I wrote this http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/hk-because-you-suck-and-we-hate-you/ on October of 2007. Which is like ten million years in internet time.
Since that time, empires have risen and fallen, entire species have died out, and my HK rant has been linked to every forum on the internet, to the point that now any discussion about HK anywhere gets linked to that post, and then a bunch of people e-mail me to tell me how stupid I am and that I can only afford Lorcins and WASRs and that if I was a real operator I would understand. At some point the HK rant became a meme, which is apparently a fancy internet word for “thing that will not die”.
Also, in that hatemail over the last year, I’ve been told how good their customer service has been LATELY. Good.
I saw this the other day. http://wethearmed.com/index.php/topic,7501.0.html The thread degenerates into a discussion of Summer Glau’s forehead about halfway through, but before that it is a report from SHOT about an HK meeting. According to reliable source, George Hill of www.madogre.com fame, the new president of HK is aware of how they’re perceived, and are actively working on how to improve their image, through better customer service, attitude, and availability of cool stuff.
AWESOME. I think that is great. (not the Summer Glau’s forehead part, the HK trying harder part) I really hope that works. Seriously.
I didn’t write the rant because I’m a jerk or like to see people fail. I love to see gun companies do good work and treat their customers decently. I hope HK customer service becomes excellent. I hope that they treat their customers with respect and give them proper support.
And then I can get even more hate mail from the fans. I’m really excited though. I figure sometime in the next few years HK 416s will become readily available and then I’ll get ten thousand messages about how ignorant I was to not know that was going to happen back in 2007.
Oh, and I’m still not a real operator. 🙂
And don’t forget because you don’t like HK; you have never been with a women.
Oh he’s been with a woman, but because he dosn’t like HK he’s never been able to please one. To do that you have to operate an MP5.
Well, if you have the inhumanly long, fourth-knuckle finger needed to properly operate the USP series, some women might appreciate what…never mind.
My fingers are normal-sized, and I can operate my USP just fine; on the other hand, I have amazing finger dexterity, which probably proves your point.
While I’ve never created a meme… I think you should be proud of the fact that you *have* managed to create the meme… even if the response is frequently cringe worthy.
Also. A fine point Nightcrawler… a fine point.
According to The Firearm Blog the HK556 is $2,995, because handing someone 30 $100 bills and getting a five and AR in return sums up “you suck and we hate you” perfectly.
And I though Bushmaster was trying to steal that motto.
I really don’t see Larry as an operator.
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/cas/sasa/research%20images/telephone%20operator.jpg
Summer Glau’s forehead is awesome… and the rest of her as well.
Wait, was this about HKs? I got distracted by IMPORTANT stuff.
Ironically I was trying to get the conversation away from Beyonce and tried to steer it to Kat Dennings and Summer Glau. Only Summer is the one that stuck.
Wish them the best, but until they do more than cost twice what their competitors do, with magazines 2/3 times the price I see no reason to jump on the HK bus.
The cost to benifit ratio still doesn’t balance out to me. What does theirs do that another piston AR platform can’t? How much extra am I paying simply to have H&K stamped on a magwell that won’t even take my prefered mags?
As to the other stuff… I think I’ma watch some Firefly tonight.
Dang…just when I was gonna get a “HK. Because you suck and we hate you” T-shirt made 😀
The 416s are supposedly gonna MSRP at three grand, so they still hate us.
” I hope HK customer service becomes excellent. I hope that they treat their customers with respect and give them proper support. ”
By the time this happens, that rant will have been attributed to Major Caudill, circumnavigated the internet twice, re-attributed to Marko with The Munchkin Wrangler server going into meltdown by people looking for you.
…I liked my WASR…
HK’s marketing must have pulled out most of their hair over the past few years. All that money spent (although, considering their SHOT show catalog from a few years back, perhaps not wisely), and yet one phrase that you came up with is the first thing that comes to the minds of many people when they hear “HK”. “Because you suck – and we hate you!”
Good job, Larry! Keep it up. I hope the large bags of cash from HK’s competitors help reduce the sting of the fanboy emails :-).
I am given to understand that the current iteration of the 416 WILL mate with standard uppers.
So if true, you can get your Teutonic piston driven lovefest on, and STILL have a lower that takes normal magazines.
Of course, I don’t buy the piston hype (“the solution in search of a problem. . . “), so I’m not interested in a 416 upper, but. . .
Of course, if the 416 upper alone is $2K, or the only way to get one is to buy the whole bloody rifle, we will again have Marketing Fail.
“I am given to understand that the current iteration of the 416 WILL mate with standard lowers.”
vice
“I am given to understand that the current iteration of the 416 WILL mate with standard uppers.”
DOH.
Never fear Larry, what you and your fan boys may think of HK (and of yourselves) is irrelevant. Yours is just another case of a cheap writer taking a cheap shot for 15 minutes of fame.
That illiterate moron over at the Mad Ogre did the same when he wrote ‘Why I Hate The AR15’. Now he builds them in his parents basement and expects the fan boys to buy them. I guess he single handedly worked out all those failures of the AR design, right?
Essentially HK treats you like shit because you are a shit. For every unhappy dunce like you, HK has 20 satisfied customers and that is essentially the way of it.
Just ignore Jim. He suffers from a terminal condition called “butthurt”.
I also published “Why I like the AR” but nobody one listens to that one.
http://www.madogre.com/Hordecasts.htm
Never fear Larry, what you and your fan boys may think of HK (and of yourselves) is irrelevant. Yours is just another case of a cheap writer taking a cheap shot for 15 minutes of fame.
So take that, you irrelevant writer of cheap tawdry B movie monster books, you. Weep copious tears of sad sad bitterness as you recline upon the sacks of cash which your hackish scribblings have brought you. Because you still suck. And we still hate you.
Regards,
H&K Fan Club
I bought one a HK but not because I am big on HK’s just grabbed it on the spare of the moment for a self defense weapon for my sister, personally I haven’t found anything I like better than my Browning HiPower for close range and my S&W27 Highway patrolman for long rang.
Not big on HK’s