First, boater newb here...not an RC newb, just a boater newb. I have over a dozen surface vehicles, from off-road & on-road racers, to bashers, to crawlers. I'm actually looking to get my first boat, and have been researching options. I have come to the realization that, for a first boat, V's are probably the best. Currently considering the ProBoat Veles 29 & Sonicwave 36, but have also (lightly) considered the Traxxas Spartan. I am also considering the TFL Pursuit...but, I don't know anything about TFL, or the quality of their products. I'm hoping to get some suggestions/recommendations, about the models I've mentioned, as well as other currently-available FE boats. Suggestions/recommendations?

On another subject...the PayPal "Buyer Protection Guarantee"...here are my thoughts, based on personal experiences. It's quite long (sorry about that), but incredibly informative. If you read the entirety of it, you will understand why PayPal's "guarantee" is a joke.

As for PayPal's "Buyer Protection Guarantee", to be completely honest, it's a JOKE. In purchasing some RC stuff (including a vehicle) over the past few months, I've run into a few scams. In the case of two of them, I had no problem...PayPal issued an immediate refund (technically, a partial refund on one, as I had ordered two items, and the seller only shipped one. Of course, what helped in these two was that both purchases were done through eBay. As for two other non-eBay purchases, getting PayPal to honor their (so-called) "guarantee" has proven to be a nightmare. Take note that both of these involved shipments from Asia.

The first one was actually the second ordered (between the two 'nightmares'). The item was shipped from Malaysia, and was supposed to be delivered to the SF Bay Area. The air part of the shipment arrived at LAX, where is sat for several days (yea, I know, 'Customs'). However, upon departing LAX, instead of being transported by truck to the final destination depot, it ended up on a plane that went to Japan...where it sat for the next two weeks. That's when I filed an "inquiry" ( the first of two steps in PayPal's guarantee process). No reply was made by the shipper until the ninth day (they had 10 days to respond). That gave them another 10 days to "locate the package, and reply again to PayPal". On the ninth day of that, they responded back to PayPal, saying that the package had been located, and it would be redirected. Two weeks later, not having received the package, and discovering (via the tracking number) that the package was still sitting in Japan, I requested the 'inquiry' be escalated to a 'claim'. This started the whole 10-day process over again...and, as with the previous time, the shipper didn't respond until the ninth day, which started another 10-day period. Thankfully, they didn't respond in time, and I finally received my refund. Unfortunately, it took, from filing the 'inquiry', to receiving the refund, almost 2 months.

In the case of the second...the bigger nightmare of the two...what was ordered was a $700 (which I had paid a few hundred dollars less) Losi Super Baja Rey...what was received was some piece-of-garbage $18 toy RC. The shipper knowingly shipped something other than what was ordered. Talk about a scam. Before I even opened the package, I knew something was wrong, as the package was slightly larger than the palm of my hand. I immediately contacted PayPal, and started the same process described in the paragraph above. I was very clear, and very specific, in telling PayPal what I wanted. I told them that I either wanted the correct item to be shipped, or a full refund. I also told them I had no problem shipping the item back, as long as the shipper paid the return shipping cost. As with the previous matter, they waited until the ninth day to reply (this appears to be a standard practice by Asian companies scamming Americans), and when they did respond, do you think they offered to ship the correct item? Do you think they offered to issue a refund? NO!!! All they offered was a $20 "partial refund". Talk about INSULTING. Obviously, I declined. Several days later, they upped the offer...to $30, which was still ridiculous, thus I, again, declined. Several days later, they upped the partial refund to $40. Instead of responding via email, I called PayPal, and explained, as best I could, that this whole situation was, obviously, a scam. PayPal wouldn't budge on issuing a refund. They said they'd have to wait on any decision until after the seller/shipper responded back. When they finally responded again, they said they would issue a full refund, but only if I returned the item...except that they were requiring me to pay the shipping. If you know anything about shipping between China & the US, you know that shipping is super cheap when going from there, to here...however, it's SUPER expensive when shipping from here to there (this explains why Aisians travel here with extra empty suitcases, fill them up with new athletic shoes, pack the shoes (without boxes) in the suitcases, and then pay the extra charge to the airline for exceeding the number of suitcases - it's cheaper than shipping them back to China). To ship this cheap toy back, the cheapest USPS method would have cost me close to $100. PayPal said they wouldn't issue any refund unless I shipped it back, and provided them a tracking number (plus, they wouldn't issue the refund until the return package had been delivered). PayPal refused to do anything about it...they KNEW it was a scam, as the same seller/shipper had pulled this on others. I only found out about this because one PayPal supervisor made the mistake of letting it slip that the seller was under investigation by PayPal, which would, eventually, allow PayPal to block tat seller from utilizing PayPal's services. Unfortunately, until that happened, the seller was free to continue scamming customers, and doing it through PayPal. In short, PayPal was actually ENABLING the seller to scam people. In the end, I filed directly through my bank, and I had a "temporary" credit applied to my account within 24 hours. From the date I filed through my bank, to the day that "temporary" credit became permanent (ie. the case being closed in my favor), took only a month...after I had already spent 3 months fighting against PayPal, and their worthless "Buyer Guarantee".

Thanks panther but some names would help a lot more .. This is exactly why I no longer deal with Paypal.. If I can meetup in person I pass...
I setup My retrieval boat when I 1st started rc boating I also have used the fishing pole with tennis ball and hook put some can foam in tennis ball...used 100 lb braid line

For the companies, Medan Electronics (medanelectronic.com, the first problem), and Merkulas (the second problem).

funny how 1st has 300,000 post with no waring but 2nd on 3rd most recent I see scam warning.....

When when I ordered, back in November, neither had any "scam warnings". honestly, it doesn't surprise me in the least that's either, or both, would now have scam warnings. As I said, the second one has since had multiple reports against them. Thankfully, I was able to get my money back, although it did take much, much longer than expected.