A discussion category about RC shops with bad business practices

[rc dump]

I don't see a discussion category here at RCTalk about that topic is it because it's not wanted here?
i am a recent victim of a online purchase from a hobby shop.

 

[CertifiedMike]

I think its not a big topic because most hobby shops are reasonable about returns and making things 'right' when something goes wrong.
There are scammers and scam sites out there for sure tho.

What happened with your purchase?

 

[RustyUs]

I brought my chair and ready to listen.

 

[rc dump]

What happened with your purchase?

the shop claims "in stock" for items and then i place the order with credit card payment then i find out they have no stock and won't reply.
I have started a transaction dispute for a refund with my bank...time will tell.

 

[RustyUs]

the shop claims "in stock" for items and then i place the order with credit card payment then i find out they have no stock and won't reply.
I have started a transaction dispute for a refund with my bank...time will tell.

Which "shop"?

 

[Lucifur10]

What do you mean "won't reply "? Maybe at the time you placed order there was "limited stock" and they ran out? You should have gotten an email concerning this and offering a choice. Seems strange about the "won't reply ".

 

[CertifiedMike]

I agree...
Which shop?
Is this shop part of aliexpress, ebay or is this an independant sale ?
How did you find out they have no parts in stock?
What is the current status of your order?
Are parts on back order or have the been ordered for you...???

I use paypal for buyer protection as much as possible for this exact reason.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

That's a bummer!
I have experienced this with online automotive sellers. They all seem to just be a store front for a larger distributor. I was looking for a pair of shocks and everyone had a quantity of of one or two until I placed the order.

When it comes to LHS's I certainly experienced my fair share of what I would call "being taken advantage of" when I was a novice back in the day.

I was sold mounted tires that wouldn't work with my car. I was sold a receiver box that wouldn't fit my chassis. They always asked if I was sure, but I think the correct response should have been "that will not fit that chassis."

 

[CertifiedMike]

That's a bummer!
I have experienced this with online automotive sellers. They all seem to just be a store front for a larger distributor. I was looking for a pair of shocks and everyone had a quantity of of one or two until I placed the order.

When it comes to LHS's I certainly experienced my fair share of what I would call "being taken advantage of" when I was a novice back in the day.

I was sold mounted tires that wouldn't work with my car. I was sold a receiver box that wouldn't fit my chassis. They always asked if I was sure, but I think the correct response should have been "that will not fit that chassis."

1:1 parts stores are HUGE scams... not always, but a fair number of the parts they sell are exactly the same item sold in differently priced boxes. And they are ALL junk parts.
When there's a problem, the parts store desk jockey tries to make you feel like you're an idiot by talking down to you... as if his computer skills somehow qualify him to be a better mechanic than I am.
Put the puffy chest away Junior. You don't own AutoZone.

I think RC sellers do the same thing, but on a smaller scale. (see what I did there?)

Am I sure it doesn't fit? No, I opened the box but I got confused after that.
I think they are trying to figure out if they are dealing with a young person, noob... who might just need help with the install too. Not always checking to see if they are dealing with a push-over maybe.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

It was during 2021 if I remember correctly, I was piecing together my own little lift for my truck.
I was trying to find a set of Bilstein 6112's for my Ram. That's when I found out a bunch of online stores all call the same warehouse lol

Not pictured after, I changed out the rear sway for a Hellwig one. Huge improvement! My Dad got the alignment dialed and it drove amazing when I was done.

That was a fun project

 

[Ritz413]

Last time I had stock issues was in tracking down my kyosho outlaw truck. Tried to buy it in a couple places all of which said in stock. In reality it was a backorder situation, and paypal rejected my attempts with a popup indicating they don't allow for pre-order or zero stock purchases. I don't like everything about PayPal, but that saved me the headache. Good luck

 

[rc dump]

i won't give the name of the hobby shop for now until i get the outcome of the dispute, but here is some recent customer reviews.

customer 1#
I’ve had a pretty rough experience with communication. I bought some items that were listed as in stock on the website, but it seems like they don’t notify you if they’re out of stock unless you actively check in. It takes weeks, and they don’t even email you about what’s happening next.

customer 2#
I would give 0 star if I could I ordered the RC10 Brian Kinwald front green springs 2 weeks later I got refunded on the same day 3rd October I also ordered cva drive shaft kit for my RC10 40th nearly 4 weeks had passed multiple emails and messages to the shop and nothing no response I then asked over 1 week period for a refund through email and messages.. no response I had to contact my bank to dispute the transaction I just got my refund still no response no email to apologise not a real great place to buy your RC gear.

customer 3#
Terrible company to deal with. Didn’t ship my order, I waited 3 weeks before complaining and got ignored for days. Response eventually was “waiting for warehouse” no reply until I chased again, response again was “waiting for warehouse”
Days went past again with no update. Unfortunately had to threaten a bad review and ask for the order to be cancelled if they couldn’t fulfill it. They just cancelled the order and an automated email stated my order hadn’t yet been refunded. No personal email apologising or explaining when I would receive a refund.
Completely unprofessional company, wouldn’t advise to purchase anything from here.

customer 4#
Less than satisfied, took over a month to get the product. He talked me into another model, as if it was better, but sent a product of less quality to my original order, gutted i put my trust in this company.

customer 5#
Terrible experience – avoid this shop
I’ve been into RC for over 20 years, and this is by far the worst experience I’ve had with an RC retailer.
I placed and paid for an order with express shipping, and 10 days later it still hadn’t shipped. I tried calling multiple times—no one ever answered. I also left several messages in their online chat with no reply.
Completely unresponsive and unprofessional. Very disappointing. I do not recommend this store.

customer 6#
Bought some parts a week ago, shop pay auto filled out all my details and auto clicked postage and put in work address (in another state) and then get another email stating I need to pay $9 for postage when it was already selected as postage, still waiting for items to be sent when claim “online orders will be sent within 2 days” BULLSHIT IT WILL!!! I’d give no stars if I could.

customer 7#
clearly this is all a load of bs - "On-line orders are important to us and in-stock products should be shipped within two business days of receiving the order. If there is reason we cannot ship in this time we will contact you for any change in instruction."

 

[Ritz413]

i won't give the name of the hobby shop for now until i get the outcome of the dispute, but here is some recent customer reviews.

customer 1#
I’ve had a pretty rough experience with communication. I bought some items that were listed as in stock on the website, but it seems like they don’t notify you if they’re out of stock unless you actively check in. It takes weeks, and they don’t even email you about what’s happening next.

customer 2#
I would give 0 star if I could I ordered the RC10 Brian Kinwald front green springs 2 weeks later I got refunded on the same day 3rd October I also ordered cva drive shaft kit for my RC10 40th nearly 4 weeks had passed multiple emails and messages to the shop and nothing no response I then asked over 1 week period for a refund through email and messages.. no response I had to contact my bank to dispute the transaction I just got my refund still no response no email to apologise not a real great place to buy your RC gear.

customer 3#
Terrible company to deal with. Didn’t ship my order, I waited 3 weeks before complaining and got ignored for days. Response eventually was “waiting for warehouse” no reply until I chased again, response again was “waiting for warehouse”
Days went past again with no update. Unfortunately had to threaten a bad review and ask for the order to be cancelled if they couldn’t fulfill it. They just cancelled the order and an automated email stated my order hadn’t yet been refunded. No personal email apologising or explaining when I would receive a refund.
Completely unprofessional company, wouldn’t advise to purchase anything from here.

customer 4#
Less than satisfied, took over a month to get the product. He talked me into another model, as if it was better, but sent a product of less quality to my original order, gutted i put my trust in this company.

customer 5#
Terrible experience – avoid this shop
I’ve been into RC for over 20 years, and this is by far the worst experience I’ve had with an RC retailer.
I placed and paid for an order with express shipping, and 10 days later it still hadn’t shipped. I tried calling multiple times—no one ever answered. I also left several messages in their online chat with no reply.
Completely unresponsive and unprofessional. Very disappointing. I do not recommend this store.

customer 6#
Bought some parts a week ago, shop pay auto filled out all my details and auto clicked postage and put in work address (in another state) and then get another email stating I need to pay $9 for postage when it was already selected as postage, still waiting for items to be sent when claim “online orders will be sent within 2 days” BULLSHIT IT WILL!!! I’d give no stars if I could.

customer 7#
clearly this is all a load of bs - "On-line orders are important to us and in-stock products should be shipped within two business days of receiving the order. If there is reason we cannot ship in this time we will contact you for any change in instruction."

Seems like there is enough warnings to avoid this shop.
Unknown sellers with great prices I always check before I order. Type "shop name scam" into Google.

 

[tudordewolf]

Active Powersports? I've had that exact experience with them - they claimed to have something in stock that was out at the major retailers, turns out they basically take everything as a "preorder" and then wait for it to come in stock again.

More annoying to me is that google will return obvious "scam site" listings alongside the real ones in your searches, and there's no option to flag it as, "this isn't a legitimate retail site"

 

[CertifiedMike]

I recently found a site with Kyosho prices so low I couldn't believe it... so I didn't.
Research shows their address to be the same as GoodCentsSandwiches in SD. Phone number has 3 or 4 extra digits in it...
I messaged them hoping I would hear the address was just a typo...

So far I got the Phil Collins... No reply at all.

I do check reviews and such before ordering from unknown suppliers.

I hope your card company is also familiar with this hobby shop and gives you your money back!

 

[CertifiedMike]

It was during 2021 if I remember correctly, I was piecing together my own little lift for my truck.
I was trying to find a set of Bilstein 6112's for my Ram. That's when I found out a bunch of online stores all call the same warehouse lol

View attachment 268306
View attachment 268307

Not pictured after, I changed out the rear sway for a Hellwig one. Huge improvement! My Dad got the alignment dialed and it drove amazing when I was done.

That was a fun project

Bilstein uses 4wd or the shock warehouse as a distrubutor if I recall correctly. I went thru the same issue with a set for my envoy.
Whole planet sold out of them.

 

[Lucifur10]

Yeah that's shite customer service! Best of luck with that.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Bilstein uses 4wd or the shock warehouse as a distrubutor if I recall correctly. I went thru the same issue with a set for my envoy.
Whole planet sold out of them.

I don't know about the distributor but you're bang on about the experience! I believe I got the last ones in NA at that time. The box looked like they were either returned at some point or the box had exploded so they taped it all up.

 

[Mo Powah]

It sounds like L&L Models here over in the UK.

 

[9x19]

I don't see a discussion category here at RCTalk about that topic is it because it's not wanted here?
i am a recent victim of a online purchase from a hobby shop.

The only issue is we never get both sides, and then some will use it as a revenge tool when they get their feelings hurt over a trade, etc.