Good point. Too bad you couldn’t make it without being a rude jackass.Look, I don't have any irrational RFID-phobia; there's one in my housecat, for Bastet's sake. I understand how handy RFID chips are in the manufacture and distribution of things, (and I'll bet you Kahr's wishing they'd used them right about now,) but if a customer doesn't want their junk to be "pingable" then that's their business.
I’ll not be purchasing any MKS products, since the corporate culture is one of rudeness to customers. I’d be too afraid that warranty claims would be handled with the same cavalier attitude for customer satisfaction.
I’ll be sure to let my 100k monthly readers know my feelings out there in “blogger land”
Way to shoot yourself in the foot, there, MKS. I'd suggest firing the asshat that wrote that presser, but it was probably a senior executive, which means your corporate culture is as rotten to the core as the Canton PD's.
I know I'm not your target market, but I'd actually considered buying one of your Chiappa rimfire 1911's. Thank you for helping me reach a decision on that purchase; I believe I'll take my business elsewhere.
36 comments:
If you want to get something that's chipped, I can assist you with disabling the chip permanently. Actually anything non metallic can be microwaved, but damage to the microwave can result. I have a microwave set aside to this purpose.
Dumb. And easily fixed.
Just put the rfid under a grip, and tell users to remove it after purchase in the user manual. Don't make a big deal of it, or poke fun at the concerned.
End of problem.
Not a tinfoil thing. Google RFID skimming identity theft for more info. This jackass acts like people who don't like carrying such things are chem-trail/reptiloid looneys.
I've emailed MKS and Hi-Point regarding how unacceptable that press release is. The emails are posted at my blog for anyone to use if they want.
I couldn't find contact info for Chiappa or MKS's other client that wasn't actually for MKS itself. The email address for Hi-Point is actually their warranty and repairs email - everything else was also directly to MKS.
Want to have a reason to put oin a tinfoil hat?
get a chip reader- they're inexpensive and you can get them anywhere- and scan household items you already have- like lighters, ammo boxes, CD's, etc. You'd be amazed at how mamy RFID chips are already in your house. Buy a hardcover book in the last year? Probably has a chip. Got an AMEX card? rfid. Most of the new tamper-evident stuff also has RFID attached. The burner on the store counter fried the tamper-evident, but leaves the RFID alone.
You want to know how to alert the 'authorities' to you? Be one of the only people out there fastidious enough to not walk around in an RFID cloud... The absense of chip is suspicious in itself.
Even better, there are now consumer smart-phones with RFID readers built in, including the Google Nexus S, the Samusung Galaxy S II, and some BlackBerrys.
Imagine what hackers will do with that!
I did but one of their rimfire 1911 22's and it was about the only gun purchase I regret ever making.
ATI's is a much much better gun
I had several issues with the Chippa, and several emails, and a couple of phone calls were not returned.
It was worse than a Jennings I owned 20 years ago, and worse than any Hi-Point I've ever shot (never owned one, but have fired a lot of them)
Sending a press release that is openly derisive of bloggers to an email distro list that includes bloggers is probably not the best way to do your job.
What's sad is that if the original piece that prompted the presser had been printed in a major magazine, none of this would have happened. They would have sent a letter to the editor, who would have printed a retraction/correction in the next issue.
Instead, they're now feeling the wrath of the entire internet directed at them. It's worth noting that the author of the press release isn't MKS or Chiappa, but rather their PR firm, Shults Media Relations.
I also have to wonder if they'll consider removal of the chip as 'unauthorized tampering that voids the warranty'?
Whatever Shultshead works for them and did that, had a really noisy wet brainfart.
Perhaps Shults Media Relations has an investment in Reynolds Aluminum?
The only problem I'm having with this mess is that there are too many different versions of this press release floating around. Oh the main content is the same, the damning lines are the same, but the body has been subtly different in every case who says THEY actually received the press release (rather than those who are just quoting from or linking too). I'm waiting for MKS's response to the mess before drawing a line personally. And either way it ought to be a fun mess to watch....
Isn't it obvious? They're gearing up to work with the ATF on Operation Fast & Furious II (Electric Boogaloo?).
Hate to say it, but it seems that there's a extra amount of Stupidity floating around my Home State of Ohio lately. First Canton, Ohio, now Dayton. Glad I have a Funeral to attend in West Virginia, then off to New England for a Blogshoot. Hate to catch whatever Bug is going around.
Of course, I could now be a Carrier helping to spread the germs....
I bought a Chiappa 1911-22 and immediately traded for a p22 it was trash. Same with the .22 dedicated AR upper my brother bought. They can put whatever they want on their guns, until they work on QC all I'll have is my 995.
Somebody needs to tell HS Precision that their HR drone is moonlighting.
Caleb, the PR firm is their agent. If they don't want to be represented by such incompetent clowns, then they should fire them - quickly.
As it is, I'll make sure not to buy any of their products in the future. And I'd never buy an RFID enabled firearm.
"I know I'm not your target market, but I'd actually considered buying one of your Chiappa rimfire 1911's. Thank you for helping me reach a decision on that purchase; I believe I'll take my business elsewhere."
If RFID weren't enough to discourage you, the absymally crappy triggers on those 1911's will. That trigger is the grittiest, heaviest, creepiest, most wretched ball of suck and fail I have ever encountered on a firearm.
Ever.
Ever take a carton of spoiled milk out of the fridge, smell it, and then out of pure masochism, invite your roomie to take a whiff, too?
That's the trigger on the Chiappa 1911.
Every single person at Phlegmmy's blogmeet a few months back passed it around: "Hey, come try the trigger on AD's Chiappa 1911. You won't friggin' believe how shitty this thing is!"
Our own country, right now, is becoming creepily like the planet Earth described in Mad Mike's "The Weapon." Maybe only a cold-blooded killer of an HVAC technician can save us now.
"Others may prefer to wrap the revolver and their head in aluminum foil, curl in a ball and watch reruns of Mel Gibson's 1997 film, Conspiracy Theory. Well, that's a plan too!"
Heh. I actually thought that was pretty funny. They clearly are unconfortably familiar with a certain % of their target market.
While I agree it's a pretty dumb thing to say in a press release instead of just at the Monday morning staff meeting, sometimes it's hard for people to get their mind around how just how cynical you can become dealing with certain types of customer idiocy over the years.
That said, I ain't buying no chipped guns. That has to be one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard of.
Why is it so very hard just to be civil and provide the facts. The tin-foil hat statement just was uncalled for. All they had to do is tell everyone the type of RFID and the reading distance. They don't specify the type and seem to think that telling us that it can only be read within 2-3" is sufficient. Problem being all you have to do is go to wikipedia and there is an article that states that many types of passive RFID tage that can be read at far greater distances.
Kind of need a form of the darwin awards for stupid marketing people.
Vision of a fat guy with a thick accent and a mustachio wearing a gray coat: Schultz (Sgt.) PR Kompany.
One of the more interesting security experiments I ever saw was a virus that could reside on an RFID chip and move to the RFID reader (and from thence to subsequently scanned RFID chips).
I'd post it for people to install in their Chiappa revolvers, but I only use my Powers for good ...
I'm having doubts about this so-called Press Release. I was able to track down the original press release from Chiappa
http://www.tiropratico.com/Cinzia_Pinzoni/RFID_chiappa.pdf
It's in Italian, so I ran it through Google's Babelfish, and got:
Chiappa Firearms always
advanced here is the new system
R.F.ID. tracing of weapons.
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is the last
frontier for the automatic identification of objects, animals or people already
established in the telecommunications and electronics, its
application is expanding in many different fields, thanks to the enormous
offers advantages over bar codes or magnetic stripes: in fact
allows remote reading, in a tenth of a second, not only of a code
but a series of information (including encrypted and not visible) contained in a
miniaturized system memory preloaded. The reading is at a distance
by special radio frequency readers.
Chiappa The Group is introducing the RFID system in its chain
production, using a microchip identification to all of his weapons
production. It 'was possible to achieve this ambitious application
thanks to a major partnership that involves primarily the Consortium
Gunsmiths Italians, who initiated the project, the company Novarex Martellago
(VE) of the RFID Solutions Group, which has created a software platform
that interfaces with the computer systems of 6 companies including Brescia
Try National Bank, as a single certification body of weapons
sports in Italy.
Chiappa Firearms over the next few months will automate processes
"Production and matriculation of the weapon", "expedition to the National Tour
Try, "" Return of the weapon, "" sale of the weapon "on the basis of the special
RFID software.
Designed specifically for the delicate application, this system has
implemented solutions to overcome the limitations of the TAG application, from
a strong presence of metallic masses, while respecting the aesthetic
product.
The microchip is a writeable, even in stages, which can be
inserted in both the visible and protected in that weapon. It 'hard to
removable without significantly altering the characteristics of the weapon and
then accompanied the weapon forever, providing all information
earnings - and upgradeable - the production cycle, as well as information
commercial property on registration and data.
Easy to imagine that the trace of the weapon is a constant
almost completely prevented the theft or use other than sport.
(cont)
I'm unable to find the subsequent press release from MKS or Shults Media, however, so I'm wondering if someone "creatively re-edited" that statement.
Until someone can show the "gun nuts are paranoids" email, I suggest we hold up on heating the tar and raiding the chicken coop.
Antibubba
Antibubba,
Sorry to say, I've had the original forwarded to my inbox.
The original is the one at Firearmblog.com. Apparently the guys at DownrangeTV redacted the more inflammatory parenthetical asides before they posted it.
Either the folks at Shults are tactless 'tards or somebody h4XX0r3d their email account. I'm leaning towards the former.
We offered the RFID thing to some agencies when I was at SIG. Almost every time, they blanched in horror due to the very same long-range detection concern.
OK, I went and checked out the PR firm's website and you just can't make this stuff up. Right there on their homepage (and by "their" I mean "his" since Shults Media Relations, LLC appears to be one man working out of his house) is says: "We are NOT in business to win awards, make ourselves look good, or to try to be clever or unique for the sake of being clever or unique."
Oh the irony; it burns.
Oh, and his press release about himself is priceless too!
---------
Shults Media Relations, LLC, Started by Jim Shults five years ago, draws on 25 years of editorial and management experience with well know industry magazines like: Modern Gun Magazine, Free Gun Magazine, Gung-Ho Magazine, and Soldier of Fortune Magazine.
PR from an Experience Shooter
Shults understands shooting and has a strong background as an experienced shooter. He has won hundreds of NRA local, state, regional and national shooting championships and set four national records. He is DCM/NRA Distinguished Rifleman, NRA Master in multiple-disciplines, outdoorsman, and with has trained and consulted SWAT and counter-terrorism units around the world.
----------
I wonder how many of those medals and awards exist only in his Xbox?
Since you are thinking about it anyway. The ATI 1911-22 mfg by GSG (German Sport Guns) is SSSSSSWWWWEEEEEEEET! I was preparing to unbox mine as I finished last cup of coffee and read this post a few hours ago. Now, a few hours and about 100 rounds later, I can get quarter groups off hand at 10 to 15 yards and it does not matter what I shoot. It will not cycle subsonics and the manual tells you that. It shoots about the same with Blazers and Thunderbolts as it does with my much more expensive target match ammo. Happy days! Happy days!
Now back to the backyard, er, range...
WV: liticu - Liticu get one of these and like it as much as I do!
Anon 1:03,
"I'm having doubts about this so-called Press Release. I was able to track down the original press release from Chiappa..."
We are not talking about Chiappa's press release.
We are discussing the press release issued by Shults, who is the PR firm employed by Chiappa's US distributor, MKS.
You can doubt all you want, but I've been in touch now with several media outlets, both dead-tree and internet, who received this horribly ill-considered presser.
MKS needs to fire Shults tout de suite and issue a retraction. (If they need any convincing, they can call Tompkins PLC or Jim Zumbo...)
I think there's a great business opportunity for Faraday aftermarket grips and flap holsters for the Rhino.
Tam, I emailed the head of MKS, and here is the response I got:
do appreciate your input and we do value our customers- current and potential future - unfortunately the last comment turned out to read like we were very uncaring and condescending- totally not the way I intended - humbly C Brown ( see below)
From: cbrown@mkssupply.com
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 21:07:46 +0000
To: Jim Cruson
ReplyTo: cbrown@mkssupply.com
Subject: Re: rfid
I agree we should have never put the tin foil thing in there- we wanted to interject some humor and it turn out looking like a jackass uncaring comment- my family has been in the firearms business since 1953 and I would never intentionally convey the feelings that the tin foil thing looked like-and sounded like - we will continue to support all shooting sports and hopefully our actions will be louder than our words! I usually sleep on a press release and have several people review it prior to release - unfortunately we were under pressure to get this out quickly. -humbly remain. C Brown Jackass of the week!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
From: Jim Cruson
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 10:43:40 -0700 (PDT)
To: cbrown@mkssupply.com
kwalton@mkssupply.com; kvanhoose@mkssupply.com
ReplyTo: Jim Cruson
Subject: rfid
You know, its not the RFID chips that I object to. But the condescending press release you issued in response to costumer concerns. I'm one of those gun blog readers that you basically called a "nut". "Nuts" like me purchase more guns than the average person. Where's the logic in insulting us? Glad to say I've never yet purchased your products. And never will now thanks to the arrogant fool who wrote that press release.
----
So he appears to be chagrined, but he still doesn't realize just how bad this is turning.
How do guys like this get to be in charge?
Antibubba
Since he just killed a major portion of his US market he'll soon find out. If the US is as major a portion of Chiappa's sales as I suspect, he may have just killed that portion of his business.
Didn't MKS/Charter Arms have another PR f***up about a year or so ago with pink gripped pistols?
And the Chiappa 1911-22 is a total POS. The ATI 1911-22, OTOH, is one of the funnest .22 pistols out there. And right reasonable on the cost. Mine has been exceptionally reliable, especially for a .22.
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