Rate your LDS's

[Scuba]

Rate stores you shop in person only, not stores you shop online. Compare to other stores, online or local, What is your "overall" impression. Answer poll questions seperately for each store you regularly shop, as much as possible.

Product selection: Do they have a large variety from which to choose? Different brands, large ticket items, accessories.
Very little selection of any kind?

Prices: Do they appear reasonable and competetive to you?
Prices are too high?

Information provided: Do you trust what they say? Are they giving you good advise? Do they appear knowledgable and fairly unbiased in their answers and comments?
Is the information they give you designed to steer you in a certain direction so you buy from them? Are they misinformed, uninformed, or lying?

Services offered: Do they offer the services you need and like to see available? Classes, gear rentals, repairs, gear tryout, etc. Quantity, quality and promptness.
Few services offered and/or poor quality and slow service.

Customer service: Do they greet you like they are happy to see you? Do they treat you with courtesy and respect? Are they glad you came to them whether its for an air fill, a large purchase, or just browsing? All the time or most of the time.
Do they ignore you, are condescending, ridicule, or simply treat you like they don't need your business? Are they only glad to see you when you buy from them, especially a large purchase?

 

[trymixdiver]

Excelent selection but bad attiude and high prices.

Andy

 

[jonnythan]

I get air fills there.

And.. um... yeah.

 

[WreckWriter]

Brownies Southport Divers, Fort Lauderdale Florida. Its a rare day when I need to go somewhere else to get something I need.

Best LDS in South Florida by a long shot.

Tom

 

[caymaniac]

My LDS is not the greatest but better than "nuttin honey",I realise that you can't have all the brands because certain names will give a territory to a certain store and it might not be my store, or the better of three evils as in my case. I have chosen the "Femme Nazi" store over the ain't I wonderful look at all my pictures of me and if you don't by my equip. your dirt store or the other store that has no selection, no joking, tek only need enter the door because we are doing a 300 foot power dive this weekend and if you can't come I'll never talk to you.

None of them do any decent trips
for a good price, they want me to pay for their trip too!

Dive Safe
Caymaniac

 

[astrl]

Several of the LDS's are pretty limited in the selection they have available to look at. While I understand that they cannot carry everything, it might be helpful to have a display model of all pieces of equipment that they can order.

Also, too many of the LDS's carry all the same equipment. I drove around to about ten different shops because I wanted to look at different brands of BC's, but although the shop listed themselves as a dealer, they didn't always have any of the brands equipment in stock. This was disappointing.

As for information, they are pretty good. They are usually very helpful and I rarely get ignored in favor of other customers.

The service seems pretty good and they are very friendly. I do wish that more LDS's would rent out underwater cameras. As far as I can tell, only one LDS does this and it is all the way across town from me.

My 2 cents...
astrl

 

[MikeFerrara]

astrl once bubbled...
Several of the LDS's are pretty limited in the selection they have available to look at. While I understand that they cannot carry everything, it might be helpful to have a display model of all pieces of equipment that they can order.

astrl

If we did that it would take 20 years to get our money back. With the online situation and the way the manufacturers force us to do business we sell less and less for less and less. we can't afford to tie money up on something that may sit there for years. Most people come in to look at stuff before buying it online for about what we pay. We stock only what we think we can sell in short order. A savings account gives a better return than a LDS.

 

[ERP]

One of the things I find interesting is that on some items my LDS can come very close or beat online prices but on others it doesn't even get into the ballpark.

Excluding masks fins and snorkels for a second which seem to be priced to make up for the low priced lessons.

Wetsuits and Drysuits are close to online prices
Tanks are better than online especially once you factor in shipping.

but they can't even get close on regulators, consoles and to a lesser extent BC's.

Is it just that they're dealing with different manufacturers for the suit and tanks or is it that those items just have lower margins to begin with?

 

[MikeFerrara]

ERP once bubbled...
One of the things I find interesting is that on some items my LDS can come very close or beat online prices but on others it doesn't even get into the ballpark.

Excluding masks fins and snorkels for a second which seem to be priced to make up for the low priced lessons.

Wetsuits and Drysuits are close to online prices
Tanks are better than online especially once you factor in shipping.

but they can't even get close on regulators, consoles and to a lesser extent BC's.

Is it just that they're dealing with different manufacturers for the suit and tanks or is it that those items just have lower margins to begin with?

In many cases manufacturers of scuba equipment forbid sales online or mail order and the online merchant is not a authorized dealer and, therefore doesn't buy from the manufacturer. They buy from overstocked and going out of business dive shops.

There are other disadvantages that a dive shop has. For instance, if a manufacturer has one item that I think will be a good seller, I can't buy just that one item. I must be a dealer and buy and sell a certain amount of their products every year or loose my dealership. To sell Aqualung I must buy in with $13,000 for an opening order. To sell Scubapro I must dump $18,000 on an opening order. SP, also, wants to tell me what items I will stock and what other brands I can carry. In other words they want to force me into a position where I have nothing except SP products on the shelf.

That is also why you must be a dealer to be authorized to service a product. Aqualung and SP do not want you standing around my shop looking at all the Zeagle regs I have while you wait to pick up your SP reg from service. They only want you to see their products.

I have considered rejecting the rules of the manufacturers, however, my insurance company sais "NO WAY". If the insurance company droped me I would also loose my ability to teach. There are only a couple insurance companies from which to choose in this business.
BTW, In order to be a dealer for most manufacturers you must be a full service shop. You must have air, training, service, rentals and retail space in a business district. We don't have a fill station because we make money on air. We have it because we must have it to be in business. Unless you are located on the water and pump huge volumes of air, a fill station is just a cost and substantial liability. Just to put a sign on a building with a fill station, diveshop insurance and to buy into one or two modest products lines costs a ton of money and it must get paid for somehow.

 

[ERP]

Mike,

A lot of what you posted I'd already pieced together fro other posts you've made together with conversations at my LDS.
I guess what I was trying to establish is what is different about exposure suits or tanks that make it possible for an LDS to be competitive in these areas?

Is it that Leisurepro and other online stores, can't pick them up as easilly from alternate sources so they have to buy through the same channels as the LDS or is it something else in the sales model?

In the end I think a lot of these dubious practices by the manufacturers will end up hurting them. When I bought my reg and console from my LDS, I was torn between the Atomic B1/T1 and the Scubapro M25/S600. Scubapros limit to a 10% discount made my decision for me.

Personally I'd rather buy from an LDS if they can get into the same ballpark as on online store, being able to take my reg in and have it checked at no cost if I think something is screwy is worth something to me. However I've been looking at buying a complete set of equipment for my girlfriend and it's just really hard to justify the extra that it'll cost me buying locally. <shrug>