RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

20 years and no problems yet.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

I don't think Tower Hobbies "suck". I've been buying from them since 1975. Thousands of dollars worth; OS, Great Planes, motors, servos, planes, etc. You're correct, the items sometimes are floating around in the outer box. But, most of the time the expensive items and the small items are in the factory packaging, inside a bag, inside the box. Sounds like to me your UPS guy might be a contributing factor...

As far as customer service goes.... they have the best web page and account services in the industry, bar none. The last plane I purchased from them was the little Cosmic Wind. The covering on the wing and elevator was not good at all. I wrote an email, told them about the problem, and they sent me new pieces within a week. The replacement part was excellent and the person even told me she would check it personally before it was sent out. And she told me to keep the parts I had.

Now why would I buy from anyone else if they have what I want? I do buy brands Tower doesn't carry from other suppliers. I must be one lucky guy I have no issues with Horizon, Hobby King, Hobby People, Hobby Lobby, AMain, Value Hobby, or any others. You should reconsider your position on Tower. They are owned by the employees and will work with you to make any problem right. -Tony

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

I have to totally agree with the previous post. I am a Gold customer at Tower and have never had an issue that wasn't resolved to my satisfaction. I will continue to support them as long as they stock the items I am looking to buy. :D

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Evidently they moved there wearhouse to one of the western states. My last order took twice as long as it use to. For that reason I am ordering from suppliers closer to me. I have no issues with there customer service or products. But there are suppliers closer to Michigan that I feal are just as good and now offer quicker delivery than Tower</p>

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

I have no problems buying from them, then last week I sent an engine for service. WOW, they did it fast and cheap, IMHO :)

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Ups beating up packages......really?? I dont believe that. (Sarcasm!!!) That could be a whole seperate rant of a forum. Btw, never had packing probs from tower. Lucky I guess

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Tower/Hobbico has two warehouse locations. One in Champaign, IL and the other in Reno, NV. The Reno location has been there for several years. Which one ships the product depnds on who has it in stock.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

It's understandable for you to bring that up. I won't even accuse you of being sarcastic, since:
It's kind of difficult to not bring that up in any vendor specific thread, as many including myself believe it is irresponsible to ship anything other than undamageable iron blocks using UPS.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

I have only made four or five major orders with Tower and have had two serious problems. The first (my first order with them) was a heavily damaged Great Planes Fling. The built up wing assembly was seriously crushed, and there was damage to the fibreglass fuselage. Second order involved a damaged Flyzone helicopter which again seems to have been to shipping. However, both resulted in refunds so I was able to have their values reimbursed. <div>
</div><div>It was a pain, however, to repackage the models and ship them back, especially with our extremely slow shipping here in Canada. </div><div>
</div><div>Personally, I have switched to Great Hobbies for general purchases - far more kits available, more selection, lots of Sig products, Canadian based, need I say more? </div><div>
</div><div>Graeme</div>

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

tower has always been good to me, cheapest place by far for most hobby items, wish they would carry a better selection of planes like they used to when you could get lanier,goldberg and sig kits but are no longer carried. Towers discounts are the best plus free shipping most of the time if you are a member, tower only accounts for about 50% of my hobby dollars with the rest being spent at my lhs and other online hobby retailers, like i said earlier, only if they had a better selection of planes.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

I also quit tower, I ordered a pt-17 stearman it was damaged new in box, I had to pay for shipping back to tower, and they never did offer to pay for it. I have been ordering for years and spent a lot of money with them, now I just shop here on rcu or swap meets.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Congrats to all the folks who like tower, stick with them. I left and have been happy with the likes of Horizon , Radical RC, Sig and Balsa USA. Four winners that I have had AAA+ experiences with. Not Tower bashing just saying I dont miss them. I think they are happy with their performance or they would change. Dealt with them a Looong time, spent a lot of money over 20+ years with tower, spoke my peace with them on several occasions, they were always nice just couldnt always perform. If you have good luck with them stick with what works for you..............its that simple.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

YAY !

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

:D I've had it go both ways with many different mail order hobby shops. Either a small box inside a large box with no packing material or a small item in an overly large box and wrapped in newspaper and almost lost the part in the trash can with the newspaper.
Once I had a hobby mail order shop, do a great job, by using peanuts & airbags etc. but forgot to put in the part!? They had to remail my order the next day.
In one case I received by UPS, an airplane body replacement, packed in a double boxed container, only to find the part damaged as if run over by a fork lift?
The free replacement also came damaged, as if the container with a hole in it, had been stabbed by a spear? The third and final replacement, came to me ,"OK" and was packaged in three boxes deep!?
All in all, I've had very good luck over the past twenty five years. I've never had a problem with corrections, but I do have to be patient. :eek:

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Tower is #1 is my book. I had one issue with a great planes gee bee. The plane came cracked. I called them they said we will give you another one, just use the return shipping slip we gave you and take it to the nearest UPS. So technically all I was out of was time and the little gas I spent to go to UPS. Tower has good Customer Service.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Great Planes Gee Bee. Yup had that problem. Original fuse cracked on top. They sent a new one, that one was all but shattered when it showed up, next one looked like a factory second with fiberglass finger prints on the painted surfaces. Finally i called upset and asked that they inspect what they were shipping and package it correctly. The last one came undamaged with a big run in the paint in the tail end by the stab holes. I gave up and accepted it and built it......... Anderson and Tower had some headaches with that airplane for sure...........

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Tower Hobbies has a large selection of hobby related parts and supplies.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

One thing these comments of damaged goods in shipping explain, is why some places have to charge a bit more. We here a lot of complaints of goods damaged in shipping, and probably only a fraction of them. The more I read these posts, the more it explains why Tower has to charge a bit more than some of the really low priced discount places, that would never even send a single replacement, let alone several. One way or another, somebody had to pay for these losses. I'm sure they did have some headaches with that plane, and may have searched through a number, just to find an undamaged one with a big run in the paint.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

I agree losses cost money. So to avoid them change what you do that causes them right? BTW, I never thought Tower had high prices..........

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

I think you completely missed the point of my statement.
I don't think they have high prices either, and I don't believe that I stated it. There are a lot of people today who look only at price, and always say "I can get this or that cheaper at some other place." The purpose of the statement is that Tower supports customers when items are damaged, and some places don't, which is why Tower is not as low priced as some other places. I thought it was pretty clear. Maybe it would have been even more clear if I compared them to other places that do not have good support, but I thought that would be something that would cause a controversy.

BTW, I was never trying to disagree with your statements in any way.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Very true. On shipments I have received shipments from China they have everything packed as tight as it can get inside the craptastic cardboard boxes they use(I actually think these boxes start to disintegrate as soon as they smell the ocean!) and if somethings broke well good luck with that. Now some have good CS and will take care of the issue BUT you either have to send it back(costly) and hope the replacement doesn't get damaged (rinse ,lather, repeat). The of course there are the Chicoms with NO CS at all!

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Canada here - no issues with Tower except my wife tries to hide the catalog ..............

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

Never ordered anything from an asian supplier directly. I deal with radical RC, Balsa USA, Horizon and a few kit builders here in the US. No experience with asian supplier or hobby shops.........sorry to have missed your point.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

On the issue of support. Tower is friendly and nice to deal with. here is where the rubber meets the road for me. I worked in the snowmobile industry for 20+ years. Warranty is a funny thing. We used to say Warranty, the best warranty in the world, isnt worth much when your new sled breaks down at 10PM on a dark trail at -20 F. I really dont want to know how well anyones warranty is. i buy what I think is better quality stuff because I dont want to have to test warranty. With tower, I was buying their "better" products and still having to test their warranty........so, I stopped dealing with them. RC is supposed to be fun. When I buy a plane I am buying fun. When the plane arrives broken or of poor quality then what I bought ( which was fun ) was not delivered...................Tower / Great Planes missed delivering fun too many times for me. Im on to better things.

RE: TOWER HOBBIES SUCKS
 

<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At least Tower sent your order ... First time I ordered from Hobby King Ordered 7 Batteries and a $92 dollar charger. $229 with shipping. Got the battries in 5 days. No charger no bill of lading ... had to photo package pacakeging and contents weigh it and a couple of other things. Been almost a month and don't have the charger yet ... their still trying to figuer it out.</span></span>