I am amazed that we continue to hear dishonest and misleading statements designed to scare scuba divers away from purchasing scuba gear from Internet resellers.  This morning, I was reading one of my favorite scuba chat boards and ran across a link listed in one of the user’s signature lines.  Being curious, I followed the link and found the following quote from one of the pages on the target site.

SHOULD I BUY GEAR OVER THE INTERNET TO SAVE A LITTLE MONEY?

No… Many Internet gear retailers purchase the left over inventory of dive shops that have financially failed. In some cases the equipment has been on the shelf deteriorating for years. Most equipment designs don’t change for 5-7 years. Internet gear retailers are not recognized by diving equipment manufacturers. Gear purchased over the Internet is not covered by the manufacturers lifetime warranty. Many dive shops will not repair equipment purchased on the Internet. No dive shop will do warranty work on equipment purchased on the Internet. The equipment you use while diving provides life support. Why risk injury to save a few dollars.

Quote Taken From http://www.midwestscubadiving.com/Gear.aspx

I continue to be amazed at what some scuba stores, organizations, and individuals will claim as fact, without any evidence that it is true.  First, almost all of the scuba Internet retail sites, including DiveSports.com, are fully authorized dealers for the brands we resale.  Far from being discouraged by our brand manufacturers, most of us are considered very loyal and important customers.

While “getting left over inventory from stores that have financially failed” might have been used on occasion by a few Internet resellers, this would be a very poor merchandise procurement plan.  Customers come to the Internet to get the best and the latest gear available, stuff that is often not available at a small, local scuba store.  Furthermore, while there are a lot of scuba store failures, that particular method of merchandise procurement would NEVER supply the needs of an active and robust Internet reseller.

The quote states that “no dive shop will do warranty work on equipment purchased on the Internet”.  I think this is a pretty broad and greatly inaccurate statement.  If equipment is purchased from an auhtorized dealer, no matter where that is, I would think another dealer should very willingly do service work.  If equipment is purchased on the Internet from an Authorized Dealer, what grounds would another dealer have for refusing service?  Since they get considerable revenue from they service, why would they refuse in the first place?

This quote is simply wrong and makes no sense.  The largest majority of internet resellers are fully factory authorized dealers and we trade on the Internet mostly under the same name as our brick and mortar stores.  There is no subterfuge going on here.  We aren’t pulling one over on our suppliers.  We are honest retailers who use multiple ways to distribute our merchandise.

If you are going to try to scare your customers into buying from you or someone in your cartel, at least use the truth.  Lies and misstatements like those found in this quote only harm the writer and the industry.

Phil Ellis

Fully Factory Authorized Discount Scuba Gear