photographer took the time to spend days teaching me all of the ins and outs, he still to this day (months latter) still critiqes my pictures and shows me my mistakes, the people of dolphin scuba center of sacramento are fantastic and have given me deals i could get no were else, and the advice and instruction are as great as well. i have NEVER left there store feeling i got even a little taken , and have ALWAYS been very happy with the service and the deal!! that is what will make most people willing to spend a few pennies more just to give the business to there lds, as i always do, and commenly get what i am buying cheaper through them!! the ldsEagle-scuba:
Vtdiver2
Contributor
waynne fowler:
Great post...I couldn't agree more. Reminds me of some words of wisdom I heard years ago...If you want to make new friends, start by being one.
LDSs are like any other business. There are good ones and bad ones. When you find a good one, take the time and effort to build a relationship with it. In the long run, you both will win.
C-Dawg
Theoretically, it won't happen but should it occur, I'll set up my own fill station, problem solved.Eagle-scuba:
Again me, why not, I do it anyway.Eagle-scuba:
Divers Direct in Ft Lauderdale or any of the plethora of dive shops in the larger metro areas in South, FLEagle-scuba:
,
Uh, yeah, my shops really do that... Me againEagle-scuba:
Yup, Other than the one I frequent here, the rest are folks who aren't quite so excited to be inside. Even the one I DO go to they aren't even all that happy to be stuck indoors and if they didn't have the cute chicka's there the gear sales would be slack at best.Eagle-scuba:
Any proof that it isn't?Eagle-scuba:
I recently moved to a town with 12 dive retailers. My daughter, going through the certification process, needed some equipment. Her training was not from a dive shop, so we were not bound by the implied obligation of buying from the instructor's store. Some merchants we went to may have assumed that I was some parent who didn't know squat with a teenage girl along. It was an experience.
The good:
Aqua Lung BC that looked like new, actually used, $100. This could have been represented as a new item. It is full featured, and fits the kid beautifully. Booties at scuba tent sale, $1. And... a large store with a 30 day no-hassel return policy. My buddy returned a wetsuit there, and it was indeed no-hassel.
The bad:
Fins, obviously used, being sold (hard sell) as new. Other fins were going to give her cramps (they don't). Another shop: The only regulator fitting for a teenage girl was by Atomic, for $425. He seemed like a good guy, but that was what he had to sell. And another: A basic mask, no price marked, was $80 when I picked it up. "That's what they all sell for".
The ugly:
Statements about equipment or training offered by others as being inadequate or even dangerous. I suppose that was to exercise the partenal protective instinct.
Without some previous experience it would have been like walking into a bazaar in a country where we did not speak the language. Or, the smiling car salesman that just told me I got a good deal. Maybe....I did.
In the end she got equipment both locally and on-line, as I have done. It all fits and works perfectly. The kid now dives with easily ability and confidence. I would like to thank the fine retailers that were indeed helpful to us.
The good:
Aqua Lung BC that looked like new, actually used, $100. This could have been represented as a new item. It is full featured, and fits the kid beautifully. Booties at scuba tent sale, $1. And... a large store with a 30 day no-hassel return policy. My buddy returned a wetsuit there, and it was indeed no-hassel.
The bad:
Fins, obviously used, being sold (hard sell) as new. Other fins were going to give her cramps (they don't). Another shop: The only regulator fitting for a teenage girl was by Atomic, for $425. He seemed like a good guy, but that was what he had to sell. And another: A basic mask, no price marked, was $80 when I picked it up. "That's what they all sell for".
The ugly:
Statements about equipment or training offered by others as being inadequate or even dangerous. I suppose that was to exercise the partenal protective instinct.
Without some previous experience it would have been like walking into a bazaar in a country where we did not speak the language. Or, the smiling car salesman that just told me I got a good deal. Maybe....I did.
In the end she got equipment both locally and on-line, as I have done. It all fits and works perfectly. The kid now dives with easily ability and confidence. I would like to thank the fine retailers that were indeed helpful to us.
I have skimmed the *32* pages of this thread. I didn't read every post, so forgive me if I repeat a previous post, but....
It was not that long ago that you could buy SCUBA equipment from catalogs. In fact that was how you HAD to buy it, it was such a niche sport. We all know the story of why the K and J valves are so named right?
To my mind, the incestuous relationship between manufacturers now and LDS (the whole "authorized dealer" thing) is ridiculous. Few other industry would tolerate this sort of twisted setup. And yet we do, because it crept up on us. LDS encourage the idea of dealerships because it locks customers to the "approved" people. Manufacturers like it because it lets them offload service and some liability onto a dealer.
I am reminded of this guy in Bonynton Beach working at a dive shop, who said "I took a perfectly good hobby and ruined it. It twists you, and gradually becomes no fun. One day you wake up and wonder what happened."
Most people who go to work in the LDS love diving and think they will have fun and make a few bucks. Fine. Want to spend a year DM'ing or whatever through some island chain, good on ya. Some get delusions of getting rich at it. These people are the ones who give me the creeps. The lady at the dive shop trying to convince my chica that the suit that doesn't QUITE fit, does fit. You know what I mean. You don't get rich working in a dive shop any more than you do at any other retail sales job.
It'd be interesting to see if LDS folks statistically "Buy American!" to keep jobs and local loyalty, or if they buy foreign cars and products off the Internet just like the rest of us. It all depends on whose ox is being gored eh?
I can buy a Haynes manual and parts to fix the brakes on my multi-ton vehicle, with which I might mow down 20 people at a bus stop. Sure no problem. But talk about fixing your own regulator and after they get done turning purple and sputtering, the manufacturers and LDS will close ranks and deny access to parts and service information.
It was not that long ago that you could buy SCUBA equipment from catalogs. In fact that was how you HAD to buy it, it was such a niche sport. We all know the story of why the K and J valves are so named right?
To my mind, the incestuous relationship between manufacturers now and LDS (the whole "authorized dealer" thing) is ridiculous. Few other industry would tolerate this sort of twisted setup. And yet we do, because it crept up on us. LDS encourage the idea of dealerships because it locks customers to the "approved" people. Manufacturers like it because it lets them offload service and some liability onto a dealer.
I am reminded of this guy in Bonynton Beach working at a dive shop, who said "I took a perfectly good hobby and ruined it. It twists you, and gradually becomes no fun. One day you wake up and wonder what happened."
Most people who go to work in the LDS love diving and think they will have fun and make a few bucks. Fine. Want to spend a year DM'ing or whatever through some island chain, good on ya. Some get delusions of getting rich at it. These people are the ones who give me the creeps. The lady at the dive shop trying to convince my chica that the suit that doesn't QUITE fit, does fit. You know what I mean. You don't get rich working in a dive shop any more than you do at any other retail sales job.
It'd be interesting to see if LDS folks statistically "Buy American!" to keep jobs and local loyalty, or if they buy foreign cars and products off the Internet just like the rest of us. It all depends on whose ox is being gored eh?
I can buy a Haynes manual and parts to fix the brakes on my multi-ton vehicle, with which I might mow down 20 people at a bus stop. Sure no problem. But talk about fixing your own regulator and after they get done turning purple and sputtering, the manufacturers and LDS will close ranks and deny access to parts and service information.
mtg
Guest
Lisa0825:
Be that as it may, you can still take the time and pay the money to support your local shop when you are able. I belong to costco, but for specialty items, I go to the small shop and give them my business. I think there is room for both in the world if you are responsible as a consumer.
And its really despicable that people would "shop" at a store to try stuff on/pump the people for info, then leave to buy on the internet. That is just pathetic. If I shop on the internet its to save time and effort (and because frankly if I can't do it on-line it probably won't get done) and then money. People should decide their priorities when it comes to shopping (service vs price, knowledge vs convenience) and go with that. They shouldn't abuse the people that are out there trying to make a living, and then have the nerve to gripe about them, no less!
Similar threads
