[TenTec] Orion debacle

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

Okay, I'll weigh in on this one time:

Interesting how quickly the Ten Tec apologists can mobilize.   A year or two 
ago, it was, "Never need to buy a new rig; the firmware updates will keep 
the Orion current!"  And, "color screen?  who needs color?"

Now it's, "Oh, you didn't really think you'd keep this rig forever now did 
you?"

Some of you should be in Washington working as lobbyists.  You bend like a 
willow with every breeze from Sevierville.   I'm sure you know who you are.

No, there's no warm and fuzzy here for Ten Tec; they are a business and I 
treat them as such.

At some point, if they were to roll out a new rig, which as we all know is 
what happened, they had to pick a date and get on with it.   Some feel they 
got screwed and I sympathize.  I think it could have been handled a bit 
differently under the circumstances.  But, I'm interested in trying to 
figure out why there are bad feelings.  It's constructive to look at other 
cases.  Let's look at what happened when Icom started putting out the Pro 
III.

Pro III got announced and production started soon after (or more likely was 
already gg on) and new rigs shipped to dealers who still had plenty of Pro 
IIs.   Surprisingly, there were no Pro II blowouts, in fact, there was 
around a 4 month overlap while dealers such as AES sold both, and never 
discounted the Pro II at all.  There was also no, or vy little outrage.  
Why?   It's constructive to see what's different here.


A.  The Pro II fudamentally did what it was expected and advertized to do 
and as such was a pretty good rig.  Orion, basically had flaws from day one, 
which supposedly were to be resolved with software, but which were never 
entirely resolved.  Yes, many improvements were made, but according to some 
owners at least, not all  that were promised, hence a feeling of being 
misled.

B.  Once again, the chickens came home to roost re TT's decision to abandon 
a dealer network and go direct.  Frankly, in most cases, the JA 
manufacturers let the dealers handle the customer problems, and relations 
with them, as that is what they are good at doing.   TT is held to a high or 
higher standard if you will, because people expect some sort of ethical 
behavior (i.e. what they consider to be ethical--whether they are being 
reasonable or not is something I'm not going to address) since they are a 
small company and have a reputation or image for square dealing and straight 
shooting, deserved or not.  In any case, the heat falls directly on them; 
not AES, HRO et al.  People therefore, expected more openness.  But, see 
below:

>What gets me is how well Ten Tec kept this new Orion II a  secret.
>Ten Tec and its staff should work for the CIA. Boy can they keep it close  
>to the vest!

Do you not at all see why that was done?   Have you so quickly forgotten 
what happened with the premature original announcement 3 years ago?   TT 
announced the Orion and many people on this list pestered them endlessly 
....when when when Scott; how much longer; we can't wait; I've had my order 
in for 6 months; I want my Orion NOW; What, ANOTHER delay?  Waaaaaaa.....
Again, you know who you are, and you have no one to blame but yourselves.    
To me, TT clearly desired to avoid the problems caused by the premature 
first announcement of the Orion, the presure to ship, and the resulting 
release of a rig that was obviously rushed and not ready for prime time.  I 
believe this time they wished to avoid that by keeping the Orion II Top 
Secret, and not breathing a word about it to anyone until they were 
absolutely sure of it being in production and ready to go out the door.  
Otherwise, if they had casually said, "Oh by the way, we're working on a new 
Orion II; should be finished up in around 9 months..."  It would have been 
the same old whining, crying, stamping of feet, and bugging the hell out of 
the company staff.    As far as that's concerned I don't blame them for 
being secretive.   I doubt if they will ever mention new product plans 
again.

But anyway, the past 24 hrs.  has been interesting to watch.    It's like 
observing some kind of wierd co-dependent relationship.  Okay, now your 
assignment is to forget all of what I've just written.  I want to get back 
to reading Ten Tec animosity and more, amazing, 180 degree overnight 
reversals of attitude, from the cult.

rob/k5uj

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