Global Hobby buys Airtronics/Sanwa?
#1

The owner of Hobbytown here in Corona was telling me about this the other day...
I guess it's true. Kyosho buying Orion is cool...both are great companies.
Global buying or being the sole distributor of Airtronics SUCKS. Those guys can't even run their own stores (Hobby People) right...horrible customer service (no special orders whatsoever at any time), lousy prices...they specialize in the low-end, cheeseball Taiwan stuff.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5804504/tm.htm
Hopefully it works out ok, but I have a bad feeling about this one




I guess it's true. Kyosho buying Orion is cool...both are great companies.
Global buying or being the sole distributor of Airtronics SUCKS. Those guys can't even run their own stores (Hobby People) right...horrible customer service (no special orders whatsoever at any time), lousy prices...they specialize in the low-end, cheeseball Taiwan stuff.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_5804504/tm.htm
Hopefully it works out ok, but I have a bad feeling about this one
#2

The correct term is "exclusive distributor" just like Futaba is distributed by Great Planes.

#3
Tech Adept

Actually, Global Hobby/Hobbypeople customer service is brilliant.
They have sent me a brand new $50 carburetor for my engine for free when I admitted to stripping a screw on it.
They have sent me in depth support of another engine I bought from them when there were some phantom problems.
I've also been sent two battery packs when another one that I bought vented.
I've also been sent shock oil.
On the other hand, I have only bad things to say about Tower customer service. I am still in possession of a $150 ESC/motor combo that was dead on arrival.
They have sent me a brand new $50 carburetor for my engine for free when I admitted to stripping a screw on it.
They have sent me in depth support of another engine I bought from them when there were some phantom problems.
I've also been sent two battery packs when another one that I bought vented.
I've also been sent shock oil.
On the other hand, I have only bad things to say about Tower customer service. I am still in possession of a $150 ESC/motor combo that was dead on arrival.
#4

Originally Posted by Yub, yub, cmdr!
Actually, Global Hobby/Hobbypeople customer service is brilliant.
They have sent me a brand new $50 carburetor for my engine for free when I admitted to stripping a screw on it.
They have sent me a brand new $50 carburetor for my engine for free when I admitted to stripping a screw on it.



I went to a Hobby People race where the whole Tamiya crew came out and put on a little trade show display and gave away parts for the raffle...very cool. The messed-up thing was that while Tamiya had all sorts of stuff on display out in the parking lot, you couldn't buy one of the items from Hobby People. The word was "We're not set up for special orders, it's too complicated."
Have a car and bend the front hinge pin...you're good...bend the rear one and they don't stock it...tough luck. Seriously, go get it somewhere else. They'll get it if the part is "in our system", but too bad if it's not.
The people that ran the races were cool...they were fun, but their system sucks. The funny thing is that they'll actually admit it sometimes.
#5
Tech Adept

Haha, yeah, it was for one of their exclusively distributed engines.