Here is a couple of posts I've made over at PB Nation regarding AKA. In short, I purchased one of their markers right after the IAO. (A Viking) I did so because I was impressed with the markers design after taking the Tech class held at the IAO.
Well, I've since come to find out that the software required to up the BPS from 13 to 27, turn on the warp (my main concern), and enable a battery saving sleep mode - that was promised via a letter with the new gun which stated that it would be ready in 2 weeks - is actually over 10 months over due, with no end in sight. Additionally, they use a proprietary fastener to put the gun together, and the removal tool, along with the kit to lower the LPR to use the advertised "pinching" feature, has been unavailable for over 2 months.
I will post a detailed description of the whole matter in the next few days, but for the time being, my opinion is do not consider purchasing an AKA product under any circumstances!!!!! They apparently have ZERO regard for paying customers and while quite happy to fleece you for your cash will leave you HIGH AND DRY with regard to the required bits to make the marker function as they advertise it. Don't get me wrong, it is one of the best constructed markers I've ever encountered - but the company that produces it is permeated with an attitude that they are doing you a favor selling you a gun. Personally, I rue the day I ever got involved with them.
-Calvin Ledford
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A little repost from off a rant I made in another thread. I'm so disgusted with AKA right now I could kick a hole in the wall From their failings with the software delivery, their ineptness at handling the software customer service issue (namely a delivery date), and their inability to keep PROPRITARY AND EXPENSIVE tools in stock - that are required to fully utilize the ADVERTISED and MARKETED functionality of their markers I am at wits end. Posting here is my only release - although tomorrow I really am going to call my state Attorney generals office and file a consumer fraud complaint. This will be based on the letter regarding the software that came with my Viking. That along with the features advertised on their web site ought to stir something up.
Aaron, if you ever read this - I bought one of your guns because I believed in you and your design principals after meeting you. I've since become more disapointed then with any other poor dealing I've ever had. I regret having investing hard earned cash in you and your company through the purchase of one of your markers. However pleased I was with the design and ruggedness of the gun it's self, that feeling has been destroyed through the crap associated with not being able to get the things I need to get it working to it's advertised potential. Purchasing/owning a paintgun is supposed to be an enjoyable, happy, fun, pleasurable experience. Purchasing an AKA product has been anything but those things. The only unusual thing is that usually it's the marker that sucks - not the company that produces it.
Anyhow, I think you need to address every AKA product owner about how your company has left them abandoned. Some specific areas to address would be:
Crappy Anno jobs still appearing.
Vaporware that is 10 months overdue and counting.
Tool kits that are over 2 months back ordered, and counting.
Sincerely,
-Calvin Ledford
THIS PISSES ME OFF!!!!Originally posted by Paintballzer
Well when i called a couple days ago to order my warp feed adapter and the LPR kits and data link (only the warp feed adapter was in stock though :crash:
I called 7 weeks ago for the LPR kit. They said that they didn't have any as they had run out of the tool (The proprietary tool I might add) and were making some more.
How many friggin weeks does it take to put the damn kits together? The more I hear about this crap the more I regret ever buying a gun from AKA. I am now a proud owner of a gun that shoots slower then everything else electronic except the shocker (opps, I’m forgetting the criminally slow Excal in last place at 10bps), that is supposed to be gentle on balls - once you turn down then LPR - but that feature is unavailable since for 7 weeks now the kits have been out of stock! The advertised feature of working with a warp feed won't work because software they promised over 10 months ago is vaporware. Oh, but I can splice into my 'noid wires for the warp - if I want to void the HYPER ANAL warrantee. A gun that other functionalities typically found in electronic markers such as sleep is still not available – until again, the software comes out.
My new mission in life is to let everyone know how bad this company sucks. I swear, I have no proof of this, but my instincts tell me that whether it be a 9/11 related defense contract or something else high dollar through the government, AKA is letting their marker business simmer on the back burner right now while they mine some other cash-cow. They are ROYALLY SCREWING all of us, and I just wonder why it is so hard for others to see. Mark my words, there is something else going on in that company right now, and while they aren't adverse at all to selling markers and fleecing customers of hard-earned cash, they have ABSOLUTLY ZERO INTEREST IN SERVICING YOU - THE PAYING CUSTOMER. I’m seeing more interest in the Viking then in any other gun right now, but I will make a prediction that AKA will never amount to squat as a real contender in the marker world – they may make a fine gun, but they’ll never be more then a curiosity. Once people see past the gun and find out how little regard the business has for the owner that will be then end. I just wish I’d seen it before wasting my money. You know AJ and TI (and everyone else who blindly supports AKA), you guys might call me disgruntled, a complainer, or a cry-baby, but were does any company get the right to sell an $800 product that is supposed be used for enjoyment but instead causes nothing but misery? I have never been this disappointed in a purchase of anything in my life. I won’t even look at my Viking anymore, which arguably *could be* the flagship of my collection, this crap bothers me so much. Where do they get the right to treat us like this? What the hell are they thinking? Why after all of the disappointments (lies in my book), failures, and displays of inability to run a business do you guys still support them? (These are not rhetorical questions.)
AKA didn’t do me a favor selling me a gun, I did them one by purchasing it – but they seem to forget that.
My 2 cents...
-Calvin