The great big, all-inclusive Leisure Pro note

[5615mike]

Have purchased many items from LP in the last two years which is when I found out about them. Saved me probably half over LDS.

Some of you continue to say that there is no warrenty. That is not true. LP has their own warrenty. I have not had to use it so I am not familiar with the process. Anyone out there used LP's warrenty?

Will continue to purchase from LP as they provide the best product with the best price. That's what capitolism is all about people. If LDS can't provide the same level of pricing then they are going to go out of business. Sad but true. We have had two go OOB in the last 6 months in my town.

 

[MikeFerrara]

BIGJC once bubbled...
Great place... I have never had any problems. I bought a reg from them and 6 months after I blew a HP seat.. they replaced it within 7 days ... better than my LDS can do!!

I find that a bit absurd. You don't replace a reg for a blown HP seat. I would fix it while you waited. If I was too busy or short of parts I would let you use one of my regs til I got to it. I'll bet LP can't do that. LOL Aside from that, it might cause you to wonder how long the reg sat before you bought it. Seats go bad wether the reg is used or not. If I have a reg that sits for a long time before I can sell it, I rebuild it before I let you take it. I think that's what should have been done with your reg. Of course they wouldn't or couldn't do that either. It would have stunk to have that seat go a 1/4 mile back in a cave. I'd have been really displeased.

check out scubastore.com also.. no problems there either.


Whatever... this is dive shop propoganda... why would you care? great fins at a great price with the backing of a good company, that is good for the consumer! the rest is just politics....

No it's fact. If I don't play by the rules set out by the manufacturers they shut me down and I don't have the back door sources of equipment that LP seems to have.

If you don't like the pricing structure that the manufacturer forces on the LDS you should let the manufacturer know. Either way this is not propoganda, it's fact. Why would you care? Because getting a decent price from a real dealer might avoid blown seats after six months.

 

[MikeFerrara]

jonnythan once bubbled...


How do you guys come up with this stuff?

Where do you think they get it?

Let me tell you folks. The end of this month my shop closes. I'll still teach and would like a little on-line business and to be able to get stuff for students. But guess what...once the shop closes none of the manufacturers will sell to me at any price!

So you tell me...where does LP get the stuff?

BTW, I'll burn my left over stock before LP gets it.

On second thought, maybe I should sell to them. I could take the guts out of a reg and see which one of you gets it just to prove my suspcion that they don't even test them before they ship.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Scubaroo once bubbled...
Yeah right. From the guy on the corner selling hot scuba gear huh. A whole warehouse full.

Don't mean to be sarcastic, but that's just the dive shop griping about LeisurePro.

It does suck though (for the local dive shops) that suppliers will only sell to them with minimum orders, pricing and discount restraints, etc, yet companies like LeisurePro magically get their hands on gear without having to observe such policies. In an ideal world, dive shops could order any quantity from any manufacturer, and set their own prices independantly. It just isn't so in the real world. This is an argument that has been beaten to death, but keeps coming up.

It has been beat to death but the average jerk still insists on blaming the LDS. That's like shooting the messanger. The equipment manufacturers ARE running the industry. If there's something you don't like you need to let them know instead of whining about the evil LDS.

 

[Big-t-2538]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...


If I don't play by the rules set out by the manufacturers they shut me down and I don't have the back door sources of equipment that LP seems to have.

Mike - is it any surprise to you that LP is located in NYC? I mean they certainly aren't the only ones in NYC with back-door access to goods....I don't care what industry it is.

 

[gfisher4792]

Big-t-2538 once bubbled...


Mike - is it any surprise to you that LP is located in NYC? I mean they certainly aren't the only ones in NYC with back-door access to goods....I don't care what industry it is.

This is true. When I was shopping last Christmas for a digital camera, the cheapest ones came from NYC. Digcam websites also warned against purchasing these "grey market" cameras, as the majority of them are bought from the European market, which leaves the US buyer without a warranty or any help from the camera manufacturers (they will not survice grey market cameras).

I also agree that the manufacturers are the "evil-doers" in the scuba market. It is a fairly well known fact that LDS can only give a specific percentage discount (i.e., Scubapro is 10% max) or they will revoke their license to sell their merchandise. Doing some quick research, it seems that LP purchases most of their gear from the European market, where the rules are very different. The major manufacturers actually sell their products online (again, scubapro's european website, UK specifically if I remember correctly, has online sales, or directs you to authorized online retailers. US LDS's get hammered with this 2 faced practice.

 

[jonnythan]

Big-t-2538 once bubbled...
I mean they certainly aren't the only ones in NYC with back-door access to goods....I don't care what industry it is.

That's right!! You should see the deals you can get on Rolexes and Oakleys out there. I hear they don't come with warranties either, but you can buy 50,000 Rolexes off the street for every 1 you can buy in an authorized dealer! The jewelry shops will tell you outrageous lies, just like the LDS, saying that they're knockoffs or watches that didn't pass QA. Pssh. I know better.

I wonder if those come from Europe just like the scuba gear...

 

[MikeFerrara]

Big-t-2538 once bubbled...


Mike - is it any surprise to you that LP is located in NYC? I mean they certainly aren't the only ones in NYC with back-door access to goods....I don't care what industry it is.

Besides that, my customers wouldn't be as forgiving of a blown HP seat after six months either. I'd get my butt kicked.

I recently sold a guy some Zeagle regs. Shortly after I received an e-mail from Zeagle about the recall they had. Keep in mind that if LP is selling Zeagle regs they would not be notified untill they read it in a magazine someplace. Anyway I quickly informed the diver who promptly told me where his regs were...They were staged thousands of feet and several sumps back into a Kentucky cave in preperation for a push.

BTW, since this diver needs to have about 20 regs on hand I managed to get him access to parts, manuals and the chance to watch a reg being rebuilt (I can't teach that) for some of the brands he owns.

See if you can get LP to do that! oops, that is if they even knew how. LOL

Over a divers career (especially a new diver) I can save them time trouble and money and even entire dive trips in ways that LP will never have a clue about. Many divers are to short sighted and uneducated though to have any more of a clue than LP does. All they see is a price tag on a single stupid item.

 

[pcscuba]

I guess I'm a short sighted uneducated diver because I love LP. Call me what you want but if I can spend half what you do and still have the same equipment then who's coming out ahead? As for warranty, I had to send my reg back to LP for warranty. Had it back within three weeks. I had to pay the freight but that's a small price to pay. Anyway, just my opinion.

 

[MikeFerrara]

pcscuba once bubbled...
I guess I'm a short sighted uneducated diver because I love LP. Call me what you want but if I can spend half what you do and still have the same equipment then who's coming out ahead? As for warranty, I had to send my reg back to LP for warranty. Had it back within three weeks. I had to pay the freight but that's a small price to pay. Anyway, just my opinion.

Three weeks? That's enough time to set up a machine shop in your garage and build your own.

Why should you ever have to send a reg back? I've sold a lot of regs and never had to send one back ever. The few minor problems we have had I fixed in three minutes not three weeks.

That's two posts out of what 30? where people talk about sending regs back. That's a hell of an average. I wonder why they're getting so many back. I couldn't get away with it. I guess you get what you pay for.

Edit
ooops...I have to make a correction. I did recently have some regs come back because of the Zeagle recall. For the divers who weren't in a hurry I sent the regs back to Zeagle for repair because I wanted Zeagle to pay for their own mistake. In the case of the divers who need their stuff back fast I fix them. The problem with that is that I don't get paid for it so I only do it if I must.