The importance of classification. DXRacer, WHY?

This post is going to focus on something that really, really irks me. Many companies have been made example of throughout the years, known for their unwise naming of product lines and/or poor documentation to help guide the layman to an adequate purchase (or repair!). Nevertheless, someone else has gone ahead and fucked it up, again. DXRacer, this one's on you.

Considering how often I'm having to juggle files to capture more gaming footage, or install a recently purchased 25GB game, I've decided I'm due to buy some more storage. I jump on my local retailer's website and start browsing to make the most of shipping costs. I throw things like a 980ti, a new keyboard and a NAS onto my wishlist, among other shit I (sadly) won't actually end up even adding to my cart.

Here I am, whizzing through the categories, then I come across computer chairs. My ass cheek shies away from the bolt sticking through the base of my 12 year old - maybe more - officeworks chair. Recalling what I paid for it is a stretch of the imagination now, though likely in the ballpark of 80-100 Aussie dollars. The price was nothing special, nor was the chair. It has adjustable height seat and armrests and a tilting base and back.

I have a scroll through their options and come across the common DXRacer chairs. They're about the only company who bothered to set up a distribution center in Australia, so they're a fairly rife suggestion among Aussie forums, which is likely why this store stocks so many. I know well about them, and albeit wanting to follow in Linus' footsteps and buying a NeedForSeat Maxnomic, we don't have that as an option, down here.

PCCaseGear has 33 of these things on sale, all with their own kinks, so naturally I decide I better do my research to find the right chair for me.. And that's where things started getting a little dicey.

DXRacer pride themselves on being able to provide the largest range of quality brand name gaming chairs, which says something about the variations they have, but it won't be until you see it for yourself that you'll realise what the heck I'm bitching about.

On a video by DXRacer themselves, screenshot above, note the wing height beside where your thighs would rest. After listing their other available models; F, R and K, and even mentioning their 'upcoming' T series; they explain the difference between the two variations of the K and demo the effects and drawbacks of each.. Somehow while neglecting to tell the viewer exactly what model each variation is.

Now, that video was posted late June 2015, less than one year ago. Below is a chart from a US distributor, Chairs4Gaming, who have done their best to visually represent the choices you should make when choosing a DXRacer chair.

In less than twelve months, they have more than doubled their lineup. Sure, reps to them; they are trying to provide every possible variation so that every gamer can get the seat they feel most comfortable in.. But how are we meant to know what one we would prefer without going and sitting on every single variant? The effort in this chart is a good one, but sadly inadequate as they are only explaining the very first character of the model number on each chair.

The American DXRacer store doesn't help much, either; chairs are divided only by their series with no effort to explain the variations within.

Even the damned product pages don't explain the difference between the products. They all say the same thing!

There is a price difference and the pictures are unique to each product page... But no one, nowhere states what the actual changes are. They've got products, then seemingly have released another identical product, then another with some slight stitching variation (assuming their pictures are even accurate). What's more, my local distributor has even more variations of the same chair, with just as absent an explanation as to why there's price differences.

There are three different models here. The center two are both K-series; model numbers OH/KF06/NR and OH/KE06/NR - KE being another one I've not seen before. I wonder how many variations of the K-Series in red that I can find?

 

Oh. That many.

Now, this could all be a matter of me not yet understanding their model numbers, sure, but without documentation for me to learn what the options are, I can't really be held accountable for not knowing. It's not like I haven't looked, either. I'll have you know this isn't the first time I've looked at DXRacer chairs. In actual fact, I gave up on trying to decipher the models and features last time, though admittedly hadn't delved this deep, nor become this frustrated with it all.

These aren't the first guys guilty of this. Nvidia and ATI have both copped their share of flak for repeated failures to simplify things. Not saying they tried.. god knows, they probably didn't. Take a look at this, though.

This is a breakdown taken from Point Grey Research, and a good example of methodical classification of products. With the right reference, you're able to take a look at any one of their part numbers and know exactly what it is and how it differs from similar products.

My suggestion to any company selling a product with proper model numbers: make a webpage with drop-down boxes where consumers can choose their product by narrowing down to it based on their desired features. The hierarchy needs to be there; no latter segment of part number can be mutually exclusive with a prior one, meaning your number of options should always lessen the farther along your part number you move. Make sense? Hell, just use the layout from one of those free survey websites and collect your customer's information in a series of multiple choice selections. At the end, spit out a model number and a link to it in your store page. Problem solved.

The most important part is documentation. You can have the best, most detailed part numbers in the world but without knowing what options there are to be placed in any given section of a part number, a client would have to resort to trial and error -brute forcing- to try and find a pattern. R is for red, B is for blue, K is for king. What the hell does 57 and NE stand for? Cue how I've spent my night, so far. That is why I'm not happy.

On the DXRacer Australia website, they're also advertising AKRacing chairs, seemingly made by a completely different manufacturer, but being advertised by DXRacer? And ..if they're not made by a different manufacturer, what the fuck, guys? I haven't even started looking into the quality or features of these, let alone the variations.. I'm overwhelmed here.

I turned to YouTube for answers to my questions. No luck there; no one bothers to list which exact model they purchased, so if there is any discrepancy between what I see in a video and what I see on a store page, I pretty much have to throw their review out in fear it is a different product. Reddit is full of people recommending the chair they bought themselves, no one actually helps the bloke asking for help with how to choose.. I don't think any of them know. One bloke (a rep?) said there's a tool somewhere that you can use to make sense of it all, but I had no luck finding that, either.

Best I find out for sure then, right? I've tweeted and sent an email to DXRacer to try and get more info, but who knows when they'll reply.. And even if they do, and they do clear up my confusion, are we to expect that they should have to do that for every customer who wants to know what the hell is up with their nomenclature? What about the people who don't research enough to know the difference -or that there even is a difference- and why provide so many varying models of various styles of product when you're not going to help your consumer decide which one is going to suit them?

I'm probably still going to buy one of your chairs next week, hopefully with some guidance by the store I'm buying from.. But for fuck sake, DXRacer, get your shit together.

Update1:
I never got a response from DXRacer

Update2:
I bought a Vertagear... lol