I have purchased the A10, F16n and the F18,and all directly , from the factory.I have had no problems(other than the wait on gear,but I wasnt foolish enough to give a deposit when the company was very vague about when it was going to be delivered).
My history was as follows,I got on the pre-order list for the 16,got mine in the first batch sent,everything was there.I ordered the A10 with intensions of going D.F. ,but went pusher due to cost.
I ordered the 18 at the release of it,after much deliberation,as the price had gone up terribly(I paid 119.00 for the 16,300.00 plus shipping-yikes...).
I waited for the gear,and waited,after many emails,all of wich were returned,but none with a reassuring answer,I gave up and sold the kit.The 18 defenitly had a lot of scale potential,and the gear was what sold it for me,they really made those offered by that ducted fan company look sad.
I finally did get an email stating they were to be delivered,long after I sold the kit,but the price went way up,they were originally to be 299.00,and ended up being 399.99 if I remember correctly.
I have seen most of the combat models planes fly , and the only one that looked at all hairy was the 15,hard to keep it light.
I read someone had difficulties with the A 10 somewhere above,it really must have been yours- because I have seen(and flown 2) that were great flyers,one was a pusher,the other has kress fans with 15's or 21's ,I cannot remember.
I certainly cannot speak for anyone else,but I have not had any serious problems with the company,They offer a great product,(but its getting pricey-I mean come on --its styro foam,not like it need constant tooling updated!), and I have had every email,and phone call returned,even if it wasnt right away.
I am in no way trying to downplay the troubles people have had with this company,no one should be treated as such,but to be fair it also should be known that there are people out there like myself(unless I'm the only one) that have had a mostly positive experience with combat models.
I had a nightmare experience with Byron Originals when they were in business,and when I told people of it ,they assured me I was mistaken, or it had to be a one time thing.The quote from the above post about the bear definetly rings true.