I just want to share the difficulties I had with one online retailer of
scuba gear, www.diversdiscount.com, so that hopefully no one else will
have to experience this.

On 1/27/01 I ordered a dive knife and leg strap from their secure
server, and immediately received e-mail confirmation of the order.

On 1/28/01 I checked their web site to find the status of my order. It
said my order had been "Pulled, preparing to ship," all order shipped
UPS ground.

On 1/30/01 my credit card was charged for the order.

On 2/3/01 I again checked the web site and found that my order had not
shipped. I emailed to find out why. They responded that I it would
arrive by 2/10/01

On 2/5/01 I again e mailed to find out why my order still had not
shipped. They said the delay was do to the need to verify my credit card
(which had been successfully charged 6 days prior), but they would be
happy to upgrade my shipping to UPS 3 day for an additional charge.

Several hours later I received another e-mail stating that one of the
items I ordered (which they said was pulled and ready to ship, BTW) was
backordered.

I demanded that my order be canceled and my card credited. As of 2/6/01
their web site shows that this has been done, but the credit has not yet
shown up on my account.

To contrast this story, let me tell you about the results I received
when ordering the same item from www.leisure-pro.com. The day I ordered
the knife via their web site (which was this past Sunday) I received a
phone call from a sales rep. stating that the knife was backordered in
the color I wanted, did I want to wait for it or get a different color
instead. I opted to wait. My card has not been charged for this order
yet, nor will it be until it is shipped.

I just thought everyone should know that there are good and bad
e-tailers out there and be careful who you shop with.

C