62 replies to this topic

[Racer184]

"My" local dive shop has more than once replaced something out of their pocket when the manufacturer did not want to.

This is why I cannot comprehend buying something 'on the internet' without trying to buy it from "my" local dive shop first.

I do understand that most SingleDivers.com people probably have fewer dive shops in their state than we have in my county. So there will be times that you really have no choice but to buy "on the internet".

My point is;

Is there a "TV shop" in your city? county? State?
Is there a "camera shop" in your city? county? State?
Is there a "stereo shop" in your city? county? State?
Is there a "record store" in your city? county? State?
Is there a "service station" for your car in your city?
Is there a "milkman" in your city? county? State?

The reason that every answer is no is that too many people decided saving a dollar at Wal-mart was preferable to professional advice and customer SERVICE.

Can you walk in to the electric utility and talk to a person?
Can you walk into a telephone company and talk to a person?
Can you walk into the water utility and talk to a person?
Can you walk into the sewer plant and talk to a person?

The reason that every answer is no is that all of these businesses have come to believe that we would rather save 50 cents per month on our utility bill than to have customer service. Why do these utilities believe this? Because they have watched tv shops, stereo shops, camera shops, and record stores disappear.

What are we going to do when there is no such thing as a "dive shop" ?

[georoc01]

Interesting you brought up the phone company. Actually yes I do, all the time. Its because I dropped my land line for cell service. They actually make house calls to my place of business a couple of times a year, or I can walk 3 blocks to my local store, where they have taken care of me. When my phone would no longer charge, the rep called around to all of the sister stores to find a trade in of an older phone like mine that we could use to get my battery charged so we could transfer all of my data over to a new phone. Where there is competition, you will find customer service.

But how much of a premium will you pay for that? Will you pay double for gear, which was the case when I bought my reg and my computer at the LDS vs buying over the internet? We aren't talking about saving a buck or two, but enough for another SD dive trip.

To answer your question, what will we do if there are no dive shops locally? We will travel to dive, which is what most of us landlocked people do anyway.

[WreckWench]

George if your local shop was a dive trip more on gear pricing then I'd bu yfrom the internet too. I can assure you that the dive shops we are talking about supporting are NOT that far off in price and again will call the manufacturer to be able to compete. (The manufacturer's have created this problem so many are trying to help their selling channel out.)

If you shop is not willing or can not try to be competitive or offer other services to offset the price differences...then you have no choice but to buy where you can. I think you got some gear via our OMS contracts from OTWDiver if I recall correctly. So on one hand you can say 'he is the internet' although you did not find the gear online, did not pay for it online and did not put it in a shopping cart online...so what you did was buy from a local dive shop that is in SC and not CO. You probably found out about him via SD which is online but the whole point is to EXPLORE OPTIONS...give your LDS a chance at your business and as a result a chance to survive and DON'T just use you LDS for education/sales support knowing you are going to buy online no matter what.