Scubastore.com delivery time?

[Diving Gecko]

Well, when I say physical store I do mean a modern one of the sort that also knows how to sell online. Eg. my go to guy for anything pneumatic is Edosub in Italy as he has good pricing and really, really knows his stuff (he’s solid for band gun stuff, too). Neossub in the same part of the world is a close second for me. And despite giving them quite a bit of business I’ve never sat foot in either one. In my own home country the guy with the best prices is a bit of an ignorant hack so it’s almost a toss up between him and scubastore. Haha.
So, yeah, it’s more the Walmart like nature of scubastore that gives me the bad conscience.
I wouldn’t be the least surprised if they don’t pay their taxes and are majorly understaffed, too - but that’s speculation for now.


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[popgun pete]

I have ordered lots of stuff from Scubastore, including many guns, and all arrived eventually, the longer delivery times being during COVID-19 which is understandable. I always avoid too many things on a single order as it could mean nothing will ship until all items are ready if an order has say 10 items on it. Attached is the tracking for a Scubastore order which had two items, a reel and a carry bag.

 

[DiveHacker]

And the cops and the court decided that DiveInn/Scubastore.com did in fact took me for a ride and not deliver the products and could not find the order anywhere and the cops and the court (PayPal) ruled in my favor against DiveInn/Scubastore.com and refunded me the money after almost 8 months of chasing scubastore to try to find where my order went and not receiving ANY answer from them except once I received an automated response telling me that they will get back to me but never did.

BTW, PayPal had ALL of the details including Scubastore's answers which weren't much and ruled in my favor. Also, if I were the first and only person to complain, one can say stuff happens, but if you read the reviews all over the internet, you'll clearly see a pattern of complaints regarding scubastore's bad business practices and many complaints about their poor customer service and the auto-attendent they have answer complaints and customer inquiries. Loads of complaints.

Well thank you for the report. I think I had missed my daily quota of caffeine yesterday, so I was in a strange mood. I am glad it all worked out well regarding the payment. I would say Paypal is probably the best with refunds like this, as I believe the vendor actually has to pay for a type of purchase insurance for the customers, which is built into the fees.

Point being, with the reports about scubastore, Paypal is probably the best way to go if someone does insist on using them.

Lastly, I believe scubastore accepts dollars, not sure about other currencies. I am sure they accept Euros. I noticed just recently how bad their conversion rates are when you go from one currency to another. It is practically robbery. So, they are the best to use for protection, but try to make sure you are paying in the currency they accept if it is a large purchase.

 

[subversive]

What makes you think that I am not back in the water? Why does it matter to you?

..it does matter to me , because i want you to be happy..
and once you go back in the water and have a great time , you may think less about all that trouble with your order.
and then maybe you could write a nice dive-report and add some nice pics or vids and make even more people happy.
shit happen sometimes to everybody. and much worst shit then your delivery problems.
ok, you wrote dozens of posts about it, informed everyone here about your misery, now just get over it.
this is an honest advise i am giving you, not an offense. have a nice weekend

 

[DivingNomad]

..it does matter to me , because i want you to be happy..

Can you please stop this patronizing BS nonsense? You have NO freaking idea of my circumstances or the kind shit I am living right now. It is none of your business, just stop your condescending crap.

I am responding to the OP's inquiry and made a couple of comments with most of them replies to your, and others', questioning. I have also provided updated on the subject of the thread, which I didn't start. What was said or what I commented is the heart of what this entire board is all about, questions, answers, opinion and updates. We don't need you to be the traffic police telling us what to do with our time and what mood we should be in, you just mind your own business and let others participate and contribute without you turning it personal and becoming our mother.

 

[DivingNomad]

I believe scubastore accepts dollars, not sure about other currencies. I am sure they accept Euros. I noticed just recently how bad their conversion rates are when you go from one currency to another. It is practically robbery. So, they are the best to use for protection, but try to make sure you are paying in the currency they accept if it is a large purchase.

Concerning currency conversions, it is a no win with Scubastore and with PayPal, you get hammered both ways. I guess that's how they make their money.

 

[DivingNomad]

One issue participants here don't realize is the money/time value and the wasted time waiting for an order that is supposed to have arrived within 21 days, per scubstore's message on the order, yet you have to wait for months and months and end up with nothing. When you make the payment, the money is out of your account into the seller's bank account. The seller, scubastore.com in this case, is playing with your money and earning interest and using it to buy other goods while you are sitting on your bum waiting for goods that don't arrive. Doing this with lots of other people, the seller is essentially getting free money to help their business while the poor customers are out the money which they could have kept in their accounts and earn interest on it or used it for more beneficial ways to them. I not only lost the money for 8 months, I have lost opportunities and income because I didn't get the spare parts and accessories I needed for my circumstances (for my courses). This is FRAUD, using other people's money without authorization to run your business as a free loan even if you end up having to return it after several months. If this happened in the US, there would have agencies that have gotten reports from the consumers and they would have acted to protect these consumers. I know, I have gone through this on several occasions as a consumer and as the expert/advocate and won on all cases. The sellers in all cases did deliver on most of the customers order but they had a high percentage of the deliveries either wrong, not delivered, defective or other issues that weren't resolved by the seller. The worst part is when their customer service department doesn't respond or is overwhelmed with angry complaining customers that they weren't resolving issues and simply ignoring them. The consumer has the right to ask for compensation and/or resolution of their issues and there has to be the tools to resolve the issues and address the grievances of the people that were wronged.

This forum, and many others, are one way to vent for the consumer their frustration with shady sellers and for the victims to warn the potential buyers from the less than honest or unprofessional vendors.

 

[Leander]

When people stop using paragraphs you know the rage is real.

I completely agree with you. Stuff like that sucks. But it's also something you can't do much about except warning others, which you did, and I am very happy about that as I was about to order from DiveInn yesterday. You convinced me to give my money to the friendly guy at the local dive shop instead.

Subversive was just trying to be nice to you. Don't throw rage to him.

 

[DivingNomad]

Subversive was just trying to be nice to you. Don't throw rage to him.

I appreciate what you said above but there is a difference between "being nice" and being condescending and patronizing others. He started from his first comment to ridicule my contribution and making my concerns and opinion sound trivial. I'd bet that he would have had a totally different attitude should he have gone through what I had gone through with the meager resources I have and the delays and financial loss I suffered because of this matter.

 

[landshark sa]

For reference I'll add my experience here too...

I SA we are lucky to have a couple of very good spearfishing specific stores. Both Rabitech and Rob Allen's dive factory tend to cater for most of my needs so it's rare for me look elsewhere. Every so often I do however buy overseas when a brand is not represented or an item is not locally available.

So after reading this thread it was with a bit of trepidation that I placed an order with Diveinn. Two of the items I ordered were not in stock so I made myself ready for a long wait but in reality the whole transaction from a Diveinn point of view went reasonably well.

I placed the order on 2020-06-29 and had to wait 14 days for the out of stock items to arrive, this was however communicated in the order status. The order was shipped the following day and arrived at the forwarding company I use in Spain the day after.

So that makes a total of 16 days, which for me is acceptable considering some of the items were out of stock.

My only irritation was because I shipped the order to an address in Spain the site kept on switching the language from English to Spanish which meant I had to keep on translating the order status page.

 

[7BDiver]

I ordered an Omer UP-W14 wetsuit from Scubastore back in June of 2020 for a considerable discount. I had much hesitation using the site considering the reviews and concern for having to ship from Spain to the US but saw that customers generally did receive their products only later than expected. Overall it took one month to receive, considering it was in the midst of the Covid bit and was in customs for a while that is not bad at all for Spain to northern Idaho. The wetsuit was received in good condition and as expected. I had no other issues nor did I contact customer support, shipment tracking was accurate.

 

[Fishstab]

Original poster here.

decided to place an order for an Omer wetsuit and some socks.

Obviously I was let down massively the first time I ordered, it was particularly annoying as it was my initial purchase of spearfishing kit and was during a spell of nice weather so literally meant I couldn’t go out with my mates.

This time It was non urgent as I’m just upgrading my wetsuit so didn’t mind if it took a few weeks. Paid with a credit card via PayPal for protection.

placed the order on Monday, paid like 50p extra for DPD delivery and got tracking details on Tuesday. Package was delivered to my house (UK) on Thursday. Total of 3 days to get here from Spain which is really good.

my advice would be:

A. Cover yourself by using PayPal/credit card
B. Don’t order anything you need urgently
C. Keep orders small, I think large orders can be held up by a single item

 

[Leander]

Yesterday I placed a small order at DiveInn/scubastore.com. Today I got a mail that the package is registered with the courier.

I figured I have the time, so let's give it a shot as the opinions between good and bad are about 50/50 here.

 

[DiveHacker]

It is funny because I was defending them earlier in the thread. Just received an order with a missing item. Completely earth shattering (seriously) as I have been quite seriously planning my life around this stuff arriving.

Plus, the item was on the invoice and it was not cheap, and I have paid a lot of import duties on an item i do not even have.

Could not be more crushed or more disappointed. Now I am supposedly gonna need to wait months for the replacment, if i get lucky and they decide to send it? Which I doubt. Plus, are they going to cover those import duties I paid for not receiving my item? I doubt that. Best case scenario and they solve everything it is a "F" for me. Definitely in the "I will never use them again" camp, unless I simply have no choice.

 

[DiveHacker]

Yesterday I placed a small order at DiveInn/scubastore.com. Today I got a mail that the package is registered with the courier.

I figured I have the time, so let's give it a shot as the opinions between good and bad are about 50/50 here.

One word I like that you mentioned was "small".

They got both of my small orders right. One was a dive computer only. The other a pole spear and tip.

This problem order was larger with about ten items and they really screwed the pooch.

To me it is totally, 100% inexcusable with these international orders. This is not amazon where things can get corrected in a day and a half. We are talking more like a month and a half for them to correct this best case scenario, which I highly doubt will even happen.

 

[popgun pete]

As I mentioned earlier it is better to split your orders, that way one item does not hold up everything else.

 

[Leander]

As I mentioned earlier it is better to split your orders, that way one item does not hold up everything else.

The shipping costs are low enough for this to be possible. It's a shame that workarounds are needed though.

I have a few domains and hosting at the web-equivalent of scubastore. Same thing there: dirt-cheap service traded for a worthless support desk. I can't help but think, if only they would put in 20% more effort at the support desk, which can be as easy as starting the computers using a timer before the start of the shift or pre-sorting mails using a script, they would be at seriously unbeatable place in the economy.

Imagine scubastore *with* good support. Would you then still order anywhere else? But I guess they have their reasons...

 

[DiveHacker]

The shipping costs I am sure depend on where you are. I can add a small item or two and pay $30 shipping. And if i add five or even ten more large items the shipping may only go up a little.

I have come to the conclusion that the money they make from shipping is a big part of their low prices, but maybe that is another topic. The item prices are highly variable depending on which country you ship to though, which is very odd.

 

[Leander]

You are of course on another continent and outside of EU/Schengen. Then of course shipping goes sky high. But within Europe most international shipping would be double the price they charge. I assume it has to do with the volume in orders, (and so does the lousy customer support of course.)

Isn't it easier/cheaper for you to order from Hong Kong or so? I get the impression freediving (not sure about spearfishing) is immensely popular over there. But that can be internet's colored vision ofc.

 

[DiveHacker]

You are of course on another continent and outside of EU/Schengen. Then of course shipping goes sky high. But within Europe most international shipping would be double the price they charge. I assume it has to do with the volume in orders, (and so does the lousy customer support of course.)

Isn't it easier/cheaper for you to order from Hong Kong or so? I get the impression freediving (not sure about spearfishing) is immensely popular over there. But that can be internet's colored vision ofc.

Will check into it. The only reason i used scubastore us when i search for something their seo just dominates. If i can find an asian based shop I would be very happy. Any suggestions? The problem is they make it very difficult to ahip here unless you are greased in like lazada or aliexpress, but they have crappy dive stuff.