AOA and Kalibgrun

Most all business decisions are profit based. Obviously they felt that using AOA, being the larger company, will enhance their bottom line. You can certainly make your feelings known to them, but I sincerely doubt that it will change anything.

My only comment is that I live a couple thousand miles away from AOA. I've made few phone calls to them and had nothing but great personal service every single time, including call backs to ensure I was satisfied and for updates. So your "certainty" based on absolutely no first hand experience is not accurate.

Why do they need to be exclusive? Why can’t Charlie keep selling them, and AOA selling them too? 
they still sore about Utah air taking FX away!

Charlie will get my support regardless, he's the best. 

AOA like to get exclusive distributorship so they can charge full price and not have to compete. Although I don’t have a bone to pick with AOA I personally view it as monopoly and don’t like to support such practice by both the reseller and manufacture. We as customers are left with no choice regardless of our experiences good or bad. 

Not taking sides here, but remember FX did the same thing to AoA. AoA got FX built up in the states and then when FX came here, they kicked AoA to the curb. Unfortunately, that's business. We can't change things, but we can act vote with where we spend our money.

AOA is an excellent shop with a high focus on customer service and support. They have never done wrong by me in any of my many, many interactions with them.

However they are a larger entity than Georgia Air Guns, so I don't believe that they will ever be able to match the time and care which Charlie put into every gun before he shipped it off to his customer.

I too would have liked to see a non-exclusive franchise for KalibrGun in the U.S., but I also don't know how the market works in any in-depth manner, or of any big or little issues with maintaining the status quo importing to multiple dealers (if that is truly what was occurring). Also, AOA is just the retail storefront for the importer/distributor Precision Airgun. Other dealers currently purchase multiple brands of airguns from Precision at wholesale. So who is to say that Charlie won't be able to get and sell KalibrGuns in the future? It may just be that he has to pay a little more for them than he previously did. So one may still be able to get their KalibrGun from Georgia Airguns in the future, but it may have to cost just a little bit more so that Charlie can still spend his time and work his magic with them, and still make a reasonable profit = remain a viable business.

So the buyer might have 2 choices - Pay a little lower price directly from AOA and get a gun which has had less set-up and adjustment, or pay a little higher price for the gun from Charlie and receive it shooting perfect for your needs. Choice is good.

And if anyone was going to become the exclusive importer for a line of guns, I am happy that it is Precision/AOA based on my dealings with them.

It's no different than other companies like FX. Their big dealerships like Utah, Pyramyd and others get preferential supply, while the small dealer sucks hind tit and only gets dribs and drabs for supply. I can't be critical of any of these dealers because I've bought from all of them, but I think the small dealers should get better treatment.

My only comment is that I live a couple thousand miles away from AOA. I've made few phone calls to them and had nothing but great personal service every single time, including call backs to ensure I was satisfied and for updates. So your "certainty" based on absolutely no first hand experience is not accurate.

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Ditto

It's no different than other companies like FX. Their big dealerships like Utah, Pyramyd and others get preferential supply, while the small dealer sucks hind tit and only gets dribs and drabs for supply. I can't be critical of any of these dealers because I've bought from all of them, but I think the small dealers should get better treatment

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Actually my last 2 FX guns weren’t from Utah air like I normally would buy from. Utah air was so slammed I would have waited months and months so I got my guns from a “small guy”. This is why I hate exclusive deals and see why FX didn’t want to deal with AOA’s exclusive requirement. 


even though I have received nothing but phenomenal service from Utah air I still do not believe/hate exclusive deal where I am completely stuck with only 1 choice. 

Like all things ... this too will soon be forgotten !

Change is a constant, always has been, always will be.

History written by the Victors & not the looser.



It sucks no doubt about about .. tho for a manufacturer, selling to a large established distributor eliminates a very large headache that having a bunch of small dealers creates.

With a single BIG GUY dealing with all the nit picky stuff, warranty and the like miens the manufacturer no longer has too. Win win for them !!



Not supporting .. just stating some facts.

You can always order one from Krale.

It's no different than other companies like FX. Their big dealerships like Utah, Pyramyd and others get preferential supply, while the small dealer sucks hind tit and only gets dribs and drabs for supply. I can't be critical of any of these dealers because I've bought from all of them, but I think the small dealers should get better treatment

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Actually my last 2 FX guns weren’t from Utah air like I normally would buy from. Utah air was so slammed I would have waited months and months so I got my guns from a “small guy”. This is why I hate exclusive deals and see why FX didn’t want to deal with AOA’s exclusive requirement. 


even though I have received nothing but phenomenal service from Utah air I still do not believe/hate exclusive deal where I am completely stuck with only 1 choice.

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Bigger dealer, bigger staff. I'm not saying you couldn't get better service from a smaller dealer but I am saying I couldn't have gotten any better service from the bigger dealer. I don't like monopolies either but it's how it this all works, And regarding pricing, I've yet to see any under retail pricing on new air guns anywhere. Go to any site and the price is the same. Usually dictated by the manufacturer. You see it in the high end kayak industry too. Now what they do with kayaks is throw in "Free" accessories to give you that much coveted discount. 

@dens228 and @long_gun_dallas Yes, I have no direct hand experience with AOA, however, I don't see how a big dealer has the staff to give the personal touch of the small guy. I seriously doubt that before AOA ships a gun they will make sure it is fully operational to the level I am told Charlie did. And from what I saw AOA is charging the same or higher prices than Charlie did, which is kind of ridiculous if you don't put in the same level of detail for the same price.

End of the day I don't like monopolies on anything, exclusive rights to sell something only benefits the supplier and seller, not the customer.

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This post is just sounding more and more like an AOA "Hit Piece". From what I have made bold in your last response it's apparent you have had ZERO dealings with either.

One dealer you were "told about" and the other you "seriously doubt".

I'm another PLUS 1 on the POSITIVE experience at AOA.
They went above and beyond!

I don’t like exclusive dealerships in general, but at the end of the day, each company makes its own decision. As I understand it, FX did NOT want to have an exclusive relationship with AoA. They set up FX-USA as the importer/distributor of FX airguns in the US and sell to multiple dealers, rather than have AoA as an exclusive dealer. Personally I prefer this approach.

I would be disappointed if Kalibergun dropped Georgia Airguns and went with AoA as an exclusive dealer, but if GA was exclusive before then I can certainly see how they could make that decision. As TMH said above, it may well be that Precision Airguns is simply opening up the whole distribution chain and will sell at wholesale to multiple dealers. In my opinion that would be best for purchasers, but I don’t own the business.

Chris

You can always order one from Krale.

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I prefer to give US dealers my money.

Did you ever think, maybe GA doesn't have the money for a larger volume of air guns? Maybe Kalibrguns wants to distribute more guns in the U.S. so they went with someone who has the finances to do it. AOA used to be a smaller business years ago, but apparently good customer service and good business decisions pays off.