RE: Has anyone heard of BananaHobby?????
Where to buy? Always a good queestion. I have purchased from Tower, Horizon, Hobby People, HobbyTown, HobbyKing, Banana Hobbies and Value Hobbies and a couple of other local hobby shops, I have no experience withNitroplanes.
In my experience, Tower and Horizion are the best on-line stores to buy from. Horizon is generally more expensive, but has very good customer service. For my "walk in" stores I useHobby People (Lake Forest, Ca.)as my go to place for tech support, materials, Radios and receivers, and Gyro Hobbies in Lake Forest, CA has been a good shopping experience for me as well.
Banana Hobbieshas some nice products on their on-line catalog, andhas attractive prices. I have purchased a Sky Surfer from them without issue, and about 7 guys in our club have purchased the same plane and parts with no issues. Several have purchased other planes like a large Cub anda Ultimate Bi-plane, again with no issues. HobbyKing - I have purchased several boats, and some tools- the quality was good, but in my view, they are a tribe of idiots when it comes to providing any warranty service. Their products seem to be fine, it is just that they don't care about fixing anything that goes wrong. Value Hobbies in Ill has been a good source for me on Lipos batteries, chargers, and they have some deals on planes. Good service in my experience.
I agree that it is avery good idea, to contactthe store you are looking at buying from to determine for yourself what you can expect from them. Test them out, tell them you have a problem with your new plane, see what they do. I suspect, if the price is super cheap, you can expect the service to be at the same level. The discount seller's don't have enough profit to provide any kind of meaningful service - remember where this stuff comes from - China, so if it comes in bad, no one is going to ship back to China. If you like gambling then you should enjoy buying the cheaper items from the those that offer them. I have been lucky so far, but that can change on my next order.
Good luck
Boomer