Galaxy Abandons North American GPU Market @ [H]

Modred189 said:
Someone asked on the Facebook post and the Galazy rep said yes.
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I don't have an opinion one way or another, but the obvious question here is how is not selling product, yet having a RMA/support department a sustainable business proposition? Now if they were seeking new resellers, that would make sense. However, from what Kyle stated, the 2 owners of Galaxy are essentially done. And their support is running through Feb.

To me, having an RMA support department run indefinitely without any sales to back it up is pretty absurd. That is not a sustainable from an economic standpoint - you NEED the sales to pay your workforce. But it all depends on whether they're seeking new resellers. As I mentioned, it doesn't APPEAR that they are. But I could be wrong. I don't know.
 
Galaxy is based in Hong Kong. Like many companies overseas they use rep firms to sell products in the US (and other markets). The two friends Kyle referenced were not owners but simply a rep firm.
 
Well this sucks, I really don't stick to any brands, but I owned 2 Galaxy cards and my current best card a 780 is a galaxy card. I had mentioned before their was risk with a new company and galaxy reps tried to play it off like they weren't new because they have been an OEM for a while. But now we see how that ended.

One thing people should think about is that a lot of companies in Tiawan are in troubled times. The new connections to the mainland mean that a lot of them are losing their business to mainland Chinese companies. So many of them are looking for a way out and that means some are trying to flip from being a manufacturer into and end product brand. Some will make it, others will not.
 
I'm not sure how people are reading into this that Galaxy is out of business or something. They are one of the biggest brands in Japan/China/Korea and also do well in Europe. They parted ways with their rep team here in the US and have stated they are still here. I'm as cautious as anyone and if I was going to buy a card today - I'd probably go with ASUS or EVGA but when Galaxy is back on the shelf (and I think they will be), I'd look at them again. They have tried to make cards with better-than-reference features and have often done very well with that... Sounds like the rep here in the forums has been active in the past as well...

Just saying, the sky isn't falling...
 
So just to get this strait now, Galaxy hired some firm consisting of ex BFG guys to handle their North American operations. Now they have gotten rid of those guys but are not actually ceasing business in North America.

So what really happened here? Was Galaxy ever ceasing NA operations or did the guys representing them who probably had all the connections etc, logins, .... Do some damage by putting out a false claim that they are done? And why have the all the cards disappeared from some stores?
 
I was wondering why Newegg had nothing but a 660, and Amazon's offerings were dwindling, I was looking into getting one, but since they might not honor warranties, I have to look somewhere else.
 
Insomniak said:
I'm not sure how people are reading into this that Galaxy is out of business or something. They are one of the biggest brands in Japan/China/Korea and also do well in Europe. They parted ways with their rep team here in the US and have stated they are still here. I'm as cautious as anyone and if I was going to buy a card today - I'd probably go with ASUS or EVGA but when Galaxy is back on the shelf (and I think they will be), I'd look at them again. They have tried to make cards with better-than-reference features and have often done very well with that... Sounds like the rep here in the forums has been active in the past as well...

Just saying, the sky isn't falling...
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http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8674802&CatId=7387

780ti in stock at a major retailer.
 
I may be wrong here but isn't Galaxy just Foxconn's video card division? If that's the case, I doubt that their business is closing down anytime soon.
 
Following up on everything this morning with my sources I have no reason to believe that Galaxy will be able to stay/re-enter the North American market, so as of now I still stand by everything outlined in the original article.

It does look like Galaxy will have a facility to handle RMAs with in the U.S. I would GUESS that this will be operational for approximately nine months before that is likely shut down. Again all of this is simply my opinion. Galaxy has not made any statements to HardOCP. In fact Galaxy has not reached out to us in any way to explain anything that we have reported here.
 
Quartz-1 said:
Kyle, have you heard anything about their European arm, KFA?
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I do, but I do not know enough sources in Europe to verify what I hear, so I would be posting nothing but "rumors," and I don't want to do that. Too easy to get the wrong information out to you guys without truly knowing what is going on over there.
 
I cannot be specific on this information, but I would expect Galaxy to lose its NVIDIA North American Authorized Partners certification in the next 60 to 90 days if not sooner.

It looks as if Zotac will be absorbing many of the product SKUs that Galaxy has pissed away.
 
Disappointing. I'm an EVGA fanboy but I seriously considered Galaxy this year when I bought my GTX 780 and they were definitely on my radar. It's a real shame.
 
I guess we know where the fired reps went! Zotac makes nice mini systems.

Galaxy should start selling AMD stuff as well...
 
And Galaxy just sends me an email about their new 750 Ti. Guess the spam unit is still alive and kicking. :rolleyes:
 
Direfox said:
And Galaxy just sends me an email about their new 750 Ti. Guess the spam unit is still alive and kicking. :rolleyes:
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You shouldn't be receiving newsletters unless you're signed up for them. There's also a link at the bottom to unsubscribe if you so choose. If you already unsubscribed and are still getting emails, please shoot me a pm with your address and I'll make sure you're removed from the list.
 
Galaxy said:
You shouldn't be receiving newsletters unless you're signed up for them. There's also a link at the bottom to unsubscribe if you so choose. If you already unsubscribed and are still getting emails, please shoot me a pm with your address and I'll make sure you're removed from the list.
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But if Galaxy's out of the market here, why would we still get emails about product launches? Even if we're signed up for the newsletter...
 
Modred189 said:
But if Galaxy's out of the market here, why would we still get emails about product launches? Even if we're signed up for the newsletter...
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If I'm reading the newsletter right,you can still order the cards directly from their online store.
 
Modred189 said:
But if Galaxy's out of the market here, why would we still get emails about product launches? Even if we're signed up for the newsletter...
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A valid point if this were true, but we never left the North American market and have no plans to do so. If you follow the link in the newsletter, you'll see all featured products are in stock and available for purchase. They're even on sale this week--$10 off with free shipping.
 
Galaxy said:
A valid point if this were true, but we never left the North American market and have no plans to do so. If you follow the link in the newsletter, you'll see all featured products are in stock and available for purchase. They're even on sale this week--$10 off with free shipping.
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I saw that but, and I only bring this up because Galaxy's presence here in the [H] forums has been nothing short of phenomenal over the years and I think we all respect that; the GPU market is very loyalty driven. Since the last we heard was a cryptic Facebook post in the face of the [H] article, how is a consumer supposed to have faith that this isn't the beginning of an inventory sell off before the reported market departure?
I have several Galaxy cards and love them to death, but I don't want to get a shiny new GTX780 only to find out that in a month I'm on my own if something goes on it.

In other words, give us something, anything, to indicate what's going on. Some reason to believe that Galaxy's going to be there besides the short post on the Facebook page. I REALLY would like to get that 780 from you guys, but it's a steep investment and would be a huge risk...
 
But if Galaxy's out of the market here, why would we still get emails about product launches? Even if we're signed up for the newsletter...
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Galaxy said:
A valid point if this were true, but we never left the North American market and have no plans to do so. If you follow the link in the newsletter, you'll see all featured products are in stock and available for purchase. They're even on sale this week--$10 off with free shipping.
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I certainly am signed up for the newsletter, and the only reason I viewed it as spam is I spent several days trying to buy a gtx 760 off your sales site. Your website would let me add it to my cart, but not let me check-out. So I take the rumors of your lack of presence in the US market seriously. (I ended up getting a Zotac instead for what thats worth.) Right now there is ONE Galaxy card on newegg available to buy, and its only a gt 640. Amazon has more Galaxy cards in stock they did a couple weeks ago, but its still pretty sparse.

So its hard for a consumer like me to tell if you are actually in the NA market or not. If you are not, seeing an email from you advertising cards seems like useless spam. If you are indeed coming back and are going to have a strong sales presence and great warranty support, then welcome back! I am very happy with my gtx 670 I bought from you. But acting like nothing happened is pretty weak.
 
Buy left-over stock today at $10 off w/ free shipping and have no warranty support in 6-12 months! What a deal. Everyone jump on it right now!:rolleyes:
 
Galaxy said:
A valid point if this were true, but we never left the North American market and have no plans to do so. If you follow the link in the newsletter, you'll see all featured products are in stock and available for purchase. They're even on sale this week--$10 off with free shipping.
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All due respect can you cut to the chase and tell the whole story. Why are galaxy products nearly non-existent for the most part at etail? Why are etailers NOT getting new stock and they HAVEN'T been for weeks? I'm not trying to be rude, or anything, but given the facts and everything we know it seems like there's more to the story than you're telling us. Which isn't fucking cool. So, do tell, why are Galaxy products MIA from etail and retail shelves? You keep saying you have no intention of leaving, but as far as I can tell, the only thing you can buy is overstock that hasn't been sold yet and I don't feel so comfortable given that Galaxy support may be gone in 9 months.

Newegg, everything gone. Amazon? Nearly everything gone with a few discounted items selling until it runs out. Tigerdirect - same story. I could go on here. There's a recurring theme at retail and etail. NAMELY. No galaxy products. Just 1-2 here and there selling, and once they're gone they're gone. Are you selling ONLY via your website now? Can you guarantee long term support indefinitely? Can you specify why NA Galaxy cards are near gone at etail and retail?

I liked galaxy cards in the past. I was really impressed by the HOF. But I still feel there's more questions than answers here and you aren't giving them to us. Please don't tell us the PR line that you have "no intention of leaving" without telling the entire story about why Galaxy products are near non existent and retailers aren't getting ANY new stock. That's really frustrating. To hear the same line about "not leaving" over and over. It explains nothing about your etail and retail situation. If you're selling ONLY in NA via your website, that's cool. But I think many people here want answers. We aren't getting the warm fuzzy feelings with the PR line "we aren't leaving the NA market". The etail story has more going on than is being told here IMO - are new resellers being sought? Only selling via your website? I want to buy your products, but I just don't feel comfortable at this point. And i'm sure that applies to MANY others here.
 
doz said:
Buy left-over stock today at $10 off w/ free shipping and have no warranty support in 6-12 months! What a deal. Everyone jump on it right now!:rolleyes:
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Exactly how I feel! Until we get answers on what's up with the etail and retail situation, it just isn't a comfortable situation with regard to buying Galaxy cards. I mean. There HAS to be a reason why etail isn't getting ANY new stock whatsoever. It's really confusing. And it isn't being explained to us. We just keep getting told "we have no intention of leaving NA". Sorry, that line just ... doesn't explain the entire story. And if Galaxy wants to sell some stuff, i'm sure we would all feel MUCH more comfortable with a complete story and what's up at etail getting zero new stock for weeks on end. There has to be a reason for this.
 
Guys I worked in tech for 20 years (Supra, USRobotics, BFG) You have to understand the sales channel. You don't call up Newegg and say "Hey I'd like to sell my product there" and have it show up the next day, week or even month. As was mentioned in the article, Galaxy parted ways with the sales rep firm that they used here in the US. I'm sure the contracts were executed by the rep firm. That means Galaxy has to sort that out. The resellers probably have some inventory, but not for sale since they need a valid contract in place to sell it. It would be like signing up as a new vendor only with some added drama from the previous contract and rep firm.

As for the whole story, I'd say that Galaxy is being more open than most companies would be. Keep in mind that their competitors are watching. You can buy NEW stuff from their site today - if they were "selling off" their inventory, they wouldn't sell brand new skus... Do you have any guarantee that Zotac will be around in a month? I left BFG before it ran into the wall but from the outside there wasn't much warning...

Keep in mind that the story you heard was from one news source which happens to be friends with the rep firm that was involved... Not pointing fingers just wanted to point that out since it wasn't mentioned in the article.
 
Instead of telling us this, let GALAXY tell us what's going on. Let HIM explain why etail and retail stock hasn't come in for weeks. Did they get a new reseller? YES OR NO? Are they selling on their website only YES OR NO? Does their customer service have a long term contract? YES OR NO? There are completely valid reasons why people aren't comfortable buying from them and their PR line isn't cutting it. I'm sorry that bothers you but this is FACT. These things going on are NOT NORMAL for a company doing business as normal and if you think they are , you are wearing BLINDERS.

I hope you're correct but let GALAXY speak for themselves. Seriously, who are you? How do you know what's going on with them? Why does he need you for his defense force? If the galaxy rep wants us to trust him and buy with confidence, he has more ANSWERS to give us and NOT just the PR line. PERIOD! As far as i'm aware you are not galaxy. Let GALAXY tell us what's going on and let GALAXY give us more than a cheesy PR 1 liner.
 
LOL.. You crack me up. As soon as EVGA, ZOTAC and the rest of the AIB's post their confidential stock numbers, contract information, I'm sure Galaxy will jump right in. Galaxy can tell you whatever they want (or don't want)... I don't work for them.

Who am I? Same as you except I've run product divisions for companies selling millions of dollars of inventory around the world so I have a clue when it comes to this stuff.. I'm just offering my "opinion" same as Kyle's OP....
 
xoleras said:
Instead of telling us this, let GALAXY tell us what's going on. Let HIM explain why etail and retail stock hasn't come in for weeks. Did they get a new reseller? YES OR NO? Are they selling on their website only YES OR NO? Does their customer service have a long term contract? YES OR NO? There are completely valid reasons why people aren't comfortable buying from them and their PR line isn't cutting it. I'm sorry that bothers you but this is FACT. These things going on are NOT NORMAL for a company doing business as normal and if you think they are , you are wearing BLINDERS.

I hope you're correct but let GALAXY speak for themselves. Seriously, who are you? How do you know what's going on with them? Why does he need you for his defense force? If the galaxy rep wants us to trust him and buy with confidence, he has more ANSWERS to give us and NOT just the PR line. PERIOD! As far as i'm aware you are not galaxy. Let GALAXY tell us what's going on and let GALAXY give us more than a cheesy PR 1 liner.
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Speaking of cheesy one-liners ... you might say, xoleras knows how to (puts on glasses) capitalize on the situation. YYEAAAAHHH
 
Oh. Please. Whatever. You seem awfully concerned about Galaxy's sales and what their competitor's are doing, I don't give a flying fuck what Galaxy is or is not selling and do not give a flying fuck about what their competitors see or don't see in this.

If you feel confident buying from Galaxy you go right ahead and do that bro. I'm pretty sure those with common fucking sense here see the situation and see that things can go south real fast. If I can draw a parallel, when OCZ was in trouble there were probably people just like you running around saying OCZ is great. Buy with confidence, OCZ is fine. But now all of their non SSD products are without warranty. So anyone who had an OCZ PSU? They're fucked. What consumer wants to get fucked? I know I don't. And your mention of what Galaxy's competitors see blows my mind. Who. The fuck cares. Who the fuck cares what EVGA, Zotac, or anyone else is selling or what they think of this. Why should a consumer care about any of that?

But instead you're super concerned about what Galaxy's competitors see. Alrighty then, whatever you say. Who gives a fuck about what EVGA ZOTAC and other AIBs are selling. You seem concerned. I don't give a shit about any AIB is selling because i'm a consumer. Do you understand how fucking insane that sounds? Why would anyone here give a shit about what other AIBs think? I just said let Galaxy give us these answers. But you insist on defending them. In the end would I be concerned about Galaxy disappearing a year from now if I bought a 750ti off their website? Yes, yes I would. But no matter, you think what you want. You buy all the Galaxy cards you want and you defend them to the end. Pretty sure anyone who isn't insane sees the situation and takes the proper precautions as a customer. If the same thing happened to any AIB company I would treat it the same way. EVGA, Zotac, who the hell ever. If something mysterious happened with Zotac or EVGA I would take the same precautions.

As far as I can tell, Galaxy is MIA in the market and Kyle mentioned that their support has a contract that is poised to end. From what I understand Kyle also knew the owners of Galaxy's NA branch. But you know more than he does. OKAY. Now you can tell us all day long how this is all fine and dandy - I actually wanted to buy their low profile 750ti. But not if I have to send it to who knows where outside the US if they go belly up. All I want are answers. Are they getting new resellers. Are they selling only on their website. Reassurances. That is NOT reasonable - instilling confidence for us, and not giving us the tired line "we're not exiting the NA market" meanwhile their 800# has gone unanswered for some here and their etail presence has been gone for weeks. Answers that are complete are not unreasonable for a perspective consumer. That's all I'll say about Galaxy from here on out. When I see them speak up and explain things fully, that's when my confidence will be restored. As things are you'd have to be insane to think status quo is happening at Galaxy US. But..again...you buy all the cards you want to from them off their website. To me personally, the prospect of getting a 10$ discount to have a card without a warranty a year from now unless I ship it to Taiwan? Yeah, no thanks.
 
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So we went from ALL CAPS to swearing every other word.. I guess if you can't get your point across successfully, try a new tactic..

Read the thread closer. There never was a Galaxy NA office. There was a rep firm that may have called themselves that unofficially, but they had zero ownership in the actual company.

I'm in agreement with you that consumer confidence is important, and I would also want some level of confidence if I was to buy a card today. I posted that earlier.. I'd probably buy an EVGA. Or if I'm completely paranoid, I'd by an NV branded card.. They'll always be around or we're all screwed.

What I don't agree with is all of the posts trying to say that no inventory for a few weeks means going out of business. We won't know until some time in the future what the real answer. I'm simply trying to offer insight into how retail/etail sales work in this industry as someone that has been in it for many years. Hopefully that insight might be useful to some people here. That opinion is to give it some time.. That's all. Or if you want to run around with your hair on fire and swear in all caps, that is fine too.. Free world..
 
Yeah. Well, I certainly hope you're correct. I just look at it from a consumer standpoint. There have been situations in the past where I have been burned by companies having similar strange situations and I am looking at it from that perspective. And on that note, like I said, it is not too much to ask for Galaxy to give us more forthcoming answers here. If they are looking for new resellers, that's fantastic. If they're only doing website sales. Great! But tell us that, you know what I mean? If you look at what's going on there is very real concern here and since *i'm* a buyer, precautions are in order. Know what i'm saying? Like I said, since galaxy is the only AIB making low profile 750ti's I was/am interested - but not if it means, 6 months from now, that I have to deal with shipping to TW for warranty service potentially. And others have mentioned problems getting service through their support # earlier in this thread. Anyway, OCZ is a great example of a business gone wrong and as a consumer, that's just frustrating, you know.

Anyway, my bad on the language, but with the accusations frustration has built up. I can respect what you're saying here, so my bad. But then again i'm guilty of accusations too. So, like I said, I hope you're right about Galaxy here - but I would like a full explanation from their rep which I don't feel is unreasonable at all. I mean, telling us they're not leaving NA tells about .05% of the story that we should know. IMO anyway.
 
xoleras said:
If you feel confident buying from Galaxy you go right ahead and do that bro. I'm pretty sure those with common fucking sense here see the situation and see that things can go south real fast. If I can draw a parallel, when OCZ was in trouble there were probably people just like you running around saying OCZ is great. Buy with confidence, OCZ is fine. But now all of their non SSD products are without warranty. So anyone who had an OCZ PSU? They're fucked. What consumer wants to get fucked? I know I don't. And your mention of what Galaxy's competitors see blows my mind. Who. The fuck cares. Who the fuck cares what EVGA, Zotac, or anyone else is selling or what they think of this. Why should a consumer care about any of that?
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Trying to be thoughtful here about why this is such a hot button issue that anyone would be so worked up about it at all. Obviously this rage has to do with money and it seems like maybe it's personal? Like when I watch First 48 and the victim has been stabbed 97 times you kinda figure they knew the person stabbing them pretty well.

I guess warranty issues are worth going to court over and stuff like that on a large scale but to me, if I end up with a dead PSU or even a couple dead graphics cards and I am powerless to change it, I treat it like a speeding ticket and do my best to move on without giving myself or anyone else too hard a time about it. I think most of the end-users with Galaxy products will not be affected by this at all and the ones that are it's not going to matter in the sense that it's not going to change whether or not they have enough to eat or a roof over their heads.
 
Insomniak said:
Guys I worked in tech for 20 years (Supra, USRobotics, BFG) You have to understand the sales channel. ......
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Insomniak, I really appreciate your insight. But this isn't a rhetorical question...

Why do both Nvidia and AMD have the whole AIB partner system in the first place? Why don't they just control the whole thing from start to finish, and cut out the middlemen of AIB partners?
 
qdemn7 said:
Insomniak, I really appreciate your insight. But this isn't a rhetorical question...

Why do both Nvidia and AMD have the whole AIB partner system in the first place? Why don't they just control the whole thing from start to finish, and cut out the middlemen of AIB partners?
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Because manufacturing SUCKS. Sourcing parts, designing multiple skus and the differentiating systems around them, warranty issues, marketing, sales, customer service etc. Nvidia is a chip company. How many chip companies make their own parts those chips go into as well? Shoot, even Intel (a MUCH larger company) got out of that game when it stopped making mobos.

It's better to leave that to the companies that specialize in it. Let them handle all of that crap and the risks and cost associated with it.
 
Good question (and response). There are two ways to look at it. From the AIB side and from the NV side.

From the NVIDIA (or AMD) side of things, there are a number of factors. Trying to own the entire system takes a lot of work, time and money. You need everything from a chipset R&D genius to a customer support college kid to answer the phones. You need marketing programs to market to consumers, sales teams to sell into etail/retail, a HUGE support staff for Tech Support and Customer Service. You also need to carry the cost of inventory beyond just the raw materials for the chips and the teams to create and manage those things. On top of all of that you need to be better than your competitors at ALL of those things. The examples of companies that have done that successfully are very few. Apple uses Intel CPUs, NVIDIA graphics etc.

A quick detour to illustrate the point.. I love watches. Most luxury watches use movements (innards) from one of 4 companies.. ETC and Valjoux being two of the top. They sell a $20,000 watch but didn’t even make the inside! But why should they? Unless they can offer some unique thing that no one else can, let another company that is VERY good at it do the heavy lifting and I’ll just create a nice wrapper and mark it up.

Look at the PSU or Display markets. Jonny Guru can help me out here with some actual numbers but for Power Supplies, there are probably 50+ companies selling them.. I’d bet less than 6 companies actually “make” PSUs. If I wanted to sell “Insom’s POS PSUs” I could call up one of those contract manufacturer and slap a label on one. Same goes for LCD/LED screens. All of the brands you see at Best Buy aren't making their own screens. Only a handful do. The rest of them ODM (or even OEM)

What that all means is that you are better off doing the things you are really good at and let someone else do the parts they are good at. That should, in theory get consumers the best product.. Unfortunately “best” is usually pretty costly and manufacturers opt for lower quality stuff to cut cost here and there. That may not always impact the product but it is something to be aware of when looking at different purchase options as a consumer. Galaxy, Gigabyte and a few others will point out that they use specific quality parts to let you know they aren’t using crap parts. Keep in mind it is some marketing smoke and mirrors but some of it does make a difference. (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4935#ov)

NVIDIA is great at making GPUs. Why take on selling direct to consumers when you have no experience doing it? If you can’t do it well, don’t do it at all is my motto. Part of my beef with NVIDIA was that they force AIBs to market the NV brand over their own. As a result, if you look at unaided brand awareness, an "NVIDIA" graphics card will come up much more often than a “EVGA” or "Galaxy". If they truly wanted to go direct, they should have just bought EVGA (or another AIB) and turned off the rest. Now they have this weird “we make the chips but we also sell the full card” situation. I think some VP’s reasoning was that since they already do NVTTM (or whatever they call it now), how hard can it be to just make the whole package. Its just a box, manual and some cables right? Good example of someone without a clue IMO. When you are the 500lb Gorilla and the AIB’s are your bitch, you get to do stuff like that. I always thought that was a pretty dick move on their part to their AIB's. You get to set the price on the chipset AND you compete with me directly on the shelf.. nice.

From the AIB side of this, they focus on the channel relationships, customer support, tech support and marketing. For someone like Galaxy, ASUS, Gigabyte, they also make their own products so they can do some innovation as well. That does’t mean that EVGA, Zotac etc can’t, but they won’t have the some experts on staff that you’ll have at larger companies that build the product out back. There is a business opportunity to make money there (in theory).

Sorry for the long post.. at work… Hopefully some of that made sense.
 
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