[WalkGood]

I was checking some freq customs for a friend and look what I found CLOSED FOR RE-TOOLING ...

Quote:

CLOSED FOR RE-TOOLING To all of you current FreQs and FreQs to be: We have some good news and we have some bad news: The Bad News: In an effort to make our growth as successful as possible, we have made some key decisions to help keep The FreQ on track for continued success. We have decided to temporarily stop taking any new sales for any of the FreQ products until after the New Year. For those of you that were thinking about purchasing, you are going to have to wait until we reopen in the New Year. The Good News: Good things come to those who wait! Having a temporary halt on new orders will give us the time and resources we need to do a complete evaluation of our company. This includes our website, products, processes and customer service. In turn, this will increase your entire experience with our company. Not only do we have our own ideas, but we have also received very valuable feedback, from all over the globe, and now we would like to implement some of those suggestions into our company. Although it might seem disappointing now, never fear, because it will have been well worth the wait when we return. We are very excited about where we will be, at this time, next year and we know that you will feel the same.

 

[ClieOS]

I guess FREQ have never foreseen themselves to be that popular (HF'er probably partially be responsible for that). I certainly don't want to see a company needs their customer to wait for several months on a pair of custom. Perhaps the temporary closing will give them time to make some change so they can carry out their business in a more efficient manner.

 

[WalkGood]

Definitely a value priced custom with a very good sq … it's no wonder head-fiers jumped on them

 

[MediumFi]

This is the kind of thing you do when you run out of money. They're probably scrambling to secure another line of equity and/or credit.

I hypothesize that Logitech led them on a merry chase, leading them to expect a major cash infusion. If Freq over extended themselves in anticipation of a Logitech acquisition, they could be in a world of hurt.

I know of one other IEM manufacturer that was approached by Logitech while they were investigating the market. Logitech got a lot of free market research and was able to profile their future competitor by dangling the golden carrot.

 

[tomjtx]

In this current credit crunch it is hard for any company to get financing.

I hope freq survives this, I wanted to buy some.

 

[WalkGood]

Hate to revive an old thread, but why start a new one. I know they were supposed to be up and running by the end of January 09, so I still check from time to time to see what’s going on at freq and see they’re still not up selling, only servicing existing customers per their web site; does anyone know what’s going on?

 

[shigzeo]

I am interested in this too as my next custom was to be a FREQ - alas, I have little hope that they will actually come back.

 

[Bilavideo]

Rumors, rumors, rumors. Ain't it fun?

One reason for a company to go on hiatus is mismanagement. Somebody made a crap product, or took their success and dug the whole team into a great big hole. That happens all the time.

But from everything I'veard, FreQ made a great product for the price. FreQ fanatics are not shrinking violets.

Another reason for a company to go on hiatus is a product overhaul. Some genius has seen the road ahead and so wants to position the company for glory as to stop everything and make that kind of 90- or 180-degree turn. This rarely happens, but rare is not the same thing as never. Steve Jobs was famously booted from Apple for giving short shrift to the company's bread and butter - the Apple II - because he saw the future and it was Mac.

This I also doubt, not so much because FreQ is unlikely to see a new and better road as because you don't have to go out of business to come up with a new product line. You can simply sell what you have while you R and D the next big thing. Why stop the cashflow when you don't have to?

A third possibility presents itself. Mind you, I have no inside information to work from. I'm just looking at the entrails and getting my FreQ on.

Maybe FreQ is about to be bought out. Maybe they're merging with, or being acquired by, some major player. How could I suggest such a thing? They're not selling any new orders. They're servicing existing clients but they're not offering anything new. The most obvious reason to stop taking on new clients is to simplify things for the acquiring company. It may want in, with an existing brand or brand strategy, but it doesn't want to inherit liability issues. Furthermore, the customers sold to today are customers it might not have when the smoke clears and a new company and product line are introduced.

Of course, this is mere conjecture. I look forward to discovering exactly what happened. Time will tell.

 

[jamato8]

Well they have been closed for almost a year so that often does not bode well.

 

[Starwind]

I'm just new to headphone world and really interested into FreQ product. Too bad they closed

I was looking into their website and thought the "New Year" means Jan 2010. Never knew they already closed for such a long time.