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All Forums >> RC Helicopters >> Electric RC Helis >> people at my hobby store know nothing
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people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/22/2005 4:06:31 AM   
hydravien



Posts: 155
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Thunder Bay, ON, CANADA
Status: offline 		ok i, like many other people sheared the gear on my #35 and i had ordered the blue replacement off the net and was waiting for it to arrive. but i was impatient, so i went to the hobby store and decided to see if they had any workable replacement.
the guy at the store was so dumb its not even funny. ima tell you what happend

*me* walks into store and begins looking at a display of #35

guy at store : can i help you with anything sir?

me: yes im looking for a replacement tail input gear for my #35. do you have one?

store guy: im sorry sir but that model is a prototype from china, and we have no parts for it

me: a prototype?

store: yes they are finalizing the design

me: really?

store: yup

*me* looks at walkera brand name stamped all over heli

store guy: a lot of people have been coming in here with cheap ebay knockoffs

*me* sigh

me: youre sure that you have no gear that will replace this model?

store: no they are prototype

*me* continues to look at the stock everything all over the heli

store: can i help you with anything else?

me: yes i would like to get some replacement blades *looking at some 290 and 305's on the shelf*

store guy: im sorry those wont fit, those cheap ebay knockoffs are almost impossible to get parts for

*me* getting frusturated

me: do you have any blades or gears that will fit this "prototype"?

store guy: yes but they wont fit the ebay knockoff that you have

me: they look exactly alike

store: believe me they wont fit

*me* looks at the big signs that say walkera everywhere

me: youre sure?

store guy: yup

*me* walks out, intent on never setting foot in that place until they get better staff

true story i kid you not, this guy wouldnt even consider selling me any parts for my "cheap ebay knockoff"

_____________________________

Nick
       Post #: 1

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/22/2005 7:15:39 AM   
credence


 

Posts: 2518
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Brampton, ON, CANADA
Status: offline 		Someone should go back and inform him that everything Walkera makes is a cheap knockoff

I think maybe patience is a virtue in helicopters, using sticks and paper glue to "make it fly" usually ends up in disaster. Practice on a simulator or something untill your new part arrives

_____________________________

Daniel
True Northern Hobbies, Inc.

(in reply to hydravien)
       Post #: 2

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/22/2005 3:27:11 PM   
hydravien



Posts: 155
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Thunder Bay, ON, CANADA
Status: offline 		i sheared the crap tail input gear, so i went looking for a new one but as i said.....

anyway my gear arrived yesterday so i got that on, and now i need something better than the stock battary

_____________________________

Nick

(in reply to credence)
       Post #: 3

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/22/2005 5:18:16 PM   
GroundMagnet


 

Posts: 82
Joined: 5/14/2005
From: St. Louis, MO, USA
Status: offline 		Ya I live is St Louis and all the LHS I've been to don't know that much about Heli's. But what gets me is instead of just saying sorry man I don't know they'll try BS.

(in reply to hydravien)
       Post #: 4

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/22/2005 5:23:14 PM   
timothy thompson


 

Posts: 2761
Joined: 6/19/2004
From: saginaw, MI, USA
Status: offline 		common problem the kids in these stores usually do rc cars. Anyone who knows airplanes would never get paid enough to work there so you really need to know what you want and how to do it. Im sure there are exceptions but my LHS sells anything to anybody no warnings or cautions. The owner is very knowlegable but when he isnt there watch out. the good employees leave for college and that. Need to get a retired rc guru in there but who will work for minimum.
Tru story went to mcDonalds and asked for half a dozen chicken nuggets was told they only come in 4,6,9,20 piece. Can you believe that is what schools are graduating? Terrifying isnt it

(in reply to hydravien)
       Post #: 5

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/22/2005 5:34:33 PM   
GroundMagnet


 

Posts: 82
Joined: 5/14/2005
From: St. Louis, MO, USA
Status: offline 		That’s funny. I go to the Jack in the box by my house and it goes like this 9 out of 10 time

Take your order.

I’d like a #8 large size with regular fries and a coke
That’s a #8 you want that small, medium or larger
Argh LARGE
You want curly fries or regular
ARRGGH REGULAR
What kind of drink you want
COKE YOU #$)*#)*$ F#$*()#*$
Of course I say it nicely as I don’t want any thing extra in my food.

(in reply to timothy thompson)
       Post #: 6

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/22/2005 9:04:18 PM   
credence


 

Posts: 2518
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Brampton, ON, CANADA
Status: offline 		Hahaha, never raise **** with the service industry! Atleast, wait untill after you've got your items

_____________________________

Daniel
True Northern Hobbies, Inc.

(in reply to GroundMagnet)
       Post #: 7

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/26/2005 5:23:38 AM   
moe_lawn


 

Posts: 10
Joined: 7/25/2005
From: charleston, SC, USA
Status: offline 		Yeah, man I work in a hobby store and do all the flying. It is hard to resist the urge to tell someone that the ebay knockoff is crap, but that's only because I get frusterated making things work. The stuff you get on ebay is usually pretty ok it just needs some extra tuning. When you buy from eflite or one of the heli companies they test fly the stuff and know what they are doing. Half the time the stuff you get on the 'net is put together by four different guys who never see eachother and are setting everything to defaults. The guy in your store should have been a little more helpful and if he couldn't help he should have at least left you alone long enough to find the parts that work. Hobby shops should be a cool place to hang out and talk about the stuff you would rather be doing while you shop.

(in reply to credence)
       Post #: 8

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/26/2005 3:50:24 PM   
bdavison


 

Posts: 3334
Joined: 8/23/2004
From: Warner Robins, GA, USA
Status: offline 		Oh man...thats funny.

Here's one.

Hobbyshop in Macon, GA

Me: Do you have any helicopter stuff?

Him: No, but there are some planes in the back.

So I go look at the planes. He had some Gillows kits, and a bunch of old SIG Kits that looked like they had been there for 40 years and a bunch of SuperTigre engines.

Me: Do you have any electric stuff?

Him: What do you mean by electric?

Me: You know, flys on an electric motor instead of these glow fuel engines.

Him: Oh they dont make anything like that yet. Its still a few years away. But we have some rockets up front that use batteries to power a camera that takes pictures.

Me: Trying as hard as I could not to laugh my *** off right there in the middle of the store.


Now here's the real kicker.....

They had copies of PARKFLYER magazine on the shelf next to model trains.


I had to leave the store, because if I didnt I was going to say or do something that probably would have gotten me shot or something.



Here is some more McDonalds fun....

Goto McDonalds and order something, when he/she gives you the price, ask them if they take Federal Reserve Notes.

50% of the time he/she will say NO
50% of the time he/she will say "Let me ask my manager" then the manager will come out and say "NO"

Now look at the top of a dollar bill.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

_____________________________

teamflyingcircus.com

(in reply to moe_lawn)
       Post #: 9

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/27/2005 12:38:05 AM   
oops


 

Posts: 664
Joined: 2/26/2005
From: Perth, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		C'mon guys, don't dis the hobby shops. Most hobby shops spend their time trying to stock things that people more commonly order from Ebay now, and simply cannot specialise in the 40 or so areas they get stuff in for. And then they still need to make enough money to pay their staff, in an industry full of tyre kickers....

Yeah, I find that some are crap, but they stock things like 2mm carbon rod, which I use a lot. And they feel they need to use their "mine is better than what you are referring to" line a little much, but they do answer my questions at least.

On the other hand, I've spoken to some of them lately, and mentioned some of the better, cheaper stuff I've been finding, and they look into getting it. I've put one local place onto the T-Rex distributers, because their existing Heli distributers are ripping them off.

As for quality tuning and testing, I'm presently placing a wholesale order with a Heli manufacturer to get some stock to work with, and I'm going to retune the heli's and see how well they sell when set up for operation, competing with the same model "untuned" but then I don't have any overheads, so I can afford the experiment... And if they don't sell, I have stock to last me a few years

No, I'm not a hobby shop.... But I do appreciate what they do.

Educate them - They exist to serve their clients. They will likely pick up on any good ideas you show them...

And if you get an older place that's not familiar with electric flight, then show them a park flyer or micro electric heli... You'll probably find them a new market.

Especially since the Hobby shop market for small electric heli's is STILL about 10 times the size of the Internet market.

David

(in reply to bdavison)
       Post #: 10

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/27/2005 4:28:24 AM   
hydravien



Posts: 155
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Thunder Bay, ON, CANADA
Status: offline 		i cant not knock this guy. hes just that dumb

me: can you help me with my helicopter?
him: yes what kind?
me: walkera 400
him: sorry we dont have parts for that model. they are chinese and the parts are almost impossible to get a hold of.

so i wait a bit and go back the next day

me: can you help me with my helicopter?
him: yes what kind?
me: shogun 400
him: parts are right over here
me: sigh

_____________________________

Nick

(in reply to oops)
       Post #: 11

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/27/2005 11:58:07 AM   
oops


 

Posts: 664
Joined: 2/26/2005
From: Perth, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		Hi Hydravien,

Some people aren't dumb - they're just crooked. But if you think it's dumb, play the game..

The conversation could have gone like this...

You: Hey, look, don't tell anyone who told you, but I'm real close to Walkera.... They sold me a prototype also - Factory direct - except I asked for mine to work with other parts, and they custom built it... But it really cost a lot... Much more than the crap on ebay... More than some of yours actually.... They said it would work with those (point at wall) parts... But heh, don't tell too many people OK, because the other suckers on Ebay might want the same version....

eg, Pander his ego, convince him he's right and then just make sure he know's the customer is always right...
Don't make him think you got something he's trying to sell for a zillion dollars for a fraction of that price. It will piss him off and he might not sell to you just to cause you hassles.

I get the same attitude from most of them, and sometimes it's just them.... Afterall, think how many people buy stuff, then try to return it. Many hobby shops would rather not sell something than have someone try to return it.

Occaisonally I am wrong. Heh, I wear those purchases... Now the hobby shops see me coming and actually give me service, rather than the suss stuff... And I get to show that I can make any parts work in my Heli...

Regards
David

(in reply to hydravien)
       Post #: 12

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/27/2005 3:10:56 PM   
bdavison


 

Posts: 3334
Joined: 8/23/2004
From: Warner Robins, GA, USA
Status: offline 		Im lucky enough to have TWO fantastic hobby shops near me.

One is Tony Stillman's Radio South. Tony is a great guy, AMA VP over
our district, and runs one of the hottest hobby shops around. The great thing about Tony's shop is he stocks what the locals want, not just randomly filling the shelves with the misc and useless parts. While his shop is small, its jam packed with the hottest stuff out there. From Hatori headers for YS engines, to every new shockflyer out there. Best part of all is his shop is within walking distance from my workplace, so I head down there on my lunch hour. I'll buy from him LONG before I order anything online for three reasons.
1. Im supporting my local hobby shop.
2. I know Tony will back up his stuff.
3. If Tony doesnt have it in stock, he'll order it.
Tony's electric interests mainly cater to the indoor 3D plane crowd, and its hot here. Most of the local pilots have at least 4-5 3D planes and fly them every week in our local gym.

The other hobby shop is Hobby Central in the local mall. This place is like a virtual walmart of parkflyer stuff. From the GWS stuff to Parkzone's newest offerings you can find it in there. The staff is new to airplanes and helicopters, but they are learning rapidly. They are stocking the Blade, Shogun, and Dragonfly's, and parts for them all.

There are good hobby shops and there are bad hobby shops.

The good ones are the ones that listen to the customers and stock the items that they need and want. When someone comes in there looking for something they dont have, they order it for them REGARDLESS of where they bought it, or if its a cheap knockoff.

The bad ones are the ones that moan everytime someone comes in looking for parts for an aircraft they didnt buy there, or telling them they bought a cheap knockoff, and refusing service, or not keeping up with the hobby, or not knowing a **** thing about R/C.
Hobby shop owners that dont know anything about the hobby is like a Plumber that doesnt know how to plumb....completely useless.



_____________________________

teamflyingcircus.com

(in reply to oops)
       Post #: 13

RE: people at my hobby store know nothing - 7/27/2005 4:12:27 PM   
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