WAH! My LDS closed!

[PhilEllis]

Really? Exactly where are folks going to get their gear serviced (without paying for shipping and insurance both ways and waiting a couple/few weeks for turn around WITHOUT the benefit of available loaner gear), their tanks filled, and check out/ try on for size the gear that they are going to then buy on-line without your LDS? Where are instructors going to outfit their students with rental gear for check-out dives?

And I am still waiting for concrete examples of how on-line retailers have advanced the sport - other than undercutting the LDS under the guise of providing "bargains" to an existing diving population that said on-liners play no role in recruiting or certifying.

Clambake, I am one of the largest advocates of the local dive store and keeping them informed of how THEY can react to the changes taking place in the scuba industry. But, I have to bite on this one. This old "fear example" is not getting the local scuba store anywhere but closer to the poor house.

Online stores, like mine, provide excellent regulator service. It costs about $5 to send a regulator to an online store. We ship it back for free. You don't need to worry about having it "adjusted" after the service. We do it right the first time. The post office gets a regulator to us in about 2 days. We rebuild it the next day and ship it out. Several on this board will testify that they are without their regulator for about a week......much shorter than MANY local scuba stores.

We sell about 500 wetsuits a year. So far this year, we have had about 15 returned for the wrong size. About half of them DIDN'T purchase the size I recommended. Our performance indicates that we can fit a wetsuit over the telephone about as good as most local shops can in person.

There will always be places to get cylinders filled, get hydros done, and any other service that divers need. Independent instructors and dive clubs could handle instruction. NEVER think that todays method of distribution of any service is the ultimate. Distribution of EVERY product changes over time.

I only respond here because I am the FRIEND of the local dive store. After all, I own one. Only when the "industry" realizes that the CUSTOMER drives the market, not the retailer, will this industry acheive all it is capable of acheiving. For too long, the local dive store has operated by the model sanctioned and installed by the scuba manufacturers and the training agencies. Unfortunately, their model is now a day late and a dollar short. Change MUST be made unless store owners want to see their investment go up in smoke. Personally, I am not willing to do that. I am going to change, no matter how much I dislike it and no matter how hard it is, because I want to go down fighting.

Phil Ellis

 

[captain]

Really? Exactly where are folks going to get their gear serviced (without paying for shipping and insurance both ways and waiting a couple/few weeks for turn around WITHOUT the benefit of available loaner gear), their tanks filled, and check out/ try on for size the gear that they are going to then buy on-line without your LDS? Where are instructors going to outfit their students with rental gear for check-out dives?

And I am still waiting for concrete examples of how on-line retailers have advanced the sport - other than undercutting the LDS under the guise of providing "bargains" to an existing diving population that said on-liners play no role in recruiting or certifying.

If you don't think air and service was available before LDS's came along, then how was diving taking place back then. Gear was sold and air was sold, it just wasn't from what is now the LDS model. It was local all sports stores and mail order and mail order prices were not much or any lower than the local sporting goods store. The store didn't depend on just diving to survive which is part of the problem today. Even Leasure Pro doesn't sell just diving equipment.

Training was through non profits such as the YMCA and NAUI by independent instructors. The instructors provided rental gear they owned as it was part of being an instructor.

 

[ReefHound]

Clambake, like I said you're peeing into a stiff wind with worn-out scare tactics like that.

I get my regs serviced at Scubatoys for $50 per set. It costs me $6 to ship Priority, less than what it costs in gas to get to my preferred LDS. I have my regs back in about a week, faster turnaround than I get from my preferred LDS. Not that I need them back that fast since online prices have allowed me to own multiple reg sets.