Group Buy: TERMINATED by Niwalker

We all like money!

Well borked let me try to explain you,

First we did clearly stated to Cellguy that all dealers must stock our products. He should not start any selling activity on any Niwalker products as he is not being approved by us yet. This kind of selling behavior is not accepted. However since the GB has started already we wanted to fulfill this order as we understand BLF community is very upset right now. We were in a discussion with Cellguy and offered some solutions to him but he just refused everything we told him. But We still wanted to work with him and we told him to remove Niwalker on the thread title but he didn`t do that. As we were not the one don`t want to proceed.

We want to sell lights as many as possible, 15 Vostro lights we sold to Vinh means nothing us. These lights are for your guys. We just can`t stand to work with a dealer that can not communicate so we decided to work with Vinh directly.

Everyone has their point of view I think we have made the best solution for this situation

Hopefully I`ve explained you well.

I think you have explained it quite well.

AmandaLee, did you notice that the number of reads in this thread is more than 4000? I think that is somewhat more than 15. I also think that should mean SOMETHING to you!

I’m fairly new to all this, and especially the “group buy” concept. But it seems to me that things went wrong from both ends of this one. Communication is a 2 way street. I think this street was full of potholes from the beginning.

I wish the best of luck to all parties involved.

I remain very impressed with Solarforce.

There has been absolutely no pieces of evidence of emails/correspondences/screen shots to back anything that it being said here.

Post 187 has some evidence to back up what I am saying... Just saying

whilst I’m bemused by the drama, I shall stick to my own personal policy of no lights from map enforcers, I really don’t need expensive lights, a personal build costing $30 fulfills my needs perfectly.

It would be nice to try a “premium brand” light, just to see the difference, unfortunately, I strongly suspect that I will be disappointed that the minor differences do not justify the vastly over inflated prices compared to a mid range host and some of the drivers now available, the emitter is still likely to be a cree and we have access to extremely high quality copper boards now to deal with the initial thermal junction that previously hindered high output, so the premium brands no longer hold that monopoly.

All they really have to offer is a warranty and dealer network, whilst that is nice, I would still incur the cost of returning the defective light and not having the use of that light till or if it is returned, a self build can be repaired in the time it takes to assemble another, for a much lower cost than the shipping alone, and in my experience, they just don’t crap out that often.

I’m done with premium brand manufacturers till they get down off their pedestal and realise that people are truly only paying for the name on the side, and at the moment, those names are mud, pure and simple.

Booo, MAP. Niwalker just lost a few more customers. Never heard of them before, I’m sure the association will stick with most who also hadn’t heard of them.

This thread should be renamed to: “R.I.P. Niwalker” :smiley:

We’ll see after Tom E is done with my BK-FA01 :wink:

A while back I watched a bunch of seagulls in a helluva squabble over a piece of tin foil. None of the needed it, and it wasn’t any good for anything anyway - but because one had it, they all wanted it enough to fight over it.

Damnedest thing I ever saw.

I would bet that Tom or Vinh should be pushing 550K after they get done with it.

The problem in my view is that it does mean an awful lot for all of us here. At first glance a manufacturer flexing muscles, a small business and a few enthusiasts deprived of a few quid savings from the purchase of a number of lights. Nothing really concerning!!!

But lets consider things not in isolation but in an overall picture… Over the last few months the use of MAP by various manufactures has escalated to now where I believe it is being used as an excuse to manipulate the minimum price that can be charged for a light. Which is in blatant disregard to laws in place to prevent such actions.

Early on this year I bought a TM26 taking advantage of an offer made my a US company run by some members on this forum. Shortly after the offer had to be withdrawn due to someone dobbing the offer to the manufacture who proceeded to successfully remove the offer.

This was followed by more instances including but not only Fasttech’s tribulations. There is also in place a deal that effectively prevents anyone in the US from purchasing a particular light from anyone but the US dealer. Not just anyone supplying that product as a competitor based in the US but from any commercial seller anywhere in the world. This takes away choice from anyone in the US. Ah nothing serious only a marginal light. But that situation plus these so called ‘MAP’ enforcements have set some IMV very dangerous presidents.

All of which are in my view wholly detrimental to us as enthusiasts wishing to get value and a bargain and choice. If this use of MAP to manipulate not just advertised price but actual selling price continues and escalates, all of us are going to suffer.

A line has to be drawn to show the manufactures that we as consumers will not tolerate the sort of behaviour we are seeing. That just because they operate outside the legal jurisdiction of the US and EU that their actions that try to enforce a minimum price that an item can be sold for, cannot and will not be tolerated by us, and that trying to do so will bring about at least a boycott of their products.

If we do not make noise and take a stand. Things are going to get worse for all. The manufactures at the behest of some of their not good dealers are going to make it very difficult for us to get anything below MRP.

If anyone chooses in this case to purchase a Niwalker product, that is totally up to them, personal freedom is all. Though I must say I am surprised at Vinh

Interesting, Let us clear things up once and for all

1. Will you STATE CATAGORICLY that at NO time have Niwalker tried to, or did ENFORCE or STIPULATE a MINIMUM price that your lights can be SOLD for.

2.Will you STATE CATAGORICLY that At NO time have Niwalker used a MAP policy to INFLUANCE or try to INFLUANCE the price that one of your products is sold at, by a dealer not just its advertised price.

3. Will you STATE CATAGORICLY that Niwalker would NOT try or actually prevent a dealer from selling one of your products at below your MAP, should that dealer wish to do so. IF they conform to the EU and USA’s legislative definition of a MAP policy.

I am guessing we dont want to name any names like FireFoxes 4 or Lips... Which I believe also came from CPF

Love it .

That is a good comment, forget where I saw it used before, very effectively. Dont think it quite applies here though, there is a big fuss yeah, but nobody needs any of these lights, so if that’s your argument, everybody needs to shut up about everything :slight_smile: And if you cant go complain about lights on BLF, where are you going to complain? But you are right, I’m very late to the party, I dont want it (although I may have wanted a modded one by Vin before this), and I’m just here to complain about the actions of companies that use MAP while I wait for someone! Think of it as your voting stub.

Those complaining about MAP have not read the thread obviously.

This reminds me one time in college, there was a student organized protest against increased tuition. It made a lot of noise and started getting some attention.

A group of pot heads saw the protest, didn’t really know what it was about, but they saw it had an anti-establishment vibe and decided to join in with their “legalize Marijuana” picket signs. And next thing you know, a protest that had been legit immediately became a farce.

In case you didn’t get my meaning, the anti-MAP cranks that have joined this thread are the pot-heads from my illustration.

This thread wasn’t about MAP.

The real problem was that the manufacturer refused to sell to a small retailer in order to preserve its relationship with a larger retailer. And then, as things progressed, instead of acting like adults, both parties acted like children.

That was the problem, not MAP.

Am I the only one who wishes that retailers and manufacturers would stop taking their fights public on our forums.

All that sh*t should be taken care of between them. Airing their laundry out it public just makes me question the professionalism of both parties.

One of the reasons that I like Illumination Supply and have been very impressed with them is that the one time they were involved in something like this, they took care of it very quietly and didn’t make a stink about it. I thought those are the kind of guys that I want to buy from, because if I ever have a problem with them I know that they’ll deal with it maturely.

I wish more retailers would have the sense to be as discreet.