jongurley

My Feedback: (29)

I have had a Ucando .46 fuselage on order from TowerHobbies since March 21 05 and everytime I check on it the In-stock date or status it is Late March to Early April to Late April and to Early May and so on, I have been patient with them, and called them finally today and talked to one of the customer service Supervisers, she told me that people that ordered the fuse back in November 04 have not received there's yet, I am really PO'd and let them know it, I don't know if Great Planes is not producing or if Towerhobbies was lazy and didn't order enough or order soon enough,, I think it is all a money thing, she said the "we do have the whole kit though" I told here it is funny how about all of the backordered replacement parts are out of stock and you tell me that I can buy the whole kit for 149.99,,,,,,,,,, I have looked a .46 Ucando fuse but there is no person in the US that has one I could buy,, has anyone else had this type of problem, I spend a decent amount per year with Towerhobbies on odds and ends, but after this ordeal I am probably through dealing with them,,,

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

Offer to send them back everything and they can add the fuse when it comes in.
Then you can receive the whole kit.

FOD MAN

/

ScienceisCool

My Feedback: (1)

instead of directing your anger at tower hobbies, direct it to great planes who are the ones not shipping it to tower to sell to you.

dont shoot the messenger

Bob101

Basically same company. If you order from Tower there's a good chance it comes in a box with a GP return address listed as shipper and if you order a GP replacement (warranty etc..) it's been my experience it almost always comes from Tower Hobbies and not GP. They are both under the Hobbico umbrella of companies as far as I know.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

I have to laugh at posts like this. You think tower is out to get you or something. They can't ship you something that the manufacturer hasn't made. They are probably producing kits so fast that they haven't had time to make parts. It isn't like tower didn't order them, they can't get them from the supplier.

I understand your frustration, but it is a little missdirected. This stuff is all made over seas. If you can't build one yourself, your going to have to wait till they ship them. Sux, but thats the way it is in the big city. Learn to deal with frustration, its part of life.

MinotRich

I believe that when you order from Tower's website, the current "stock status" is displayed. If it's in stock or backordered, the website tells you that information at the time you place your order. If the item you want isn't in stock and you are too impatient to wait until it does come into stock, and backorder it, bad on you. Does the phrase "checks in the mail" mean anything to you? How can you blame Tower for something they have no control over just because you have no patience? Although I understand your frustration, I say, quit your *****ing!

crownvic

Called tower hobbies to order a Sig electric fuel pump said they were out and didnt no when they were going to get any? called Sig they said they had 150 on the shelf. I dont understand it. have usually had good service from Tower


Lonnie

FOD MAN

/

jongurley

My Feedback: (29)

I am not neccesarily putting all blame on no one, but I am just frustrated and just wondering if anyone else has had this experience and just seems to me that they should have better communication, I mean between Great Planes and tower, being two of the premier hobby sources in the US, I have never had any problems with Horizon Hobby like this, when they have a problem and something gets backordered they call the manufacturer and get a set date when parts will be in and they are on the money, but anyway,,,

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

I don't know the ins and outs of how Sig runs their business, but for some reason I doubt they would turn down a Tower order in the hopes of selling through their own web site. I always viewed Sig's higher direct prices as a way of encouraging people to buy through a retailer rather than directly from Sig. I would think a more likely cause is that Tower doesn't place as much priority on ordering things from Sig when they have a similar product available under one of their own brand names.

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

Well, if you like the plane enough (and the UCD is certainly a great-flying model), why not just buy another kit? Then you'll have an extra wing, right??

Hey, I am NOT trying to be a weisenheimer. These things are cheap enough now. Trust me, you cannot build a comparable model for $150; and that's not factoring in your time, which is worth a lot to most folks.

Some might say your argument is based on principle. Okay, I can see that; I'm big on principle, myself, most of the time. But if I had the choice between paying for a wing I didn't need, and not flying a favorite model; I'd spring for the new kit.

And I actually did this, when I murdered my Sig SE last year. The wings survived (and SE owners can take that factoid and deduce what happened), and Sig wanted $110 for a fuselage kit; but they couldn't advise on when one would be available. After waiting several months, I just bought a new ARF.

So now I have a set of wings gathering dust. Hey, I know... I'll buy the BIY kit for $80 and strip the covering off those new ARF wings and use them.

Its a hobby man; move on...

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

Um, I think you mean being one of the premier hobby sources. They are the same company. The problem lies in the fact that they are told a date by a manufacturer, post it, and then the manufacturer misses it, they change it to the new one they are told. Sux, but that is the business world. Buy the kit if your in a hurry, and you will have spares for your next crash.

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

I have ordered many ARF parts from Tower and each time they were pretty close to the predicted delivery date. My understanding of how the predicted date works is if you order a part that says "Late May" right now, then that means Tower is expecting a shipment around that time and not all of the parts are spoken for. If a few days later that date gets bumped to "Mid June" on Tower's website, that means ALL of the Late May shipment items have waiting customers. So, if it is a popular replacement item, Tower may be shipping them out but still show delivery date getting bumped again an again without it ever showing "In Stock" status. If you have it on backorder, though, then you should get it pretty close to the original predicted date WHEN you place the back order.

If the UCD46 fuse has been in your backorder log since March 21st and they have bumped the date several times since then, you do have some reason to gripe. Still, if I were you, I would just be glad that GP/Tower is pretty good about ARF parts prices and supply MOST of the time. I can't say that about every ARF brand I've dealt with.

Don't you have some other planes to keep yourself entertained in the interim? Getting yourelf all worked up about a $39.95 fuselage is just not worth it.

BTW, Hobby People is clearancing out their UCD46 clone called the Paramount 52/70 for $99.99. Their UCD60 clone was also priced at $99.99, which was an even better deal, but they are now sold out. These kinds of deals are everywhere, man! The market is glutted with ARFs. I'm sure something else will catch your fancy.

jongurley

My Feedback: (29)

Who said I crashed it,, me and my pitbull were playing in my workshop and he jumped back and landed on the fuse(Don't fight with dogs around airplanes[&o]) and yes I do have plenty of planes to fly but that is beside the point,,, but anyhow, all I am saying is that I understand how things happen to companies and backorders etc, but if they would have put out of stock or backordered with no set date that would have been fine I would have bought another kit at the time, but I saw it said "late march" so I went ahead and saved that 100 odd dollars and wait a week or two,,, but now the way they keep pushing the date back is bull crap, and what made it worse was people have been waiting since November,,, so anyway,,,,,

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

I didn't say you crashed it; I said I crashed MINE.

Will you be offended if I amend that to say we were/are both without the use of our models?

jongurley

My Feedback: (29)

Hey Steve I wasn't referring to you I was refering to Flyboys last comment,I thought it was funny,,

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

Okay; sorry.

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

Hmmm, let's see. Company says backorder with no date and customers think the item will never come in, even if the company knows the item should arrive by a certain date. So, the company tries to help customers by posting the expected arrival dates, but sometimes due to circumstances out of their control, the dates are missed. When this happens, some people just accept that sometimes stuff happens and things are late. Others choose to get all bent out of shape and say things like they are never going to buy there again. Seems no matter what a company does, unless they are absolutely perfect, some people are going to find reasons to get angry.

jongurley

My Feedback: (29)

Exactly,,,[:@]

3D Flyer

My Feedback: (37)

I ordered a HiTec SuperSlim receiver from Tower some time back and the same thing happened to me where the date kept slipping and slipping and slipping .... I was waiting for it to fly a plane. They told me that HiTec was currently out of stock and they were not receiving any from HiTec.

HOWEVER, when I called HiTec they said they had thousands of them and they did not know what the heck Tower was talking about. I canceled with Tower and order from another vendor and had it promptly.

I think the bottom line is that sometimes they screw up. Tower did return 1/2 of my shipping (as I had a crystal on the order as well that could have been shipped for $4 instead of the $8 they charged).

3D Flyer

My Feedback: (37)

I think if you were patiently waiting for over 3 months for a receiver, and could not fly your plane until it arrived, you might be a bit upset when you found out that Tower had misrepresented the situation to you when they told you finally that HiTec was out of stock only to find out from HiTec that that information was not true and they had plenty of stock. I still buy stuff from Tower but NOT when its a backordered item.

On the other hand I recently bought a backorder item from Horrizon Hobby that came in very close to their prediction with no confusion or monkey business.

piper_chuck

My Feedback: (12)

If I needed a receiver and could not fly without it, I would not be waiting for 3 months, I'd order it from someone who had one.
The people answering the phones do not always know the whole story. In the case of the HiTec example, it's possible it was a Tower problem. However, it's just as likely that a HiTec screw up was the reason they had thousands in stock.
BINGO! Give this person a prize. If there's something you absolutely must have immediately, don't order it from a place that's got it backordered.
As do many things at Tower. I've even had backordered things on my wish list suddenly become available much earlier than predicted. A recent example is the Twinstar.

3D Flyer

My Feedback: (37)

[quote]ORIGINAL: piper_chuck

If I needed a receiver and could not fly without it, I would not be waiting for 3 months, I'd order it from someone who had one.
[quote]


Chuck,

If I knew that I would be strung along for 3 months I WOULD have ordered elsewhere. The point is that Tower strings you along.
They keep moving the arrival date in 2 week increments making you think its alsmost there ...... almost there ... almost there ....

This happened in 2 week increments for about 3 months.

The only reason I ordered a backordered items was the arrival date was so close (2 weeks away) I figured I could wait.

Frustrating. Finally I wised up and canceled that backorder. Live and learn.

Unless this has happened to you, I'm sure its hard to understand the frustration. Believe me, you would have been peeved too.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Shoot the dog. Rebuild the fuse. and go flying.