MoonWrasse
Contributor
Stirling:I've run into a few like that, and I avoid them, too. But in the end, you have to deal with somebody, and the relation between a diver and *some* LDS is basically symbiotic - neither can really get along without the other, and neither can really afford to drive the other one away.
And let's have a reality check here - the LDS owner's desire to take some of our money in exchange for a product is no more reprehensible than the diver's desire to have the product and keep more money in his or her pocket. Neither the diver nor the LDS is necessarily any greedier than the other; it's just a business transaction, and each side has a reason for wanting to get a little more in relation to what they give up.
I will try to buy everything that I can from the LDS that I want to deal with - even when it means asking them to order something for me that I could just as easily order for myself. If they carry a line of products that I don't have on my wish list, I will at least take a serious look at what they do carry and ask myself if I couldn't be happy with the products they carry; I won't buy something that doesn't suit my needs, but I will be as flexible as I can be to support a business that helps me in other ways. There's more to creating and supporting a community of divers than selling gear, and if the LDS I like goes out of business, I may have to go do business with one of those people I don't like.
Let me make myself clear about this:
It has nothing to do with greed, IMHO, but stupidity. I'm a businessman. I went out of my way to give my LDS the opprotunity to have some of my business, however they didn't act professionally. There won't be a second chance. Life is short
The business world is like the reef. You f'up, and you get eaten. Next!