That is not how this was described. This wasn't a Matthews-exclusive bow dealer shooting a buck with a Hoyt and advertising it. They did a test to compare models, and the results were posted. No bias. Matthews isnt even the ONLY bow they sell, and the fact that they afterwords pulled there bows shows that Matthews is a pretty damn sore loser, which is sad for such a large company int he industry.
I think we can all agree, both sides will continue on just fine. Business it business, regardless of how crappy it might be for one side or the other, both the supplier and the seller will move on. Do I think the seller should be able to participate in an independent study, yes, do I think the supplier can pull their items off a seller's shelf if they want, yes. Sometimes honesty can cause repercussions in the business world, and both sides are well aware of that when they enter a contract.
People, companies...they can pretty much do whatever they want. How we as consumers/the public perceive them afterwords is what matters (if you ask me)
I think there is more to the story. Remember there are 3 sides to every story...yours - mine - the truth.
You may be right, but I'm sure that Mathews will be just fine, just like I'm sure Hinton Archery will be just fine. Like I said, it's just business. Right or wrong, that's the way things work in the business world.
Oh absolutely, and that's the price/gain companies get for their actions. It's like the Chik-fil-a and gay marriage deal, it ended up making them a lot of money because people showed support for them. Or you can also look at a company that made a bad decision and suffered great losses - it can go both ways.
I can tell you this. If I was the owner of a shop I would NEVER NEVER participate in anything like that. The shop I work at we ask shoot different bows but would never give our personal opinion to anyone on any bow in that fashion. If as a dealer u are under contract to seek a manufactures bow you have agreed to help promote that product so if u dint believe in it then don't carry it. So IMO mathews was correct in terminating the dealer. If I loved Ford I wouldn't own a Chevy dealership Sent from my SGH-T999L using Tapatalk 2
For all matthews knows, that shop owner picked Matthews as the top bow and the other testers may have picked it low. I believe it is hard for an owner of a shop to realistically be objective when they have a vested interest in their product doing well. It looks like this guy actually tried to, but who knows on tests like this. The others could have caused the bad ranking. It looks bad for Matthews to do that in my mind. Matthews does have contracts with shops and maybe this was a violation?
It won't impact either company very much. Mathews guys will stay with Mathews anyway, other shooters will stay with whatever they are with and the new folks will probably never hear of the conflict. Speaking as a Hoyt guy though, had Mathews stood up and made an honest effort to applaude their dealers objectivity and made strides to work with them and improve their product...I would have been impressed enough to look harder at Mathews the next time I wanted a new bow rig. Mathews could have handled it way better and gained a big chunk of convert business had they used it to their advantage.
Well, it's obvious that this incident didn't make you dislike Mathews. It just gave you another reason to dislike them. I suppose you're right, though. The Mathews fans will agree with it. The Mathews haters will cry "foul". Then there are some who just step back and look at it from a business perspective. Some of those will say that it's bad business. Some will say that it's within their right. The bottom line is that it's just one of those things that no-one is going to be able to agree on and this is one of those threads started by someone who dislikes a brand (in this case Mathews), saw something they thought could be used against them and posted it here to watch the show. I made the mistake of posting my opinion. One of these days I'm going to learn to just stay out of it and let these stupid threads run their course without my input.
I like the passion. Without people expressing, it would be no fun for anyone. You might feel bad for taking a stand sometimes, but do it, we all learn from it.
I think matthews overreacted. I have not read the article that the bow shop posted, but their flagship bows are not their fastest shooting bows on the market. It really depends on what tests they did to determine their rankings. I understand they don't like being rated near the bottom in a big magazine like that. But I don't think you are winning any points by dropping the shop. But to each his own. I don't think I would pay the price personally, but maybe one day if I had more money I would consider it. But for a hunter on a budget I am not sure matthews is on your list of considerations.
Who know's if there's more to the situation than what is being told, but if Mathews dropped a dealer because their bows scored too low in a comparison, than shame on them. They should strive to build the best bow, not market their bow as the best. Maybe the dealer should have turned down the opportunity from Field & Stream, but that would be a tough decision to.
Lets look at this objectively and leave the emotions out of it. First, Mathews is in the business for one reason, to sell bows. Period. Second, Mathews limits the number of dealers. I believe they require dealerships to be 20 miles apart. Third, no matter what, all bow tests have some sort of opinion built into them. Fourth, this archery shop knew full well what the ramifications could be after the test was finished. If not, they are fools. There are a multitude of dealers out there that would love to sell Mathews bows, but can't because they are too close to a current Mathews dealer. Once this "test" was released to the public in a national publication it was obvious to Mathews that this shop wasn't going to be pushing their product, they will sell the other manufacturer's bows first. So, why would they not pull the supply from this dealership and give it to someone who will sell their bows.....that want's to? Mathews had every right to do what they did and I would have done the same thing if I was in their shoes.
The fella obviously placed personal integrity over commercial interest to the point of shooting himself in the foot...cue the Al Pacino footage from Scent of a Woman. Regarding Mathews, (who limit dealer overlap to a 50 mile radius) who can blame them for looking out for their own commercial interests, by switching to another dealer. From what I can tell even the mid-priced bows will shoot to a level of accuracy well beyond the capabilities of the average bow hunter. That is to say, these bows will drive tacks a 40 in a shooting machine. I'm shooting a 2009 Alphamax which more than holds up its end in speed and accuracy. Two years ago one of the limbs had a tiny sliver of glass exposed and pro shop contacted Hoyt; 10 days later the Alphamax sported brandy new limbs. If you think about the human side of the man/machine performance equation drives the archery market. Lots of folks buy the latest and greatest bow believing it will make them a better archer. Ironically, it usually does, due to the additional practice incurred with owning a new toy. Anyway, (ranting here) the main thing is to find an honest pro shop and to practice shooting. Of, course the guys buying bows every year are our friends, because they drive innovation and provide a secondary market for perfectly good equipment. IMHO, parallel limb technology is the latest revolutionary advance in bow technology.
Mike is right on this one. It was pretty dumb on the shop owner's side to do this. He should have suggested an INDEPENDENT LAB... they have those, that is what they do. Instead he took it upon himself to give an unbiased opinion, which I'm sure he thinks he did. Unfortunately, while doing so, he bashed one of his product lines, that's a big no-no. Mathews awards dealerships the rights to sell their bows. So when Mathwes pulls their contract, it is as though a sponsor pulled his funding to a race team. Sure they don't pay the dealer to sell the bows, but the dealer does profit for doing so. If it were my product and a shop selling it went on record saying it was a low performer, I would pull it too. He's not going to do as good of job selling the product. He can go online and complain, but I'm sure he knows by now he messed up in accepting the request. I just hope they take his contract and give it to my local shop who doesn't sell Mathews but is an awesome shop.
Perhaps Mathews should put something to the such in their contract with dealers, that they cannot participate in product reviews.
