To All,
I have had a really bad experience with LRP. Back in January I decided to go brushless and bought the new sphere 2007 ($200.00). When I first ran it at the track (Planet RC) the car would only go when I gave it a push start, but it was getting the signal from my radio because the green light was flashing when I hit the gas. After trying numerous motors and trouble shooting the problem, the conclusion was made (read that Mike Blackstock had this same problem in a big race) that it was the speed controller. I immediately sent it back to AE (first week of Feb).
Finally, we roll into the month of March and no word on speed contoller. I call the Team AE number several times and leave messages with the LRP service department asking for a follow up on the speedo, I sent emails as well and received no return call or message (I do understand they had a week where they moved). I finally get dialed into someone named Brad who says that he will help me out with my problem from here on out. I explained my frustration to him and felt I was being pushed off by the service team. He says "the service team says they sent you an email let me look for it in the outbox". I said that I have not received an email and sure enough he can not find an email to me in their email outbox. He couldn't give me any idea of when the speed controller would be returned as the California does not fix them, they just ship the broken ones to Germany and wait for new ones to come. I said that if they couldn't fix it within a couple of weeks, just send it back and I would be happy to buy a Novak. I had talked to Evan at Stormer Hobbies about the situation and he was happy to issue me a refund. Brad assured me that the next batch of speed controllers were in US Customs and once they reached that point, it usually isn't more then a few days. I agreed to wait on them to come, what is a few more days after waiting two months??
So, I finally get the package in the mail from Team AE this monday. I am excited to start racing again after 3 months off. I open up the package and it is my broken speed contoller returned!! The slip says "asked for spher back so he could, get money back from tower and purchase a novak". They could not even spell Sphere correctly. So here I am on April 7th with my bunk speed controller back after 3 1/2 months after my purchase.
I am in the wrong here to be p**d? It isn't so much the wait, but the lack of effort and response from LRP on this. I spend $200.00 and I am the bad customer?? I have never had problems with LRP products before this, I a lot of other LRP equipment. However, I hope that this story has influence on your purchase of speed controllers that are not made or even serviced in the US for that matter.
Thanks for listening,
Ryan McBee
[email protected]