High pressure tanks including SCUBA tanks must be visually inspected annually and must be hydro tested every five years. This is not a Sea Lions Dive Center requirement it is required by law. We had a customer in the dive shop recently who insisted we fill his tank without a current visual. When we refused he became quite vocal and said that we were trying to cheat him and began making other abusive and loud remarks regarding our prices. He said he could buy dive gear for half our prices at a local sporting goods store and on the Internet. We asked him to leave and his parting comment was “an informed customer is your worst enemy.”

In fact a “misinformed customer is our worst enemy.” We do our best to offer products and services at competitive prices. The sporting goods store – who has since discontinued selling dive gear – sold only low end regulators to customers only interested in price. They offered no expertise, no help selecting gear, no service and no airfills. We had a customer bring in one of these “bargain regulators.” The reg was in pieces and the sporting goods store could not even assemble the parts.

Regarding the Internet, dive store employees, including those of us at Sea Lions get very defensive when people talk about buying gear on the Internet. The internet sites skim the cream and offer the highest margin items at a discount but do not offer the lower margin items such as service and air fills.

We know you look at the Internet… so do we. Buying dive gear on the Internet is a crap shoot. Many times you will purchase the gear and it will work out for you. But when it goes bad it can go real bad. Many of the Internet sites are not authorized dealers. We sell Uwtech Computer in part because they we feel they have the best warrantee in the industry. If you buy Uwatech or ScubaPro on the Internet you do not get that warrantee no matter who you buy it from.

If you find that you would like to support our effort to offer local services but cannot resist the Internet please visit our dive gear site. You will find helpful articles on purchasing dive gear and you will also find links to Internet sites that sell dive gear. If you enter these sites through the link on our web page when you purchase we will receive a small commission but it will not increase your cost.

I apologize for the length of this rant but it is a sensitive and important issue.

For more information on the manufacture and maintenance of SCUBA tanks visit our SCUBA Tank Maintenance Website.

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http://www.squidoo.com/buydivegear