Chinese hulls, motors, and hardware

[bustitup]

So tenshock won't sell to you?

I think mini cat has the prices WAYYY too high for what his costs are.

[6S HYDRO]

me too- cool product but far too overpriced, thats why i dont have one- its been sittin on the shelf of the local hs for over 2 years now

[egneg]

But from my experience with one Chinese distributor (hobby city) the shipping was fantastic. Fast as mess and the items were packed in the memory foam stuff and well sealed. Granted these were electronics not boat hulls, not all distributors have bad shipping.

I ordered a Turnigy 120 amp marine esc on 6/2/09 from hobby city and I am still waiting for it to be sent.

[ray schrauwen]

I ordered a Turnigy 120 amp marine esc on 6/2/09 from hobby city and I am still waiting for it to be sent.

Not only that, they took it off their menu. As well as other Turnigy ESC's.

I bought a pair of 180's on Ebay Ver.2 .... Need the program card now too...

[Steven Vaccaro]

But from my experience with one Chinese distributor (hobby city) the shipping was fantastic. Fast as mess and the items were packed in the memory foam stuff and well sealed. Granted these were electronics not boat hulls, not all distributors have bad shipping.

They are not a distributor. They are a retailer. Their stuff should be delivered perfect.

Ask me about 100 motor mounts that had wrong screws(not a big deal but took 4 hours out of my life repacking them) or water jackets designed by me and made overseas and shipped with the wrong o-ring grove thickness, or rudders that should have had pickups and somehow ended up without them. I have countless other stories that ended up as a loss on my end.

[j.m.]

Ouch. And my b. But that's why we love you Steevie!

Egneg, you probably chose the least expensive shipping option. I got my stuff in three days, but paid for it too.

Do you think it would be possible for you to get a few different models of the etti hulls?

[egneg]

Egneg, you probably chose the least expensive shipping option. I got my stuff in three days, but paid for it too.

I paid for the upgraded shipping but they have been out of stock for a very long time. I think I will cancel my order and get one off ebay. It will cost a bit more but at least I will get it in a reasonable amount of time.

[ray schrauwen]

You can get the esc + programmer Ver.2 for about 115 delivered. Wish I did that, I still need the programmer, Dough!

[ghostofpf1]

I paid for the upgraded shipping but they have been out of stock for a very long time. I think I will cancel my order and get one off ebay. It will cost a bit more but at least I will get it in a reasonable amount of time.

As much as I like HobbyKing I'd cancel if I were you and go elsewhere.
Tip ...don't ever order back ordered or out of stock items

Steve

[j.m.]

^ +1 for that. Sorry to hear about the slow shipping.

Would anybody here be interested in one of the tenshock monos?

Or an etti mono?

They're both very similar; euro style hulls.

[egneg]

As much as I like HobbyKing I'd cancel if I were you and go elsewhere.
Tip ...don't ever order back ordered or out of stock items

Steve

I have sent them an email asking them to cancel the order and to refund my paypal account.

[bustitup]

As much as I like HobbyKing I'd cancel if I were you and go elsewhere.
Tip ...don't ever order back ordered or out of stock items

Steve

yup thats the biggest no no on HC

also the only other thing i dont like is that it taked almost a week for paypal order to just process

[Rumdog]

I bought an esc from them that I needed asap. Payed for the most expensive shipping and crossed my fingers. I had it at my house in Michigan in 5 days! shipping was $20.00 but it was only $55.00 for a 200amp 8s esc which worked great! As far as Sailr's products go, I think they are top notch performers and have excellent quality. I've owned 2 micro hydros and they are super fun and reliable boats!

[sailr]

I am really disappointed by the attitude in this thread. I have to support what Steve says. We do absorb a lot of loss by dealing with imports. We lost over $60,000 from one Chinese company that sent us totally worthless crap on the second shipment and then would not take it back (aircraft motors). There is no legal recourse in China. We take our chances. It was bad enough that we had to shut down our aircraft motor business. We own two other companies in addition to Mini Cat Racing USA.

Remember guys, it's not just the cost of the item. It's also the cost of shipping which is very expensive from mainland china, not like the HK subsidized shipping for one small item. Shipping insurance is useless, a waste of money. They will figure out a way not to pay so we go 'bare', accepting damage and loss as a risk. Second, we have to sign a contract to buy a minimum of product from Tenshock each year in order to have the North American exclusive for their products. That minimum is in the tens of thousands of dollars which we must borrow and pay interest on. There is the cost of advertising. There is the cost to travel to China at least once a year to visit our factories and renew our good relationships with the owners. Without this, you can get in trouble real quick dealing with Chinese companies. (I'm talking about Chinese mainland companies, not Hong Kong companies which generally are pretty honest. Unfortunately, the best products are coming out of the mainland. The products you are buying from HC are made on the mainland, not in Hong Kong.) There is the cost of our warehouse and utilities and maybe, just maybe, a paycheck for us if we are lucky.

We are the importer. We sell to distributors at a large discount and to hobby shops at a slightly lower discount. When we don't sell to you direct, we are getting a much lesser price for our products.

So please, don't bad mouth our pricing. The prices from Tenshock are very high. Much higher than other boats of far lesser quality. But we elected to sell quality and not toys. You are more than welcome to purchase elsewhere and you won't hurt my feelings but please don't trash talk about something you know nothing about.

Steve and I try to run very upstanding and honest businesses and give you the best possible price while making enough to stay in business and give you friendly customer service and advice.

Jim
Suncoast Hobby Imports

[sailr]

Do you KNOW what our costs are? I thought not. So why make such a comment? For your elucidation, our costs from Tenshock are quite high, thus the price of the products. Simple. Did you bother to look at how much we lowered the prices of our boats recently? No, our costs didn't go down but business everywhere is really down because of the economy. We decided to reduce the prices to help you out.

We sell a LOT of product outside the U.S. The prices people have to pay in Europe, Australia, etc. are way above what you in the U.S. have to pay. They are happy to pay our prices and the high cost of shipping. Just like the cost of gasoline, we Americans just don't know how good we have it here yet some people still want cheaper cheaper cheaper. It's not that I don't understand wanting a good deal. I do too! But there is a point at which all of us hobby vendors in the U.S. will go out of business. Sad. I make it a habit to visit my local hobby shops and pay the going price. I want them to be there tomorrow. It would stagger you if you knew how many hobby shops have gone out of business in the last year. Yes, it's mostly the economy but a good share of the blame can be put on people buying direct from Hobby City, etc.

So tenshock won't sell to you?

I think mini cat has the prices WAYYY too high for what his costs are.