$28 shipping cost? That would have stopped me cold.

We always have the right to return goods as received and get a refund. Even losing the shipping cost, it would feel better than dealing with a poor kit and giving your money to a substandard supplier.

Lanier's been making money on those overweight, obsolete "kits" for far too long and should have improved or replaced them decades ago. You shouldn't have to do a research project to learn to avoid bad stuff.

So, while you may have approached Lanier in a more constructive fashion, you shouldn't have had to deal with their old junk at all. That comment "What do you expect for 65 bucks?" says a whole lot about commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. NOT

How many hundreds of those Hawks have they sold through Tower, and how few minutes have any of them actually flown? How many newbies threw away the wreckage and took up golf?
It's like the old Cox plastic control line models, "built to sell, not to fly".

I hate it that the quality manufacturers have to compete with this kind of thing.