what would you do?
01-13-2018, 03:25 PM
#27
Interesting so the company is not the one I was thinking of as they do deal direct............
Never having bought a jet from BVM back in the day were they 'in stock' and available to ship off the shelf? I'm doubtful, companies who can afford to stack them high with a hope they will sell them are unlikely to be about for long IMO, the only companies who seem to be able to do this are the Chinese and for me the compromise in quality is just not worth the convenience of having one sent immediately.
In the UK we have fields in Scotland rammed with 'brand new' Fords etc, sitting out in the weather and being sold as new - heck I'd rather wait for 6 months and buy a car that has been made to order and is indeed new.
Shaun I'm with you on some aspects, problem is this hobby is struggling big time, the companies who do make great kits and products wont be about if they manufacture loads of stock in the hope they sell it, demand is so unpredictable and just cannot be relied on, the result will be more companies disappearing off the scene leaving us with mass produced sub standard products. I would like companies to be more transparent and honest in the communication piece, its always pays to be up front and honest. A long time back I made a kit with a friend, each one was hand made by ourselves, we had a 3 month lead time at the start but soon after we started to get orders and ship the first kits we were let down by the company who finished and painted the kits which resulted in delays while we sourced a new paint shop to do the work to the standard we wanted, other issues with epoxy, landing gear manufacture etc all added huge headaches to the whole project and ultimately let to us selling the moulds to a German company. I hope that during the time we were selling the kits we kept our customers informed and up to date with the time frames so they could relax in the knowledge that they were valued and we were not just making off with their money - its not a fun journey making jets I can assure you and as a result of this 'experience' I admire any individual or company who enter this job purely for the hobby side.
Maybe a thread with a list of manufacturers, their payment terms, quoted lead times/actual experienced lead time and customer feedback might be a good data set to help us all.....
marcs
Never having bought a jet from BVM back in the day were they 'in stock' and available to ship off the shelf? I'm doubtful, companies who can afford to stack them high with a hope they will sell them are unlikely to be about for long IMO, the only companies who seem to be able to do this are the Chinese and for me the compromise in quality is just not worth the convenience of having one sent immediately.
In the UK we have fields in Scotland rammed with 'brand new' Fords etc, sitting out in the weather and being sold as new - heck I'd rather wait for 6 months and buy a car that has been made to order and is indeed new.
Shaun I'm with you on some aspects, problem is this hobby is struggling big time, the companies who do make great kits and products wont be about if they manufacture loads of stock in the hope they sell it, demand is so unpredictable and just cannot be relied on, the result will be more companies disappearing off the scene leaving us with mass produced sub standard products. I would like companies to be more transparent and honest in the communication piece, its always pays to be up front and honest. A long time back I made a kit with a friend, each one was hand made by ourselves, we had a 3 month lead time at the start but soon after we started to get orders and ship the first kits we were let down by the company who finished and painted the kits which resulted in delays while we sourced a new paint shop to do the work to the standard we wanted, other issues with epoxy, landing gear manufacture etc all added huge headaches to the whole project and ultimately let to us selling the moulds to a German company. I hope that during the time we were selling the kits we kept our customers informed and up to date with the time frames so they could relax in the knowledge that they were valued and we were not just making off with their money - its not a fun journey making jets I can assure you and as a result of this 'experience' I admire any individual or company who enter this job purely for the hobby side.
Maybe a thread with a list of manufacturers, their payment terms, quoted lead times/actual experienced lead time and customer feedback might be a good data set to help us all.....
marcs
I agree with all of that. I'm not saying that 'off-the-shelf', immediate-delivery is the only way to go. Rather, I'd like to see a standard rate deposit (which I'd be happy to stipulate is non-refundable if I just change my mind) and then final payment upon notification (and proof) that it's boxed and ready to ship. If they quote me 8 weeks and keep giving me the song-and-dance after 12 weeks, then the terms should entitle me to some kind of additional remedy. That could be a 'late' discount or my being entitled to a refund of my deposit. That seems fair and reasonable to me.
01-14-2018, 02:42 PM
#28
I just sent a sizable check to Elite for my Havoc SS and they said February. Personally, I'd rather wait an extra month or two to get top quality and if there was some issue with the factory that made me wait the extra I'd happily do it to maintain the quality I am expecting....
01-14-2018, 10:18 PM
#29
I think we should stop purchasing products that are not in stock, no reason why the RC manufacturers cant ship a container to a dealer so product will be available at time of sale.
01-14-2018, 11:52 PM
#30
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ira d if that happens you can say goodbye to most of the high quality kit manufacturers - just image a company who makes three kits, assuming they are ready in the fact they are painted there are likely to be 4 or 5 different colour schemes for each jet, customers like that choice don't they...... so the manufacturer needs to make 15 kits just to deliver the dealer one kit in each colour, or 45 kits if three are made - its just not a sustainable business model in a market thats struggling, the hobby for kits is not like a supermarket, its more like a top end car and you certainly wont find them stacked up high in dealers (unless its a model they want you to have!)
Like Shaun suggests we need a sensible process for payment scheduling and accurate delivery timeframes where manufacturers keep the customer informed along the way.
marcs
Like Shaun suggests we need a sensible process for payment scheduling and accurate delivery timeframes where manufacturers keep the customer informed along the way.
marcs
01-16-2018, 12:39 PM
#31
My Feedback: (34)
A lot of times it just is the nature of the beast shipping over seas, I need a large part for my Airworld Models GeeBee R3 with Moki 250. After sending payment 3 days later I received a shipping label with DHL tracking number. 2 months later the tracking number showed the item was still in Germany, I emailed them asking for an update they said the part was still in the Germany customs processing center. Then 3 days later it was at my door in IL. Crazy to take a little over 2 months for a little box. I can understand they building lead times, but the shipping times are crazy.
01-16-2018, 03:24 PM
#32
04-19-2018, 01:30 PM
#34
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dreamworks is the company. will never buy anything from them. ordered a carf j10 and the landing gear have issues that dreamworks wont fix. what a joke of a company
04-19-2018, 11:37 PM
#36
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Threads like this are so interesting to see people’s perspectives. Whilst the dollars spent are ‘big’ we’re all dealing with ‘hobby’ companies. These people aren’t ford or Vw, they don’t have a customer service team waiting to deal with your phone calls or huge margins in products so they can drive home in their lambos every night.
Some of them you could barely call ‘companies’, they are more like ‘self employed’ hobby folk. The fact that we’re in a position to still buy these products is somewhat of a miracle and I guess we should be thankful that some ‘companies’ are sticking with it to produce our toys, rather than getting proper jobs to pay the bills.
However, I do agree that nothing should affect service received, and should never be lied to.
After being stitched up years back, I simply came across a shop in the UK run by a bloke who’s honest and blunt (almost to the point of rudeness!) and I like that approach. I know exactly where I stand and his advice is (also to my dismay!) always correct. So for me, rather than buying from the ‘company’, I’m buying from the individual, as that’s where the experience and honesty is. I don’t have to email him to get an answer, I simply call, and then 15mins later after chatting about stuff realise that I’d found a better way of doing something else. If I have to pay a couple of pounds extra for a part to constantly have this service then I’m fine with that, because that means hopefully he’ll turn up for work the next day and answer my other questions, and he’ll test fly my latest project in his own time, you simply can’t put a price on that..
Some of them you could barely call ‘companies’, they are more like ‘self employed’ hobby folk. The fact that we’re in a position to still buy these products is somewhat of a miracle and I guess we should be thankful that some ‘companies’ are sticking with it to produce our toys, rather than getting proper jobs to pay the bills.
However, I do agree that nothing should affect service received, and should never be lied to.
After being stitched up years back, I simply came across a shop in the UK run by a bloke who’s honest and blunt (almost to the point of rudeness!) and I like that approach. I know exactly where I stand and his advice is (also to my dismay!) always correct. So for me, rather than buying from the ‘company’, I’m buying from the individual, as that’s where the experience and honesty is. I don’t have to email him to get an answer, I simply call, and then 15mins later after chatting about stuff realise that I’d found a better way of doing something else. If I have to pay a couple of pounds extra for a part to constantly have this service then I’m fine with that, because that means hopefully he’ll turn up for work the next day and answer my other questions, and he’ll test fly my latest project in his own time, you simply can’t put a price on that..
04-20-2018, 05:34 AM
#37
Let us know if you need any help with the J10 - on mine the gear alignment wasn't perfect and needed spacing so the mains retracted cleanly in to the cut outs. Funnily enough, when I built my friends one all lined up nicely without spacers.
04-25-2018, 12:08 PM
#39
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i have behotec gear and the front gear wasnt working right. It would get hung up in the middle and let all the air out. Called dreamworks and they said i "altered it" another great example of no customer service. I had to buy a whole new unit which set me back $197 with shipping.
04-25-2018, 12:11 PM
#40
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My back gear were not aligned right either. one was fine but the other was not. 2 washers spacers did the trick. Also had to dremel out a little fiberglass to make it function right
04-25-2018, 12:52 PM
#41
Threads like this are so interesting to see people’s perspectives. Whilst the dollars spent are ‘big’ we’re all dealing with ‘hobby’ companies. These people aren’t ford or Vw, they don’t have a customer service team waiting to deal with your phone calls or huge margins in products so they can drive home in their lambos every night.
Now some two months later, I'm not exactly sure on the time line, there have been no fixes made to the website, the three ladies haven't learned much and if you get them on the phone, you have to hold while they call a gentleman from another turbine distributor to ask him questions.
If you are interested, read the threads on DW since the owner's passing in this forum of "RC Jets". warbirdking's experience is not unusual anymore and I suspect that the company isn't going to make it if they cannot clean up their act. In my own case, my builder got a JetTronics brake control from DW which was bad. Since they would not even think about sending another unit out without having the other one "to check out" first, he asked if he could just return the valve. They said yes and so he shipped it back and bought another new one from Pacific RC Jets, DW has not responded to his requests for a refund. Now my builder guy is well known in the turbine community having basically started the turbine trend along with Bob Violett, he has an impeccable reputation and would not have had any issue returning the faulty part to the owner who he knew on a first name basis.
Last edited by Zeeb; 04-25-2018 at 01:01 PM.
04-25-2018, 01:23 PM
#42
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its really sad. Ive been dealing with dreamworks for many many years. Unfortunately because of the issues and many lies i was told, i wont spend one more penny there.
