Posted by MHK on October 23, 2000 at 15:35:31:
Many of you on this list know me and have heard my positions on various issues. I generally tend not to talk poorly about specific dive shops, but rather take some opposing issues on varying forms of diving. Some agree with me, some don't, and other's could care less..
I generally stay away from specific dive shops or specific dive equipment. I have in the past given a listing of my equipment and I freely acknowledge that I like Jim Hoffman at Scuba Toys, Ken Kurtis and Billy Wright at Reef Seeker's and Carter at Mailbu. Of course there are other quality shops/owners but I'm trying to fully disclose.
I have had limited interaction with Sport Chalet and tend to avoid the chain store mentality. I just had a client ask me to take a ride post lunch to a shopping mall that had a Sport Chalet in it ( La Cienega store ). He went to pick up a suit and I said I went to look around Sport Chalet. I have certainly had my share of *issues* with respect to Sport Chalet training but I wanted to solicit other's views in terms of sales..
I walked in and the only thing of interest to me was a 6 CuFt pony ( ie; Argon ) bottle. The price was reasonable so I inquired if I could get a DIN valve as opposed to the Yoke. I wanted the same valve ( Sherwood ) but DIN. The 1st salesperson that helped me didn't know the difference between DIN and Yoke. The second person told me that the cost differential was $85 dollars. When I asked why he said he * didn't know, but that was it*. So I asked for the manager and asked him why there was such a huge difference when all I wanted to do was change the valve. I didn't want a additional valve, nor did I believe that $85 difference between the same valve ( albiet DIN -v- Yoke) was fair. He started saying that there was a significant cost difference in manufacturing DIN -v- Yoke, so I followed up and asked him why is it that OMS makes a valve that you can simply unscrew the Yoke and it becomes DIN at NO additional cost. He said he doesn't know about OMS and if they are selling convertible valves he wouldn't trust them...
I then had all three sales guys in front of me and asked if ANY of the three were certified diver's and had any had any experience with the difference between DIN and Yoke???
None of the three were certified diver's and in my view none had any clue what they were talking about..
Has anyone has similiar experiences????
Later