please do not name the shops as i do not want to be held responsible for any loss of business or law infringements

i bought a brand new Hitec eclipse pro car Transmitter set from i will say an un-named model shop around 16 miles from where i live. From day 1 when the transmitter was turned on then the receiver... the servos would not come alive straight away it took numerous on & off switchs with the power switch, eventually, but not always it would all then come alive until the engine was started, when put on the ground to run, the car would go off with it's own idea to where it wanted to go, luckily then it died down, the first time this happened enough for me to make a dive for it and save the car...i then took it back to where i bought it, complained about this problem with a new set, saying it should not be doing this, asked for a refund only to be told, i couldn't have one "Hitec demand we send any faulty products back to them" they said, they also made a lot of assumtions on how my car was setup and did i do this or that trying to blame other things for the problem. After i explained all had been setup right, i took them up on the offer to send the kit back to Hitec, it was back in 3 days funnily enough, and the RF module had been replaced, i felt quite confident they had sorted the problem only to see my car smashing into a kerb outside my house, luckily nothing was damaged, i then decided to phone the model shop, said i wasn't happy and took the set back, they still tried to make out as if this was my fault, talking as if they didn't believe i had tried it out, i got a refund, they said this was back ordered for 6 weeks as it was so popular, and asked me what i would do in the mean time without a radio set, i replied that the shop down the road had one in stock, this changed the tone of the shop owners voice almost straight away with a, snotty comment "oh...thats the way you are going to go then"... i feel no loyalty for this guy treating me this way when 3 generations of my family have shopped at his shop, anyway i got the same radio set and have been using it ever since with no problems whatsoever...lol...even the failsafe works on this one

The guy sounds like a bit of a nob, especially when three generations of your family have used the shop, however....if that's Hi-Tec's policy, then that's Hi-Tec's policy, there's not a lot he can do about that, also, he has to ask you all those very annoying questions, 'did you try reversing the servos?', and other stupid stuff like that, because there are a lot of retards out there who think they have the expertise to set the things up correctly when they don't. Take it from me, I am an IT consultant, and every-damn-body is an expert. It drives me NUTS. People pay me loadsa money to ignore my advice, it's insane.

Anyway, bad experiences, yes...in England (Surrey) there's a very large reputable hobby shop, I don't mind naming them, they're called 'Mick Charles Models'. The people in there are a nightmare, they look like they couldn't be more bored to help you and throw their eyes to the sky if you don't ask a mastermind type question. They seem to believe that if they don't know you from the racetrack, you are scum and know nothing. I stopped going there after giving them thousands of dollars (pounds), and getting nothing but crap in return.

On the other hand, in Greece, my LHS (Fanatix Models - www.fanatix.gr) is the greatest, the guys are fantastic, they let people go behind the shop and look at the parts that are not on display, UNSUPERVISED, they give me credit whenever I ask for it (suppose I have spent quite a bit of money there though), plus they run the local racetrack, so they are always close by for advice, which they give freely without patronising (they also only charge $20 for a full days practise at a world class track). On the other side of Athens is another LHS which is more like the English one, but I don't give a toss, they're Mugen dealers and can take a running jump, I only buy fuel there and only when I can't be bothered to go to the good one which is sadly, much further away.

I think basically...they thought i had buggered it up somehow saying "oh we've never had one of these back" the general attitude was bad towards me, however it's not when i had a wad of money to spend in the store, thanks for the reply foxy i am curious to find out if anybody else has had any bad experiences with shops either through advice or in general, my father doesn't shop there and has not for a while now as they don't stock anything he can use for what racing he does as it's quite specialised in our country, but he was enquiring about a set of gears for a servo, asking about the price ect. when he relised this wasn't economical as the whole servo was a few pounds more he decided not to go that way, when he left the shop, one of the sales people must have ordered the gears, when he visited the shop again, they informed him they had ordered the gears and had them in stock, wanting him to pay for them, he replied that he was simply finding out if this was economical to replace, they still insisted he pay for them as they said they could not send them back ,(don't know why) when he looked at the gears they were not even the right type, they got a bit strange with him too, i think i know what the problem is, i can't really afford to go throwing thousands of pounds on the car i have, and many people do this, when i am in the shop it seems like i can tell by the guys attitude who has plenty of money and who doesn't by the way the guy speaks to them, the shop i use now give me much more advice, they don't seem to get all over the people who they know have more money than sense, and they give you un-biased advice which i think is more important, they don't really have to try and sell anything to me because i have a choice, they also only specialise in race cars, all types except 1/5th scale, the other shop is a general model shop.

At a hobby shopin vancouver every time i have ordered the owner says he will have it out on a certain day. i call the day after he says it will leave and he says he hasnt packed it up but he will get it out leter that day. when it doesent show up i call and he says it still there . i end up getting my stuff a week orso later than i should have