UCanDo Problems.....
 

Anyone have any issues with the quality of the U Can Do .46 or others? I've heard alot of modelers at my field complaining about the kits lately. Specifically with bad glue joints and poor balsa.

RE: UCanDo Problems.....
 

I had a U-CAN-DO 46 a while back and thought it was constructed pretty well. You always want to go over every glue joint you can with Thin CA on an ARF anyway.

RE: UCanDo Problems.....
 

Yeah, you should always go over them and make sure the glued joints are touched up with CA if needed. I just got my 4th Do. It looks okay as far as quality but I haven't put any of it together. It came with the leading edge of the wing bashed in. I called Tower Hobbies and they want me to box it up and send the whole thing back. Well since that would set me back about 2 weeks I might just fix it myself and shop somewhere other than Tower.
The Do's I've had have held up well but you will want to make some upgrades to it. The landing gear block will probably break out and the 2-56 control rods are too whimpy. Check out the U Can Do thread and ask around there and you can get all kinds of advice on how to make it a really fun plane.

RE: UCanDo Problems.....
 

Let me see if I get this straight: you order from Tower Hobbies and recieve a kit with a smashed wing. They want you to spend between 10 and 15 addional dollars, plus time, gas ect before they'll consider sending you a new one? That's absolutely pisspoor customer service. My local dealer has complained recently about the way Hobbico/Tower/GP has treated them lately. It reminds me of the big 3 auto dealers losing perspective on quality/customer service in the 70's and getting eaten alive by Honda and Toyota.
Customer service is everything. In the past I've had good service from Tower but it seems like so many people are complaining lately. It makes me uneasy about ordering from them again. Horizon Hobby has never been a problem and Hanger 9 Kits rock. Perhaps you should look at one of them.

RE: UCanDo Problems.....
 

Yeah, Not good service in my opinion. They did send me a UPS label to send it back to them with but I just went ahead and fixed it. It took me a couple of hours but it turned out fine. Looks pretty much like new, not noticable. If they could have just sent me a new wing I could at least got started on the rest of the ARF. Oh well. It's fixed now.

RE: UCanDo Problems.....
 

How is this poor service? Sounds like the common procedure for many businesses.

RE: UCanDo Problems.....
 

I'm sure it is just common procedure but they could have just sent me a new wing. I’ve spent a considerable amount of $ with them over the last several years and now I feel like they don't trust me enough to just send me a wing. I had a situation with them last year. I ordered some items and one of them was a set of $15.00 landing gear legs. Well they sent me a set of $309.00 Robarts instead. I called them to let them know and they said they would send me a UPS label to return them with. I waited and waited for the label so I could send them back. By that time it was getting close to Christmas so I figured they were getting to busy to deal with it. Finally after Christmas I got a threatening letter from them so I called them on the phone about it and they said that if I didn’t returned the landing gear set soon that they wouldn't send it to a collections agency. [X(] So I told them (again) to send me a shipping label from UPS so I could send it back. They finally sent it and it got returned. Can you believe that?

RE: UCanDo Problems.....
 

Yep - it's amazing, you do years of business with them and they can't trust you over a wing that was probably made in some sweatshop in malaysia for a dollar.

Keep in mind there are still some good companies out there: Aero-Works in Colorado, OMP and Horizon. They still have terrific service and don't try to jack you around over something petty. After hearing your story, I worry about future problems. I still like some of the things they offer like easy pay and I've never had issues with Hobby Services - they've always been great.

RE: UCanDo Problems.....
 

Well, in general I'm not complaining about Tower. I've gotten lots of good stuff from them. Only telling what happened to me at a couple of instances. All in all they do a good job of getting to me the stuff I need.