ORIGINAL: Rex
A different prospective and experience. I’ve always had excellent service from Lanier and I’ve been buying their stuff for thirty years. On the other hand I’ve never lost any of the kit parts or plans.
I like their products, and as I stated above, I find their documentation adequate for completing their kits. I've had several Stingers and Shrikes in various sizes and thoroughly enjoyed them. That being said, some folks buy assembled models secondhand and need access to documentation for reference. Others, being potential customers, might want to study the manuals prior to purchase.
Do I feel Lanier has an obligation to provide these free of cost? Not necesarily, especially if there are printing and mailing costs. However, the .PDF files are inexpensive to distribute and most importantly, the competition does it, so the expectation is there, at least for inexpensive "electronic documentation". I don't think anyone would be complaining if they were paying for mailed "hard copies" of the manual.
> I don't think anyone would be complaining if they were paying for mailed "hard copies" of the manual. <
This is true as I have purchased "Hard copy" manuals in the past and did not complain about this, as I do realize that it takes money, time and materials to make the "Hard copy" but scanning the printed manual and placing it in the company computer does not take that much time and effort, I maintain our R/C club website and have done all of the above items several times a week, and I know how much it takes to do it.
I have a friend who owns a hobby shop and he has had to deal with Lanier in the past. He had a Tiger 60 delivered to the shop with NO damage to the shipping box or the box the plane came in but the plane had some damaged parts that where very obviously damaged BEFORE shipping.
Lanier would NOT replace the damaged items and stated that they where either damaged in shipment or that he had damaged them and was trying to rip them off. No he was not trying to rip them off as I was the one who received the box from UPS and their was no damage to either boxes at all. [&o]
If this is Lanier's attitude to retailers of their products what makes you think they would treat the paying public any different?