Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Introduction, the new voice of Tract optics here on the Campfire

Tract's business model of marketing directly to consumers, especially by trying to sell on 24hourcampfire, means they are going to have some unique issues.

With an employee readily available online at a site where consumers hang out, Tract saved a step and cut out the middle-man. Several "downsides" to this model exist, as I see it. One is that they need a factory rep on the forum who really knows his product inside and out, and is actually able to hang with the forum crowd. So far, we haven't seen that from Tract. Another downside is that any problems with their product will be quickly aired on the forum, and brought back up every time the company brings out a new product. This can be seen with other examples, for instance when someone buys a new Kimber rifle, there's invariably a bunch of guys who comment about how previous rifles would only shoot 3 MOA or not feed or whatever.

Tract also should expect to receive some good old fashioned internet trolling when they have factory reps on an internet forum. Wouldn't matter the company or product, getting a tough time is just a fact of internet forum life.

Combine all that with an arrogant salesman (Trevor), followed by a failed scope test from a tester that people actually trust (Form), and they should expect to be raked through the coals.

The requests for better testing are a natural outgrowth of the direct to consumer sales model that Tract chooses to employ. Potential buyers have wanted this sort of testing for years, and their only recourse with other companies was to go through customer service, or they just complained to middle men about the issue and it was never sent up the chain. Here we are able to request it directly with Tract's rep.

If scope companies are testing to address tracking and zero retention issues, let the consumers know about it....and not some marketing BS about 10,000 Gs, let us know how the tests work - we're on internet forums to begin with because we're a bunch of nerds who want to know the ins and outs and technical side of our junk.

As far as asking for testing, we see the most talk about it here on the Tract threads, because the factory rep is here, but that doesn't mean folks aren't pushing for the same thing with other companies - I've sent emails to Leupold about their issues, for example. But this is all stuff that could be addressed by a thick-skinned, technically proficient factory rep.

I certainly see the positives of the direct to consumer model, such as eliminating all the associated costs of a middle-man. But a downside is that if you choose to market on internet forums, your salesmen better have their big boy panties on, because internet forums are a tough arena.