Another thing hobby shops are having to contend with is new comers to the hobby. sometimes they leave with unrealistic expectations and instead of spending some time with a customer giving a bit of schooling, they try to assess if someone is going to be a pain to deal with in future if things go wrong.

the slop issue is minor and might be there to add a dimension of give to the whole chassis (only a guess). hpi know racers who have been in the hobby for a while are going to take things apart to sharpen it up anyway.

I think we need to assess if a hobby shop is willing to provide the support we're after as a enthusiast customer. And we need to be Real about our expectations as well, of course I'm saying this from a position of haven been in the hobby for more than a few years with a bit fleet.