And when the automakers have an issue, they either warranty and replace the defective parts, or do a recallif there is a safety risk....

Either way you have to schedule the work to be done which can sometimes take months due to having to wait for updated parts to be in stock to perform the repair...

oh, and before any one asked, I did read about the spektrum here and I did read about the "FIX" with the horizon reps giving caps out at the Nats. We also have some sponsored guys with the r1 and the futaba and the ko and the m8 that have been running it for a while. And I was not the first at the track to try it. I also ran a friend ko system before I purchased mine.

Here is the beef. If you buy something, new technology or not, you expect it to work out of the box. If it does not, you expect your money back or you expect a replacement. The problem I have with horizon is that they obviously know there is a problem at least with QC if not the technology. That is fine, sell the product. But if a customer gets a "bad" one, why is it that I am not able to 1. get a refund or 2. get a replacement unit in a timely manner. My letter from horizon state : back order" and "no estimated date or availablility"

so you guy would be happy sending $159 to me and I will send you an empty box. And at some time in the future I will send you something to fill that empty box?

nope, when the problem showed it head, I was promptly offer to lemon the car and they would either trade me a car on the lot or I could custom build a new one. and if I wanted to keep mine, they offered me a loaner until it was drivable. And I picked the loaner. Unfortunately, they only let me drive the 530 and 7series, since the m3 is in high demand, those were ntoe available. but remember a 530 or 7 series is acutally a step up and they did offer 1. a refund, 2. a replacement asap, 3. substitute until mine was out of the shop.

If they cannot 'fix' the unit and none are available for replacement then they should provide you a refund, even if it is in the form of credit...

I thnk that what they fear is having to refund anyone who makes a claim of a problem even if the units are not defective, as with many radio or service related issues it's difficult or sometimes impossible to replicate the situation when the failure ocurred.

It's not right that you had a legitimate issue and are left waiting....unfortunately there are others out there that are looking for new and creative ways to cheat the system and companies need to protect themselves.

As for the backorder, service orders should obviously be shipped before any units are shipped for retail....top priority should be given to customers who have already paid their money instead of sending out new units...:confused:

i think ultimately that is my point. they did send me a letter to confirm that both my transmitter module and transciever were bad. they said they were able to repair the transmitter module, but not the transciever.

I could just buy another transciever, but at this point I have a bad taste in my mouth about the situation. And it will take a lot to cure that. And horizon does not seam to want to cure that. Also the warranty for the unit will not be extended. I mean if it take them 2 months to replace my transciever, my warrant is still 1 year from the date of the order.

The service behind the sale is more important then the sale to me. I pick product that I know companies will back. In my example, I have a 2002 M3 built in 1/2002 and only has 20k of milage. of which 3-4k is on the now new engine. What BMW did to put customers first, the car now has 100k warranty. based on the history of owners, that extends past 90% of the people that buy new cars and how long they keep it.

Our local hobby shop(rchobbiesjonesboro.com)got in like 4 complete systems and 8 extra tranceivers for a PK3 and could only get about 200 feet of range out of any combination when he called horizon they said it must just need to be reprogrammed and gave him the run-around,so he boxed them all up and sent them back.But I haven't had had a single problem with mine for the M8.Knock on wood!:lol:

yeah, i fyou have not opened it or have not mounted it in a car, then they will return your $$$. The problem is that mine did not have the bind problem, so unless you mount it in the car and run it on the track, you would not have know there was a problem.

m8
 

I bought a new specktrum from the first batch, havent tried it yet. Hopefully everything is gonna be fine. I also picked up a used receiver and have a question. What is the difference in the receivers, one has the antenna wire through the top of the case and one has it coming from the side like other receivers...??

if I remember the instruction, you can actually open the case and move the exit of the wire from top to side.

You can open the case and move the wire - that is allowed in the instructions and shouldn't void the warranty.

You know, it IS amazing what we'll accept and from whom.

This isn't akin to new electronic features on a BMW. . . this would be akin to BMW releasing a car that ran on Canola - it's not some new bell and whistle, it's a full-on new for RC transmission technology.

I have faculty members who purchase brand new equipment and then whine and complain that I can't fix it - almost exactly the same type of thing - or that we don't have access points for it (11a) - or whatever.

We are "early adopters" and as such, we're taking a risk. Should we get good service? Yep. In all my calls to Horizon/Spektrum, I've gotten great service - very nice reps, very understanding, no problems. My stuff (1 M8 and 2 receivers) are there now and I'm timing how long it takes. I'd LIKE to be able to race tomorrow. . . :D (yes, I do have backup)

But I don't have high expectations. This isn't Airtronics where they have 5000000 little blue receivers on a shelf and can just pick a new one and send it out. One of the drawbacks to being an early adopter is the limited supply problem. . .that's a fact of life.

{{sigh}}

And to say that Derek hasn't been around the block. . . :lol: oh, that's funny. You think he hasn't seen his share of lemons? of questionable products?

Boy is THAT the thing that kills your credibility - and I'm (ME) the one who'se skeptical of the magazines.

boomer, your analogy is way off, spread spectrum technology has been around a long time. I have worked with it for the last 25 year. we use spread spectrum for telemetry sin the early 90s. So the analogy should be "if bmw put out an electric car" and yes they have one and yes they are running it and yes there are people using it for the last 2 year. They have had their difficulties and that is why YES, they are not for sale.

My comment about being around the block has to do with credit card processing and what consumer rights are. If you will read "your" states laws governing consumer right you will see that what horizon is doing in my instance is not right and against the laws that govern consumer rights in the state of texas.

As fas as "new" technologies and working through them I understand. I work in an industry that is riddled with "new" technologies and I work along side the worse abusers or new technology and believe me, I do get on their case all the time. But at the end of the day, they are customer oriented and customer service first. Generally I have been offered a refund of the purchase price of the product and then to help them work through their issues and then offer a "new and improved" version when it realeases at a dramatic discount.

Maybe the problems that I see in new technology is usually business driven and since my company only works with vendors that we have a good relationship with, we get some of the best customer service in the industry. But now we are talking about a hobby and I am just a single customer that only purchase $159 part. I have no leverage with them. And since they are one of the larges hobby distribution point, a single hobby shop has little leverage wtih them. I guess its the old saying "money talks and BS walks" with horizon

one thing that seems to go un-noticed here is the actual number of defects (or whatever you wish to call them) have been found?

horizon/spektrum have shipped how many? 3-5-7 or more thousand?

i wonder just what the ratio of failure is? for as many as i would expect to be in peoples hands and with the very few complaints here - huummm

could a few be making a bigger deal out of this?

before you blast me - YES i understand being upset and customer support deal - but that issue imho should be different than saying ALL the spektrum stuff doesn't work - shouldn't have been released - on and on.

i have to believe there are MANY more folks using the system and are experiencing NO problem than are experiencing a problem.

theisgroup

How much time did you spend at the BMW dealer getting your M3 fixed?

Lets see..... $68k and problably A LOT of hours and downtime on your car, yet you think that is acceptable. Did you ask for your money back? What did they say?

$159, and you might have to wait a couple of weeks, or a month for an item that doesn't make or break your R/C car racing, and you whine like a stuck pig.

OMG! Get over it.

Mike

i am not saying the technology does not work. I am not saying spektrum does not work. what I am saying is that mine did not work. and they are not doing very much to build confidence in the product by putting me in a limbo state until some time.

You are right there are a lot of people with it working. But remember a 1% of failure with only a hand full of thousands is not really a good statistic. If we go back to cars. I think toyota sold 250,000+ camry last year. A 1% failure rate is 2500. Now how would you like to be in that 1% and all toyota said was give it to us and we will get it back to you sometime. And by the way keep making those car payments. And oh yeah, if your warranty runs out by the time we fix it, that is they way life goes.

I have been offered no compensations for their defect. You go to a store, you buy a TV, you take it home and you expect to watch it. even if it were a flat screen and you mounted it on the wall, if at that point it did not work, you get your money back or you get a replacement. I don't have either at this point

Yes I spent a lot of time there. But I was offer several option and I got to pick what I wanted to do. And even that I was offer a substitute until mine was fixed. I track my car, and they offer to let me take what ever loaner I had to the track and not to worry about it.

horizon said if the receiver was mounted in a car, then they will not take it back for a refund or credit.

so mike, you willing to send me $159 and I will send you an empty box and in a couple or so weeks, I will send you $159 worth of something? Oh and by the way, it might be a little longer