Well, I seem to have fallen victim to clever marketing. I ordered a Terrova 80 lbs thrust 60” shaft trolling motor and a Minn Kota 2 bank charger from the MK Factory outlet store August 31 this year. The website showed to have them in stock.

After placing my order and not receiving a confirmation email, I called their “state side” customer service number.

I’ll save you some of the details, but I came to realize the “ store “ has NO affiliation with Minn Kota, in fact the don’t appear to be “ authorized dealers either, and whatever “state side” is referring to, it is NOT the United States.

Even though the “ helpful “ representatives all have names like “Kevin” and “ Jeff” they are as American as curry.

They regretfully had to inform me that my motor was on back order but should ship in 10-15 days.

15 days later they regretfully had to inform me they didn’t know when they would come in but would email me within the week. A week later I called them “stateside” and was informed that I would be receiving my motor the first week of October.
Today I called back to see what was happening and was regretfully informed it would be some time in November.

I cancelled my order, called My Green Outdoors and placed my order which they did actually have in stock and would ship today.
Even though I ended up spending more, I got more, and I’ll do my due diligence review on any online company I order a significant item from.

Be forwarned!

Thanks for the heads up. That whole story seems like the “outlet” store was a shady setup. Glad you got away with a hassle instead of money lost.

Thanks for posting this. I’ve looked on that site a few times but never bought. Their prices are good but sounds like it’s not a good place to buy.

Thanks for letting everyone know about your situation. I'm glad you were able to find another trolling motor quickly. As a US business, we spend more to make sure all of our parts come from US companies. You are correct when you say "I ended up spending more, I got more".

Glad it all worked out.

The same group also has a Lowrance, garmin, Humminbird and probably other factory outlet websites. Humminbird even has on their website that they have no affiliations with factory outlet



https://www.humminbird.com/support/faqs/FactoryOutlet

There are also groups out there that claim to be factory affiliated that take your money, and NEVER send the product. The ones that the prices are too good to be true. For some dumb reason they go through Paypal, which is easy enough to get your money back from, but they are definitely scammers. I guess they figure most people won't pursue a 100 dollar claim.

It wasn’t until I was having problems that I looked up reviews on them and saw stories of refund nightmares and sending wrong products. When inventory is easy to get and ship I guess even the bad companies can fly under radar but order something that is in short supply and throw in being an offshore company and gird up your loins for a beating!!

Sounds like Basspro. It will say on their website that it's ready for pickup at the store and then once you've placed the order it will tell you to pick up in 8 - 10 days. Thats why I bought my Ultrex from Scheels.

Got my Terravo today from Shut Up and Fish! Great price face to face transaction. Hope to get it put on this week!

I ordered talon covers from that factory outlet, great price and the covers are nice. Received in reasonable time. But I was indeed wondering if it would be legit.

I thought the Factory Outlet was Minn Kota. I received a defective item and it took me 2 weeks to get a Return Authorization and another month to get the refund. The Customer Service people were very rude.

One of the times I called customer service the “David” that spoke to me tried to tell me the reason I was having trouble was because I ordered online. He explained if I would cancel my order and order through him he would get a commission and would personally handle my order, and I could call him any time to get an update on my order. Unfortunately his records showed it was still going to be on back order for at least 15 days.

You can order from Shutupandfish or My Green Outdoors and get it much quicker.

I accidentally ordered from the "outlet store" for humminbird when the 898/998 came out. same story, made the order and a week later still no shipping info so I called. mine was some joisey gurl sounding gal in the bronx, nice enough and when they told me another 2 weeks I let it ride. 2 weeks later I was told after jan 1 and order was placed in early nov. so I canceled and got my money back with very little hassle.

fast forward to about jan. 11th and ups shows up with a box addressed to me, humminbird 898. called to get a return # for it and shipping label, got told to keep it as it wasn't worth the hassle of shipping back.

a very rare instance of things working the other way.

Dang!
Will let y’all know if another Terrova shows up. I’ll make you a deal!!