eddiedeverell

Hey anyone have some hobby shop horror stories to share? I went in to my LHS today to buy a body for my Kyosho MP7.5 ( which I ordered !!!! yeah! ), anyway, I could not find one. I politely ask the " expert " there if he carries any buggie bodies, I tell him what I ordered today and he tells me, you dont need a buggie. You should cancel that order and get a monster truck. I told him that I really want a buggie thats why I ordered it. He replies Than cancel that order and buy our hot bodies buggy, its better than the kyosho. He than told me that the inferno MP7.5's are complete junk, he's never seen a worse buggie. I looked at him and laughed. I than started to walk away when another guy comes up to him and asks the "expert" if the RS4 # RTR is good to get for his 15 year old for his birthday, the man tells him that he should get his kid the serpent impulse, and that he can order it for him. He than tells the guy that his kid could build it in one night even if hes never built one before. I walked over at that point and told him to go to this other hobby shop and buy his kid the RS4 RTR and that his son would love it. At that point the "expert" tells me to get out of his shop and that I could not know much about R/C if I support Kyosho. Anyway I cannot believe how dumb some of these guys are, trying to rip people off to make that sale......

nopistonRX7

man that is f'd up... I had a guy who was a manager of a local hobby store that was helping me out when I first started. I went to him for all my questions and he never steered me wrong. He knew a ton about rc cars and trucks and he would show my fabrication jobs he did to his. He once added headlights to his car! They looked cool! Anyways (this stories not really horroriffic) one day I go in there and asked for him and everyone had a wierd look on their face when I asked to see him. My nieghbor who worked there at the time told me later that he got arrested. I guess the guy was stealing money from the register, jacking parts off the shelf, and he would take peoples broken engines that they brought in and would send them back to the factory and somehow was making a killing off of this. I was in total shock! Just when you think you know someone you don't.

eddiedeverell

man thats crazy! Yeah there are alot of strange people around. I bet he had a sweet R/C though, lol

BUGGIES_R_US

LOL. Thats just crazy..
Man a serpent impulse for a 15 year old as a first car?
Built in ONE night?
You should straight up kick his ass lol
And while your at it drop a savage MT on his foot and ask em how that felt.

My LHS is great. I try to, but I end up not buying much from them except for random accessories.
They used to be able to teach me a lot, but thanks to RCU I now know the same or more
Unless its a hands on thing, I research on RCU first. This is the best thing to happen to any R/C hobbyist !
-ram

bigbadbowtie

We have two Shops here in town. The two shops used to be one shop that was ran by two guys.... well they split up. They are on opposite sides of town now. The one guy(kevin) is great with people,kids,ect ect(little brand specific but thats ok). The ather guy is Lazy...has no clue and just upsets me pretty bad.


Well I was in the lazy guys shop looking for somthing a few weeks back and this kid comes in. He asked the guy at the counter if he had a part for his GT10. His words...... "If its not on the rack we don't have it" I walk over to help the kid even though im not familair with AE Gas stuff. I cant find it on the rack.
The kid walks to the counter and asked the guy to order it. The lazy guy says do you know the PN.. he says no.. well then how am I supposed to order it. By now IM pissed off and this kids dad can tell. I walk over to the kid and tell him he needs to go see Kevin over at Southside and he will set you up with what you need. I thought I was gonna have to beat the lazy guy down he just when nuts......get out of my store....... never come in here again..... blah blah blah.....So I left. The kids father thanked me in the parking lot and asked if I could give them directions. I did one better and they fallowed me over there. The kid got his parts and that was that.

The thing is.... I know he has Books behind the counter with PN's in them I have used them before. He was just too friggin lazy to do anything. When a big $$$ guy comes in he is all over them...

I don't get it.

Thats my story of the week

hoodiegadoo

I have a few hobby shops by me but there is one in particular where the guy is know by reputation. I don't know why he is working at the hobby shop because he really knows nothing about the cars. But I use the shop because he tends to stock alot of parts......So anyway I'm in the shop about to get some parts and a lady comes into the store with her son and his rc car and he can't figure out y the engine is not putting out the power that it used to. So the guy takes about a 5 minute look at the car and tells him that he blew the engine. He also suggested some great Novarrossi engines the kid could buy that he had in the shop for 500$. The truck was only a month old so I told the kid as he was walking out to wait a sec in the parking lot and I might be able to help him out. So I got my parts and walked outside and I told the kid to follow me to a good track near the shop. We get to the track and I got out his car and started driving it around. It seemed like it wasn't getting any air or gas into the engine and the needle settings were correct. So then I took the car back to my table and opened up the engine and carb only to find little pieces of rubber were in the carb. blocking fuel and air from getting into the engine. I cleaned it out really well and the car ran like a dog for a bone. It was a beautiful thing. So yeah some guys try to ruin the sport for other people. This kid was 14 and just got his first car and was about to sell it because his mom was thinking the hobby was too expensive.....what some people will do to make a few bucks....

cool head

the lhs owner is a dumb phuque. he thinks the new traxxas engine has 2.5hp. he's never heard of rb cocept. he thinks a fail safe will help you if your batteries go dead. everyone reffers to him as the race nazi, cuz he's such an *****hole at the track. even his wife hates him. really!

BUGGIES_R_US

LOL RC39

You know this tells me something else.. YOU guys are quite admirable.. A round of applause for you guys for helping!

Only at RCU can we find such helpful people . I enjoy the company of you guys very much!

And btw how profitable is the RC industry? I mean hobby shops arent all the same, and a good one in the right place should make a lot of money eh? Anyway thats another topic
-ram

darkroland

So I'm in the hobby shop a couple weeks ago, I've been running battery cars for awhile and wanted to get into nitro. Was looking at the RC10GT, but had no idea what the difference in the engine sizes was. (.12, .15, etc).

Talking to the fellow behind the counter, (he's not offering any information, just answering questions), i'm trying to get a feel for the different brands/sizes. Here's the conversation.

Me :"What's the difference between the .12 and the .15 engines?"

Hobby monkey: "The .15 engine is bigger."

Me: "Right, but is bigger better when you're running a nitro stadium truck?"

Hobby Monkey: "Well, it's bigger..."

Me: (starting to get annoyed) "Ok, so what's the difference between these two engines?" (both .15's)

Monkey: "Well, this one costs 20 dollars more than that one."

Me: "Well why is it 20 dollars more?"

Monkey: "umm..... well it's probably got something to do with... (drones off into mumbling)...brand...or something... and speed.... and it's 20 dollars more"

Me: "Well thanks alot for your time." (In my head "and for your COMPLETE AND TOTAL LACK OF PROVIDING ME WITH ANY INFORMATION I DIDN'T HAVE WHEN I WALKED IN HERE.)"

Luckily I found 2 more hobby shops in the area, and haven't been back. Morons. They're everywhere! I felt like I was at best buy talking to someone about computers.

eddiedeverell

These are some crazy stories lets keep them coming. Some hobbie shops are great others are just plain sad. I wish tower hobbies were my neighbors. Theres another shop close to me that advertises all different kinds of rc stuff, well I go in there and all he carried is airplanes, I ask him if he has any RC cars, he replies, no, cant you see, its all planes. Call me crazy but dont advertise it than!!

Another thing that bugs me, I'm in King Soopers, grabbing my latest edition of RC car magazine with my son. Anyway, I get up to the counter, and the cashier says, boy hes a little young for that aint he? ( thinking Im getting it for my son ), I tell him, no its for me, he than looks shocked and asked me why I still play with kids toys!! I couldnt believe it, I told him there not just for kids. he than goes on to tell me about how expensive they are and with the economy being so bad I should be saving my money and not playing with toys. I told him thank you for your advise, you earned your 6.00 an hour.....

grampi

I haven't had any bad experiences with any LHS's (probably 'cause we don't have any), but I've had my fair share of problems with internet hobby shops. In fact, I'm having one right now.

Last Friday I ordered a Fantom engine from usahobbystore.com. I normally order from Tower Hobbies, but they don't sell Fantom engines, and usahobbystore offered me a great price. When I placed my order, they said the engine was in stock, and in-stock items ship in 1-2 days. As of right now, the engine still hasn't shipped.

When I first ordered my RC 10GT from readytorunrc.com I had mega problems as well. It took me almost 3 weeks to get it. When I ordered, I was told the kit was in stock. It wasn't. So I had to wait for them to get more. I also ordered NiCd battery packs for the transmitter and receiver. When the order finally arrived, there were no batteries for the transmitter. So then he shipped the batteries, and they ended up being the wrong ones. It's frustrating trying to work with people who don't know what they should know about the products they sell.

I will never buy from readytorunrc.com again, and the way this order is going with usahobbystore.com, I'll probably never buy from them again either. Yes, I'm a picky customer, but I'm not impossible to please. I've never had a bad experience with Tower Hobbies. Never! If they screw something up, they immediately make it right. A lot of these other companies have a lot to learn in terms of customer service, and some of them don't have a clue as to what customer service is.

Krusty

Caveat Emptor: The axiom or principle in commerce that the buyer alone is responsible for assessing the quality of a purchase before buying.
Some people only care about making the sale. They will say anything to do so. That is why a person should know something about what they are going to buy and not depend wholly on the sales person.

RS4_3_ss

I was at hobbytown usa and the guy was putting fuel line on for me( he offered to). Anyways he put the fuel line that goes to the carberatuer on a zip tie and he didn't know why the fuel was spitting out so he just superglued it and told me that I was ready to go. What a dumb guy!!

eddiedeverell

Krusty, nobody hear is saying they dont know anything about what there buying, its just ridiculous that these people work there and dont know crap!!!!!!

buyrbware

My Feedback: (2)

First of all, My hats off to all the guys that helped someone out when the "expert" at the hobbyshop couldn't. I don't have a bad story. I'm one of the lucky ones who has a local hobbyshop, kinda like Harry's Hardware store on the t.v. show Home Improvement. Most of us hangout down there, on our days off eatin chili and cokin and smokin. The owner at our local store goes out of his way to get you whatever you might need and lightning fast. Not to mention he is extremely knowledgeable in both cars and planes. It's a shame because a small business like his will suffer when the larger unimpressive demeaner of a corprate hobbyshop thrives.

Thanks to all those at rcu for wanting to help

Tom

Celly013

Unfortuantly, I don't see the older more elitest people in this hobby as very Sociable people... I went to watch some guys fly a week or two ago... And it was like a Geek Fest, where half the guys there weren't talking, and the rest seemed irritated I was there... As I was leaving every Car / Truck there had like An apple sticker, HAM Radio operator stickers, Unix stickers... etc... I think They use RC as their form of "Outdoor activity"...

I'm not saying that all RCers are Geeks, I'm just saying I think traditionally it was something that was too technical for the common people, so they just stayed away... Now with RTR Heli's, RTR Nitro Cars / Trucks, etc.. it's becoming an easier hobby, and also bringing in people who normally wouldn't ever touch something like this (Atheletes, Stars, Me, You, etc...)

With this boom of new people 2 things are happeneing...

1) The Elitests are ripping off the common folks... Trust me, RC is not something that people can pick up in a day... RC shop owners are like Mechanics... "Yeah, You need Gafunkda DooHickey" Who are you to say no? But not only are they ripping people off, I think they weren't just the most socialable people in the first place... And now your making them deal with Soccer moms and kids?

2) The newer Generation is changing the hobby... They want Bigger, Better, Faster... And there are alot more Checkbook racers, instead of people that slowly build something up from scratch over a long time. As the "Newer" hobby stores pop up around the newer generation, Were finding more helpful people, and more helpful emplyees that are willing to take the time with a kid, or his mom, and fix or tune their rides...

This is the same thing as The recent Tuner bloom... You go into any Mustang speed shop, and sure, they will installl an exhaust on your Honda... but will it be the best one for the best price? Hell No... Go in there with a Mach1, and you'll be treated like gold... If you want your Honda done right, You have to goto an Import Tuner Shop.. Which there was no such thing 5 - 10 Years ago...

More or less... Find a LHS that fits who you are, and what your goal is... We have alot of Flyers in here that have been doing this for 10 years, and can see eye to eye with some of the older shop owners... Then again, we have some kiddies, that need to be hip, so find the LHS that doesn't cramp your style...

I hope people see my point, and don't take offence... I'm not trying to start a flame war..

BUGGIES_R_US

Yeah I agree with ya.. I thought I was a niche market customer at first. Then I noticed that 3 other people were into RC stuff where I work. and one recently bought an RTR TC3.
When I asked em why he didnt buy the kit, he explained that he just wants to run, he doesnt care about the experience of building it.

But you know what this is good for businesses because when he breaks it, he wont know how the hell he can put it back together.
I believe that if you build something, you will be a better operator ANY DAY compared to something you didnt build. It just makes sense.

grampi

Celly, funny you should mention the unsocialable thing, I noticed that years ago. Whenever I would visit another flying club when I was into R/C planes, most of the people there would try to ignore you, or just say very little. I got the impression they thought they were better than I was because they had a plane there and they were flying, and I wasn't. What made it so funny was that after watching them fly, I knew I was a better pilot than at least 90% of these people, and yet they looked down on me over the bridge of their noses. This was just one of the many reasons I got out of R/C planes. I can go run my car wherever, and whenever I want without having to deal with AMA requirements, club dues, and all the club politics that go on. It's all BS to me.

BUGGIES_R_US

I shouldnt stick my nose in here.. but

Well I wouldn't "ASSUME" that they were looking down on you. Its not like they came up to you and said "Can you fly better than you can run your mouth?"... lol

My mom is like that.. she'll assume that the person is bad/is up to no good until proven otherwise.. I like to think of "innocent until proven guilty".. Works better in most cases, and it more healthy to your life
-ram

grampi

Go visit one of your local flying clubs, you'll see what we're talking about.

buyrbware

My Feedback: (2)

Wow guys I can't believe the bad experiences you all have. I visit numourous flying clubs within a three state area at times I fly and at times i spectate. i guess i live in never never land. My experience with r/cers for the most part has been outstanding. The only hobbyshop that was ever disrespectful to me was our local HOBBYTOWN USA the corperate guys, The seemed to be as you said looking down on me from the bridge of their nose. Other than that I have found 99% of the people and peole in the biz ready to jump in and help. All I can say is Come to Indy we will treat ya right!

bigbadbowtie

One thing I have noticed at the races this winter is that the "Im Open,talkative,have fun,very helpful,fast cars on a budget" people all pit one side.

The "Im better than you,my charger is better,I only use the best battery,cover my car up after the race" type people pit on the ather side. Even there kids are this way.

I raced there for the 1st time this year On a dirt oval. Its somthing to pass the time in the winter. Well my 1st time there I got there early to get setup and get oriented with the track,people and there rules. Well by not knowing I pitted on the wrong side.... BIG mistake.... I was in one of the BUTTheads pit area that he had used for years. When he came in I was running some hot laps. He started setting my stuff on the ground.... BIG MISTAKE on his part. After a very HEATED discussion,He put my stuff back on the table and found a new spot(im 6'2" 230 he was 5'6" 160)size does matter :-). A cool guy from the ather side noticed what happened then came over and invited me to pit with him and a few of his friends. So I packed up my stuff and moved over. I have been there every since and made some new friends.

There are bad apples in every bunch.....this sport is about having fun and meeting new people. If your in to it to proof your better than athers.... you need to find a new hobby!

grampi

I'M SO FRICKEN' SICK OF THESE DAM OPERATE OUT OF THE GARAGE-NO FRICKIN' CUSTOMER SERVICE-FLY BY NIGHT SO CALLED INTERNET HOBBY STORES! I just got off the phone with one of the guys from usahobbystore.com. He said they're out of stock of the Fantom engines I ordered. Her's a hint; if you tell a customer the item's in stock when they call to order it, YOU ASSIGN THAT FRICKIN' ITEM TO THAT CUSTOMER! The least these people could do before deciding to start their own business is take some kind of intro to business course SO THEY COULD AT LEAST HAVE A CLUE AS TO HOW TO TREAT CUSTOMERS! Here's another hint; ANSWER YOUR FRICKIN' EMAIL! I've emailed these saps like 3 times now. They don't respond. Hint #3; IF THE CUSTOMER'S ORDER ISN'T GOING TO SHIP WHEN EXPECTED, THEN LET THE CUSTOMER KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON. DON'T LEAVE THEM HANGING!

Sorry, I had to vent or I was going to explode. I'd just like to know when the burden of teaching the business about customer service became the customer's. This is total B.S!

Buz^

My Feedback: (2)

Please stop beating around the bush, and just say what's on your mind

gunrunner

My closest shop is an hour and a half drive. So I call and ask if they have my part for my GS storm. "oh, yeah I have enough parts to build 10 storms in stock" He tells me. So I explain it's 3 hours round trip can he please check. Well you know he didn't but reassured me all was good and he has EVERY part in stock. So of course I get there and he has not got the part I need. "I've never seen nobody break that part before" He tells me.

Yeah ok whatever so I am still waiting for the parts to come in the mail

At least he said he was sorry.