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Could not have said it better myself. LOL
Andrew (M.S.D.)
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One of the biggest things that I notice in the local shop industry is the sense of superiority. Those people that, because they are a DM or an instructor, feel that they are condesending to talk to a customer. Even those who have only been diving a little but work in a shop close to a local hot spot, act like they’re doing you a favor by talking to you. I’m the customer, I am the one that pays, and I have a few dive certs myself that you may not even know about. Come down off of your ivory tower and deal with us, or out the door you go!!
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I’ve been diving for better than 30 years and I wish I could say that I’ve never experienced the type of treatment that has been described in this posting. Unfortunately, there are a few folks who work in the industry, who "just don’t get it..." when it comes to good customer service.
The dive industry is very much like any other industry. Just as we run in to rude or unknowledgable people at the auto parts store or the hardware store, we experience much the same thing at the dive stores.
Luckily, I have found these experiences to be few and far between. For the most part, my experiences have been good ones. The only real problems that I have had are when dealing with the "Big Chain Dive Stores" and usually it is a problem with inexperienced ot unknowledgable sales people.
I can say that my Local dive shop has been excellent from the first day that I walked in to the door, almost seven years ago. I wish that all LDS’s were so good...
Seawolf sends (anonymously, of course...)
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I think you really hit on a GREAT topic.
Most of the time, no matter what the level you are, Divers/Dive Shops are a warm and welcoming group/place; but I have been to a couple dive places were folks seem to think they are better than you. I don’t care if you have been diving for 1 day or before I was a thought in my parents mind, we all share the love of diving for some of the same reasons. Lets keep diving the fun group activity that it should be with a lot of GREAT people to be around. If you can’t do that, go dive in a tar pit.
Oh, and if you own a dive shop...these are though times, threat your customers with respect, we can go somewhere else. For many of us, this is still a leisure activity, everyone is watching their spending; we are trying to survive just like you.
Jamie
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I’ve asked myself the same thing and the worst experience was in a competition rich environment which completely blew my mind..."I can walk 25 feet down the street and dive with someone else." Key Largo of all places at what is advertised as a romantic Dive Resort. Once you become more concerned about your money than the diving and how your customers are treated it is time to get out.
I know I’m not crazy because I know some of their employees who are now leaving to go elsewhere to avoid being associated with them. Why are we doing this anonymously again????
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Why are we doing this anonymously again????
To protect the innocent :-)
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I’m not a fan of anonymous. Protect the innocent? There is no such thing. Grab a Sharpie(r) and "Write Out Loud!" or don’t bother to write at all.
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OK, OK, My experience is similar, When I was in Idaho there was only one dive shop for quite a distance, and those people were awesome. When I moved to Utah, I found dive shops all over the valley . It is amazing to me how many of these jokers are conceited, rude, and arrogant. The best dive shops in this area are outside of the city and in the fringe towns.
I don’t understand the psychology of it but I do shop where the service is friendly, and helpful. The rude shops never see me twice. Man is it easy to go off on a rant..... so I will stop. Brent
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I, unfortunately, know several rude people. I’m just a beginner and visited many dive shops looking for my OW class. I ran across vary arrogent and just rude people. I met some that didn’t listen to my comments an would try to get me to spend tons of money instead of showing me the entry level stuff I asked for. I am slowly upgrading my equipment as needed, but I certainly don’t need the $700 BCD setup to find out if I like diving. I was told "in case I want to cave dive" blah blah... Well several years later I still don’t desire cave diving. All I want is to get treated nicely and don’t get snotty if I say I’m looking for entry level stuff. As I said, I know of stores in Columbus Ohio I won’t buy from.
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I am a relatively new diver and I trusted a dive shop-Once. As a single diver, diving a new location, I had requested a trained guide for the dive: thought they had assigned me one. What they had done (in their arrogance) had decided was to assign me to a guy who had dove with them a several times before and was pretty cocky. As a newbie, I figured, they new what they were talking about.
A squall kicked up. My ’guide’ got very lost and wide eyed panicked-an extreme panic and swam off three times. I had to catch up to him.. and try to calm him down. The storm on the surface was really getting nasty. I got him back close enough to the boat so they could see us-I never realized exactly how small a boat can looklike a little toy. When all was finally said and done-I had gotten him back to the boat in 20-25 foot swells. Would you believe they were "getting ready to go get help."
There rudeness when I got back on the boar was ridiculous. They were helpful in getting me on, but then the way they talked to me. I thought it better to keep my mouth tightly clamped considering the best-that we were OK and safe.
They-of thier own accord-did not listen to me or honor my request, nor take me seriously. They totally set me up with some guy that was not throughly trained and couldn’t navigate to find his ’big toe.’
It was pretty rude and it was also very dangerous.
Won’t go back there anytime soon.
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For the most part people are in this business for the love of the sport and are helpfull, the problem with some is they love the sport but don’t know how to run a business.
One LDS was built by the father and then given to the sons who were freindly but didn’t want to be bothered selling things and would do their best to talk you out of things. They once broke my SPG while serviceing the reg and didn’t even want to sell me the replacement. What killed that shop is they didn’t service the compressor and got a reputation for pumping water.
My biggest problem has been with freshly minted DM’s who think they now know everything but have very few dives or only dive one location. There was an old DM with a lot of dives in a landlocked state who on his first ocean dive in Cayman didn’t know how to dive in a current, hadn’t listened to the briefing and went down current. The boat had to recall all divers to go pick him up!
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