Ibcinyou!

My Feedback: (850)

Bill, I guess you did delete your first post? Good thing I saved it. Here it is for everyone to see your response.

It is rare that I post here, most of the time I lurk andwatch my customers build threads, however I feel I need to step in and clearthe air before this thread takes a turn for the worst over what is simply misunderstandingand coincidence. Let me explain. We found this engine from a dealer inAustralia after having a conversation desiring a rear exhaust engine to fit theesm warbirds and Goldwing acrobatic planes we sell so customers could stophaving to hack up their cowls. We noticed it was a concern amongst our entirecustomer base, and on the forums, so we postulated solutions. We already hadthe zdz 40 RE but the 40 is too powerful and a little large for the 73"wingspan planes. We took a look at our DLE engines, and realized that it wouldrequire significant modification to achieve the desired result. So we hit theinternet. We found the PTE 36, ordered it off of the Australian dealer, testedit, and decided it was a good product that we wanted to offer to our customers.
As we were researching the engine, we noticed the number1 concern amongst potential customers was service and support. It is well knownthat TBM offers excellent warranty service on its engines, and we have one ofthe fastest turn arounds in the industry, so to quell potential customersconcerns, we decided to offer the warranty for 1 year on all pte engines, andif you buy it from us we will offer an additional year of coverage, which isstandard practice for the engines we sell. In no way shape or form were wetrying to "dig" at you, or slander you or your business. It wassimply a concern we had noticed amongst the population, and one we wanted toaddress off the bat, to let our customers know that we will be supporting theseengines, and if they have any issues we will take care of them. We are notbaiting our customers by offering an extended warranty, we are simply ensuringthe engine is on the same playing field as the tried and true dle 30 from acost vs benefits stand point.
As for the flying video, to be honest, this was sheercoincidence. Jeff and myself had built the plane about a month prior to assistin the sales of our Goldwing planes. The plane had already been setup with aDLE 30, so we decided it would be a good platform to test the PTE on, as we canbench mark the dle against the PTE. It was not until after your post that werealized the remarkable similarities between the videos. It is really a case of"great minds thinking alike".
If someone could enlighten me how slandering anotherdealer is beneficial for anyone, I would really like to hear it. We at TBM haveno bad feelings toward IBCINU RC, and would never "attack" another vendorconsciously.
EC121, if you are so inclined, you can give me a call, Iwill gladly issue you store credit for your over charge on shipping. You mustunderstand that our number 1 concern is to keep our customers in the air. If weship something and the shipping turns out to be expensive, it is only becausewe are trying to get your order in the timeliest and safest manner. We do not profit from our shipping, as amatter of fact we pass our shipping discounts on to the customers.
Mike, If you would like to discuss things further, pleasefeel free to PM, E-mail or call. I will be glad to discuss things further withyou if you have any other concerns. We will not, nor will we ever activelymarket against another competitor.


_____________________________

Bill Badnaruk
TBM Customer Service Manager - (941) 342 8685

TBMcustomerservice

Dear Mike,

I can clearly sense the animosity you have regarding previous business dealings with the owner of TBM. I have no working knowledge of this, nor do I have any knowledge of any previous transgressions. I am here solely to ensure customers that whom ever they purchase their RC equipment from that they will be supported, either by your company or mine. As for the reason we purchased the engine from Australia, we found their shop in our searches, in my research of the product, I never once saw your company name. What ever the cause for this may be, the initial supplier was who we found when googling.


Again, we are not trying to discredit you or your company. We are simply trying to address a concern that we noticed was prevalant with customers past present and future. As for questionable business tactics, I fail to see where our tactics are being questionable.We are simply offering a new engine for sale to our customers. Unfortunately competition is business. If we wanted to "control the market place" we would have asked for exclusive rights to the product. We did not, and are not persuing exclusive rights to this product. The fact of the matter is we both sell the same product and we are in competition.


Fact of the matter is that this thread is to discuss the PTE 36. Please stick to the topic so we can both assist our customers.

Ibcinyou!

My Feedback: (850)

Bill,
You sound like a levelheaded individual and I do appreciate your forthcoming with information.
Like it or not things said on forums do have connotations and implications, as I am sure you can agree? The statement made should “not” have been made. “Period”. Regardless of the fact of what that statement was intended to mean. It’s the perceived implications that people/customers read. If you only knew the previous business dealings (if you even want to call it that?) with tbm you would certainly understand the animosity.

I couldn’t agree more about this tread related to discussion of the PTE36R engine. Butt if something is said or implied on an open forum pertaining to or insinuating something other than it was intended you will hear from me on an open forum! PM always seem to come up after the grenade when off, nice little way to get the issue off the front burner.

ec121

My Feedback: (2)

TBM customer service:
I appreciate the offer of a store credit. That is a nice gesture. However, my accepting it would imply that I am going to do more business with you and that, as I said, would be a last resort situation. Who knows when that will be? Next week/next year!!! In my surfing through the RC web area I have seen that there generally isn't much price competition. So, I can buy just about anywhere for the same money. Basically comes down to who I want to buy from.

TBMcustomerservice

I completely understand where you are coming from ec121, no hard feelings. However if you do decide to do business with us, please ask for me so I can ensure you are treated the way I ensure all of my customers are treated, with the utmost in service. If you find something you want or need, let me know, I will do my best to show you that TBM puts customers first.

Mike, I am glad we can reach an understanding. I apologize the statement was made. Please understand that there were no hard feelings behind the statement, and nothing was directed towards you or your company. We were simply announcing to RCU that we were dealing with the engines, and that we are supporting them to their fullest extent. As stated previously, it was a concern we wanted to quell from the beginning. You know how rumors fly.

Ibcinyou!

My Feedback: (850)

[quote]ORIGINAL: TBMcustomerservice


Dear Mike,

We are simply offering a new engine for sale to our customers. Unfortunately competition is business. If we wanted to ''control the market place'' we would have asked for exclusive rights to the product. We did not, and are not persuing exclusive rights to this product. The fact of the matter is we both sell the same product and we are in competition.


Exclusive rights? No such thing does NOT exist with a China product. ibcinyourc nor is tbm a Tower hobbies or Horizon hobbies to have the remote ability to monopolize the industry. Let's not kid ourselves

apalsson

My Feedback: (1)

Mike, steady mate, steady. Settle down a bit.

TBM are perfectly entitled to selling whichever product they choose, even if you have been selling them in the past. This is called competition and is what has driven down product prices whilst improving service.
Now, promote your own services and product on their own merits rather than try to gain an advantage by discrediting the competition. It is a much better long term strategy and goes down better with people

Ibcinyou!

My Feedback: (850)

Yes your correct! no problem! Never had I said tbm is not entitled to selling a product! I never said that! I can tell by your comments you didn't read the whole thread? Your point is well taken.. Thanks

pmerritt

My Feedback: (118)

Damn, why don't you two girlies quit pulling each others tops down and making yourselves look like cry babies?  Competition is good for the consumer and reading your wah wah wah makes me want to buy a DLE and to hell with what either one of you are selling!
Why don't you just offer to buy all the fuel, fix any broken air frames and give a 20 year unlimited warranty then sell a couple thousand engines then head to Chapter 7?  Neither one of you is doing a damned decent thing toward promoting future business. 
It's nice to know we can get service here in the USA but both of you are turning us toward companies that act professional so we will also assume their service falls under that same degree of integrity.</p>

MTK

I've done a little business with TBM. I've had no issues with them.....Hobby Services, now that's a different story.

But reading Bill's post, it implies that the rest of the service staff may not give as good a service as Bill will.

Bill thanks for the inside info and I will call you next time I need something from TBM

TBMcustomerservice

Dear MTK,

That implication was not my intention, when you call, you will speak to either Jeff, Gene, or myself. We all treat our customers with the utmost respect and diligence, however as I am the customer service manager, If there is a customer that has had a problem, or a customer that is wary of ordering from us, it is my position to ensure the customer is well handled. Its easiest to ensure customers are well handled, If I know the back story and solution.

Its not a case of I provide better service than someone else, more a case of it is easier to manage 1 customer with 1 representative, than having multiple hands in the pot. Sometimes 2 heads are not better than 1 etc.

If you or anyone purchases from TBM, you should expect the best service. If there is an issue, I will make it right.

Speedy-Gonzales

My Feedback: (202)

Very wimpy looking mounting ears on case.

kerwin50

The thing that scares me about TBM is there is no warranty on the electronic Ign.
I have seen electronic ign fail even when proper batteries were used.
Many of these chinise factories do not pratice proper ESD precations which is the number 1 reason for electronic failures.

MTK

Bill,

I just purchased one of these from a competitor, Goldwing. I opted not to have them run my engine at the factory.

My first impressions of the engine after turning it over were that it felt like grinding a bit near BDC....also, lots of rod play, more than any other gas engine I've run (that number is mounting steadily over the past 3+ years). Are these things "normal" for the PTE? Should I disassemble and inspect, send it back, send it to you for your impression? Which one of these? TIA

TBMcustomerservice

Dear MTK. These issues are not typical of a pte engine. Please call Jeff (our engine tech) today and we will try and get to the bottom of it for you. If necessary we will have you send it in. Thanks!

MTK

Just called him and he said it will cost me 47.50 per hour for you guys to check this NIB engine. Is that right? This should be a warranty item

TBMcustomerservice

Dear Matt,

Did you purchase the engine from us? If not, who did you buy it from?

MTK

Hi Bill,

Please see post 39.....Goldwing. I went on price alone.... may have been a mistake on my part, we'll have to see how it plays out

Interestingly, I saw Jeff's post #1 in this thread, the post that started the thread, that clearly states "service regardless from whom the engine was purchased for up to 1 year, at no cost...."

If TBM changed its policy on PTE engine warranty service, I can understand that. Was that stated somewhere in all of this rhetoric?

3136

MTK, I have mine out of the plane at the moment so I pulled off the carb and reeds.
If you look at the pic there is a small area that has been ground shiny (top right as you look in the case)that would line up at tdc with the crank/rod connection.
I can't explain your slop problem, perhaps oil in the bearing may help?? I don't know how much slack you are talking about without seeing it though.
Anyway mine is running fine, it's just a cheapie so I would run it in as is.

TBMcustomerservice

Dear MTK,

Sorry for the long response time. Heres the deal with the warranty. When this thread was started, TBM was in the process of negotiating for the sole distribution rights for the PTE engines in the US market. Once we realized other dealers were not going to be happy with this we stopped pursuing the sole distributorship. Without being the sole distributors, TBM does not have the responsibility to warranty any and all PTE engines. Parts we can do, but labor we have to charge if the engine was not purchased from us. Give me a call and I can discuss things further with you, I might be able to talk to jeff and see if we can't get the labor rate down a bit for you.


Edit: I just want to clarify my statement to ensure there is no confusion. I said any and all pte engines I was referring to engines not purchased through tbm. Any PTEengine purchased from TBM will have our standard 2 year warranty on the engine through TBM.

Editx2: Just to clarify MTK, I am offering this option to you because of the the fact that you may feel that you were misslead thinking TBM was going to cover the engine you purchased elsewhere. We do not want our customers or potential customers to ever be misslead about a product or service we offer. This is a one time offer because of the first post not showing the propper information. We are editing the first post to reflect these changes. When you call ask to speak to Bill (me) and we will get something figured out.

MTK

I can understand that, thanks for clarifying. Policy changes happen all the time.

It isn't worth any more of my time actually. I have a NIB PTE36R for sale. Cost me 290$ plus shipping, will sell it for 250+shipping. Any one interested, please PM me

TBMcustomerservice

All right man! If you do need anything, or have any questions regarding any of our products, give me a call, I'm always glad to help!

Ibcinyou!

My Feedback: (850)

MTK,

I am a dealer for these engines as well. (Missouri) I know you said you purchased on price alone from Goldwing??? I am not aware that they are a distributor/dealer for these the PTE engines? Wouldn’t surprise me if they were!
I am confused about where you actually purchased the engine? I can understand if you don’t want to ship back to China for warranty purposes.

But none the less I will be happy to help if you want my help? I do not care whom you purchased it from actually! If you would like to call me 314-256-9987 most times we can solve problems over the phone unless it is something major, I could send part/parts if need be.

MTK

Thanks Mike,

We've spoken before...The attraction to the PTE is the rear exhaust config which is perfect for my pattern planes. I run pipes on my gas engines.

This particular PTE has a rough, almost grinding sound as I turn the crank over by hand. Doubt there is anything in the bearings; I suspect there is poor finish internally. There is also a lot of rod play, around 5 mils. It could simply be a tolerance stack up working against me. I've hesitated to disassemble the engine, but I think disassembly needs to happen to see what's up....

Ibcinyou!

My Feedback: (850)

I was “the” first dealer to bring these engines into the states, Since then many other dealers came out of the wood work which creates problems needless to say! I would be kidding myself if I or any other dealer could get exclusive rights! No such thing exist in the Chinese market place, they only want volume and will pretty much sell to anyone that wants them! (Period!) So in otherwords as more dealers attempt to bring on this engine line volume goes up and quality control goes down. And after some time elapses the after math hits.. We have PROBLEMS such as this.. Warranty problems, etc. etc.

a. You could check the prop hub? Might be machined incorrectly and rubbing/grinding against front case?
b. Poor finish internally? Kinda doubt this but could be a possibility.
c. Rod play is common as long as it’s not too excessive.
d. Have you run the engine?