dying company?
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Please keep your posts friendly and on topic. No politics or discussions of a controversial nature not related to our favorite subject of flying and avionics. Offending posts may be removed or moderated.
dying company?
Today I feel like having a rant. I have to admit that I'm disappointed to have bought MGL. It's certainly cheaper, but you pay for it... Every single product I've had had to be sent back to the factory for repair (iefis explorer, 2 servos). After-sales service is almost non-existent, the forum is very inactive, local dealers, when there are any, rarely respond... In short, disappointed.
Re: dying company?
Not dying I hope, but clearly spread way too thin. That's the problem with selling at lower prices. Not enough income to hire the people it takes to support so many products and not enough engineering/testing time to perfect them. It's a difficult cycle to break out of (ask me how I know).
Re: dying company?
No we are not dying but we are in a unique situation due to our location which essentially forces us to remain at our size. The applicable limits that we have to work towards where reached around 2005 just a few years after we started. I know this does not make sense to anybody that does not live here but it's real. Essentially local laws and rules limit the amount of people we can employ and also limit the companies turnover (before we have to give part of it away).
Apart from this we are far away from anywhere, our country imposes exchange controls that make exports an exercise in red tape and frustration, shipping is expensive, import of parts for our products equally expensive - yet we make competitive products and certainly have never stopped innovating, no matter what.
In a way being forced to put a cap around our companies turnover makes us very robust - demand for our products far outstrips what we may produce. We have not taken on any new distributors for nearly 20 years and we regularly have to turn down applications for new dealers etc. Those that we have are completely independent companies not related to us in any way. That's the way it has to be.
It's true that we are not growing - and have not for almost 20 years, but that is forced upon us and we accept that is the way here. But we are certainly not dying. Sure, we have lost our Russian market (with Belarus) that was doing quite well but since our turnover limits are not country specific that immediately gets taken over by other markets.
But getting back to your issue - can you tell me a bit more. It's actually very rare that we get a servo back for repair - and then its usually an old one that has seen a hard life. Also what was wrong with your Explorer ? Again we don't get many EFIS systems in for repairs compared to the volume we actually produce. Most repairs tend to be fairly old units that require some or other form of refurbishment. Sometimes upgrades.
Yes, for support in other countries we do rely exclusively on others - it's been like that since the start.
Apart from this we are far away from anywhere, our country imposes exchange controls that make exports an exercise in red tape and frustration, shipping is expensive, import of parts for our products equally expensive - yet we make competitive products and certainly have never stopped innovating, no matter what.
In a way being forced to put a cap around our companies turnover makes us very robust - demand for our products far outstrips what we may produce. We have not taken on any new distributors for nearly 20 years and we regularly have to turn down applications for new dealers etc. Those that we have are completely independent companies not related to us in any way. That's the way it has to be.
It's true that we are not growing - and have not for almost 20 years, but that is forced upon us and we accept that is the way here. But we are certainly not dying. Sure, we have lost our Russian market (with Belarus) that was doing quite well but since our turnover limits are not country specific that immediately gets taken over by other markets.
But getting back to your issue - can you tell me a bit more. It's actually very rare that we get a servo back for repair - and then its usually an old one that has seen a hard life. Also what was wrong with your Explorer ? Again we don't get many EFIS systems in for repairs compared to the volume we actually produce. Most repairs tend to be fairly old units that require some or other form of refurbishment. Sometimes upgrades.
Yes, for support in other countries we do rely exclusively on others - it's been like that since the start.