We don't have any special 'rights' to sell in USA any more than anyone else, what we do have is a partnership with Diatec in which we handle the store on Amazon and all Pre and After Sales. Diatec make the keyboards, do the production schedules and have the final say on what ships where. This channel works extremely well and puts Filco on the shelf at some 10-20% less than when using a local disty, which is an avenue that has been explored. Goods ship from the factory directly to Amazon warehouses so the logistics are excellent.
Diatec are not, and never have been, targetting the mass market in the way some others do. There is not the same scale, so it is much more difficult for them to ramp up production to meet demand. The Cherry MX supply situation won't be helping either.
I know that the people at Diatec are very flattered and honoured by the popularity of Filco worldwide. They are working flat out to meet demand (What business wouldn't?) and are extremely grateful for peoples patience. But I also know they will never cut corners or compromise on quality.
When you talk of other distributors and of our European stocks - you miss the point that very little of the stock in Europe is ANSI - so you wouldn't want it - and that stocks in Canada are ANSI but that sales turnover won't be as fast as USA so those stocks will be available for longer. But as lightsout points out, NCIX are best to answer that.
So although right now we have Filco Keyboards available in UK, German, French, Italian, Swedish/Finnish and COMING SOON!!! - Spanish, these are all ISO and all move around in smaller amounts and sit 'in stock' for longer. We keep ANSI here too but a fraction of the numbers that are sent to USA. If we do have stock here that you want - please feel free to order, carriage to the USA is not bad at all.
Now you could say those other layouts might have been made as USA and sent to Amazon but I'm sure no-one wants Filco to reduce the variety they offer to the smaller markets around the globe. And again, the numbers are such that it wouldn't make a noticable difference.
So the underlying facts remain - It doesn't matter what route to market you want to take, if you are short on product, you are short on product.
I can 100% guarantee that everyone involved at The Keyboard Company and Diatec is absolutely committed to satisfying all customer demand for Filco Keyboards and that there is not and never will be any form of favouritism.
If I am honest I do have to admit that this is likely to be on-going. Demand is increasing and I don't see Cherry doing a lot to help either.
