Beyond the primary issue of whether or not the warranties can be validated if products are sold by "unauthorized third parties" I see a bigger issue at hand -- the customer experience. There are few CGP manufacturers outside of the dive industry that I've encountered where your service quality is tied to your point of purchase.
The notion that a new or simply unaware diver could buy something from a legitimate, trusted and well established site like Leisure Pro and not get service on it baffles me. How is the customer suppose to know that some website with all the right marks and icons isn't authorized by Aqua Lung but is by another company? Rather than putting the burden on the retailer, many manufacturers are passing it along to the customers.
I fully understand wanting to protect distribution channels, pricing, safety, recalls and all that good stuff but if I buy something the way I prefer how can a company point at me like I did something wrong? How is it my fault that tons of unopened, brand new product got into the hands of a company some manufacturer doesn't approve of and they sold it to me? It's one thing to try and stop unauthorized reselling; it's a whole other thing to blame the consumer for engaging in it when often times it is completely unknown to them.
And it’s not as if all the companies are doing everything they can to stop online sales. As a perfect example Google search for “ScubaPro regulator”. Chances are one of the first three paid listings (that’s the one or two colorful listings at the top and all the small listings on the right hand side bar) contain the term “Scubapro” in them and link to a “unauthorized” retailer. Guess what, Scubapro is a trademark. Google has a policy that trademark owners can stop any company they want from using their term in an ad. The filing is less than a page and takes a few minutes. ScubaPro could, if they chose to, block just that one company, or just ten companies. While they can’t stop people from bidding on their name, they can stop them from using it in their ad which is extremely effective. Yet they don’t. Yahoo has an even loser policy to help manufacturers stop this sort of behavior, but when I checked there, it’s the same story.
Now this could be because they are unaware of this rule or it could be because at the end of the day, they aren’t as concerned as they say they are. I really don’t know.
Scubapro strikes me as a good company. Aqualung too. Heck, I’ve been to Aqualung’s corporate offices for servicing and I’ll be there again seeing as how it’s practically walking distance from me. IMO, both companies make good products, both have things I use and will continue to use. The problem is I buy just about everything online (that includes my car) and since I can’t buy their products online in an authorized manner (which is important to me) it drives me their competitors. And that’s something I just don’t understand.
The internet is more and more a part of every day shopping. This year online holiday sales will grow by over 20% to something in the vicinity of 24 billion dollars. It's been proven time and again that consumes like to buy online and to research online if they buy offline. When a company chooses to ignore consumer demand, consumers are going to revolt in one way or another. In this case consumers are basically telling the manufacturers who don't allow online sales that they like them so much they are willing to intentionally, or unintentionally buy products from unauthorized sources.
When Joe Q Diver gets certified and his shop tells him to buy all his gear from ScubaPro or Aqualung or any other company, odds are Joe is going to go online to see what those products should cost. If the cost at Joe's dive shop is too high, Joe's either going to go to another shop or go online. How on earth is Joe support to know that when he searches for "Aqualung Regulator" the listings that come up aren't really supported by Aqualung? The bottom line is that people buy things online and will do so whether or not manufacturers want them to. Educating people about the benefits of LDS’s is wonderful but what happens when someone doesn’t get the message or doesn’t think it’s worth paying hundreds of dollars more for? Why is it on the consumer?
Divers are well educated, well paid, in their 30s and 40s and therefore just about dead on when it comes to your average online user and shopper. Fight it all you want, divers are going to be online, so the things we buy should be as well in one way or another.
There are solutions that insure the survival of the shops and insure that people use local outlets for service and safety reasons, and while these solutions may not be easy to reach, the industry is not going to thrive if consumers are unable to make purchases on their own terms. Don’t believe me? Look at what happened to all the major retailers who were slow to go online and look at their multi-channel competitors. It’s not hard to understand why Netflix went through the roof while Blockbuster went crashing down until they were finally able to adapt. Bestbuy on the other hand has done a remarkable job at adapting and has proven the value of a multi-channel experience… unfortunately while some dive manufacturers are onboard, others are missing the boat to their and our detriment.
My appologies for the long rant and the partial hijack here. I think the original poster brings up a great point and that can be even further extended to the subject of the customer which is ultimately who matters for any business.
