Hi all, I thought I would share my tale of woe about CEN...

And hope it warns others about them, any way here goes...

I have a GST, which no doubt most of you will know has a issue with the spur gears, namely despite using super strength threadlock, they come apart...

I have personally gone through about 5 or 6 sets of these, so I had a look on the CEN website at their range of hop-ups, I was delighted to see that they actually made some cnc parts to replace the poor design that comes as standard, so I duly ordered both sets, this was sometime last year, however when I received the two parts, I was in for a shock, not only were they the wrong items, they did not even resemble the parts I wanted and paid for in full, in fact they were two pieces of plastic which did not even amount to a value of $5... The parts I ordered cost me in excess of $90 and also cost me a extra $40 or so to import into the UK... So needless to say I was not very pleased...

I emailed CEN right there and then, with the result that I got exactly ZERO replies from them! I tried and tried again, eventually I gave up, and simply got a full refund from my credit card company, the GST has sat on a shelf for over 9 months now...

Recently my son has been badgering me to get it fixed, so although being loath to actually even order from CEN, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, after all they could not cock up a order twice could they??? If only!

Again the order I placed cost me $90+ and again I had to pay import tax into the UK of $40 or more, I placed the order and waited...

A while later a letter arrived duly noting me that a parcel was awaiting payment on import tax, so I hopped over to the sorting office where a small box was awaiting me, I paid for it, and had a quick look in...

I suppose I really should not have got my hopes up, as they were quickly dashed when I inspected the contents, at least this time they had got 50% of my order correct, but instead of two separate spur gears, they had sent me two identical spur gears, this was some thirteen days ago, I sent a email off straight away to explain what had happened, and at least this time I got a response, as follows...


"Thank you for choosing CEN Racing. What is your order number? Order XXXXX doesn’t have GSS22 or GSS23 on it. Thanks"

Now seeing as it was printed on the invoice that came with the parts I thought this was very strange, I emailed back with all the details I could possibly find on the paperwork, I awaited a response... NOTHING!

I then emailed asking if they had got any further with my problem, and even included a screenshot of my actual order I paid for, a scanned copy of the invoice included, and pictures of the items they had sent me... STILL NO RESPONSE!!!

I have emailed nearly every day to ask for a response and I have had NOTHING BACK FROM THEM!!! I even joined the CEN forum, and made a post on there about the problem, I managed to get in touch with a CEN rep on there, who spoke to me once, and has not bothered replying...

All in all I wish I had never set eyes on the GST, nevermind actually bought it. I am giving it until the end of this week, and if they have still not been in touch, I will be seeking yet again a full refund, and CEN can arrange collection of the parts they did actually send to me, I will be then advertising the GST on Ebay...

I sincerely hope that CEN reads this and learns that customers should be put first and not simply ignored or fobbed off!

Sorry to here that you have had this issue. I agree that there customer service just plain sucks. I had an issue that should have been handled under warranty and all they did was ignore me too. Good luck with the sale on ebay.

Thanks for the reply, perhaps you can clear something up for me? Over here in the UK, we have what is known as a trading standards office which if a consumer has a problem with a company, then they can bring pressure to bear upon said company, is there anything like that in the US? If so, any ideas what I should be looking for, because I think it's high time that a company such as this, that repeatedly ignores it's customers should be highlighted, I know it's not just myself who have had problems, but many others around the world, and if something can be done, then I would gladly write to any such office.

Btw, I am not knocking the GST, When it's working, it's fantastic, it's just CEN's exceptionally poor attitude to it's customers, you would think in this day and age with the global credit crisis, that any company worth it's salt would be bending over backwards to ensure the loyalty of it's customer base....

The Better business bureau is who you need to contact, if I'm not mistaking they already have complaints against them oh yeah I file one myself.

Thanks for that I will most certainly be complaining, I don't know if you ever view the cen forum itself, but I have just had my post locked for being a duplicate? I cannot see the logic in that as it was my one and only thread on there, I expect the thread itself too disappear shortly as looking through the entire cen forum there is not one post on there that is critical of cen's customer support, I notice that cen sometimes makes replies on here to some posts, perhaps I might eventually get one off them here, but I won't be holding my breath

Your story is one I hear all too often. Even in my dealings with them on RCU when they were here in an official capacity, I found them to be disinterested and combative.

As for their forum moderation, I'm not surprised at all. On the one occasion I bothered to stick my head in this forum to help someone out, by explaining how CEN are able to quote the ridiculous figure of 5hp for their MT engine (more than my 26cc gas racing engines make, with tuned pipes), the CEN rep deleted my post. lol. That remains the only time I've had a post removed on RCU since becoming a moderator myself nearly 2 years ago. I complained to RCU management, even though I could have restored it myself, and sure enough, the owner of RCU restored my post. 2 days later they had deleted it again. I just laughed, I didn't bother doing anything about it. Anyone who doesn't want their customers to know the truth about their products and can't take constructive criticism on the chin, will cause their own problems, they don't need my help.

They also like to ban people from their forums for talking bad about their customer service. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings CEN but the truth must be told.

Wonders never cease, I may actually be getting some way forward here, had a pm sent to me from one of the cen guys promising to look into my order... Will let you all know how it turns out.

Well as I said wonders never cease, I have finally got my parts I ordered in full, its only taken a month It's only because of one guy, that things have worked out... Ruune aka Trey on the cen forum, If like me you ever have problems speak to this guy, at least he gets things done and does not simply ignore you.

I was going for a Matrix rtr, but I think I'll save my money for a quality race kit that actually supports their customers. Thanks for sharing.

Hmm, intresting was looking at an Arena at the LHS might hold off on that. Thanks for the insight.

I always got my parts from amain.com. CEN's store and suport just sucks.

The Arena's actually pretty good for the money.

Cen has a rating of "F" with the BBB, it is the worst rating you can get:

"We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices"

I can see why after owning a CEN MG 16. It's too bad because it's a fun little truck and it screams when something's not breaking off. I bought it for my son and it's been sidelined so many times he's lost interest in it. I bought a used MG 16 so we could chase each other around but the plastic is so brittle I have been pulling parts off the used car to keep the newer car running. I would never buy a CEN product again, I'm just going to run it until both engines die.

Honestly, the best CEN product that I have ventured to buy is the Nemesis/Genesis. (The GST in my specific situation.) The Matrix I guess is okay, I knew some guys down south who raced them. But as for the rest of their RCs, I would not dare venture to try them. The GST is about as far as I will step into Cenchain.

As for their CS? I wont venture to test them either. If something breaks, I fix it myself. And unfortunately, that is exactly what Cenchain CS wants you do do. Too bad Cenchain parts cannot be had in the local RC stores; worse, the distributors for the local RC stores for me do not supply Cenchain parts. They can get them though, they just have to order form alternative distributors.

Iam a loyal Cen owner and I never deal with Cen directly. Ibuy most of my parts form ebay or other online R/C retailers. I onced ordered some screws from Cen thatI needed for my TR Arena. The customer service rep took my information and credit card number...Long story short, I never received the screws I needed.Lukily I found some screws that I was able to use but they were just a tad long and I dremel them down to size. I canceled my Cen order.

I think contacting them through a phone call will be your best bet. I'm sure they get hundreds if not thousands of e-mails daily and I know they don't and can't respond to all of them. I would call Cen and ask to speak to Ken personally.

i had a cen mg 10 tr and all i can say it was poooooooooooooooooooooo with a big stink around it the parts seemed cheap and weak and really hard to get a order i asked for took nearly a month to arrive so good ol ebay seved its purpose and got it off my hand for a fraction of the price i bought it for. even the lhs that i got it from didnt stock the parts?? why bother and sell the product if it breaks so easily and if you do sell em at least stock the bloooming parts for it. well i have now moved on to my hyper st 123 mini and my hong nor crt5 and have never had 1 problem with them exept goingg to fast for a newbie lol but the lesson learned is DONT BUY CEN!!!

Great first post!!!

I cantruely see you are goin to be a positive influence!!

First impressions speak loud around here!!!

Yes, but he has the right to express his opinion. He is not simply bashing Cenchain, he is actually describing his own displeasure of the product he actually owns.

It is one thing to bash on something for no reason at all, but he is perfectly in his right, even in the view of RCU management and moderators, to express his displeasure.

Granted, I personally for one am a serious Savage fan, and people bash on those like crazy too, and I will be very quick to jump on them if they are simply bashing on Savages for no reason, but if they are having problems and are pissed off to no end, and no matter what you do to help him does not make it any better for him, it is seriously best to just let him vent and be on his way. Sooner or later, he will eventually walk away.

You are exactly right!!

I however will continue to preach that CEN is junk, and make every effort to influence others to buy anything but. At least I stick to my convictions.

Yeah, yer my hero!!

Dont fill your time and heart with the negative. You will live a much longer and happier life if you feel the positive..

I am very familiar with Cen products. PM me any questions you might have concerning your Cen RC.

Wizard

OK, that'll do for this thread... Thanks.