The following is from the new owner of TEN-TEC ---------------------------------------------------------------------- As some of you may be aware, Dishtronix has purchased the assets (but not the liabilities) of Ten Tec from RKR Designs. . I had desired to keep this under wraps until Ten Tec is reorganized, but there is too much speculation concerning the service department to continue without an announcement of some sort. There is a myriad of things that must be accomplished before everything is formalized. Unfortunately these things must be done before we can continue with jobs that were sent in for repair to RKR. At this time I would ask people to be patient and please do not call or email me about your repair. When we get the phone numbers transferred successfully or new phone numbers we will post them. As we progress with the change, someone will contact you about your repair. When service resumes we will be contacting the repair customers. As some of you may be aware I have been looking at all aspects of operation of the company and restructuring operations has been necessary. In reviewing the service department accounts, it is apparent that some customers use the service department to diagnose the radio and elect to not proceed with the repair. Unfortunately this open door policy costs the company one hour of billable time to receive, unpack, open, diagnose, provide an estimate and repack a radio for return to the customer. Effective immediately, all radios including those sent in to RKR, will incur a 140.00 minimum charge to look at a radio, even if it is not repaired. Service time is 125 per hour with the average repair requiring from one to two hours. This means you can expect to pay at least 265.00 plus parts and return shipping for any repair. For customers who sent radios in to RKR which were not repaired, who object to these terms, we will return your unit to you at your expense. A second problem in the service department is with the time technicians spend on the telephone that quite often ends up having nothing to do with the Ten Tec product but is some other station deficiency. The problem here is Ten Tec is not compensated for that time, yet Ten Tec pays wages to the technician. When the service department resumes operation, Ten Tec will charge the customer for any telephone call or email that consumes more than five minutes of technician time. That time will be billed in quarter hour increments at the prevailing service rate. I am fully committed to bring Ten Tec back to a sustainable state. This will take some time. Please give us time to finalize these plans since there are so many business related issues to get through. We will definitely need to rely on you as customers to help continue the Ten Tec tradition of innovative product and cutting edge technology. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Given the content of the new owners announcement above, I (John Henry) also request that if you can wait a while for your product to get serviced in the Ten Tec service department, please let them alone until they get back with you as he described above. If you absolutely have to have your unit back now, then the service@... email address is still working, and will continue to work. The phones are in transition, so I doubt you will be able to call and get an answer for a while. once phones are set up, the numbers will be announced. Once the website is ready, everything will be on it. Remember, if going to tentec.com takes you to rkrdesignsllc.com, then the website transition has not completed yet. Given the nature of this announcement, and it will almost positively bring out more questions, again, please be patient. The new owner is working through a lot of business issues, and I myself work a full time day job and consult into the evening, so, answers may be few and far between. Though this announcement is going out to a lot of venues, I will attempt to monitor https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ten_tec_radio_net/conversations/messages 73, KI4JPL
Reasonable policies and sound business decisions. It's nice to have the formal announcement of ownership. Best wishes to the new Ten-Tec! b.
As far as the new charges, that sounds reasonable. Being a small business owner myself, I can appreciate how "just a quick question" can go on for a while and cost real money. I hope Ten-Tec can bounce back and be a real success!
Best of luck John in your efforts to get Ten-Tec back on track many of us look forward to your success.
Glad to see you are headed in the right direction. I look forward to a renewed Ten-Tec that keeps excellent products in it's product line. American manufactured and not just designed would be ideal...
I love my TenTec products and applaud your business sense to get the company back to health. I hope the transition will be as painless as is possible and hope there will be new products (American Made and Designed) soon. 73, N4KCD
Dishtronix has had a solid state amp on the market for some time now: http://www.dishtronix.com/ Make sure you're sitting down when you look at the prices... 73, Mike W0VTT
After visiting the dishtronix website I discovered that they are located not too far from me (50 miles) and that I won't be buying any amplifiers from them. Base price is 11 grand! and it can go up from there. Being nearby, I would have to pay another $600 or so in sales tax. Oh well.....
I do hope that the sky high prices for the Dishtronix watt meter and amp will not be the new pricing model for Ten Tec.
Ten Tec has a huge following, including me. I have many Ten Tec radios and have repaired hundreds over the years. Hams do not realize that time taken on the phone to help other hams takes away from repairing of a radio. And it is not billable to the company. In all fairness to that however, it helps to have schematics and manuals available for a download for hams to use themselves. I wish you well in your efforts and hope to see Ten Tec on top again. -73- Frank KG9H
Regarding pricing, I'd expect to see a significant increase. If the product was shipping below cost prior to the buyout, my guess is the new price sheet will be +50%. Certainly that will be the case for the Eagle and the Argonaut. The OMNI-VII, good question. I'm not sure what the direct competitor models are considered to be. It is pretty clear, the new management is not going to compete on a price basis with the big 3. And I don't think they should even try to play that game.
Per his own statement " I had desired to keep this under wraps until Ten Tec is reorganized,". He wanted to have ALL details worked out so that he could answer all questions without hesitation and so that customers would be confident in his answers and how he is handling the company business. But since there were so many questions from existing customers who had their rigs in TEN-TEC for service, he felt it best to make his identity known now, and to let people know the status of the service department and the service policies. I am not the owner of TEN-TEC, but since I have tried to keep people up to date, with information that was solid at the time, and because I do try to answer questions, you have no idea how many emails I myself handle daily from hams asking this or that. I don't mind, I handled as many as I could in the evenings, but it takes a lot of time and energy, and he wanted to get things set in place and operating to a point where he can spend that time. So, he is now know, Dishtronix bought the TEN-TEC brand. I wish him all the luck, 73, KI4JPL John Henry
Yikes. Like the Edsel? There are many options available to Hams today, some that barely require hardware. Take a look around around, at any HamFest, and you will see that the Ham Community is aging and fast. Those huge numbers reported by the FCC and ARRL are due to Universities, Govts, and other employers giving incentives to employees to obtain licenses..most Technicians. LISTEN, and you hear far less activity than you did 10-20 years ago. The Millenials are just not that into our hobby.. Are you aware that many small Ham related businesses are barley holding on? Expect more consolidations, buyouts and such. THE MARKETING PRINCIPLE: Study it, and follow it. You might then survive another 5-10 yrs or so, that is the TEN TEC Brand. Good news! Even today, in 2016, collectors still search for Edsels..and spend $$ on that. Good Luck.
