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Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/9/2008 6:20:41 AM   
Peter_OZ



Posts: 4152
Joined: 6/5/2002
From: Brisbane, , AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		I recently bought about $850 worth of goods from Advantage Hobby. One of the items was a Hanger 9 electronic incidence meter. The electronic part was faulty ahnd would not work correctly. I verified this with Hanger 9 technical help.

I contacted Advantage Hobby to get the faulty part replaced - 3 emails, no reply.

4th email, finally got a reply back from Len to say too bad and to take it up with Horizon Hobby. I beg you pardon says I but I purchased this from you, not Horizon Hobby. As I am not in the US Horizon Hobby will not deal with me.

So advantage Hobby did not make me feel like a valued cusomer, even after spending over $850 with them.

I still have a faulty part and incidence meter I can't use. They refuse to send me a servicable part.

very poor customer service.

Not happy
       Post #: 1

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/9/2008 12:30:24 PM   
camdyson


 

Posts: 692
Joined: 7/20/2005
From: Bairnsdale, AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		sounds like you were taken advantage of.........

(in reply to Peter_OZ)
       Post #: 2

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/9/2008 12:52:53 PM   
HeliBru


 

Posts: 10
Joined: 1/31/2008
From: Kuala Belait, BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
Status: offline 		Peter,

I agree with you. I'm in worse situation. Bought something (almost forgotten on what I had purchased) nearly to $500 on April, 7 2008. Track the items in USPS, left the US in 2 times surprisingly. First was on April, 19 and the second on April, 27 and until now May 9, exceeded a month with nothing except the charges on my creadit card bill.

Several emails sent to Advantage Hobby and to my frustration there is no (ZERO) (NOT A SINGLE) reply from Advantage Hobby at all. I even tried using all the email addresses under their contacts & the automatic fields they have. NO REPLY.

Contacted USPS with a reply "no additional information" with a message saying only the US sender allow to initiate further inquiries depending on the type of shipment they used.

My advice for buyers in the east, to get those from China/Hong Kong with 3 days delivery which in fact better than getting something domestically in my case. Perhaps in my case, being & carrying a muslim name make the package transitted at FBI/CIA for anti-terorrism checks. Who knows?

Thus only God knows where my order is.

To Advantage Hobby, this is first and last time I will purchase from you. You just tarnished the rest of US online suppliers to the far eastern buyers.

Hong Kong suppliers are still the best. I may not get my question answered or understood by them correctly sometimes but the eastern suppliers do answer my emails and send items so quick to the rest of the world.

No more buying from the US!!
Helibru
Brunei Darussalam.

(in reply to Peter_OZ)
       Post #: 3

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/9/2008 3:40:10 PM   
tevans55


 

Posts: 97
Joined: 8/4/2007
From: Louisville, KY, USA
Status: offline 		Peter-
On any international purchases I have made the liability has been with the manufacturer not the seller on a warranty item...the warranty is issued by the manufacturer. Horizon Hobby has this liability unless you have extenuating circumstances. Horizon Hobby lists Australian hobby stores on their web site so the fact that you are outside the US would not seem to be an issue. I would follow up with Horizon if I were you and ask where you can get warranty work handled.

(in reply to Peter_OZ)
       Post #: 4

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/9/2008 3:50:06 PM   
tevans55


 

Posts: 97
Joined: 8/4/2007
From: Louisville, KY, USA
Status: offline 		HeliBru-
Sounds like a USPS problem since the package left the US on different dates. The liability here is with the shipper. Call your credit card company and have the payment removed since you did not receive the goods you ordered. I once had an order delivered to the wrong address twice in another state I had never lived in. I just cancelled the order through my credit card company.

(in reply to HeliBru)
       Post #: 5

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/10/2008 9:25:53 AM   
Peter_OZ



Posts: 4152
Joined: 6/5/2002
From: Brisbane, , AUSTRALIA
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: camdyson

sounds like you were taken advantage of.........


yuk yuk yuk

yes mate but not to my Advantage, seems they take your money then run - so much for honouring warranty commitments.

BAH!

(in reply to camdyson)
       Post #: 6

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/10/2008 10:37:46 AM   
LDM


 

Posts: 4644
Joined: 5/29/2003
From: Denver, PA,
Status: offline 		I have to laught when people say take it up with the manufactuer , yes if its technical in nature and work will void the warinty like a futaba radio ect , I agree to a point ,but with basic parts like a incidence meter , simply replace it and that is defined as customer servace .
When you lose 1 customer at a rate of $750 , he will certainly tell 7 more about his experience and in this case on RCU that 7 will soon be 500 . We all see there mega ads on line and in the mags and we all know that if this were tower , horizon , hobby lobby ,hobby people the outcome would be differant .
These guys are big and successful because there good and they dont leave you as a the small guy dealing with the big guy supplier on your own .

Remeber most suppliers are "power buyers" with there sourceing suppliers , so for them to send back less then 5% of there good in defective merchandise is probaby part of there deal , that is not the case with you the consumer so that is why they need to simply step in and help

_____________________________

LDM

(in reply to Peter_OZ)
       Post #: 7

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/10/2008 3:11:03 PM   
Gearhead3


 

Posts: 81
Joined: 4/9/2004
From: d, CA, USA
Status: offline 		just a little in site:


1. It is in most hobby shop agreements with horizon or GP that any issues your customer may have with a product, you can refer them to their customer service. I would begin to think that maybe the shop rep you talked with did no know you were out of the country, or they may have helped you more...... Hard to say.

2. Most Warranties are void when the product is sold out side of the respective country. This is a big risk when you don't purchase from your Local Hobby Shop, or from a online retailer that is with in your country.

The hobby shop or distributor are not obligated to honor any warranties when the product leaves their respective countries.

This is another reason why it is best to support your local hobby shop, or at least one with in your country.

< Message edited by Gearhead3 -- 5/10/2008 3:12:29 PM >

(in reply to LDM)
       Post #: 8

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/11/2008 5:57:30 PM   
tevans55


 

Posts: 97
Joined: 8/4/2007
From: Louisville, KY, USA
Status: offline 		A warranty is an expressed binding agreement between you and the manufacturer. Use it to your "advantage" it's good customer service to honor the agreement. If manufacturers make a defective product no matter what the price or complexity what in that is the suppliers liability unless otherwise stated? Make the manufacturer honor the warranty and we all will benefit from higher quality products. Force the supplier to deal with it and the price goes up.

(in reply to Peter_OZ)
       Post #: 9

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/11/2008 10:58:38 PM   
Peter_OZ



Posts: 4152
Joined: 6/5/2002
From: Brisbane, , AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		Lou,
so very true mate. As for talking it up with Horizon hobby as I am not in the US they will not deal with me, hence why I bought through Advantage Hobby. As they are my point of contact for the purchase I would think they would help me my offering some good old fashioned service. Simply rerplace the defective part and have them get a replacement from Horirzon themselves, afterall they would be dealing with them on a daily basis.

It is not that hard to offer good service. Especially for an overseas customer.


Did somebody say support LHS in this country? Here are the facts of that for you. A $59 USD product in a US hobby shop is a $159 AUD, (approx $150 USD) product in one of our hobby shops. Hence why most guys here shop internationally over the net as I do.

Local hobby shops are far too expensive here.

(in reply to LDM)
       Post #: 10

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/12/2008 12:21:29 AM   
Hajo77



Posts: 29
Joined: 2/14/2007
From: CorkCo Cork, IRELAND
Status: offline 		Couple of weeks ago I tried to "buy" some stuff from advantage hobby but all my emails have been left unanswered as well. I wonder where all those happy customer comments on their frontpage come from. But seriously, one could at least expect to receive an answer back within a couple of days... but no answer at all?

I went off to buy from Towerhobbies instead. I ordered a P-6 Hawk from Greatplanes. Ordered Tuesdays and Thursday morning i had the kit delivered to my doorstep.

(in reply to Peter_OZ)
       Post #: 11

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/12/2008 12:28:00 AM   
LDM


 

Posts: 4644
Joined: 5/29/2003
From: Denver, PA,
Status: offline 		One more thing , when you have a customer servace issues and no one responds where you live is irrelavant , a no responce is poor business no matter how you measure it

_____________________________

LDM

(in reply to Hajo77)
       Post #: 12

RE: Advantage Hobby Poor Customer service - 5/12/2008 1:08:43 AM   
Peter_OZ



Posts: 4152
Joined: 6/5/2002
From: Brisbane, , AUSTRALIA
Status: offline 		that is the service I get from Tower too. Whenever there is adefective part they swap it out immediately and have it to me within a week. No questions asked, no quibbles and they always respond to emails within 1 day. Top service. In fact most US hooby businesses are very responsive and have top service.

No response to a simple email enquirey is very poor service indeed. They either could not care less or they are so under resourced that they can not answer all messages. Either way they have a serious problem that is going to impact their bottom line.

A shame as they have some good products and good prices.


(in reply to Hajo77)
       Post #: 13

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