Is it normal for a sale order to sit for months with no word?

Seven months with zero replies through the contact form is not normal even for them, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything bad happened to your order. In my expirience the contact form emails go into a black hole when they're slammed. Calling is what actualy works. I ordered a kit and some electronics during a sale a couple years back and heard nothing for about ten weeks. Two form emails, nothing. Then I called the shop number during business hours and had a real conversation with someone who pulled up my order on the spot and told me exactly what was waiting on what. Box showed up less than three weeks later. The thing to understand is that most of the delay on sale orders comes down to motors. There's been a serious backlog on hobby motors for a while now, and if your order included any, they might literally be sitting in a queue waiting on a shipment from the manufacturer. The kits and bays they can build in house, so those parts are usually ready much sooner. Ask them if they'll split the shipment and send what they have now. They've done that for me before without any fuss.

To answer your other question directly: no, the box does not just show up one day with no warning if you've been in contact, but if you've been silent for months then yeah, it can absolutely appear out of nowhere. I've had orders land on the porch that I'd half forgotten about. On the card dispute, I'd hold off for now. Disputes are usually only good for a limited window after the charge anyway, and at seven months you may be past or close to the cutoff depending on your card issuer. More importantly, if the stuff actually exists and is just stuck in a backlog, a chargeback gets your money back once and guarantees you never deal with them again. Call first. If you get a real person and a real answer, keep waiting. If the phone goes unanswered after a few tries across a couple weeks, then start thinking about the dispute route.

Mine sat quiet for a good while during a sale too, and what finally shook loose a reply was responding directly to the order confirmation email instead of the contact form. aparently that goes to a diffrent spot and it's tied to your order number alredy. Got an answer in a couple days after months of nothing.

Also worth checking your spam folder, honestly. I found a shipping notice sitting in there that I'd missed, so part of my 'radio silence' was on me.

Gotta push back on the motor theory though. The OP said kit and electronics bay parts, no motors in there at all, so the backlog explanation doesn't really apply to this order. In my case the holdup was the kit itself. Some of the bigger kits get cut or printed when the order comes in, especally after a sale dumps a pile of them at once, so the thing you're waiting on may just not exist yet. That's also exactly why splitting the shipment might not get you much, since the kit is the slow part, not an add-on. Worth asking what stage the build is at rather than assuming parts are sitting on a shelf.

Started flying back when you mailed a paper order form with a check and waited however long the post took, so my patience meter is calibrated differently than most folks here. Still, seven months with a charged card and zero response would have me keeping records. Screenshot the order page, save the confirmation email, and write down the dates you sent those form emails. If it ever does come to a dispute with the card issuer, having that timeline documented makes it a five minute phone call instead of a fight. Learned that the hard way on a fiberglass supplier that went quiet on me years back. The paper trail saved my hide.

This thread is making me nervous because I just placed my first ever kit order last month, also during a sale, and now I'm wondering what I signed up for. My situation is a bit different since I paid with PayPal instead of a card, so I'm guessing the dispute process works differently there? I honestly don't know. One thing I did do differently was put a note in the order comments asking them to email me if anything would take longer than a month, so maybe that helps me avoid this. Probably naive of me. Anyway, following this thread to see how yours turns out, it'll tell me what to expect with mine.