RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

No problems with anything I have recieved from Tower... I DO wish they would update their "In Stock" indicators more often. My current order contained 2 items listed as in stock that I am in the third week of a 3 week backorder on. (GWS EDF75 Fan units)
Never had any problems with recieved items. (even got a Futaba S3151 servo once! no charge)

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I live in Greece also and wanted to let kom know that I had a similar experience with Tower. Package didn't arrive after 2 months, emailed them, got the same answer. I knew what was going on and told them I'd wait a little longer, since they couldn't do anything to track the order. I didn't want to send $50 on a $45 order to get here by UPS. The fact is that I bet you selected ground mail, as I did. My order took 3 1/2 months to get here! That must by some kind of record. But it is not Tower's fault. It's customs and transportation. Tower's only fault is that when you order, it says 10-30 days for Ground Mail. I'm sure they know by now that it takes much longer than that.

Since then I've placed 3 more orders, by airmail, all arrived in under 15 days.

Serafim

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I have nothing but good to say about Tower. I ordered a ball bearing servo from them (actually four) got three ball bearing and one bushing. Called them, said, "we're sorry, keep the servo, we'll send you the right one". Two days later, via 2nd day UPS, got the right servo. Nothing but good to say.

They did send me an engine when I ordered a battery one time.. they sent me a self-addresed pre-paid fedex box via overnight, along with my battery. The box was to return the engine, which I promptly did. No sweat. Love em.

But, I live in the US.

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I guess that, with a few unfortunate exceptions, Tower has done well by most of us. As for getting the wrong parts, you have to remember that the clerks pulling the orders out of the bins or off the shelves have NO idea what they are shipping(most are not modelers I am sure). It is not too hard in a crowded and often dark warehouse aisle to reach into the wrong space and grab the wrong part. With no knowledge of the difference between a battery and a propeller or a fuel line it is hard to expect much more. Tower also realizes this and usually makes prompt corrections to the orders. The clerks pulling the orders pull many orders every day/night and have to work very quickly I am sure and as such a few mistakes will occur. While they do tend to tick us off when they happen on OUR order, overall we are kept satisfied.;) Where would we be without a company like them helping to keep the prices down at the LHS too. They know they have to compete with Tower and the other mail-order companies.
I, for one, am just glad that I can count on them. Sermon over.:D

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

IMHO, Tower should get an award just for the amount of tech stuff you can glean from their site. I am back into R/C after a 20 year hiatus and have used their site as passive tech support for tons of answers to specifications and part numbers, etc...
LOL too soon my wife will regret me being a loyal TH customer!
~regards to all, Chef

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I too have to agree that Tower is great for customer service and policies.

They are trying to help and like most placed over $4000 in last 2 years with them and had 1-3 problems but they were handled by customer service quickly and never dissapointed.

I wish all other e-stores are as good as tower.

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I have been flying RC for over 35 years and have had nothing but excellent customer relations with Tower. The people have always been curtious and helpful without any hint of snobbishness or a lack of respect and care for my opinion of their customer service. I will continue to do business with Tower in the future.

If you think the person you talked to on the phone was rude you should have immediately requested to talk to their supervisor and I am sure the problem would have been rectified.I have been flying RC for over 35 years and have had nothing but excellent customer relations with Tower. The people have always been courteous and helpful without any hint of snobbishness or a lack of respect and care for my opinion of their customer service. I will continue to do business with Tower in the future.

If you think the person you talked to on the phone was rude you should have immediately requested to talk to their supervisor and I am sure the problem would have been rectified.

Another company I would like to recommend is Horizon, I have had nothing but the best from them as far as making any problems right and they even asked if there was anything I wanted for free for my hassles! I ended up getting a complete replacement kit of the GWS F4U Corsair because the Fuse and wing were damaged in shipping. So I ended up with two complete kits, one was a little rougher than the other even after patching up the damage but it still flies just as good as the undamaged one!

Tower hobbies and Horizon, hats off to your customer service!

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

There must be an echo around here somewhere.........................

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

But I have... All the way to New Zealand and the goods have always arrived quick, and packaged well...

I'm involved in Web Design/eCommerce and I have to say Towers Site is bloody GREAT!!! It's built on a good Platform...

And the prices...

If I buy an engine from Tower that costs say US$50.00... It will cost at least US$100 here... and this goes for kits, parts everything...

I simply can't justify purchasing big ticket items here in New Zealand if I can get it from Tower...

I'm sure in any call center you are going to get a few grumpy people...

Make another order and I'm sure it will be sweet...

Matt

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I can't say enough good about Tower Hobbies. They have always treated me with respect and courtesy. They have occasionally shipped me the wrong part. Everyone makes mistakes. They handle it as most have already stated, "We apologize, we'll send the correct part at no cost, keep the incorrect one." I think that most companies today could/should take lessons from Tower in handling customers. I have had problems with recalcitrant representatives from other companies (not necessarily hobby related either) and when I got their supervisor on the phone found that they were worse! Tower Hobbies is the best.

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

Warjet

As you can see I am new to this forum and I inadvertantly chose to use spell checker before posting. Unfortunately after copying and pasting the spell checked version of my responce I did not realize that I had to delete the portion of the post that was repeated for some odd reason![:o]:eek: I am a member of another forum where I have over 1500 posts, but it is very different from this forum. I don't know if your responce was supposed to be funny:) or sarcastic:eek: (or both):):eek: but you might want to look at the number of posts a person has and give new members a break so everybody doesn't think your just a smart*****.

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

Heavy Metal- Welcome to the forum. Please don't be so sensitive, I'm sure it was meant in good humor. In my time here I had never seen that particular form of "posting error" and perhaps neither had he. Stick around for a while and you will see that at times our humor can be cutting but usually well intended.

Again, Welcome to the forum.

Bruce :)

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I've got nothing but praise for Tower. Best website for ordering & info (& tech notes) that I have used.

I received a TopFlite trim seal tool and the little metal stand was missing. I mentioned it in a follow-up, and they sent me a whole nuther tool - and told me to keep the first.

In dozens of orders that was the first "problem" I have had, and I certainly can't complain about the remedy. I do worry that they're kind of a monopoly and must hurt the local shops greatly.

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

My orders usually take a couple of days to process. But it will arrive before the USPS tracking even says that the package has been picked up!

I agree that Tower RULES!

I 100% agree that Tower has everything you need to build and assemble your plane. But they lack in there selection of ARF’s. I feel that other distributors have better selections of ARF’s.

I have also found another company that is associated with tower that has different offers and sometimes better prices. http://www.omnimodels.com/
I have not ordered from them yet, so I can’t vouch for there customer service.

I think I will have to start using the “Someone’s at the door routine” at work!:D

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I've ordered well over a thousand dollars worth of stuff from Tower over the past year or so (I'm an RC junkie) and they are one of the best resources for RC stuff, IMO. They have some of the best prices (occasionaly other sites have better prices on certain items, but that's the exception, not the rule) and excellent service. I've had about 3 orders where they sent the wrong part, or neglected to send a part... and customer service (on the phone) was excellent. They let me keep the wrong part that was sent ($15 car body) and sent me the parts that were ommitted without question.

It can always be hit or miss dealing with someone over the phone, and your perceived attitude towards them can affect how they treat you. I always try to be calm and polite (at least to start with), and I usually get pretty good results... ;)

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

Thanks for the welcome Bruce, and yes I was probably a little quick with that type of responce and I apologize if anyone was offended. If Warjet had only added a smiley face or something to make his responce to my mistake more comical I probably wouldn't even have responded. As you can see I actually joined this forum in 2003 but for some reason I just never got involved. When I found RCGroups forum and started chatting with people on that forum I just kept going to that forum, in fact a local guy that I met through that forum even got me the job I now work at! I recently decided to buy some new airplane accessories and wanted to get opinions about those products before purchasing them. When I started asking for opinions and didn't get very many (if any at all in some cases!) I decided to go to this forum and well, here I am!

Sorry if I took your post the wrong way Warjet and thanks again for the warm welcome Bruce!;)

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

Shouldn't have a problem getting opinions here. We seem to be full of them. :D

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

well....... we're sure full of something anyway!!! :D:D:D

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I was trying to be nice. :D

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

Heavy, wasn't intended to be wise-*****, just in years of RCU-ness, had never seen anything like that before. Welcome to THE BEST RC source in the Universe (wonder where they got the name?)!

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

Tower processes 1000s of orders every day, and they aren't perfect .0001% of the time. If it happens to you,[ a problem with your order] and if you have any communication skills at all, they WILL take care of you.

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

Tower just credited my account $76.00 for a Tower Hobbies .46 engine I was having problems with. They originally said they would fix it or send a new one. I asked them for the credit as you fine members did not have much good to say about the engine and I would like to try a different engine.
It may or may not have been my fault with the engine when I broke it in but it never became an issue with them.
Tower has just earn my business.

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

No problem Warjet! I was under more than a little stress at the time and was way too quick to react. Thanks for the welcome and plan on hearing more from me in the future!;)

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

Many years ago I was stationed at Chaute AFB IL. One day, out side of the LHS in Rantoul, I met a guy who said he was involed in starting a Mail Order store in near by Champaign IL. The name of that store was Tower Hobbies. Since, I've often thought that it was like J. C. Penny telling me he was opening a store.

I too have odered from them and have had no complaints Ted

RE: Warning about Tower Hobbies
 

I've had nothing but GREAT and CURTIOUS service from Tower. I've been a customer of thiers for about 7 years now.

I've talked to them on the phone about warrenty issues and they are about as pleasant as Mother Theresa. I've emailed them about orders and they always reply quickly and answer my questions.

TH has NEVER jerked me around. Not once.

I called them once about a fairly new engine that had blown up. I ADMITTED to them that I had taken it apart to diagnose the problem---I basically voided the warrenty. They shipped the broken parts out to me and even sent me a set of bearings for the engine---I hadn't asked for new bearings. But they wanted to make sure that when I put the lower end of the engine back together---that it was as good as new. And they didn't charge me one red cent. Shipped it all to me for nothing.

I've recieved a kit or 2 that was missing a part here and there. A simple--POLITE--phone call to them and I always get the parts I'm missing.

I even bought a kit from the LHS once and it didn't have any plans. Apparently--the plans had just been inadvertently left outta the box when it left the factory.

I called TH to BUY the plans for the kit that I bought from the LHS---and they mailed the plans to me Priority Mail for FREE--Didn't even charge me for shipping!! They GAVE me a set of plans for a plane that I DIDN'T even buy from them!!

You can b*tch and whiine all you want--but a little understanding and a kind word goes a long way with any PERSON--when your talking to them on the phone.

Just because the person who you are talking to at TH makes $5 or $8 an hour does not mean that they aren't worthy of respect. It doesn't give anyone the right to call them up and be abusive and demanding. Thats a person your talking to. Not a dog or a fish---a PERSON. They have feelings and emotions too. You start off being an @$$hole ---and well---your probably not going to get out of the deal with a smile on your face.

Show some respect--while on the phone--and you'll get a lot better reaction from the person on the other end. It's human nature.

Not pointing fingers or making accusations to anyone in particular. It just seams that we are all so detatched today---in the world. It's so easy to be a jerk when you know that you'll never really have to FACE that person. It's all too easy to loose your cool and start yelling at someone--because you deam them not worthy of respect----afterall--they only make $5/hour--so they must be stupid or a mean person-right? WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!

I will always be a loyal customer of TH. They have bent over backwards and jumped through flaming hoops to make me happy on more than 1 occasion. And I'll always remember that.

If they should ever happen to screw up and we just can't seam to get the problem resolved--well--I'll just chalk it up to a bad day and I'll still order my next kit or engine from them anyway. I figure--after the way they've treated me--I got one screw-up coming eventually. And I won't hold it against them.

TH is my favorite hobby shop.