by hitechsafetydisplays » Thu Jan 05, 2017 2:56 pm
Hello. I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Nap Pepin. I own a company called HiTech Safety Displays Ltd. In Alberta Canada. We are the manufacturer of the TrackPro Contour, Slot Car Track Cleaning System. We appreciate the support most of you have shown on this forum. We'd like to take the opportunity to respond to some of these comments:
Pricing
We have brought this to the market at a price point that we vetted with a number of the dealers who were interested in the product before reaching out to others. The price point makes it marginal for us but we do understand that the retail price has to be what the market will bear. We are not able to offshore this and have molds made because there is simply not enough volume to afford the investment in order to lower the manufacturing costs.
Just Wipe the Track Yourself
“A simple wipe of the track with a Swiffer before a race will yield the same result, probably in less time. That's what I've been doing on my track and it works fine. With a wider Swiffer, I can clean all lanes in one swipe, maybe two.â€
Many people find track cleaning difficult because of hard to reach places. Even if you can reach to all your track, the convenience of simply driving a slot car around or putting it in ghost mode is very appealing. Also, the slot car pushing the cleaner benefits from some tire conditioning in the process. Hand cleaning does not achieve this. The track cleaner can clean the track slot unless the track slot is too narrow. One more point, the wings that span and retract clean between fence posts, automatically. A simple wipe of the track may not yield the same result because the track cleaner is engineered with 40 points of concentrated pressure across the track lane and instantly cleans between fence posts due to the side wings. Most people are surprised at how well it works.
Cleaning Pads
“The Contour comes with a pack of cleaning pads but after they're gone, you'll have to cut some pads yourself, a rather time-consuming task if you want those pads to fit the Contour correctly.â€
It was a business decision deemed to be customer focused to provide the customer with the ability to make his own pads at a very low cost. We provide an acrylic template and information on the exact Swiffer pads to buy. Customers can buy a box of Swiffer Dry X-Large pads for $7.00 and from that, they can make up to 256 cleaning pads. We can laser cut the pads fairly quickly but it is an expensive process. If customers want the ability to buy pre-cut pads, we can look at that. Our first review on Amazon, the writer stated it was a benefit that the customer was not stuck having to buy cleaning pads from the vendor.
Surface it Works On
“Also, this thing works on smooth surfaces. If you have a somewhat abrasive surface, forget it. And I don't have a plastic track to try it but I suppose that the track joints could become a problem if they're not perfectly aligned every timeâ€
We designed this to work on smooth to moderately textured track. We state this in all ads, on the box, in the guide etc. You state it only works on smooth track but that is not true. There are some tracks that have moderate textures that still allow a Swiffer cloth to slide across. We know our product will not work on traditional Scalextric Track and Ninco. In fact we explicitly state that. Your statement about the track joints; we have seen no issues and heard no complaints about this as being an issue. If a customer is not sure about his track and how well this would work, they can take a cloth or paper towel and test wipe their track. If you are able to slide the cloth or paper towel without snagging and there is not a lot of resistance, it should work. If you buy one and it does not work on your track, we can either try to find you a solution or refund your money. We want everyone to be thrilled with the product.
SCC Customer
“The guy who makes the Contour is a customer of SCC Canada, and so are most of his slot racing buddies in the Calgary area. It would be completely stupid of me to write what I wrote just to get back at someone. I like to think that everyone who does business with me at SCC Canada is a friend and I like to think it's reciprocal. And friends tell each other everything, without holding back the more negative things. That's how friendships work.â€
You must be mistaken. I am not one of your customers and I do not have racing buddies in Calgary. I don’t live in Calgary.
Gutter Cleaning
“The Swiffer also has an advantage that the Contour does not have... it also cleans the gutters, where all the dust accumulates. When a car comes out of the slot, it goes into the gutter, sometimes 4, 5 or 6 inches from the slot. Those gutters need to be cleaned also and the Contour doesn't reach them.â€
The track cleaner effectively cleans the primary areas and the slot and between fences. Your cars will do less fish tailing. Even if they do fishtail onto the aprons and bring some particulates onto the track, it’s not like the performance is suddenly lost. If any dust is returned to the track, it tends to homogenize over the track because the tires redistribute the particulates. We haven’t seen any performance loss from what you describe. The convenience factor is significant. Remember that all you need to do is set the track cleaner on the track, run it for a few laps and you're done. I clean my track all the time because it is easy and I am obsessed with having perfect track conditions and clean tires for top performance.
SCCs Summary
“Pros:
* It does what it's meant to do.
* Fast to clean a few lanes in a pinch.
* It works well on smooth track surfaces (plastic or wood).
* It requires very little time to set up.
Cons:
* Still a bit expensive.
* Doesn't clean the gutters on wider tracks or turns.
* Doesn't work on somewhat abrasive surfaces.
* Requires that you make your own pads after the provided ones are gone.
In the end, this product is not suitable for my needsâ€
HiTech Safety Displays Summary
Pros
• Effectively cleans, slot car track rails and track slot
• Simple and fast. Simply place it on the track and push it with a slot car
• Helps condition driven tires of the pushing slot car
• Works on smooth to moderately textured track
• Automatically adjusts to varying track widths due to fences and different manufacturer’s track widths
• Comes with 10 cleaning cloths plus a cloth cutting template and material information so that customers can make their own cloths for pennies.
• Low cost (about 50% of a slot car)
• Buy it once and use it for decades
• Made in North America (Canada)
Cons
• Will not work on abrasive track such as traditional Scalextric and Ninco track
• Some lighter slot cars may not be able to push the cleaning module
I hope our comments help to clarify what our product is capable of. We spent hundreds of hours developing this product and are very proud of the results. In the couple of months that we have obtained some dealers, we have sold hundreds of units. In fact, we recently had to stop seeking new dealers until we could replenish stock. We have 7 dealers now, one of which is a German company who approached us. There are thousands of more potential dealers that we need to contact as long as we don’t oversell volumes we cannot deliver. If we can forecast higher volumes, maybe we can save some costs, somehow. Our retail packaging is too expensive. That’s a story in itself.
Regarding Scalextric Radius 1 and 2 curves: We have developed a replacement guide for people who need it. Please contact us and we will send you the part at no cost. We have contacted all of the US dealers to make them aware.
If anyone has any question or concerns, please contact us through the HiTech Safety Display website.
Thanks.
Nap Pepin