thevirginian

Hey everyone;
You may have seen a "special Black Friday" deal on an engine at TBM the day after Thanksgiving. They ran an add on a RCS SV50cc for $180.00. When I heard of this deal I immediately placed a purchase order for it plus some other items. I received a order confirmation per e-mail, thanking me for the order and the usual shipping blah blah. Now, after almost a week has past, I received a phone call and I was told there was a computer glitch and they are sorry, but they can't give me that engine for that advertised price, because it's out of stock. I politely insisted that I am entiteld to a rain check, which the guy at TBM refused to honor. Now that's when I got pi$$ed off. The whole add was probably nothing but a ........ I simply will not buy that story of a computer glitch. I wonder who else got screwed on that engine deal? They sure lost me as a customer for good. I don't like to be treaded like that.

wind junkie

My Feedback: (1)

They run these sales on items which are surplus or slow sellers. I can believe the computer isn't in sync with the warehouse. It happens all the time.

I don't see this as a big reason to get angered. There are plenty of things in life which justifiably cause angst, but this in my book isn't one of them.

Cancel your order, and try again next time. What have you really lost?

Joe

skillet92

I did not see the add, but did it say anywhere that rain checks would be issued or not issued. I agree though that is a bad deal.

ec121

My Feedback: (2)

If you looked at the website site(not the ad), it said that it said that they only had three in stock. They were probably getting rid of those three. You had to be quick to get the deal. I bought one of the SV50 motors right after they bought out RCS. Good motor, but it probably duplicated something else in their line(like the DL55) so they were clearing it out. Hard to have a raincheck on a clearance sale!!

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

Jake Ruddy

My Feedback: (40)

I would be a bit irritated myself. I think the whole week to find out sucks personally. It's not rocket science to do real time inventory on a website.

Worth being an ex-customer? maybe not but they haven't been earning the best rep this year either way.

Zippi

My Feedback: (10)

thevirginian,

I think I'd be pretty ticked off myself unless the ad had a disclamier saying that after the three were gone they would be sold for the regular price. TBM said they were out of stock not discontinuing the engine. I don't like TBM anyway for the way they treated me in one of the forums for asking a question about one of their planes.

thevirginian

I do understand that mistakes can and will happen. If this was a true computer glitch, they would have known that the same day I placed my order. Somebody in shipping should have notified me latest by Monday that they had a problem with the proper stock count or something. What pi$$ed me off was the fact, they told me about this "problem" almost a week later and would honor me a rain check. To me that is poor business practise, which I will not accept.

marios k

I am with you Virginian, I looked at that sale also & to me it looks like a bad publicity stunt to get customers to browse their website, maybe they won the battle but they may loose the war.I do not see why they can not sell you an engine for the sale price to keep everyone happy.

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

Virginian is a quality dude and reporting this to his fellow RC bud's is totally the right thing to do. Thanks man!!!

thevirginian

Thanks for the laurels, Joe. Marios, I now believe they never had any motors for that price in stock at all. 180 bucks is way below the wholesale price. Nobody is selling anything purosely with a loss. As I said I purchased several other items, as well, but I canceled the whole order after they didn't want give me a rain check.

arobatx

I recall looking at the site, during their black friday sale that afternoon. I did notice when trying to catch some of their remaining 7955 sx's, a note about the sale only being good on 'in-stock' items, and that no back orders at the sale price would be honored. Outside the hours of the black friday sale, the link took you to their standard home page and the verbage was no longer available to thumb through.

I picked up some of the servo arms they had for half price, I never got a call so I assume the ad was legit, and the order has been processed as expected. Did any of you notice the ZDZ 120 for $695 that afternoon? Sheeesh!!! I wonder if that was a computer glitch too? [:-]

arobatx

Turns out I still had a copy of the ad: It does say 'in stock items only, limited quantities'.

droland

Same thing happened to me. I got the call today also.

I have an issue with the computer glitch explaination as I tried to order some other items
and the website told me they were out of stock and could not let me order.
Did the computer glitch only affect this one item's stock level?

I had a second order that I asked them to cancel also.
Have not recieved a paypal refund yet.

Did you pay with paypal?
I know their online stuff says they hold paypal orders for some time before shipping.

BTW, are you the one that posted on the FG forum?
That thread has apparently been locked and protected as I could not view it.

thevirginian

droland,
You basically confirm what I believe happened here and like marios k called it: a bad publicity stunt to attract customers. Stupid question: What is the FG forum? Is it here on RCU?

JoeAirPort

My Feedback: (41)

FG = the giants that fly.com ...get it?

No web site that is payed for advertizing by the accused company wants that company getting bad PR on their forum.

I've seen one admin on another site show his teeth when this is done. [sm=48_48.gif]

JOHNS3D

My Feedback: (5)

just calm down, there ia a lot of companies out there that makes good sales and prices....Just have fun at the field.!!! there is not more relaxing thing than that!!!!

marios k

How is the Virginian going to have fun at the field without an engine?It looks like he is been waiting for a week for nothing ,the brown truck never showed up.

thevirginian

marios k, thanks for your symphaty. You're right about that. We place an order and then wait like little kids on December the 25th. When is this da,,,, brown truck gonna stop. And he doesn't show up for another day[&o]. Or the next. And then somebody calls you with such a foney lie. If that doesn't pi44 you off[:@] what does?

telejojo

I bought 2 of the sv 26 for 104.00 and recieved 4 of them.I must have clicked on 2 and came back to finish my order and it put 4 on it.Oh well I will either keep them or send 2 back.i have always had good service with them but unless they said until soldout they should honor that price.

2walla

My Feedback: (10)

Sorry dude, get over it.. I had a zdz 110 and a zdz 40 in my shopping cart and the prices reverted back to full bore when I hit checkout.. The thread on FG was shut down- but the title was a bit offensive as it outright stated fraud in the title... I am sure this thread will get shut down too as I believe both sites have common ownership...

wind junkie

My Feedback: (1)

If I thought I were the victim of a bait and switch operation I would be pissed. That's why I suggested cancelling the order altogether don't reward them in any fashion for getting you over there on false pretenses. Cancel the order, and if you still want the rest of the stuff you ordered (minus engine) buy from Chief, Central, OMP, or wherever else has virtually the same stuff and tell TBM them why they lost your biz on this occasion.

In this case it seems that the sale was indeed only on in-stock items which still means it's mostly just dashed hopes. Not fun, and of course I've been there too. But I don't let it ruin my whole day.

In the end TBM is trying to pay the bills, and keep the stock flowing. They've not the best customer service around, but they've not the worst either. They've given me good service so far, even if some of the stuff I bought from them didn't turn out exactly as expected.

JOHNS3D

My Feedback: (5)

thats why is important to have more than one plane lol.

gjhinshaw

My Feedback: (303)

Deleted..

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

I'll take the extra two at that price. Let me know. Mine has been really good to me.