Tower Hobbies service slipping?

See how much crap you can get from HobbyCity.... just as bad :(

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:07:39 -0000 "TTman" remarked:

Personally, I haven't had any problems with either Tower Hobbies or Hobby City.

Me either.

"Fubar of the HillPeople" wrote in message news:goc76m$de$ snipped-for-privacy@aioe.org...

They've had 6 faulty servos of mine for nearly 3 months now....Nothing but excuses

I live in a rural area and have always mail-ordered practically everything. I think my (many, many) experiences with Tower Hobbies have been as good or better than with any mail-order place I've done business with.

That's not to say bad things can't happen, but you should be fairly confident that any problems will get straightened out.

Good flying, desmobob

;-) There's a first time for everything!

There have been endless complaints re HobbyCity on their Forum. It was so bad, the forum got conveniently deleted and a new one started up.... Worst offenders were their 2.4G systems and wrong goods shipped.return shipping costs are relatively HUGE, discouraging most from sending stuff back( except maybe transmitters) Utterly appaling service and I'll never go there again...

Problem is, people are so cheap in this country that they will buy from hobbycity to save a few dollars, thus putting their LHS and American made hobby products out of business. Then they complain about that. Someone else said elsewhere in here that the same products cost 3 - 4 times more in the U.S. THAT IS NOT TRUE. If you are buying apples for apples, then after figuring the shipping costs from Hong Kong, the savings may be 25-40%. For example, the SAME motor from Hobbycity that sells for $42.63 + $25.95 shipping =$68.58 is sold by Cermark for $85.99 + $6.00 shipping = $91.99. Savings? $23.41 or 25.4%. Service? Nil from Hobbycity. Time to receive? 3-5 days from most US companies, 2-3 weeks from Hong Kong. Need to send it back? $6 in the US, at LEAST $25 from US to Hong Kong. Most people buying from Hong Kong don't know about the 'dual quality' of the products. There is 'domestic' quality....made to be sold in China and 'export quality' sold to the rest of the world. The 'domestic quality' is crap, that's why it's so cheap. You really do get what you pay for.

Peace of mind buying in the U.S. and keeping somebody in business? PRICELESS

So you guys just keep buying from Hobby City but don't complain that there's no hobby shop in your town anymore!!

Please note: Hobbycity does not sell the same motor that CERMARK distributes. NEODYM is a different grade motor. It is from the same factory. It is not a change of color nor shape. It is a different motor (not pulling your legs).

Peace, Steven Chao, CERMARK

When my LHS stops marking over preprinted prices with a higher one, I will consider supporting them. Until that time I intend to have fun modeling and will find my supplies where I will. Tower's quality isn't and Hobbico has taken action to stop the production of the 'good' stuff I like to buy. Until I get burnt by HobbyCity, I will continue to get what I paid for which I have not always been able to say about Tower.

There is a long list of products they changed to put their moniker on that were unimprovemnts which includes things like the paint that matches monocote. Oh how I wish for the good stuff to return. I fear the day when monocote goes away to be replaced by TowerKote. . Kind of like they did with the epoxies and other adhesives, hobby knife blades (just try to get an X-acto blade from them, I dare you and they ARE different!).

YMMV

but that is MY opinion (and dollars spent)

"Six_O'Clock_High" > products. There is 'domestic' quality....made to be sold in China and

I bought my first Webra, Saito and Rossi engines from Tower Hobbies many years ago. Try doing that today.

Tower Hobbies has painted themselves into a corner, so it would seem. I wish them the best of luck - they are going to need it.

I don't shop in a specific store just to keep them in business. It would be different were the store owned by family members, or friends of my family. But that isn't the case these days. I must shop based upon value.

Back in the days when most folks used .40 or .60 sized engines, it was easier for a hobbyshop to stock a few selections of each size. We didn't know then that we were being short changed with just those engine sizes available. To us, it seemed as though there were plenty of choices and making a choice could be very challenging. Few had heard of Tower Hobbies, or actually dealt with them, so virtually all buying was at the local level or from a mail order shop in New York City named America's Hobby Center. Sometimes AHC's prices were a bit lower than the local hobbyshop, but most times you just broke even after paying shipping. Still, one could buy an engine of a different manufacturer from AHC that the local hobbyshop could not obtain. It was nice to have the only HB or HP engine at the field.

If I had a hobbyshop within reasonable driving distance that had access to Sig fuel with all castor oil in the percentages I wanted/ditto nitro, I would be tempted to deal with them. But only if they would special order items for me from time to time without trying to redirect me into buying what they have in stock when they do not have the item that I wanted. I would not expect them to match mail order prices for a particular item, but I would hope they would match the price of the discount item plus the shipping and insurance prices. A few percent over that would be fine. I know that that isn't much to work with from a profit point of view.

If they ever once accepted an engine back from someone and put it back on the shelf for sale as new, that would be the end of my doing business with them. I've seen this happen before with disappointing results for the new owner. Ditto radio systems.

I understand the hobbyshop's point of view of trying to sell what they have in stock and I would listen attentively to their sales pitch, but when I make up my mind that I want a particular brand and model, there are usually immutable reasons for that particular choice.

There are so many sub fields (branches of interest) in our hobby today that I know the average hobbyshop is unable to stock a good selection of everything. I also know that there aren't enough of us RC flyers around to keep a hobbyshop in business if all they do is stock RC airplane items. The good old days (which didn't truly exist) are gone.

I dealt with Hobby City when they first went online. The prices were great back then and even with the shipping one had to pay, it represented a good value. Then one day I had a need to talk with a real person. Of course I tried email first. No replies. Then I tried calling their phone numbers. Again, no success. I ended up in quite a stew over a billing error with no one to talk to. It all worked out eventually and all was well, but it made me hesitate to order from them again.

A few days ago I ordered one of their Turnigy 52 gas engines at $170 plus shipping. How could you go wrong? I could part out a defective engine and get all of my money back, plus a bit of profit were I careful. Win-Win. We shall see how it goes.

I've bought a couple of DL-50 engines from DLUSA and I've been happy with the service. I have no intention of buying "serious" engines from China direct. I'll stick with those USA based folks that can help me when service or parts are needed. But this $170 52cc engine was just more than I can resist.

After I ordered this engine, I discovered a few other 50cc engines for sale in the US at substantially lower prices than the DL-50. Oh well, maybe next time.

Ed Cregger

How about sharing your US based sources for the engines?

Let me think, Jim.

I "think" the engines are CRCC branded. They are being sold by a couple of "distributors" here in the US. A Google Search should turn them up. Since I already had two 50cc ish engines, I didn't bother remembering them.

Ed Cregger

I started doing business with Tower Hobbies probably 30 years ago, pre internet days, their service was excellent, the best in the business.

Rant ON! I sure can't say that anymore, mainly the only thing that keeps me buying from them is their coupons, they have lots of those and various sale promotions that are pretty good deals, that's the good part.

I do business with a lot of companies, most of them ship same day or next day, so here's a recent experience with 4 separate companies, all the orders placed over about a 1 hour period on a Monday at lunch time, I'm in the central time zone as is Tower.

I ordered a plane from 3D Hobby Shop, shipped within a couple of hours.

I ordered a motor and ESC from Innovative Designs, shipped same day. I ordered the servos and a bunch of other stuff from Tower, order was placed by noon, all items in stock, didn't ship till THURSDAY.

I forgot to order a BEC with my Tower order, I immediately (5 minutes) called Tower to add it to the order, they wouldn't do it, wanted to ship it by their so called "Parts express", I turned that down, I already knew how ridiculously slow that is. So I ordered it from another outfit I have done business with, they shipped it first thing the next morning.

By Thursday at noon I had all the other orders in my hands, Tower hadn't even shipped yet!

Normally UPS is two business days from Tower, for some reason I don't know UPS set a speed record on this shipment, even though their tracking showed it didn't ship till Thursday evening, UPS delivered it Friday evening, usually a Thursday evening shipment from Tower will deliver Tuesday since UPS doesn't do much on the weekends.

I had to place a follow up order for some more stuff the next Monday morning, all small stuff so it shipped "Parts express", this time they shipped next day, which is very unusual for them, but they sent it by UPS Mail Innovations, if you have had any experience with that travesty you know how slow that is, it took UPS and the mail 10 days to deliver that one!

I have placed a total of 4 orders this year with Tower's "Parts express", one took two weeks, one was mailed directly US Mail, I had it two days after Tower mailed it, the third and fourth shipments were by UPS Mail Innovations and both took 10 days to deliver. I don't know what kind of arrangement they have with UPS Mail Innovations, but that service is absolutely horrible! The expression "Parts express" implies they will hop right on it, instead it usually takes them 2-4 days "processing" time, and if they ship it UPS Mail Innovations it takes another 10 days to 2 weeks to deliver, this is unacceptable! :mad:

Rant OFF!

Dear Tower Hobbies Customer,

Thank you for your recent inquiry about your order. We are pleased to advise you that your order was shipped via surface parcel post on 3/9. We estimate 2 to 6 weeks for delivery of packages shipped by International Surface mail as this seems to be an accurate estimate for the vast majority of packages shipped this way. A small percentage of packages however might arrive a little sooner or later than what we estimated. We are sorry to hear that it has not arrived; however, if you do not receive the order within 90 days of the date the package was shipped, please contact us so we may determine how we can proceed at that time. You should receive the package anytime as we have shipped many packages to addresses like yours with great success. Unfortunately, a tracking service is not available for parcel post shipments.

We are sorry for the delay and for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by mail, fax at 217-356-6608, or phone at 217-398-3636.

Thank you for writing Tower Hobbies. We appreciate your time and your business with us.

-Tower Hobbies

I think this says enough. Nice doings business with you never again.

AJ

Do you not live outside of the continental United States? Even if you do not, mistakes do happen occasionally. Sometimes someone has a bad day, or a computer glitch screws up important data. It isn't "IF" a company makes a mistake, they all do, it is how they handle the mistake once made. I've only read this one posting by you regarding this matter, but you seem to be getting angry too soon. Tower is the best. Where will you shop if you do not shop at Tower Hobbies?

Don't cut off your nose to spite your face, as the old saying goes.

Ed Cregger

International surface post can take quite a while. 90 days is not unheard of.

According to my calendar its been just over 3 weeks ago that it was shipped. Puts it right in the middle of the claimed reception window. I have had shipments from companies here in the states take at least that long, esp. if shipping by ground. They said it COULD take 90 days, not that it WILL take 90 days. Do you stand in front of the microwave screaming HURRY UP!!!!?