Update: Specialty Shooting Sports bullied to stop cross US/Canada border sales

[TOM aka critter99]

we seem to be generating enough email traffic to HW that now their email is returning this message below.

If you have not written yet please do so now 

Start with the following:

FX Airguns: inquiries@fxairguns.com
Daystate: office@daystate.com
HW: info@weihrauch-sport.de

I would add Brocock to the list as I suspect if they see success with HW they will move to Brocock next

Brocock: sales@brocock.co.uk

add you will not ever buy their products again while this continues



we could also try the Canadian side of the border maybe they will act and pressure the US side to move

http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/frm-eng/GH%C3%89T-7TDNA5


Below is what the HW inbound box is now sending out ...never did that before 

Dear Sir or Madam,

thank you very much for your enquiry. At the moment the number of incoming mails is quite high. Due to this circumstance there may be a delay in corresponding and answering. We hope for your patience and understanding.

Best regards
--
Weihrauch & Weihrauch Sport GmbH & Co.KG
Industriestr. 13, 97638 Mellrichstadt
Handelsregister: HRA 8080 AG Schweinfurt
Komplementär: Weihrauch& Weihrauch Sport Verwaltungs GmbH
(HRB 3366 AG Schweinfurt)
Geschäftsführer: Hans-Hermann Weihrauch, Stefan Weihrauch

[ptpalpha]

Got the same response. 
Keep those emails going, everyone.  If you haven't sent HW an email yet, please do so.  It's in all of our best interest, whether or not you own (or want) an HW rifle.

[Booger]

Got the same response. 
Keep those emails going, everyone.  If you haven't sent HW an email yet, please do so.  It's in all of our best interest, whether or not you own (or want) an HW rifle.

I sent them an email praising their product, when they actually reply I will drop the AOA bomb.

[dv8eod]

This is off topic and I'm sorry, but Booger? We all know what a beautiful rifle you have. But putting it on a crappy table to make it glow even brighter is just rubbing it in our faces.   

[Booger]

I am just a poor man with a nicer rifle than table. 

[Sfttailrdr46]

  Actually Jesse if you give as much love and attention to the table it will be just as pretty as the rifle 

[Booger]

Actually Jesse if you give as much love and attention to the table it will be just as pretty as the rifle 

I never refinished a table until about 30 years ago, my mother loved it so much she put it in the living room. That was my first and last refinishing job. I hand sanded it, rubbed with oil for a week and used the old stain from the sanding cycle and she was finished. My mother told me she did not know I knew how to work with wood and I told her I didn't know either. 

[ptpalpha]

Here is AoA's email response to my inquire as to their involvement in HW's decision regarding SSSO:

Begin quote:
We are an importer for Weihrauch Sport.  What nobody seems to acknowledge is that Pyramid Air and Air Rifle Headquarters are also importers for the same Weihrauch line.  We each have factory authorization to import and distribute within the United States.  Specialty Shooting Sports Outdoors is a Canadian dealer and they have the factories authorization to sell in Canada only.  This is a common agreement between an importer and a factory, and it is required due to liability concerns.  Factories have to maintain liability coverage in the countries they sell within, and they rely on their importer to carry this coverage.  We are insured for liability, and every Weihrauch we sell falls under the coverage of this policy.  Now, if we were to sell outside of our territory, the product would not be covered by our policy and may not be covered by any policy existing in that country.  So, a safety issue resulting in legal action would not get covered by any insurance, which would leave Weihrauch exposed. 

We are also 100% responsible for all warranty issues, and must cover our labor costs with no assistance from the factory.  Advertising, promotional events, videos, etc are also funded 100% by our company without any assistance from the factory.  Because of this, factories will prevent distributors from crossing territories, because they want us all to focus our efforts on the territory they assigned us.  It would be very easy for a company like SSSO to lose focus on the Canadian market by offering lower pricing across the border and reap the sales from a market that no time/money were invested in growing.  As a professional company, we do our work to advertise in various forms of media, we send product out for independent review, we have an established network of dealers with investment in their own inventory, and we keep full stock on hand to support the market.  This all comes at our expense.  Then, we continue to fund the expense of warranty labor, non-warranty parts supply and maintain a very expensive insurance policy in case something were to go seriously wrong.  A company crossing into our territory can drop his price due to low overhead and complete lack of the structure required to maintain and support a product long-term.  When something goes wrong, the customer expects us to fix the issue, support the brand, and act as an extension of the factory, irregardless of where the sale was made.

What little involvement we may have had with Weihrauch to contribute to their decision to enforce territories would have been alerting them of product being sold across territory lines.  Any issue outside of our normal operations will be recorded with the factory in order to protect our company as well as theirs.  However, we have not made any communication with Weihrauch regarding anything of this nature recently.  This is not to say that their decision was based on any recent correspondence.  Moreover, one of the other importers may have shared similar examples, and the combined issues may have caused their actions.  In any event, we are shocked to read the recent attack on our company over a situation that we are given way too much credit for its occurrence.  While we get along great with the Weihrauch company, we do not have any control over their decisions to enforce the policy they set forth to each of us as distributors.
Thank you,
Greg Glover
Airguns of Arizona
(480) 461-1113
End quote. (I highlighted the bold text; it was not bold in the original email)

[tomykay12]

zackly same  thing I got.....within a couple hours. i think they were prepared for this, tk

[GarthThomas]

I was thinking as I read the AoA response that in my experience nothing is cheaper in Canada, not our gas or oil or lumber or anything else thats manufactured here much less imported. Except maybe maple syrup. So if a Canadian seller gives a better deal than an American one then something is up.

[TOM aka critter99]

They have offered some lame excuses: Including the Canadian dealer is free riding on their warranty and advertisement expenses promoting HW and they are saving somebody from some imagined liability issue.  The US has no power restrictions on air rifles so if brought into US no problem. Germany and their products are not banned from US trade in fact Germany is on the US "most preferred nation" Trade Status List. It's not like we are sneaking banned Cuban Cigars in. Where is the liability? Air powered rifles are not firearms in the US.

Trust me on this anybody that sought out SSSO would NEVER go to them(US SOURCE) for warranty or information they want to wash their hands of them.
 
That’s why I have written HW and said I wont buy there stuff again ever if they don’t review the directive to SSSO

[TOM aka critter99]

opps dupe info

[TOM aka critter99]

Can you spell BOYCOTT TIME

[grumpy]

Tom, you do know that Brocock is now owned by the same parent company as Daystate don't ya ? Last i heard they were both even moving in to the same production facility.

[gg51]

The airgun market is so small that there's no chance of a government response, say, anti-trust .. so vote with ya feet.  I'll avoid AoA like the crabs, by abstaining from contact with them

[TOM aka critter99]

Tom, you do know that Brocock is now owned by the same parent company as Daystate don't ya ? Last i heard they were both even moving in to the same production facility.

yep

[hutnicks]

I am starting to be curious as to what SSS's actual agreement with Weirhauch states. There seems to be a pretty big lack of information here on a few fronts and that has led to a lot of speculation both here and "over there"

 It would not be uncommon for an importer to have rights to sell in only their country. I run across it almost daily and while it annoys the *(&^ out of me, I understand it's no fault of any of the importers themselves. They all point out that they can have their distributorships pulled at a moments notice for violating the terms of their agreement. This type of agreement is distasteful to me in this day and age as it limits the options of the consumer and it also eliminates a level of sales tool of the distributors.


 The above response of growing and developing the market, I take fully tongue in cheek. I don't see anywhere near the level of promotion and support on any air rifle in North America as you do in Europe. Most of our initial reads of reviews come from Europe long before anything happens over here.  American made products are the exception here and that does not apply, obviously to the HW label.

 I'd like to see AoA query the mighty and powerful Hans on the issue and post up that correspondence, that may shed a little light on the whole environment.

 

[TOM aka critter99]

Bottom line is it was done with only one mean spirited goal in mind.  Force most HW fans in US to buy from them.....the only other real source is the Beeman line

I say Boycott AOA on all brands and HW from any US outlet

[hutnicks]

Maybe and maybe not. If It's simply a report of breach of distribution agreement, there is no spirit involved whatsoever.

There is far too little information available here to make any kind of rational decision. If AoA's pricing is too high don't buy from them. There are other HW distro's in the US.

 I would like to know if all the US distributors contracts with Hans stipulate that they cannot ship to Canada though.

[grumpy]

MTC optics, One more you better add to that ever growing list tom.