Posted by tleemay on January 26, 2004 at 09:36:21:
Earlier this month I picked up a new wetsuit. I
did the good consumer thing and visited many
shops, talked to many owners, exchanged e-mail
and phone calls with a couple local custom and
rack manufacturers, etc. All small and large.
At one shop, the prominent* sales person told me
that O'Neil was no longer making dive suits and
O'Neil was considered mainly a surf suit company
nowadays. He went on to say he knew of only one
dive shop who could even order me one if they
still made them.
Now I've been to DEMA 7 of the last 8 years and
saw O'Neil promoting and I assume making deals
for their dive suits to store buyers. I know
there is more than one retailer in the SoCal
area selling O'Neil - rather heavily. I knew
from the upshot this prominent* sales person was
full of crap.
I've owned only O'Neil wetsuits for the last 10
years. I've been very happy with them. Love
their fit and cost to dive ratio over their life
span. But, I was still open to other suit brands
and designs and wanted to get the best out there
for the price.
The prominent* retailer told me they don't sell
O'Neil because they don't sell surf items and
the O'Neil quality is substandard compared to -
taa-daa, their own OEM labeled line.
Bottom line, I was lied to, but smart enough to
recognize the BS and bypass the prominent* sales
persons reccomdation to buy their line.
Anyone else have such an experience?
*he's featured in the shops printed adverts A
LOT.