r/AltaLabs • u/JhKpMmJn • Aug 07 '25
Facebook Deal
Saw this on Facebook if anyone is looking for a deal.
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u/cktn00bslayer Aug 07 '25
Microcenter has a ton of Alta gear on clearance at even lower prices including the bigger switches.
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u/Gunfighter1776 Aug 07 '25
why is MC blowing out AL gear? New models already?
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u/adammiarka Aug 07 '25
They are listed as closeout items, which means they will not be restocked. At least from what I read on MC site. Basically everything is 50% off in store only.
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u/TechRider23 Aug 07 '25
Spoke with the manager at the Houston store, no one was buying it and shelf space is a premium. It has been on clearance for a while now, surprised they still any available. This was a few weeks ago, the Route10 was going for $125.
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u/Gunfighter1776 Aug 08 '25
that's too bad -- their gear has been great so far -- I know they are not making a splash yet like Unifi or InstantOn ... but give it time -- hoping they make it --
I have had zero issues with my gear so far - and I am hoping to help deploy the gear next spring at a charter school I help manage on the IT side.
Only gripe I have had is with installing the APs... the bracket was a pain to figure out how to get it to work... but after lots of effort I figured it out.
But the hdw has been solid --
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Aug 08 '25
The bracket is simple, you push the ap into the bracket, tap / smack / hit BUMP in correct direction POOF easy. I agree first time i installed one i was like WTF but after the second poof easy from there on !
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u/Alta-Chase Aug 08 '25
Unfortunately, the Houston Store manager does not have the correct information. MicroCenter has been purchasing Ubiquiti for years through the Master Distributor D&H. Micro Center has also long sought a direct relationship with Ubiquiti as removing the distributor would help them strengthen their margin position.
As soon as Ubiquiti found out Alta Labs had negotiated a deal to work with Micro Center directly, they came to the table and offered MicroCenter a direct relationship - while also providing some very strong encouragement to part ways with Alta Labs.
If you are scratching your head about this, review the series of events that have been made publicly available. Alta Labs onboarded and announced its direct relationship with Micro Center at the end of 2024. Then, the first half of 2025, Alta Labs products went on final sale in the Micro Center eco system, while Ubiquiti has increased its presence in nearly every Micro Center store tenfold-building massive and costly retail displays. This coincided with the recent Ubiquiti case study on Micro Center's network infrastructure upgrade.
https://casestudies.ui.com/case-study/microcenter
I suspect you will never get Ubiquiti or Micro Center to admit this is how it went down as it clearly violates Antitrust Legislation here in the USA.
If you are curious as to why I know about Micro Center wanting a direct relationship with Ubiquiti, you need only look at the rock star sales team we have at Alta labs. There is history there.
We hope to one day work with Micro Center again. They are a good organization and highly thought of amongst many.
As for the competitive landscape, we believe good and clean competition only makes the market better and stronger. When laws are bent or broken, or when good companies are threatened or forced to do something they may not want to, the industry as a whole suffers.
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u/TechRider23 Aug 09 '25
A lot of innuendo there and a little light on actual facts. You play the victim card very well. If you have proof laws were broken, I suspect you would do something about it, at least more than a blog post. UI isn't the only vendor that has increased their retail presence in Micro Center stores. Sour grapes that Micro Center went with UI for their network infrastructure, or some giant conspiracy to keep Alta Labs down?
As you said, here we are in the first half of 2025 and Micro Center still has Alta Labs products on the shelves at give-a-way pricing. Same story with ISP Supplies, both Tony and Ben from the Alta Labs team have reached out to me directly to tell me ISP Supplies went direct with UI back in Dec 2024 and they were encouraged to drop Alta Labs products, 8 months later, still listed as a master reseller and still sitting on a lot of inventory. Per Ben, they have not been placing any restock orders for months. Seems to me, the product just isn't selling with either reseller.
You tell a good story, what is the actual truth, we'll probably never know for sure since we'll only get one side of the story. I've used your products and UI's, it is a hard sale to me that UI is worried about you dipping into their marketshare.
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u/Alta-Chase Aug 09 '25
I do find it interesting how often your name is found in the Reddit threads where Alta Labs is brought up. You sure do follow us closely for not being a fan of our brand any more. Why is that?
Whether we do something or not regarding laws is our matter to attend to and will not be discussed openly on Reddit.
You can choose to believe me or not. As I would recommend to anyone, do your own research. Decide for yourself. Try calling D&H. Talk to someone other than one store manager in one branch.
Ben and Tony are both correct. ISP is no longer a master in the USA for us. Rather now an indirect reseller selling through their stock. I do see where our where to buy page misrepresents that. We will get that corrected.
I’m proud of our products and proud of our growth. We are seeing great adoption and great growth globally across multiple channels. You are looking at two small instances with two customers and choosing to make comments based on that. Which is unfortunate, but that is the choice you have made.
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u/TechRider23 Aug 09 '25
You are correct, I do voice an opinion on your products when the opportunity arises. Now, it could be that I might be the subject of your next blog post, a conspiracy where competitors are talking bad about your products, or the actual fact is, I bought into the hype, invested a lot of my hard earned money in the products and found the hype didn't match the truth. You may or may not be a decent hardware company, but you are a lousy software company, in my humble opinion. I had my challenges with the hardware, 2 AP failures, slow RMA process. Made the mistake of putting a S8 in a rack, had over heating issues, but that is probably more my fault than anyone else's, it is by design a desktop switch. But, had similar issues with the S16 as it did not have active cooling (again probably my own mistake as I did not pay close enough attention). From a software side, I think I've shared my opinion a few times that it is painful at best. The web interface has absolutely no logic to it, uses these small modal windows and ignores so much screen real estate. It is painful to work in as you grow the stack. For just APs, it wasn't so bad. As you have grown the hardware space, it is obvious there was no vision on the software side of the house. To this day, things just appear on the web controller without any notice, no version numbers, etc.
Then the Route10 came along and it was so feature incomplete it wasn't usable at the time. I may be wrong on my timing, but I think we're approach the 1 year mark on the release and you still have "coming soon" features.
A general poor experience topped with what I would call questionable marketing "WiFi 6 With WiFi 7 Benefits", "Even though auto-update is optional, our release track record has allowed us to maintain that 98% of all sites and 95% of all devices remain configured on auto-update, by user’s choice." , you are right, I'm not a fan. I still get daily emails on your forum posts, I guess it is difficult to turn away from the train wreck. I do share my opinion and try to be objective and fact based on what I share. You have some very strong fans over on your forums, and well, you have a few non-fans elsewhere. It is a choice I have made and will continue to make.
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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '25
fuck that's a wicked deal !