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Recent Blogs
HAIGH QUARRY OPENING FOR THE 2012 SEASON IN jANUARY?
Capt. Darrick Lorenzen
1/7/2012
No, the season at Haigh Quarry is not opening this weekend! It will open for the 2012 season on Saturday April 7th, but because of our unusually warm weather Tina has decided to give Midwest divers a chance to scratch th...

SCUBA DIVERS LEFT BEHIND IN FLORIDA
Capt. Darrick Lorenzen
10/6/2011
The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday that it was investigating RJ Diving Ventures of Miami Florida. The investigation was initiated because the dive operator left behind two tourists while they were scuba diving.   D...

10 WORST MISTAKES MADE BY RECREATIONAL DIVERS
Capt. Darrick Lorenzen
9/30/2011
1.      Don’t make safety decisions based on financial considerations! Many fatalities and injuries occur because people want diving, dive training or dive travel to be cheap, easy and fast. Always use the proper equipme...

MSD FORUMS - BASIC SCUBA DISCUSSIONS
TOPIC: Is This REALLY the Way to Market Scuba Equipment?
philellis

Joined on
12/14/2007


I just ran across this website today.  It is very nice and well organized.  Congratulations to the people who operate the site.

I do have to questions one of the articles on the website.  Under the category "Gear and Equipment", there is an article about purchasing scuba gear on the internet.  As the owner of a full-service brick and mortar scuba store, who also operates an internet retail site, I found the information to be COMPLETELY misleading.  I know this is a tactic used in the past to "convince" the new customer to purchase directly from the store, but today it simply comes off as a scare tactic.  Furthermore, the article is completely incorrect!  My vibrant internet sales operation is approved by EVERY manufacturer I represent.

Just thought I would point that out.  Thank you.


Phil Ellis

www.divesports.com

bpautsch

Joined on
1/5/2006

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the compliments on the website. We worked hard to build it and are planning to update it very soon. I was supposed to update it a long time ago with a new design and features, but other things took precedence. It should be done very soon...really.

Anyways...your comments about Internet scuba sales intrigues me a lot. I'm an NAUI Advanced Open Water Diver with Nitrox certification...a recreation diver planning to get more certs. But my main business is web design and development. I have build well over 200 websites and sell my own web software (visit my site at http://www.keylimetie.com). I have worked with a few dive shops and they're all nervous about getting into the ecommerce business. They all take about how their contracts state they cannot post pricing less than some agreed upon amount and certain items immediately lose their warranty or cannot be serviced. Is this true? Is this true for some manufacturers and not others?

Please explain the truth in Internet sales to me.


Brian Pautsch
brian@midwestscubadiving.com

hammerhead

Joined on
3/13/2006

True your at or just above the MAP price, but this is not high end stuff your selling.


It's okay, just show us on the doll where the P.A.D.I. instructor touched you.