I wanted share an expereince I just had with Kangke Industrial of New York. Being a rookie builder, and low on funds for the project I found Kangke online while shopping for an engine(.46 size CAP 232 is the project). I find they have a new line called SK that is conciderably cheaper than everything else I 've looked at. So I order their SK 80. When it arrives I realize I've bit off more than I can chew! Way too much motor for a rookie pilot on this plane. I called an spoke with a guy named James. Feelling pretty stupid I told him the situation, and asked if I could send it back get the SK 50 & the pitts muffler to go with it and just pay the difference( the 50 with the pitts is only a couple $ more than the 80). I was relieved to hear him say sure we can do that, no problem. So I send it back, they process it & mistakenly send me back their Tiger Shark 56 engine with the pitts. Now this engine is 40$ more than the one I was buying, but my invoice shows the price of the SK 50. I call James back, because so far I feel this guy has been pretty patient with me and being an honest guy myself, I wanted things to be right. He looks up my order again and realizes , yes we've made a mistake. Then goes on to tell me this engine would be a great application for the plane I'm building, a little extra HP but not too much like I was trying to do originally, & that shipping them back & forth again at this point didn't make alot sense. He says if your happy with the TS 56 it's yours, don't worry about the price difference, just enjoy it! This whole deal was caused by my own ignorance, and I end with a $90 engine for $5O bucks I felt bad! But he assured me it was no problem, everything was right & square between us, And just have fun with it he says. Now that my friends, is what I call excellent customer service! So next time you're shopping online for some parts to further your desease with , ya might wanna give Kangke a try, they sure did me right!

After all the stories about places like Greedy Slimy Person, it's nice to hear about good service.

That's great elenasgrumpy... It's great to let people know when
people "Do It Right" And the same for the other side of the coin!!
I think it's good for all concerned to get the message out:-)
Enjoy....

Hey, that is great, thanks for the heads up. Always good to have other options.
That is a good price on those SK's, are they any good?

Skynyrd Man, I couldn't really say how the SK engines are, because I never ran the eighty I just sent it back for the swap. But if you go to Kangke's website they have a specs page for the engines & they looked good to me, they seem to produce a little more HP than other engines of relative size and the price is cheap! $49.99 for the 50 & $79.99 for the 80. I will say the engine looked like a good one to me, and they come with an optional remote needle valve that you can choose to use or not. (Fingers are softer than props!)

I'd like to here from some others who may have used them. Maybe if Tower gives me a credit on my TH.46 I'll just apply that to my next kit and get one.

Just for info, I have a TIger Shark 75 and its been a great engine. The muffler is a bit loud but that only bothers me when I am adjsuting the needle valve. Its easy to adjust and its very strong running.

I found their web site for anyone who wants to look. No endorsement implied.

http://www.kangkeusa.com/

Happy shopping.

Just one more comment regarding this, I had a muffler baffle come apart in a fairly new (6 month old) Super Tigre G75 engine. I called Hobbico Hobby Services. The gentleman I spoke to told me he would get a replacement in the mail right away. That was Monday, May 16th. It came in the mail yesterday, Wednesday, May 18th. I just wonder what took it so long>

Now that's service!!

I just a very similiar experince with them. Totally my fault but it was handled extremely well. Although it has nothing to do with the engine in question.

I was just completing the CAP232-120 they sell using a Roto35vi from RCShowcase. This plane was purchased from RCShowcase as a combo package which included everything but the radio/servos.

Anyway, I was carving away on the cowl one day and had it fitting just fine. I then followed the directions for the Roto to tune it which it tells you to do it with the cowl on. So I mark the spot for the needles expecting to cut two very small holes. Well, till I was all done I had a nice big one inch square hole in the very top of the cowl. (NOTE TO SELF: I must learn to stop doing this kind of stuff in the wee hours after working all day) Anyway, I get the engine tuned and go fly it and I needed a ton of down elevator for hands off. So I decided to look into the incidences and I find that I am at 0:0 so this should not be a problem.

Anyway, I give them a call and I'm pretty sure I also spoke to James but I really do not remember. I explained what was going on and did the plane require a different setup than what I had. We spoke about with me changing down thrust (which I suspected was the problem but wanted to be sure which it worked) and I got to explaining about how I screwed up on the cowl and lets get one ordered and sent out. Much to my surprise the new one shows up the next day (I live less than 100 miles from them) and when I look at the invoice it's marked as N/C. I had gone through all the typical ordering stuff so I wanted to make sure this what not a mistake.

A quick call the next day explains it. They wanted to be sure that they had a happy customer, they sure do when it comes to me.

I have had the same type of thing with VectorFlight on a warped fuselage that was already partially assemebled.

Great story, Bubba. I found that when contacting these people, a level of civility usually gets back a ton of positive response. In this case, my new muffler in two days from Illinois to NJ.. great service! Your case, same thing. These people realize that it's very competitive out there and will usually bend over backwards to make sure the customer is happy. If they don't, most realize that it's adios and they will never see that customer again. The power of this forum will also help because happy people will say so and the word gets out which translates to more business for the good folks and less to none for the grumpy ones.

Good luck flying that CAP232!

Dick,

Yea, I was really surprised at that. I spent 4 years working as a technical support manager for a very large ISP (NOT AOL). I learned allot about how to handle customers and how to deal with the unruly ones.

As you mentioned, "killing them with kindness" works fairly well. Yep you get the odd manufacturer that just does not care but it's amazing the results if you wait "that extra day" to take time of cool off and get all of your "ducks in a row" <quack >. The good reps will usually go out of thier way to help.

I also had the same experience with Tower. They sent a part that I did not order, I called to let them know and find out how to get it back to them. I was put on hold for a few minutes and when the rep came back on, I was told to keep the part and they would reship the one I ordered. Now the part was only a couple of bucks and I had absolutely no need for it as it was for a Traxxas truck and I do not do cars/trucks. So I took it to the LHS I work at part time and put it on the shelf.

As far as the Cap, I finally got it all nice and trimmed. I did the last of it last night. I have now burned about 1.5 gallons in it and it's getting better. Gotta love gas, for the last set of trim flights I refueled it, I have a 14oz tank in it (was a 24oz), flew 3 10 minute flights, idled on the ground for about 5 minutes and when I took the wing off, I had around a half tank left.

Hi Bill.

Tower is great. I ordered four Airtronics Ball Bearing servo's. They sent me three BB's and one bushing type. I called them, they said just keep the bearing and overnighted the BB replacement! Great service.

I have not yet moved up to the Gas sized planes. My largest right now is a Tiger 60 with that Super Tigre 75 (muffler issue above). Nice flying plane.

I also just bought and am about finished building a Goldberg Wild Stick. I have not yet put the ailerons and flaps cuz if I do, I might want to fly it [X(] and it is a 3D model with lots of control surface to work with.

I admire the Cap232 as there are several at the field in various sizes and configurations. Very nice looking design and look like they can be made to fly as sedate or as wild as the pilot desires. Perhaps that will be my first big one.. but gotta move out of the town house first!! ha.

Later.

Dick.

Yes, good customer service makes life nice. I just bought that Hangar 9 P-40 and when I got the bocx open, the cowl was cracked.
I call Horizon, spoke with Joe. I explained the issue and was getting ready to get the address to ship the old on back and he says no problem, just hang on to it. THis was Monday. I got the replacement yesterday. It is perfect. Tower has been very good as well.

When I first read the thread title I was expecting another story about bad customer service. Its good to see some good customer service is still out there.

They just keep getting better! I was running in the Tiger Shark 56 engine that as I mentioned originally I ended up with, in my dealing with Kangke Industrial. When I was given the oppertunity to prove my theory, ( fingers are softer than props!). Yup, I got myself pretty good, But was really lucky in that I did it while at a low RPM. Now as I mentioned before, the SK50 engine that I had originally payed for comes with an optional remote needle valve. The more expensive TS 56 engine that they sent me did not. So I sent James an email to see if I could by the remote needle valve from them, or would I be better off to just pick one up locally being such a small item with shipping it might be cheaper & easier to just go buy one from the local hobby shop, right? I spoke with him today on the phone. He told me oh, don't even worry about it. It's in the mail no charge, I just hope your fingers are okay! Wouldn't even let me pay for the shipping, much less the part.
James & Kangke Industrial have earned my business & respect for life.
Mark T. (Fingers Are Softer Than Props!)

Did you really need to test the theory? Many of us could have verified it for you. that is extremely good service.

Mark,

I am certainly glad all your fingers still exist. Now go bite that prop back, show it who's boss, just make sure it's not turning Sorry I had too

Kangke has proven to you and the rest of us to be a great manufacturer. I am please with the Cap and the little questions that I was firing at them all through the trimming process and they took each question and answered dead on.

I thought about that Bubba, but then I'd have to go put my teeth in and it just didn't seem worth the trouble
Mark T.

Non remote needle valves can be scary. I mounted the g 51 yesterday and noticed how much room there is for my fingers. I will still be careful though.

Nah, just gum it to death...