Here in the Desert of Arizona you would think we wouldn’t have many shops or a sizeable community of divers but that isn’t the case. In the Phoenix metro area we have a choice of many shops besides the big box Sport Chalet. You would also think that would cause enough competition to increase customer service and decrease pricing. The fact is great customer service is only available until the shop doesn’t see your progression to the next sale of gear or training. If you should attain instructor level then you are only worth the students you personally bring to the shop. As for pricing we have some shops with pricing guarantees to match online pricing and beat local competitors. Selection is limited and many shops tactically only carry MARP brands or that is what they stock the most of. Some will even refuse to honor their guarantees and claim items are below their cost. (Don’t advertise a policy you can’t honor)
I did my open water with a shop and after asked then to call me any time a opening for a specialty or advanced class was available. They never called although a dive buddy attended a class I could have been sold. After finding this out I started doing business with another shop which I purchase my gear at. Shop #2 never followed through with any kind of after sale so I found a independent instructor that was well accredited and had a great program going for training. At the time he was all about training and building a scuba community of well trained divers. I trained with him vigorously for 3 years during that time he partnered up with a local shop and started to become more concern with sales than the quality of the service provided. After I attain PADI DM he tried to sell me the SDI Instructor course because he had not attained a course director level with PADI. I’ve looked into other nearby shop but been let down by each. There are a few further away to look into that may be different I know of one with a good reputation. I have been lucky to make acquaintance of the owner of the Primary dive shop in Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco) Mexico. He and I have formed a friendly business relationship that offers me and my club members a fixed markup that is well below the pricing locally available and in most cases below the best internet pricing on what I consider to be the best full line scuba manufacturers products. His shop has their own Dive boat which does regular trips dependent upon weather conditions. We can count on our member pricing to be lower than his posted fares and the lowest available in the area. So I guess you can say we get the best customer service from a shop 3+ hour away and south of the border. It is the closest saltwater so we consider ourselves very lucky. It has helped us grow our club offering the best deals in town to our members.