australia1

FOR INFO
If you search for Banana Hobby + FBI they have set up their web site with numeruos references to FBI in the hope that this Site will be lost amongst the searches!!

JollyPopper

My Feedback: (6)

Seems as though only one person, SADIE21, has had a good experience with Banana Hobby. That makes me feel kind of warm and fuzzy about BH. But her post kind of troubles me. She joined RCU on 2-14-08. She posted her warm and fuzzy testimonial on 2-14-08. She ordered her F15 Eagle two days prior to that, I presume on 2-12-08 but then read about all the bad things people have said about BH so she put a hold on her credit card until she visited the warehouse and picked her model up. But where did she read about these things if she didn't join RCU until 2-14-08? Are other web sites being inundated with posts concerning these guys?

Seems like a whole lot happened in those two days for Sadie. Oh, well. I guess anything is possible.

Gotta run now. Gotta go order a couple grand worth of stuff from BH. According to Sadie, "there" really good people.

jerryboy111

[:'(] this sucks

cjstephe

SADIE21 is a little "cheerleader" who reports all over the the place as having had a "positive experience" with Bananah Hoobby. Please see the following link for more complaints than praise for them. [link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5585381/anchors_5585381/mpage_1/key_banana%252Chobby/anchor/tm.htm#5585381[/link]http

BTW - I posted my negative shopping experience on 2/7/08 (cjstephe) and filed a report with my credit card company for the junky plane they sent me. I have been fortunate in that my credit card company has not even been able to contact them or hear back from Bananah Hobby in their defense so I was credited back my purchase price including shipping costs (which were insanely expensive and not shipped within the timeframe they say my wife "selected" - which she didn't.)

Pay attention to the folks who report having had a positive shopping experience with them. I'm sure they have processed some orders properly and that there are happy folks out there; however, the "cheerleaders" normally recently signed up, have poor grammar and spelling, type in all caps, and only have 1-2 posts.

PM me if you have questions or want additional "ammo" to use against these jokers. I would love to see them not only out of business but in jail.

CJS

HeLiTuBBies

I just oredered a 400$ heli from them yesterday... Noooooooooooooo! cross my fingers wish me luck... [:@]

streetfighter

Helitubby, you may have some "luck" with them but if I were you I would cancel the order asap. My experience with them has been terrible, long story short, ordered a Cheetah 450, after about a month of no feedback from banana I finally recieved a first generation prototype of the cheetah (Idle 430) that had damage and had a crappy photocopied user manual. Now I've discovered there are no parts availiable in the U.S. except from banana, which when I tried to obtain, they never shipped. Now all I have for my $400+ is a nice conversation piece to display on my shelf that serves as lesson learned. [:@]Like say, your best bet is to cancel immediately and order from a more responsible company, there are lots of them out there, fortunately.

HeLiTuBBies

no cancelling now bro.. they just shipped my heli.. got the tracking number and its in transit on its way to me.. ordered it saturday ang they shipped it today monday... i still got my fingers cross.. i better not get a crappy heli different to the photo i ordered... they are definitely gonna get it from me if they messed it up... thanks for all your concern

HeLiTuBBies

i might get lucky with this order but after finding out the bad business they do, i would never take my chance again with bananas in pajamas .. i hope i can get a hold of mike at Ka-planes and find out if they have parts for a 2008 helipro black hawk 450pro, the pajamas dont sell any parts for it.. hmmm weird

chrsvct

I bought an rc heli from banana hobbies a couple of weeks ago, and the motor went out after about ten flights, I contacted banana hobies (via e-mail) to get the problem rectified but as of yet had no response

Chris

nightwitch

[Banana Hobby],"Banana Hobby",Banana Hobby,


YOU CERTAINLY DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH Banana Hobby

they don't answer the phone,email,nothing

they will answer a paypal claim

save your self the headache and go someware else

nice looking website but that is about it

Habaneroe

My Feedback: (1)

I avoid them because of the bait & switch thing they do.

I ordered a tank, and they sent me another model calling it a "free upgrade" even though it had fewer features and it even cost less!?!

So they look like they have a large selection to choose from- but not really- many of those things are long out of stock and they will just send you something else without actually checking with you first.

aerobob427

I got my Dauphin from banana no problem. Nice heli, no problems, looks brand new, with all the included goodies. But they didn't return my emails or calls for support, which was disappointing because of their claim of "lifetime support." How do you make that claim, and know it, and not respond at all? Don't they feel an obligation to make good on their heavily advertised word?

Just want anyone who has an order coming from them that it might be OK, but I also would not order from them again. Customer service is needed in this hobby. I like the fact that some retailers are here and conversant. Helpful even, despite the fact that I bought elsewhere. I'll order from them next time, I have the web sites bookmarked.

Also, I have had good luck lately with xheli.com by email. Can't get through on the phone, I get disconnected whenever I get to #3 in queue. But they've been very good with email support and quick to ship. Not sure where they are but if I order Monday I have the goodies Friday.

Yellow alert on esky-heli.com. I ordered a Dauphin metal head upgrade kit and LiPo from them and after three days they emailed me and said that I have to pay import duties and taxes when the order arrives. There was no mention of that during purchase or checkout, nor was there in the order confirmation email three days earlier. So I emailed them back right away that I would not be interested in paying any more than the total I agreed to, and if there are additional fees to cancel the order. They said it had already shipped, even though the first email said it would ship the next day.

They keep emailing me back and are quite rude and I have asked them to stop, I don't have time to argue. The emails keep coming. I want to just delete them, but I’m afraid to, I don’t trust them. Now they say they’re in Hong Kong which is a duty-free zone and so there won’t be any additional costs. Then why did they email me about that in the first place? Why two different stories? I’ll know when the delivery comes but certainly add esky-heli.com to the list of suppliers who won’t get any more of my dollars. I wish I had never found their web site.

Anybody have any experience with these guys?

DarkfirE748

I want a few of the Jets they have at banana hobby. Anybody know of a place where you can get the same product from other than banana hobby????

nightwitch

so you guys know I still have a problem with Banana Hobby i can no longer contact them since I they banned me from there rc gruops message board

my order was placed Jan 25th it is now march 3rd


1. Ordered Jan 25th and was sent a bunk tracking number they use the UPS Manifest system in order to create the tracking number but the thing with this system you can let a shipment pile up and submit it days later. This is great way to sell things you do not have but let the customer thinks it has shipped.

2. I filed a claim with PayPal banana hobby sure answered that quickly I never did get a real answer just the same bunk tracking number

3. I wait the tanks come Feb 12th so we check them out one is broke ok

4. I spent a week trying to get a hold of bananahobby no dice

5 I Google banana hobby wow complaint city I joined 3 message boards trying to track them down. Finally found this one I did not come here on own free will. But how are your customers supposed to know to come here. banana hobby has a whole support page of telephone numbers and email address's that do not get answered. And all bananahobby support links point to that page.

6 so I post for banana hobby he answers and sends me an rma number I pay 25.43 to ship it back.

COST $25.43 RMA Number IS PY39709

A package was shipped to you on 02/23/2009 via U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail to the following address:

BANANA HOBBY
600 MONTEREY PASS RD
MONTEREY PARK CA 91754

The following optional services were used: None

The package's Signature Confirmation ID is 9121148008600893563109

7. Now today march 5th I get a new package but it is the wrong tank. One would think after the first customer service issue the second would be well taken care of by banana hobby.

8. So I post about the wrong tank sent .well after a few minutes I get a phone call from BANANA HOBBY imagine just a little bit after I posted. It was like a miracle just happened BANANA HOBBY wants to know if I want to send the first broken tank back. I say no I already sent it back. I got the new tank today. But it is the wrong one. The guy on phone says send it back and Pete will reimburse you. Having spent 25.43 already I said forget it. At this point they have lost my trust. I told the guy on the phone to tell Pete to come to the website and answer everybody.


9. Well Pete comes to the website and posts

“Did you or did you not tell him you were keeping it? Perfect condition or not, it has been used. Do me a favor; keep the wrong tank we shipped. I will go and pull the RIGHT ONE and ship it to you. You can have 3 IR tanks. We messed up and I am sorry. I have your order and you were sent the M1A2 wrong. I will ship you the correct IR tank. NO CHARGE. Keep the M1A2 for target practice�

I told him to forget it because I had to pay it ship it back again, do you really think I would believe you would reimburse me at this point. Oh that is right it was changed to a misunderstanding.



“The other tank in your purchase is no broken. Just because you are frustrated with us does not mean you can just return the one that has been running fine and you have been using. I understand that you are upset, it was a mistake. The return shipping label can me emailed to you. You print it and paste it and drop it off or give it to a UPS courier. Once they have possession, we can reship the correct tank.

Just FYI, if this was an issue why did you tell my tech guy that it's fine and you will keep it when he called you?�

Pete�

Well Pete you wanted me to pay again to ship it back so I told him forget it. Then you try to twist my words around by saying it was misunderstanding and you meant to say return shipping label you posted this in another thread which you deleted. His English sounded pretty clear to me.

Mind you the other tank was used for about a whole 5 minutes. The other tank was broken so since it was a VS IR BATTLE TANK TANKS there is really nothing you can do with just one.

Now banana hobby is reporting my posts so threads get locked and fall to the bottom.

Basically bananahobby use’s RC group’s support system to hide their problems.

Then we have the new posters sticking up for �banana hobby� and calling your customer a jerk.

I sure don’t see any senior members on here sticking up for you.

Then [banana hobby] tells me to take it to PM’s what do you have to hide?

Then BANANA HOBBY say’s I will be banned from this site. News Flash I did not come here of my own free will. I had to hunt down Banana Hobby customer support.

“You need this take this to PM. Look at your avatar. This has gone too far. If this continues, you will be banned.

Pete is gone for the day.

This is Chris
Banana Hobby Super�

As for the Banana banning you can go right ahead and do so it will show your true colors. I did not come here of my own free will. I had to hunt down Banana Hobby customer support.


Banana hobby give’s online sellers a bad name the only jerking going on is BANANA HOBBY

They could have sent me my return tag hours ago for the two VS IR BATTLE TANK TANKS and they would be heading back Friday morning for another week long journey. It has been six weeks already why not make it 8

I will say this there site is very nice but it needs to be in the right hands.

SENT TO ME BY PM


You win. I have tried and I am not doing this anymore with you. My associate that issues returns is out stick today. When she returns on Monday, I will have her issue you the return shipping label. Please be patient and we will message you Monday. Have a nice weekend.

THIS THREAD WAS ALO REPORTED BY banana hobby this how they muzzle there customers

An RCGroups user has reported one of your posts.

The user has alleged that your post has violated one of the site rules.

At this time, none of the site staff have had an opportunity to review this allegation. If the staff review the report and determine that a rule has been violated, they will issue a warning point and/or ask you to edit your post to remove the offending content.

Please take time to review your post and verify to your satisfaction that none of the site rules have been broken. No action is required on your part unless you wish to edit your post prior to the admin's review.

The reported post can be found at the following link:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...50#post11735150

Your post was reported for violating the following rule: Highly Offensive Content (Immediate ban)

More information about this rule, and all the other rules, can be found on the RCGroups Rules Page.

always an excuss with banana hobby

bottom gunner

was about to order F-18 Jolly Rogers 90mm with retracts from Banana Hobby thanks for the warning. can you purchase this plane some other place

greekmath

Hi everyone, In reading this I can see a lot of frustration about banana hobby, nitro planes and similar affiliated site like heli x etc. For the record banana does not appear to be linked to nitro but nitro has many faces and many different names.

I bought a lot of stuff from both places and here is my experience in a nutshell:

1) i got everything ordered but it usually takes 10 to 15 days via standard shipping.

2) Everything came in one piece so far and the packing has been good

3) Hope you do not have to talk to them because you will find the following. a) You will wait: I use skype with auto redial function. I recently had to call banana about a defective product and it took 36 redials at 1 minute intervals to get through When i did get through i was put on hold for 5 minutes and then after detailing my problem i was transferred. Ultimately the transfer never happened and I had to call them again because it hung up. Again 30 some minutes later ( Do something else while you are waiting!) I got tech support who put me on hold for another 5 minutes. Then Pete who I suppose is the boss at banana got on and spent 30 minutes patiently answering every question i had about the problem which was resolved to my satisfaction) as well as several other related issues. At no time was I rushed by pete nor was I treated with anything but the kind of interest we would all like to get from a fellow modeler..

After the call ended I looked at the time of the call and it was you guessed it just about 36 minutes which explains a lot about wait times. My experience with Nitro planes was pretty much the same although they seemed to know less about their product lines. Alex at AK models and Curtiss at Easytiger are wizards as well but you will not get to them easily either.

True it was a major inconvenience and true I had to wait long time and try multiple times all of which was a hassle, but unlike so may other similar situations the person I spoke to actually knew what he was talking about and could actually help me something that is usually not the case.

I realize that in many cases my experience would be considered all negative but for me personally it was not. To me the mark of a good business person is one who is responsive to their customers. Ultimately banana was althogh it took forever to get them! All of the local hobby shops in my area have long since closed which is a sad but true reality. I think most of these newer companies survive now on the "newness" of what they offer and to some degree the pricing". Hopefully these companies will work to improve their service and get more lines/people on board to help us.

the one that does will wind up surviving and succeeding in the "new" economy

Happy flying! Dave

G-ROOKIE

My Feedback: (51)

Ok Guy's look at this web. www.Kampunghobby.com , They are selling the FA-18 for $399.90, F19 $299.00 and more. They are the same planes as BananaHobby.com. I sent them an email and she replys fast.

Hope this helps!!!!

I am not trying to hurt BH, just some other options for those who are scared.

greekmath

Hi everyone back again for a brief update. Once again I have not had any real problems with nitro banana etc except it takes forever to get a hold of them. I did notice someone posted an alternative place to buy the very same stuff. I investigated this site which will remain nameless for reasons to come but the funny thing is I noticed the post was removed within 24 hours. I actually tried to place an order with this site since the prices were great and they had 2 planes I had wanted but could not find on any of the typical sites.

The next day after the post was removed the website had in broken English a notation that they were not retailers but wholesalers and if you placed a large order (numbers and amounts undefined) you would save money but they were not dealing with individual hobbyists at all. Here is what was most interesting. I basically got to see what the profit margins are on the typical EDF planes sold by the banana / nitro type sites. For the small ones (64 mm to 70mm) fans the retailer makes about 100 dollars. For the bigger 90 to 101 mm EDF’s about $ 200. I am neither passing judgment on this nor commenting on capitalism: you should see the profit margins many of the other things we buy. I just thought you might like to know what the going rates are. It will be interesting to see if my post lasts longer than the original one! Happy Flying!

Brodie

Funny I was just perusing the banana site thinking about making a purchase when a thought hit me to check out a forum or two. It looks like that was the best choice.

VXL_Champ

Resellerratings is a 3.33[:'(]

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Banana_Hobby

Eric

worldoceans

I was scammed by BananaHobby too - NEVER order from these crooks. They do not answer emails or phone calls, unless it is to GET money. THEY SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN OR CHARGED WITH FRAUD. Their products are cheap junk.

igm502

I was about to order an At-6 Texan from banana hobby but now i wont, Thanks alot

xviper-1

I sooo wish I had seen this before I bought my EC-135 chopper from Banana. The thing didn't work out of the box. The radio cannot be bound to the helicopter. I have sent emails to Banana and they have NEVER replied. I have telephoned only to be told the tech guy has lots of people waiting on the line and they would call me back if I leave name and number. NOBODY has ever called me. The product was not that cheap, either and I basically have a fairly expensive model helicopter that just sits there doing NOTHING. I think I will have to persue the credit card charge back route.
Add me to the long list of people who have been had by Banana Hobby.

edwinkania

C heck out my post these effres still think they are going to get $260.00 from me!!!! WRONG!!!!!!!!! Double charged and fought with AMY at BH and got pissed and canceled my order and they still have a pending charge against my card!!!!!! They actually deny that they charged me when I showed it to them on my statement. It clearly shows "Banana Hobby" as the merchant on the statement!!!! What effing scamming ***** F***H***!!!!!!!

xviper-1

Update. I eventually had to send the bloody helicopter back at my expense. After messing around for weeks and being denied a claim by PayPal, I finally got the helicopter back. Sure, it's now bound and will actually operate, but it is a very bad flying helicopter. The response of the helicopter to the radio is sluggish and intermittent, occasionally not responding at all. It's a terribly product and now I see most shops that sell this model has them on at a "blow out" sale price a fraction of what I paid. I guess word has gotten out just how bad these Blitz products are and they can't give them away. It is worst transaction that I have ever experienced and this product is the worst of all the helicopters I own. I fly it once in a blue moon just to see how out of control it can get and how close to totalling it in a crash. After the initial high cost, the added shipping expense and months of frustration, I've got a helicopter that is basically an overpriced static model. Banana Hobby and Blitz will NEVER sell me another thing again.