matoran629

Hi everyone, I have a question. Have any of you heard of a website called bananahobby.com ??? In case you haven't noticed, HobbyLobby has been getting a lot of new jets lately. Banana Hobby has these months before HobbyLobby. They are a lot cheaper from bananahobby, but from the same manufacturer. It is really cool, so go there.[8D]

Oregon Craig

I haven't heard of it, no.

RedGN

there is a past thread about banana hobby here somewhere.

Didn't sound too good though

RedGN

It's in the rc helicopter beginners forum
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_165/tt.htm

j_t01

[X(] Stay away from Banana Hobby!!! I haven't heard anything good and a lot bad about how they treat customers and distribute broken and used stuff that you can't return. Just try to call them and see if they answer the phone.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5585381/tm.htm

Ryan K.

I've herad of it. It's a nice website with a huge RTF/RTR selection, with a gazillion photos of each product and live chat that is fairly helpful. Seems unlikely that someone would go through the trouble of creating such a cleaned-up website in order to scam people. I have a few things id like to buy from them; will post an update if and when I do.

scooterinvegas

My Feedback: (1)

No one said anything about a scam. Just the customer severice sucks. If you get something that is broken or non working, your stuck with it. They won't answer you emails or phone calls.

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

Ditto, RUN DO NOT WALK, away from BH!!!!!!

Unless you are buying for an airframe to convert over and don't mind taking a chance on defective parts, it is not where you want to spend your money.
Most is bottom line quality electronics, and customer service is non existent.


Just do a little searching on all the threads about how bad BH is, on RCG, here, and WattFlyer.

jesses151

My Feedback: (1)

I'vedonemy fair share of purchasing from Nitroplanes, Banana Hobbys, & Hobby King and my opinion is that for the cheaper price you may have to sacrifice good service and possibly quality product. But then again it's like that no matter what I'm buying. The better service always comes from the people that charge the most. Unfortunately people only start threads on these forums when they get screwed in some way, I doubt you'll ever seen a thread started on a retailer that did something outstanding.
-Jesse

Aircraftfreak15

horizon is one of the only retailers ive hadd good experance with i had the rx go bad in a plane and the sent me a hole new airframe since it was one of their air frames it happend to and a new rx. But i do shop else were HK has crapy service i had planed come in samshed fuse broke in half and i waited nearly 3 mounths for it and they would not take it back but the batts from the work amasingly well. Bannan hobby i have only have one plne from then and i dont think i will buy agin unless i buy for the air frame the equipment in there planes is junk and srevice is limmited if you cant even get them to resond. It is kinds the same story as BH for hobby lobby. so like others have said stay away from BH and or Hobby lobby unles you are purchising airframe only.

road_rascal

I ordered a couple of Sky Surfers (Easy Star clones) from them. Never had a problem with ordering or the quality of the planes.

alvincfi

They Suck, my brother picked up one of their larger p51's and found it was very poor quality. He flew it once and got rid of it. Too much work to get it working right, including cheezy retracts that kept sticking, cheap components etc.

blueskybud

I have used them extensively.... Product is o.k., service not so. Reliability is good.

boomer1

My Feedback: (1)

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

stuntflyr

I've bought from Banana Hobby before. No problems, but I drive up to the warehouse when stuff needs fixing and Pete finds me what I need from the 10 foot high pile of airplanes they have taken back and sent people brand new ones. I've seen it, so I know that some people are getting their stuff replaced.
Here is how I figure ARF's anyway. They are a model airplane that is at best marginal, with an RTF it include's a marginal motor, gear, radio, too. (Pete's dad told me that a 6 channel radio costs them less than 10 bucks.) When it goes bad, I buy a quality motor to replace it with, same with battery, radio, gear. If you wanted a really quality produced model of the same type, you would be able to get it from Tower, etc. But a lot of really neat models aren't available from the high end manufacturers so you get Banana Hobby's stuff instead.

I don't care if you buy it from Hobby Lobby, Banana Hobby, or Nitroplanes, it's marginal. Say I wanted to get (for instance, not saying it about this one in particular) a new folding wing, F-14. I'd get it and find the pushrods were crap, horns and clevis's crap, and the servos were lousy too. I'd buy real stuff, make my own pushrods, see if the horns were good enough, but sometimes they are not, and replace the servos with a decent name brand. (Except HS-55's, won't use them in anything, -65's OK, not -55's). So now I have a fighting chance. But what about the radio. Well, toss it. I use Airtronics so with any EDF/scale/cool model I want to keep, I put a decent rx in, properly mounted and now I have a pretty good model.

Without doing this stuff, it's kind of like just using a toy for 5 to 10 flights. It's a crapshoot that you gamble your dough on the luck of a really cheaply produced and fairly complex model. Essentially for toy prices.

Chris...