Cobb Tuning to stop Mazdaspeed development

[tricache]

ditto...I have jumped on the US forums a bit and they are very "in your face" at times.

[Nirvandan]

I work at a large and successful company, dealing directly with the public
we get whinging and complaining every day and every night.
This we deal with. All successful businesses do.

But we still go to work every day and take their money off them complaints or not.

Do you see Ford, Toyota or any other large company stop making cars because they get complaints.

Who cares what the customer says as long as you get their money

No the Cobb thing appears to be a case of "we can;t do this any more" in the case of this platform
What until after the ATR is released and more might surface

Thats it.


Excuses!

[Nuliaj]

I work at a large and successful company, dealing directly with the public
we get whinging and complaining every day and every night.
This we deal with. All successful businesses do.

But we still go to work every day and take their money off them complaints or not.

Do you see Ford, Toyota or any other large company stop making cars because they get complaints.

Who cares what the customer says as long as you get their money

No the Cobb thing appears to be a case of "we can;t do this any more" in the case of this platform
What until after the ATR is released and more might surface

I disagree, at my last job as a vendor of software we had one company that would always dispute any support charges and were generally a pain in the ass, so we cut them off and stopped supporting them. We don't have to take crap from any customers especially if they're more of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Our time was better spent (business wise) on getting new clients and providing better support for other non pain in the ass clients.

Your big car company example is flawed because it's not the same market. You don't see the upper management personally involved in forums, and there's a good chance they don't even know about any of the complaints coming in. Out of sight, out of mind. When you're a company the size of Cobb, everyone is involved in the community (including Trey) and that kind of abuse and attitude from people is enough to do what we did in my last company.

[MattMPS3]

An update, we now have a slightly better wording of the original statement, from the man himself, Trey Cobb.

I still think he should sack his Marketing guy.



The decision to cease NEW development for the MAZDASPEED platform was made unilaterally within the organization. Everyone from our support staff to the engineers to the calibrators agreed that given our already limited resources, it made sense.

It should not be read that all COBB products for the MAZDASPEED platform will just go away and we won't provide warranty and our normal support for our products. We are simply stating that no NEW development will occur for this platform. We are stating this in as straight forward of a manner as possible in an attempt to set proper expectations. We have been fairly criticized by the market for not properly setting and/or meeting expectations in the past so we are trying to be more transparent in our plans moving forward. We also decided to be forthcoming about some of the reasons for our decision in hopes that the community as a whole would begin to take steps to insure a rewarding relationship between enthusiasts and companies that continue to participate in it moving forward.

The predominant opinion here at COBB still is that the MAZDASPEED vehicles are a fantastic platform with enormous potential. That's what led us into this market to begin with. One area where I think there is a lot of misconception about our company is our motivation to take on some markets/vehicles. While there has to be some degree of a business case for it in order to stay solvent, the larger factor is our enthusiasm for the vehicle and the people that own them. We want to develop relationships with the community and work WITH them to maximize the experience in owning that vehicle. Knowing you're working WITH a group of fellow enthusiasts to make the vehicle better, learn more, and having your work appreciated is extremely motivating and exciting.

As stated by Gary, the MAZDASPEED community in large part (though clearly not the WHOLE part) has been rather negative towards us for quite some time. In part, we've earned some of this negativity and we don't shy away from that. On the other hand, there are often cases were expectations are so high that we are destined to fail regardless of skill or effort. We have always sought to improve on our weaknesses and learn from our mistakes, but for quite a few people our actions will never be enough. We're quite use to facing criticism in honestly EVERY market we participate in. We've always thrived on it, as it makes our company and products better. However there is a significant difference between constructive criticism from those that want to see things improve and
destructive criticism from those that only want us to fail. The former certainly exists, but it has been the growing predominance of the later that has weighed heavily in this decision.

For those that are upset that you are being "punished" by the decision, we have a lot in common. I'm also upset that the motivation to continue development of the MAZDASPEED products has been sucked out of the company, and myself. We're both being punished by the same negative elements that flourishes in this community. Some may argue that it makes little sense for a business to take this action when there's money to be made. If money were our primary motivator, that would certainly be a valid argument. In our case, we prefer to go where we can interact positively with fellow enthusiasts and feel as though the work we are doing is appreciated. Silly notion for some, I know, but I get more enjoyment from that than from looking at some numbers on my bank statement.

Finally, I do feel things are concluding on a positive note considering that we do have the AccessTUNER Pro out now that will address the needs of MAZDASPEED AP owners for years to come. The Race version is coming shortly that will also provide the solution so many of you have been asking for. My sincere hope is that we helped the MAZDASPEED enthusiast community by providing more tools, knowledge and resources than what was available when we started. That you, and the others that purchase these vehicles in the future, will be able to achieve their goals and that our effort will have been a positive contribution.

And for those that have been so willing to work with us, it has been sincerely appreciated. We apologize that we've been unable to meet your expectations, and hope that the fruits of your effort will be enjoyed by you and others by the tuning tools we have and are making available to the community.

Best of luck to all and happy tuning,
Trey Cobb

Link here : COBB Forums - View Single Post - AccessTUNER Race for MAZDASPEED3 & MAZDASPEED6 Discussion

[teedee]

I disagree, at my last job as a vendor of software we had one company that would always dispute any support charges and were generally a pain in the ass, so we cut them off and stopped supporting them. We don't have to take crap from any customers especially if they're more of a pain in the ass than it's worth. Our time was better spent (business wise) on getting new clients and providing better support for other non pain in the ass clients.

Your big car company example is flawed because it's not the same market. You don't see the upper management personally involved in forums, and there's a good chance they don't even know about any of the complaints coming in. Out of sight, out of mind. When you're a company the size of Cobb, everyone is involved in the community (including Trey) and that kind of abuse and attitude from people is enough to do what we did in my last company.

OK you dropped ONE customer we all do that. BUT did you stop developing
software for that platform because of the complaints.
That is what Cobb is doing.

[Nuliaj]

Actually we did, we were in the process of negotiating modifications for them to the tune of five hundred thousand dollars and we dropped all that. That one customer was actually a fairly big franchise with multiple stores - the equivalent of dropping a platform.

[teedee]

Cobb apologizes ---

Apology from COBB Tuning - Mazdaspeed Forums

[Nuliaj]

I'm impressed by what they're offering to make things right - Launch Control, No shift lift and a free full featured beta of the ATR. If this is all true, then it's the best outcome we could hope for apart from Cobb deciding they want to develop for us again.

Sell your WOTBoxes! :P

[EQ]

My 2c . I run my own business if someone is happy with you they tell three people if they are pissed off they tell nine