Do you have any interest in doing mail-order reg servicing?
The Great local dive shop vs. online debate
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Do you have any interest in doing mail-order reg servicing?
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Why does the sun come up?
I don't really care how LP does it. They consistantly get the merchandise and sell at a much lower price. I shouldn't have to haggle on pricing. Just give me the bottom line $ and let me decide. Should I pay a 100% markup at my LDS when someone else has the EXACT same item for a lot less?
MSRP is MSRP. How many people shop like that? Would you buy a diamond for $5000 that was appraised at $5000? A car that has a MSRP of $20,000 for $20,000? Hell no you wouldn't. But LDS have no problem expecting a newbie to do it then panic at the first mention of LP.
PS: My cousin Vinney said these guys are on the up & up so I don't think the Mob or hijacking shippments of scuba gear has anything to do with the supply chain. Youse guys (LDS) better make pricing more in line with the customery charges of dive gear or contine to sc**w new divers and loose and hope of return customers.
DAN is only expected to pay customery (Non inflated) charges should you need there evacuation services due to a dive accident. Why should the divers DAN supports be different?
ut:
Craft up some releases as part of your work orders, and get both your attorney and insurance guy together to do something acceptable to both.
Shelter your assets.
Then have at it.
Here's the deal - anyone CAN sue anyone for anything at any time.
However, lawsuits aren't free to either file or prosecute. So, you have to understand how the game works, and how you keep from being a target. This boils down to:
1. Means of attempting to get the suit dismissed almost immediately, thereby making the attempt futile (less likely some lawyer will agree to file it in the first place.)
2. Making yourself judgment-proof to the best of your ability (thereby making it unprofitable to sue you EVEN IF they win.)
Paradoxially, too much liability insurance actually ENCOURAGES lawsuits against you, because most companies will settle rather than vigorously defend, especially when the potential losses are huge.
So, what you really need is a combination of reasonable liability insurance against things like someone slipping on the sidewalk of your store, while not giving anyone a "nice target" to shoot at in the form of you or your insurers (or yourself) if something questionable happens.
The guy who is going to pay out-of-pocket to sue you (e.g. he's paying his own lawyer) is going to want a very good idea of not only his odds of success but his odds of collecting, since he has to pay the lawyer! If he wins $1m but has a $200,000 lawyer bill and he can't collect from you then he loses $200,000! That's the nightmare scenario for a plaintiff, and lawyers can and DO investigate up front before filing to keep that from happening (because not attempt to keep clients from that folly could be considered malpractice.)
The contingency-fee personal-injury attorney is going to do that sniffing as well, but for an entirely different reason. If HE takes the case and wins $1m but can't collect he's 100% out his time, and the plaintiff STILL doesn't get anything.
I ran my company for ten years, with about half of them as a "reasonably-large" corporation (millions annually in sales.) We had guys in the field all the time doing work, we had our people in the office, and we had lots of customer contact and contracts. We were threatened with suits all the time. But the key is that while many threatened, not one person actually filed. Why? Because we did a good job of managing the risks through proper planning, disclaimers, and waivers - it would have been very difficult if not impossible for those claiming some harm to win in the first place, and even more difficult to collect.
I also had plenty of times that I had a legitimate tort claim against someone for some act they committed, but very few of them even got to the point of threatening letters. Why? Because most of the time the risk of eating a big lawyer bill (which I could afford, but didn't want to!) was significant. The only times it became worth really rattling my saber in an attempt to get a reasonable settlement was when the place that did us wrong was big enough, and had deep enough pockets, that if I DID go after them and win there was no way for them to weasel out of paying me.
That's the best you can do in discouraging the "land-shark" behavior, and is one of the times that I don't mind working with those folks.
Just remember, a lawyer not only can prosecute but also knows what other lawyers are thinking about and how they evaluate a potential suit before filing it. Make yourself an unattractive target with low odds of success and you will only draw suits from people who are hell-bent on "revenge" and can afford it on their own - there's nothing you can do to prevent those suits, but you can be judgment-proof against even most of those situations.
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Genesis
That is good legal advise for ANY business not just scuba related.
Thanks.
That is good legal advise for ANY business not just scuba related.
Thanks.
Of course they would. They got more than $3 worth of value.
They did not get more than $300 worth of value.
That's the key.
There is nothing wrong with shopping for an item in one place and ultimately buying it in another. The shop that posts outrageously high prices does it to themselves - the knowledgable consumer might give the store a shot at a "best and final" offer, but he is under no obligation to do so.
If you want to be competitive, then be competitive.
The entire point of having a retail store is to have customers come in and get the opportunity to sell to them. That's why you have such an establishment.
The key here is opportunity. You have that opportunity every time I walk in the door. If you fail to make me an offer to sell what I'm look at with a price, service and value combination that is attractive to me, you have only yourself to blame for that.
Blaming the customer for coming in and checking out what you have, then buying somewhere else, is exactly backwards. You, as a merchant, had every opportunity to make that sale - you decided not to. Blaming the customer for your failure to close the deal isn't the customer's fault - its yours!
... fair to use it as a benchmark.
It doesn't matter how or where they get their stock. What matters is what they sell for, and that they are setting the market.
That others don't LIKE them setting the market doesn't change the fact that they DO set the market.
I ain't a lawyer.
It is, however, what I consider to be good business advice.
As a businessman, I can certainly proffer what I believe are good business approaches. The land-sharks have managed to make common sense something they claim an exclusive right to proffer when it comes to anything that appears to be "legal".... which doesn't surprise me.
Most professions try to grant monopolies to their members. The nice thing about "business" in general is that it is just that - general - and thus the "cartel" mentality doesn't have the opportunity to get going there
It is, however, what I consider to be good business advice.
As a businessman, I can certainly proffer what I believe are good business approaches. The land-sharks have managed to make common sense something they claim an exclusive right to proffer when it comes to anything that appears to be "legal".... which doesn't surprise me.
Most professions try to grant monopolies to their members. The nice thing about "business" in general is that it is just that - general - and thus the "cartel" mentality doesn't have the opportunity to get going there
medical1 once bubbled...
Why does the sun come up?
As a customer you may not care but when we're discussing the possibility of an LDS applying the same business model or comparing then we need to look at it. I can't give you LP prices because the only way I have to get product is to sign a dealer agreement and meet the requirement of the manufacturer. If I want to compete with them I need to know where they get it.
But have you been successful in negotiatinh the price of a TV, refrigerator, furniture or lawn tractor. You just pay the sticker don't you?
LOL, I'm not a shop anymore. You might like LP prices but you can't call the customary. Also since you can't help us find out where they get their stuff you can't suggest a way of applying their model and duplicating their prices. That's what I'm trying to tel you. The LDS can't just lower the price. Doing that alone will end things in a single month. You need the other pieces to go with it. I need that information from you cousin. I already know where they're not getting the stuff. I'm still leaning toward the hijacked truck thing myself until I see evidence to suggest otherwise.
DAN is only expected to pay customery (Non inflated) charges should you need there evacuation services due to a dive accident. Why should the divers DAN supports be different?
Customary in the dive industry is that you buy from a dive shop that charges what the manufacturer tells them to charge. LP is anythin but customary.
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Consider this a release
Genesis did not act as my agent or lawyer in any way!
Genesis only offered an oppinion on business NOT legal advice and did not act as councel in a legal proceeding.
Yor free now
I can't sue Absolutely I have - on those I have bought (except the fridge - haven't had to replace one yet - or the tractor, since I haven't needed to buy one here yet
)The last TV I bought was a big-screen, and quite expensive. I most certainly did not "pay the sticker." In fact, I haggled for over two hours on the price of that thing, spread over three sessions (I walked out of the store twice!)
The end result was a price about 25% less than the "sticker", with free delivery and setup on top of it (a big deal when the thing weighs 150 lbs and needs a liftgate truck to move!)
Furniture? Same deal, last time I bought a significant amount of it. Several hours of effort, but a savings of well over $1,000.
I just bought a replacement PC. Haggled a major chain store down $100 from their "asking" price - about 10%.
Why in God's name would you think that I'd pay "sticker price" for any significant purchase without at least an ATTEMPT to get a better deal? Oh sure, I might not get it, but I also might not buy if they say "no", and showing them the back of my head a couple of times frequently results in a price adjustment.
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