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#51828
Local Dive Shops Going Out-Of-Business
Greg - 7/24/2017 9:25 AM
Category: General
Replies: 8

If you’ve known a local dive shop that has gone out-of-business, what was their reason for closing shop?

Bad location, too much competition, high prices, poor customer service?

And what do you think they could have changed to stay in business?
#20281
Subscribed
Smithsgold - 7/24/2017 1:04 PM
We have had two close and one open near us. The first shop closed due to two reasons lack of new customers and owners wanting to retire.
The second shop closed due to the owner passing away.
#20384
LatitudeAdjustment - 7/24/2017 3:57 PM
We has a LDS with their own indoor pool and had two fills sites, the father who was a commercial diver had built the business. Then he gave them to his kids :( If you walked into one of the fill stations the guy was doing handicrafts and would ignore you. The shop wasn’t maintaining the compressors and pumping water into the tanks :( When you tried to order something they would try to talk you out of it. The last straw was when they broke my SPG while servicing the reg, didn’t say anything about it, when I saw it they said it was old but didn’t even try to sell me a new one. I stopped going there and I guess everyone else did to.

Another shop opened but you had to be a member or they wouldn’t talk to you, that business model didn’t work.

There was another one I used until they became a ScubaPro only store and wouldn’t service the gear I had already bought there. One time I tried to buy a ScubaPro item but the help wouldn’t sell the one on display. That business model didn’t work either.

There was a shop I liked, seemed busy but moved out one night, I needed the police to get most of my tanks back that were in for hydro. Supposably one failed but I think was stolen by the help. Then the shop reopens a few miles away and thinks I give them my gear again, not!

The LDS I got certified in lost it’s PADI creds because the instuctor/owner showed up high for the check out dives.

The one I use for fills now retired but has the compressor at home in his garage :)
#20480
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Caloosa - 7/24/2017 3:58 PM
Bad marketing, poor location, and ultimately divorce.
#12114
Eric_R - 7/24/2017 8:34 PM
I had one close several years ago but they retired and never set themselves up to have somebody want to buy it. Another opened a few years ago and closed. From what I heard it was a bad partner relationship. The instructor that was running that one opened a new one two years ago and seems to be making it but I was refused an air fill based on my VIP sticker being of the same month I was getting filled at. I haven’t been back to that one since. Scuba stores are customer service oriented and I have one that does this very well. They get most if not all of my business.
#2259
ELLOCODIABLO - 7/25/2017 10:37 PM
Have one that will close soon. Poor cust service. Gear not properly serviced or excessive wait times. Policies change on a whim. Shame too. They have been there since 68. I had been using them for 16 yrs. Let me do my own fills,ect. Have another ive started using that is awesome but almost a 50 mile rd trip. At least he will do cave fills which most wont around here.
#14
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kparsa1 - 8/17/2017 10:28 AM
It’s been mostly location or management was changed. At least from my experience.
#65
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jjv749kdv - 10/03/2017 10:22 AM
We had a local dive shop (East York PA) that closed down after Bainbridge quarry (BSC) closed in 2015.