Buying Online

[BoomerNJ]

If you do buy online, make sure you do your research & make sure they are an authorized dealer for the brand you buy by checking with that brands web site, i.e. check with Oceanic to make sure Leisure Pro is an authorized dealer (they are)... And check with online scuba forums like this one for other people's experience / opinions dealing with that online shop...

[dagrath]

We have quite a few LDS in the area, and one of them I really like. I took my OW classes there, and the people are helpful and friendly. I was ready to throw my credit card on the table and buy a whole rig. But they were just unwilling to get anywhere near competitive in price, so I ended up buying online (much of it at ST).

They also seemed pretty critical of brands they didn't carry, despite overwhelmingly positive reviews online of those brands and products. That made me start questioning what they told me.

I really wanted to give them money and support them, but I am not paying a steep luxury tax to have friends at a LDS.

It's a shame too, the dive shop that is 5 minutes away tries hard to make me never buy or rent from them. They won that battle, which is why I drive to the other one I mention, which is more like 20 minutes away.

[BoomerNJ]

Originally Posted by dagrath

We have quite a few LDS in the area, and one of them I really like. I took my OW classes there, and the people are helpful and friendly. I was ready to throw my credit card on the table and buy a whole rig. But they were just unwilling to get anywhere near competitive in price, so I ended up buying online (much of it at ST).

They also seemed pretty critical of brands they didn't carry, despite overwhelmingly positive reviews online of those brands and products. That made me start questioning what they told me.

I really wanted to give them money and support them, but I am not paying a steep luxury tax to have friends at a LDS.

It's a shame too, the dive shop that is 5 minutes away tries hard to make me never buy or rent from them. They won that battle, which is why I drive to the other one I mention, which is more like 20 minutes away.

+1

My LDS where I do all my training gave me the same feeling. There's another one I use for emergency repairs or adjustments to my regs as they don't care where I got them (not that I've had a problem, I just had them tweak my reg once). Also my LDS sells basically two brands of Reg. (Apeks & Poseidon) & one or maybe two brands of BCD (i can't remember the brand(s) ), but I have a great instructor & I wouldn't use anyone else so I'm stuck on that part of it. Scuba Toys is my supplier for most everything else & the level of service I have received has me wanting to move closer so I can say they are my LDS...