Why do so little shops service/sale Atomic?

[domskynetlabs]

I have found one store in the san diego area that services sales atomic the expression i get from most store owners and divers is ethier atomic is overpriced highend stuff or it is overpriced overhyped product.

 

[The Kraken]

Very simple . . .
. . . the cost of carrying inventory.

 

[Corigan]

Quite a few shops sell/service Atomic in the Atlanta area. Very suprising it is so scarce in a place that isn't landlocked. How ironic that there are twelve dealers in Georgia, 8 of which are in an hr from the atlanta area.

Matt

 

[ScottZeagle]

Very simple . . .
. . . the cost of carrying inventory.

I would tend to guess that this is the correct answer.

The "cash" pie can only be sliced into so many pieces. If a shop has a $50k commitment to ScubaPro, a $35k commitment to Oceanic, and a 20k commitment to Hendrson, there simply may not be the money left over to carry an additional line.

Once again, we get back to the old "We don't carry it because of (quality, price, or blah, blah, blah)" answers instead of simply saying, "We can only carry X amount of product, and these are the ones we have chosen."

 

[diversteve]

I have found one store in the san diego area that services sales atomic the expression i get from most store owners and divers is ethier atomic is overpriced highend stuff or it is overpriced overhyped product.

There's 3:

Diving Locker
Rick's in Escondido
Ocean Enterprises.

At a quick glance, there's around 60 Atomic dealers in California. And they're located in Huntington Beach. I find it hard to believe they're all doing something wrong.

Probably more Chevy dealers than Cadillac dealers too. The best always costs more.

Try one and see for yourself.

Don't always believe dealers who only sell competing products, they've obviously got a vested interest in trying to get you to buy their stuff instead. I don't mind dealers who try to influence me to buy their products, but if an LDS makes negative remarks about a competitors product that I know are of equally good quality, that's the last time I shop there.

Not that Atomics' aren't high-priced, high-end stuff, they are, but you get the performance that you paid for. It's only your life, what's that worth?

btw I own one. The only others I consider in the same class are Apeks, Scubapro and Poseidon - my opinions so no flaming please.

 

[redacted]

Not that Atomics' aren't high-priced, high-end stuff, they are, but you get the performance that you paid for. It's only your life, what's that worth?

So how does the cost of a regulator relate to the worth of one's life?

Seems to me that a high performance regulator relates much more to the comfort of a dive rather than the safety of that dive. In fact, if I had to chose a regulator strictly based on safety (reliably perform without catestrophic failure) I'd probably go with something like a M2/R190. It has a proven, though not high perfromance, design with less potential failure points than high performance regs.

Biggest difference I can see in the Atomic regs vs the comparable Scubapro regs is the 2 year service interval which seems to be more of a good matketing descision than anything driven by the designs of materials used.

 

[diversteve]

So how does the cost of a regulator relate to the worth of one's life?

Seems to me that a high performance regulator relates much more to the comfort of a dive rather than the safety of that dive. In fact, if I had to chose a regulator strictly based on safety (reliably perform without catestrophic failure) I'd probably go with something like a M2/R190. It has a proven, though not high perfromance, design with less potential failure points than high performance regs.

I guess that didn't come across like I meant. I think it's important to have a high-performance reliable regulator that allows you to focus on the other aspects of your dive. And generally the higher priced regulators also have better performance. Although comfort is important, the breathing at depth also is a factor as the deeper you go the more the task loading increases. So if the reg supplies "effortless breathing at depth" - quoted from Atomics, it allows you to focus more on the other aspects of the dive. I used a poor quality rental once and found that a lot of my focus was on breathing which became a significant point of concentration during the dive. With my Atomics, I think I'd sometimes forget it was there if I didn't hear my breathing u/w.

Biggest difference I can see in the Atomic regs vs the comparable Scubapro regs is the 2 year service interval which seems to be more of a good matketing descision than anything driven by the designs of materials used.

I don't know enough about reg design to comment except to say that when I had my first 2 year service done last summer, the tech said that he didn't notice any appreciable wear and actually thought about not changing the parts since they were in pristine condition. So maybe there's more to it than marketing - I don't know.

 

[Rick Inman]

I have found one store in the san diego area that services sales atomic ...

ScubaToys is just a phone call away.

 

[scubapro50]

I have found one store in the san diego area that services sales atomic the expression i get from most store owners and divers is ethier atomic is overpriced highend stuff or it is overpriced overhyped product.

You hear the same thing about SCUBAPRO equipment .... usually from a non-scubapro shop ....

 

[scubapro50]

I would tend to guess that this is the correct answer.

The "cash" pie can only be sliced into so many pieces. If a shop has a $50k commitment to ScubaPro, a $35k commitment to Oceanic, and a 20k commitment to Hendrson, there simply may not be the money left over to carry an additional line.

Once again, we get back to the old "We don't carry it because of (quality, price, or blah, blah, blah)" answers instead of simply saying, "We can only carry X amount of product, and these are the ones we have chosen."

what ever happened to the marketing/accounting terms ... 2% 10 days net 30 ..... 2 % discount if invoice paid within 10 days of receipt of merchandise otherwise payment in full in 30 days ... used to help promote product and help push new lines ... I have also heard of no interest on new accounts for 6 months to help break into a new shop or market ... does anyone do this anymore .... ?