mikeackroyd

See problems below and no responses from Cen Racing and Cen Chain Co. Is there any support available?

To: [email protected]
Subject: Cen Genesis Problems

Dear Sirs

Please see the mails below to which I have received no response. My problems unfortunately have not stopped here. In October a new set of pinion and spur gears arrived. I duly got these fitted by a reputable model shop in the UK. To check all was working fine I took the truck to a local superstore car park for a run. I ran it at low speeds and kept checking that I was experiencing no further problems with the gears. All seemed to be fine with all teeth intact. Still running at low power after about 1.5 tanks in total the truck suffered a serious loss of power. I stopped the truck immediately and went to retrieve. Upon examination the pin from the rear drive dog bone, at the transmission end, was missing. During this process the pin had pulled off the rear brake shoes & pads.

I duly ordered a replacement dog bone and rear brake shoes and pads. These arrived in early November. I removed the rear wheels, for the first time, followed by the section of the truck to gain access to the dog bone. I refitted the new one however was unable to fit the rear shoes and pads as the dog bone incident above had also damaged the fixings one the transmission housing. I also noticed that the brake drive cup had been damaged as the dog bone pin worked loose. On putting my truck away yet to wait for more parts I attempted to fit the wheels. Here I noticed the rear left wheel adapter and nut were threaded. This was prior to me attempting to re-fit as the wheel nut would not even give any grip on the adapter. As the wheels had never been off before I can only assume this happened at build stage prior to delivery to myself.

I have since duly ordered a wheel adapter set, transmission housing and brake drive cup.

I am now increasingly concerned that I will never have my truck running as was first anticipated through the advertising you gave your truck. I have spent $221.96 in replacement parts since I took delivery of the truck just over 2 months ago. Excluding run in time I must had had a total of 10 tanks running in not very demanding terrain.

I made the move from Traxxas to Cen on the promotions you gave this truck. I am seriously considering moving back to this supplier, however I still wonder what the Cen could do given some decent build and parts manufacture.

Another point of note is that the pinion and spur gears along with the dog bone did not reflect the original parts in colour, although I ordered stock replacements. Have you had part manufacturing issues I need to be aware of?

I would really welcome your comments. If you require photos or any further information I will gladly provide.

Regards

Mike
---------------------- Forwarded by Mike B Ackroyd/IT/North East/RAC Motoring Services on 30/11/2004 12:52 ---------------------------
To: [email protected]
Subject: Cen Genesis Problems

Dear Sirs

Disappointed not to have received a response. I would welcome your comments.

Many Thanks

Mike
---------------------- Forwarded by Mike B Ackroyd/IT/North East/RAC Motoring Services on 08/10/2004 12:13 ---------------------------
To: [email protected]
Subject: Cen Genesis Problems

Dear Sirs

I took delivery of my 'ready to rock' Cen Genesis on Tuesday, 21st September. Upon checking my truck I noticed that the rear overhead shock tower was leaking and that the suspension in general was unable to return the truck to anyway near its original position when compressed. Keen to start the run in procedure I duly ran 7 tanks through on idle and on the 25th September I completed the run in process on a flat surface. Upon checking my truck following this run in there were 2 teeth missing of the 39 tooth steel spur gear. What appeared to be the cause was that the 3x8 cap screw at the end of the clutch bell had worked loose allowing the pinion gears to move along the crankshaft. I duly tightened and placed an order for a replacement 39 tooth steel gear. I applied some tuning on 30th September but I am still running the car rich for extra engine life. At the end of this run out I noticed that another two teeth had gone from the same spur gear, not more than one lost tooth in sequence however. I again checked over the truck for a possible cause. The only conclusion I could come to was that the engine was not mounted close enough to enable a good connection between pinion and spur gears. I duly re-positioned the engine for a better connection. I had the truck out again this weekend, 3rd October. During the second tank an eyelet from the end of the rod supporting the overhead shock snapped. I effected a temporary repair with a spare rod end. During the 4th tank the front left upper suspension arm where the tie rod screws in split, although still allowing for the truck to be mobile the life span of this part is now severely limited. Cable tie and glue have made a temporary repair. It ran very well for at least 5 tanks throughout the day checking the car over after each run. Unfortunately on one run the 39 tooth steal spur gear disintegrated, leaving just the 43 tooth gear and the pinion gears perfectly intact. Nothing was loose and the remaining spur gear was still making a good connection with the spur gear. I ran the truck for one further tank after this at low speeds to try and find the cause of such a failure, regularly stopping and checking that all was in order. Towards the end of this run the 17 tooth pinion gear disintegrated. I now have both pinion gears and spur gears, an upper suspension arm and the eyelet's on order to try and permanently repair my truck.

My immediate worry is the arrival and fitting of my gears and length of time they will last. The www.cengenesis.com forum suggests that debris whilst driving gets kicked into the gears causing this damage, highlighting the lack of protection of these gears. I would really welcome any advise you could provide on maintaining the longevity of my truck. Any advise you can give me surrounding the lack of effective suspension would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

Mike

mikeackroyd

Lots of views but no replys? Come on Cen Racing let's see some Customer Service!!!!!!!

mikeackroyd

For pictures of the most recent damage along with my original dogbone see http://www.nitronorthwest.com/NitroN...nderRepair.htm
(first 3 pictures)

ace@

My Feedback: (9)

What's up mike, i own a genesis for 8 or 9 months now and it still don't run and i put a lot more than $221.00 into it and all i can say is that it only looks great. That truck is a piece of **** end of story. do a search in the forms for cen genesis and look at all the messes cen calls genesis that they sold to everyone. Your truck will never run sell it asap. All you will be doing is buying parts and fixing it. i only get a tank and a half before i am fixing something again. All new electronics, 4th engine all the gears upgrades the four spider gear diff that cen had put out. It should say on the box RTF ready to fix.

If you really want a truck buy a savage 25

mikeackroyd

ace

Our local forum has a lot of HPI Savage owners and I do like that truck. I'm the same as you never had more than a couple of tanks out of it before it's knackered and needs new parts. Have decided that if I don't get it sorted by next summer it's going on sale and it's either the Savage SS or the Revo for me. It's just when I do get it running it goes like stink and is such good fun, really want to get it worked out................

ace@

My Feedback: (9)

Yeah i know i does go but you will see it will never get worked out there is always something.

mikeackroyd

Well finally got a reply from a direct email contact at Cen Racing. I was asking about warranty as above. Here was their reply

The best recommend I have for you is try and order from
http://www.cenracing.com/links.html, we do not sales direct.

Timmy Q Pham
Senior Sales Executive
CEN Racing / GTC
1800 E. Miraloma Ave. Suite F
Placentia, CA 92870

Apart from not having a great grasp of the English langauge the guy's got the wrong end of the stick. No replys from a Cen representative and no sensible replys from their customer service people [:@]

Trying to dig out details of a US equivalent to our UK trading standards department. If anyone has any information I would be grateful if you would pass on.

CEN Racing

Dear mikeackroyd:

We apologize for the late response. CENCHAIN Corp. is based in Taiwan, and CEN Racing USA only operates in Northen America. For all UK warrenty claims, please contact our UK agent below. I am sure they will be providing you with excellent serivie with lastest upgrades available for your Genesis 46. With these parts, Genesis 46 is to be proven to be extremely durable for both bashing and track racing. At the same time, CEN Racing USA is still more than happy to provide tech support/racer tips to our valuable customers like we always have. Online message board is being checked as frequent as we possible can. However, for best/quickest tech. service, please contact us at 714-792-1923 or email to [email protected] We apologize again for the delay but due to complication of distrubution in different nationalities, please contact us directly for fastest service instead of posting and waitting for reply. Thank you for choosing CEN Racing.


UK/Ireland
Exclusive Agent
Irvine Limited Unit 2, Brunswick Ind. Park
Brunswick Way, New Southgate
London N11 1JL UK Tel: +44 (0) 208-361-1123
Fax: +44(0) 208-361-8684
E-Mail: [email protected]

ace@

My Feedback: (9)

CEN, What are all the newest up-grades that are in the Genesis now? four spyder gears ect... what else???

Lee G

Have some free advice. Take the piece of junk back to the shop you got it from and use the sale of goods act. Not fit for the purpose it was sold for.
There are a few posts in this section from when I made the mistake of buying one.
The day I got my refund was a good day.

Lee

jadda

Is it just me or is everybody not pleased with their Genesis. I have had mine for about 3 months now, and it still running great I wouldn't trade it for any other truck. I have the four spider gears, and converted to shaft drive to the rear.
The only thing i'm not pleased with is the one way bearing it sucks. Other than that i have had much fun driving my Genesis, I have done a back flip with it. I thought it would be impossible with this truck.
I hope you get your truck fixed or sold, so you can enjoy the Genesis or another truck.

mikeackroyd

Cen Racing

Have contacted Irvine Ltd on two seperate occasions and still awaiting a response. [] Please advise on how I should progress this.

poor judgement

mike:

irvine have got a name for themselves as being pretty unhelpful and very slow to get parts sorted. i feel for u mate, however the lhs near me, the grimsby one in the link, have a good contact there. u might want to give them a ring and see if they can speed things up for u, or just get the parts much quicker for u. when i have had delays, the lhs owner has rung while i waited in the shop, and has got my parts send thru within a couple of days.

http://www.irvineltd.com/dealers/NorthLincolnshire.html

hope that helps mate.

mikeackroyd

Reply fron Irvine Ltd. Cen could you please advise

Thank you for the e-mails. I am sorry to hear that you have experienced
problems with your Cen Genesis truck and will try to help if I can.Was this
car purchased from a UK model shop or not? If it was, then they really
should be helping you overcome these issues.If not I don't know who is
resposible for the warranty.As far as I am aware the version we have been
selling has upgraded steel gears, so I guess the parts that you have
purchased as replacements are the earlier type hence the continued
failures.If the model was purchased from one of our UK shops, then we are
more than happy to help resolve these issues and will fit the upgrade gears
for you if you return the vehicle to us.

Please note our correct address as follows.

Irvine Ltd
241 Green street
Enfield
EN3 7SJ

Best regards
Barry Jones

mikeackroyd

Another update from Irvine Ltd. Cen Racing, they seem to be asking that you contact them to get them to deal. Could you please do the honours?

We do not have a problem if the manufacturer wants us to deal with it for
them, but I would expect them to ask us to resolve it rather than leave it
to you to sort out. The main reason it was not available in the UK, was that
we had heard that there had been some problems in other countries and we
were waiting for the upgraded stock to arrive.

Please keep me posted about the outcome.

Best regards
Barry

mikeackroyd

Cen Racing, you still out there?

mikeackroyd

Well this looks like the final straw. No joy from Cen Racing and here is the latest of my problems.

Fixed all of the above and went down to a local car park to give it a gentle run out. Very pleased, the rear dog bone held together and got 4 tanks of worry free trucking out of the truck. Did break an upper suspension arm, but that was my fault for hitting a kerb at high speed so can't complain there. Had a spare so all okay.

Next weekend take it to a local bashin spot with some like minded people. No problems for 4-5 tanks, great being able to run in for so long, then just as I'm thinking the problems have ended a rear wheel comes off. No problem, must be me not 'lock tighting' it. Well so I thought but the wheel hub also came off, aaaaarrrrgh. Found the hub but the nut nowhere to be found. If you read above you'll know that I have these spares as have suffered from a threaded nut and hub to date. Fitted the new hub and got the wheel back on. Quite surprised the hub came off as the spares and instructions give you a nut which tightens against the hub retaining pin.

So ran a couple more tanks through and then loose drive to my rear wheels. Due to previous experience I first think this is the dog bone gone again, but upon inspection all is fine in this area. Just no drive to the rear. Obvious that it's in the central transmission housing it's back home for a major repair. Take out the transmission housing and dismantle and the first problem becomes clear. A broken block that connects the front and rear drive cups. Thinking that this must have been caused by something else more investigation shows the rear diff has frozen. Dismantled the rear end and diff to find out that two of the bearings have siezed. This took a couple of hours in total so still need to check the front diff to ensure similar things are not due to happen.

To top it off I took off all the other wheels to checj on the hub issue I had while bashin. All the hub did not have the nut which secures the hub pin in place. Yet another build issue.

For pictures of the broken transmission block see the first two pictures on

http://www.nitronorthwest.com/NitroN...nderRepair.htm

Can I please request some help from our American friends from over the pond, particularly in Cen Racings state. Is there any trading standards legislation that you are aware of that will help with me gaining any type of satisfaction from Cen?

The truck is no out of action again and it's an order for more parts. The total for parts will now be over $300 of what can only be described as manufacturing failure.

mikeackroyd

The forum is titled 'Cen Racing Support', please Cen can I have some support? []

mikeackroyd

Well following all my efforts I am no further forward with my requests for help. Cen Racing I have to say the your level of customer service is some of the worst I have ever experienced. Truck is close to being ready to run again (if past history is anything to go by it'll be 'ready to fall apart') so am hoping to get out again soon.

tomandemmy

My Feedback: (1)

do a search they have phone support.I get answers whenever i have called.They check posts periodically.THis is supplemental support.

CEN Racing

mikeackroyd,

Our customer service is exceptional. Give our freindly service reps a call and they will be happy to help you out with your problems.

Or you can email [email protected] if you dont want to call.


Sorry to see that you have not been answered on this thread. Our service reps usually take care of direct emails and phone calls first, before venturing out. Im sure that you can understand this.

jendr

Hi Mike, I see this post was done years ago. Hopefully you still read this. I have worked at a hobby shop now for several years. There is nothing but trouble from CEN Racing. They DO NOT stand beside their warranty. Their staff IS NOT friendly. There is one guy there that is great but other than him, good luck. I would highly suggest you to go back to Traxxas as they are an awesome company to work with. They WILL STAND beside their warranty. They have a very friendly and knowledgeable staff. I would recommend anyone to stay away from CEN Racing.

BARONE

Things must have changed at CEN RACING since this post. The customer service is not exceptional. Friendly service, there is none with this company!! Warranty issues? I hope you dont have any, because they DO NOT back up what they sell. Overall I would avoid any CEN RACING products!!!!

93firebird

I agree CEN is a whole lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to support for their products, the only thing that is for sure is that you will be spending more money than you paid for the product to make it run. There are those that swear by CEN, but they are the few that received a CEN product that made it through quality control with a complete inspection. The rest of us must deal with complete junk.

jendr

93firebird,
You are absolutely correct. There are a few that made it through quality control, but not many.

I would recommend all consumers and dealers alike to stay away from CEN. Our hobby shop has had several issues with them not standing by their products. Please dealers and consumers alike, consider another option. Traxxas stands by their products and are a wonderful company to work with. Horizon also stands by their products (Losi, etc) and are a very good company to work with. Associated is another that will stand behind their products. OFNA has always taken care of any warranty issues. Kyosho is very good with standing by their products as well. We have had instances where Traxxas, Horizon, and Associated took care of things that they really didn't have to as a customer courtesy. There is no customer courtesy or even dealer courtesy for that matter with CEN. Everyone, please save yourself a headache and think r/c other than CEN Racing.