Terrible attitude in your local model shop?
 

Just a quick question, what is your local model shop like?

I only ask because after a really long break from modelling, there were always good and bad of course, but pre internet there were lots of little aladdins cave type model shops, usually with an old man running it with boxes and boxes of what can only be described as useless C**p under the counter, as well as a selection of models etc.

Now all that seems to exist (round here at least) is clean fresh looking shops, filled mostly with toys, air rifles (I do shoot too but I don't want to go to a model shop to buy shooting equipment) plastic junk and a few models. Oh and rude staff.

Allow me to elaborate.

Trying to get back in to things cheaply I'm building a car up out of bits basically, intention of running it a few times, see if I want to get back in to the hobby or if it is a passing phase, if I want to get back in to it I'll buy a proper model probably a losi and go from there. So I have a collection of mardave/schumacher/losi parts and bolt them up and I have a car, only thing I'm lacking is a pair of fairly long turnbuckles for the steering, as the original ones from the front suspension are no longer long enough due to a chassis change.

1st stop Bridlington. Usual reception is only describable as apathy, but he's ok, no turnbuckles in stock for any car, so I buy some piano wire to make a pair of temp ones up.

Yesterday 2nd stop. "A small model shop in scarborough". Walk in greeted by a smile! Hi have you got any steering turnbuckles at all? What car is it for? It doesn't really matter said I, it's for a hybrid so anything really........here comes the beauty. "Oh that means I have to look through all the boxes though to find you some" at this point she became openly hostile and couldn't be bothered to do the most basic of jobs. I'm not asking a lot for goodness sake, I'm trying to buy something here, all I want is a bit of professionalism. Eventually her attitude becomes offensive and I realise she doesn't have the faintest idea what she's looking for so say don't worry I'll go to the other model shop.

Stop 3. Walk in better this time, much bigger shop although most of it is filled with toys and games, find almost what would do the job on display! They have rod in steel or brass and m3 slip on ends that I could solder/braize or weld on. Thinking if worse case happens I could buy some of that I'll go and ask if they have turnbuckles go to counter, young girl and older man, man serving so ask girl, she I must say was brilliant, friendly and helpful, says she doesn't know and to ask the chap, he becomes free and proceeds to deride me, comes out with comments like well I can't find them unless you know what car they are for. I tell him there is no car it is made of bits, he basically shrugs his shoulders and refuses to help????? I'm trying to buy something here ffs!

So what do I do now? The answer I go on to modelsports website or even better ebay, I look up turnbuckles on ebay and guess what there is dozens, from about 99p. I can see from the pictures ones about the right size (it isn't even delicate engineering this I can play with about half an inch adjustment.

So end result local model shop loses out this time on a small sale to the internet. When I come to buy another car they will lose out on that too, if any friends or family want anything similar they will be advised to keep away from these two shops, and eventually they will probably go bump citing the internet as the reason they can't survive.

Simple fact of life, people will pay inflated prices to buy from a person, provided that person is helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. They won't pay through the nose to be insulted, sneered at and generally receive rude unnaceptable treatment. My business wouldn't survive if I was rude, it infuriates me that people think they can get away with it. I hope the owners of said shops read this post actually. And for the record I wouldn't excuse it but could understand if I was a 15 year old spotty chav in a tracksuit, but I'm late twenties and was smartly dressed and polite.

I would hazard a guess that the shop with the woman who was so helpful, maybe has a sister one in York as well?
If so I have dealt with her myself. Do you sell nitro fuel? It is for a .12 Kyosho engine. Bearing in mind, my last car was a Tamiya Cheetah, when they were current first time round, and I had just been donated an Alpha 3 new built but with no instructions.
The last nitro engine I dealt with, came with a propellor and spring start in 1977.
Answer = It's behind those boxes in the back, and I have no idea which you need.
Marvellous.
The only bright side to this is I do make the trek to modelsport in Otley sometimes, and can't really fault them. Handed them a clutch bell for my Zircon, new original they do stock, at nearly £40, off in the back he disappears, comes back with a matching Savage, £13, does the job perfectly, now that will make me go back, and I do order over the internet from them. A little customer service goes a long way.
Incidentally, where are you based, as I bet I have any length of turnbuckle you need in my shed:thumbsup:

This is an extremely interesting thread and currently one very close to my heart at the moment seeing as after 16 years im getting back into electric racing.
My local shop in Falkirk ive known for years is helpful up to a point , very polite but not really into holding every item i require.
I popped into Maplins in the retail park and they didnt have any decent solder with flux or suitable servo type sticky tape.
Now the interesting one a certain model shop in Edinburgh (not Marionville) were most unhelpful when i returned an item that wasnt suitable .
In fact i was moved soo much i wrote a letter stating my disapproval and 4 weeks later ive still had no reply .
I log onto the internet and find everything i require at my fingertips, people say you should support your local hobby shops but if they dont supply what you require no wonder online ordering is the way to go.
Please feel free to defend any of the above shops as this is merely a personal opinion . The Falkirk model shop was the best for customer service though .

Well, there is no harm in some decent customer service, but if you also go in fore armed with a little more knowledge also, like length etc, then that will go a long way. Just like if you went into a car auto-factors and asked for a spark plug, dunno which one I want, just want one for an engine, they will tell you to go away. So you got to be prepared to do a little work too, there are so many different ones out there these days, the guy could be rummaging through for hours.

But Still, there is nothing wrong with good customer service.

re: buying fuel, what would be better, the young woman either being honest and telling you that she don't actually know which one is best, or her selling you something that could possibly be wrong..... or there is a third option, she could of looked in her books or you looked on the web to see the recomendations.

Some good comments, re the comment about I should have known what dimensions I needed, I went in with a temporary turnbuckle made up out of a piece of piano wire, and a couple of examples of suitable ends etc. Even said to her if you have any m3 threaded rod that will fit my old ends. As the customer I bent over backwards but it still wasn't enough.

The model shop in question there does have a sister shop. But to be honest she was no worse than the other larger model shop owner.

I have always found modelsport brilliant, I won't say they are the cheapest, but again you don't mind paying a little more if they can sort you a problem out and do it nicely, bear in mind with running around to different shops fuel and parking these turnbuckles probably owe me £15 before even getting my hands on them!

Timbo the dimensions I need are: 2" 3/4 long point to point (taking plastic ends in to account) pretty much any diameter they are only steering swivels on an electric classic buggy, m3 would be perfect, the really thin stuff (m1.5??) from servo linkages is probably too thin likewise some nitro trucks have really thick ones which are a bit overkill.

But if you do have anything then I can pop over I'm only at Driffield, and would happily bung you a few quid.

Oliver

My local model shop is ace. And one of the men who works in there looks like andy pipkic. :p But thre service is defently good.

A

As to the fuel, I did take the engine in question in, and am since armed with vast knowledge from many great forums such as this, but seeing as that was the only member of staff, and the owner, and they sell the model of engine in question fitted to built models, surely someone going in there to pay £100s for the model would expect at least they might know what fuel it took.
After all we all started somewhere.
And if we can sort a suitable day out my stuff is near Selby, so not a long ride out, I am sure in the various bundles I have bought from retiring racers there will be something, I have 1/64 right through to 1/5 and all inbetween:thumbsup:
I reckon tmaxx ones would be about right 115mm or so.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...axxbuckles.jpg

Most Model shops are only ever realy good if they have a club that they run,and dont get mixed up with model and hobby shops,most small shops wont stock what you need as they cant afford or even know what the racer will need,
I know the owner of my shop and my mate does some repairs for him,if were not in a hurry we will get him to order stuff,but if we are in a hurry we will use the net,
mark

Not trying to hammer you - but I think the point that has been missing in all of this is that you were going into businesses that rely on actual regular customers that buy things on a regular basis to survive.

1-You didn't buy your car from them.
2-You hadn't bought any of your other cobbled together bits and pieces from them.
3-You were looking to spend an infantesimal amount of money.
4-They were likely never to see you again, as they'd never seen you before.
5-You were looking for something that you had very little idea exactly what it was or how long they were.
6-You were wanting them to spend their time locating an odd item in which you had no idea what a proper stock number for it would be.

And thus, you were wanting to send them on a wild goose chase to look for an item of very little value in which you were only willing to spend a small amount of funds to acquire that they in all likelyhood might not have had in the first place.
And you wanted them to jump through hoops just because you were snazzily dressed?

Sorry, but the business world - literally any business - doesn't operate and/or can't survive pandering to customers under those circumstances.

In the future it would be my advice to: purchase a proper kit from a shop and they'll in most likelyhood have your current and future interests in mind relative to helping you acquire pieces and parts (instead of having a hybrid in which they have no gain from its past or future), know EXACTLY what you're looking for including length and/or stock number of the part (and not some vague desription of some miscellaneous part on some mythical hybrid piece), realize that their time is worth money and is in most cases not worth the time if they spend it attempting to locate an obscure inexpensive bit or piece (because it's not the small bits that keep them in business, but the more expensive ones that have return business tied to them).

;)

Rocketrob, i disagree. The points about needing the regular customers spending big bucks to survive is true and all well and good but just because he is a new customer looking for a small part thats not exactly common doesnt mean the staff have to treat him like that, yes he may not be important to there business but it still gives them no right to treat him like that.

and like he said, he not only won't be recommending the shop to his friends/relatives, he will be advising them 'to keep away' - which is fair in my opinion. That will surely lose the shop a few potential 'larger spenders'

Plus, I believe he was contemplating buying a kit after building his car anyway. I doubt he will purchase that from the shop in question

Rob I'm sorry mate but your attitude is exactly that of the shop. And it is wrong. No matter how small the amount of money (and I'm sorry but I was happy to pay up to a tenner, which for a part that will cost them a couple of quid at most isn't bad mark up) they should want to sell you equipment, if they had a business brain they would have tried to help, got chatting about the model, and then they could even have tried to sell me last seasons model, or a budget race car to save faffing with this one, it is just common decency and more importantly salesmanship. As for I hadn't bought the model from there thats rubbish, do you seriously think modelsport ask every customer if they ordered their model from them and if not refuse to serve them? Of course not, money is money. And if your a small business which is quiet 7 hours out of 8 then I would think most people would rather talk to a customer, try to help them, and try to make some money instead of standing there bored.

And I did have the measurement I actually had a temporary made up one with me even.

Anyway not arguing about it, I shan't be back which is a shame.

Bloody hell mate, do you live in Royston Vasey by any chance? If so and I'm passing and want to buy some Polo's from the newsagents (who will have never seen me before, will never see me again and are selling me something of small value), are they likely to say "this is a local shop for local people, we'll have none of your kind here".

I think you are totally missing the point. Business' exist to make a profit out of customers yes BUT, if this chap was the only person at the counter - and didn't have a queue of people behind him waving £20's in the air wanting stuff "off the shelf" - what is so hard about having a rummage for a bit of non-standard stuff. In that situation ANY money they can take is better than none, its not a waste of time if they are just sat on their arses looking out of the window anyway is it?

Let me start by saying the intent of what I wrote was not an attempt to hurt anyone's feelings or start up such a big rowe.
I only said what I did sort of "playing devils' advocate and hopefully explain why oliver didn't get quite the reception he though he'd get.

I hear what you're saying, but at the same time I've heard these sorts of rants on discussion boards before. And thus I have a feeling that his sentiments were overblown, possibly or not, but I was just weighing in own 2-cents worth.

Well, honestly, since he'd already been involved in the hobby previously and was now supposedly "re-testing the waters to gauge his own potential continued interest - and thus should have had some semblance of understand whether he would or he woulnd't it's my feelings that he chose this route to get off on the cheap.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, yet at the same time I doubt there's any expectation that he'll be plunging back in anytime soon.

As I alluded to before, it wrote this not intending on offending anyone, no I don't live in Royston Vasey, and I wasn't trying to pick a fight or have one picked with me.

My only point was and is that hobby shops, as a general rule, struggle to get by - and if they aren't selling items of consequence, with a greater margin of profit, they oftentimes end up closing their doors since the profit margin on little bits is just that (little scraps that don't pay the rent let alone pay the wages of someone to man the counter).

I guess it takes me back to the day long ago when I first forayed into this hobby and attempted to do something similar to Oliver and I remember the rather cool reception I received at the local hobby shop on my initial visit. Those cool feelings changed little by little over time as I kept returning, but never really changed until I watzed in and laid my money on the counter for a new kit months later. Suddenly I was the hobby shop guy's pal.
So I asked him one day what changed, and he said, "before you were nickel and dimeing me to death. Now you're a customer of mine. Before you were a customer of someone else because you didn't buy your car here, and all you were looking for was to get my time and expertise for little or nothing." Going on to explain that it's sort of like buying a real car at a dealership or a used car lot. If you go for service; driving up in your car you got somewhere else you get one level of service, whereas if you bought the car at that dealership you get the royal treatment.

That's all I'm saying. I'm not justifying rude behavior or anything, but jsut trying to say that there's two ways of looking at things. ;)

Oliver, it's not so much my own attitude as it is that of the business world - if you're not paying me, you're of little use so move on.
And I'm trying to say I understand it to a degree, yet at the same time trying to give you some rationale so you understand it as well.
The problem with your theory on "salesmanship" is sort of messed up as well. People that are actually buying really need no sales help, they've made up their mind and are buying so it's just a matter of what to buy - whereas people that are shopping are the biggest time-wasters for salesment there are because those people really aren't buying and no amount of salesmanship can make a sale. So they spend an inoridinate amount of time, in 90% of cases, for nothing.
Sorry, but that's just what sales statistics reveal.

And honestly, though modelsport may not remember every customer that walks in the door - they damn sure remember every one of them that have bought a kit recently. And, as I alluded to earlier, they know the ones that are going to nickel and dime them to death - wanting great service, advice, etc., yet spending little money. And money is what keeps the doors open.

I hear what you're saying, but it just does't make much sense - at least not in the greater scheme of things. And I'm not justifying rude treatment, if that's actually what happened - and considering that you suggested that you received similar treatment in three different stores it makes me think that either you're exaggerating what actually happened, or maybe you were rude or demanded special treatment. I'm not sure.

Not trying to start an argument either. All I was trying to do was offer up another way of seeing things.

Hmm I know what you mean, and don't worry didn't take any offence (it's an internet forum at the end of the day).

However I think your a bit forgiving of bad service, you can't turn away nickel and dime business for the very reason you have proven, small business often turns in to big business, I restore classic cars for a living, about 1% of my enquiries are "big business" I.E. Someone wanting to buy a car or a resto, I give a lot of free advice away, and quite often persuade customers not to spend money with me that wouldn't get them the result they want, don't get me wrong if someone insists on not taking my advice and blowing money with me I'm very happy to take it, but I would sooner help someone get a good deal, and recommend me to colleagues etc. Than try to have their pants down once and once only.

Likewise I sell lots of parts, some of them are in terms of profit a total waste of time, it costs me more in time and effort to take a phone call, wait for a cheque, bank it, and post out a 50p part. But I do because a month down the road that chap might want to spend a few thousand with me, yes chances are he won't, but he might, and I don't have a crystal ball to tell which will and which won't, so I treat everyone the same. That's the nature of sales.

I am trying to do this on the cheap, make no bones about that, but with the best will in the world if I find myself having fun off my so far about £60 outlay a lot of which will transfer to a new model anyway then I will be buying a nice shiny new car, that's 20-30 quid profit on the kit plus any extras that can be sold. Also no matter what these guys say there is more profit on small parts than large parts, mainly due to internet competition.

Anyway thats me done!

I have never bought a kit from modelsport, but have bought quite a few spares, they remember who I am have my details stored, post next day, if I don't go in person, I generally deal over the telephone rather than internet, and when I needed a one way bearing and got the wrong one sent, i went back over, the salesman drove up to Mtroniks, sorted out the difference, and as they didnt have the right one, Mtroniks fixed me up free of charge with a used one to tide me by, till the other one came in stock. Now that is the sort of service that means when I am going t splash out on an E-Revo, £25 difference won't tempt me to a shop i ahve never dealt with before.
so small sales and a happy customer often lead to bigger things.One thing for sure, everyone I know who has used my LHS even for £100s gets the same treatment, if you don't want to sit in a shop full of models because you hev no interest, sell it and buy a shop that sells something else.
At least the Modelsport guys have a genuine interest in the hobby, and in fact, they often state they like dealing with people who build their own and regard that as part of the hobby, rather than off the shelf ready to run, then bring it back for every smallest job. They know that means money coming in, but still they love to see my odd ball models when I go over, reminds them of glory days in the past.

you sound like one off them of the apprentiece lol:thumbsup:

I am very sympathetic towards this. And I think you have every right to complain, regardless of what you are after, or whether you are a regular, shops should be courteous and as helpful as possible. If they aren't, they don't deserve any custom. As said above, if a customer comes in for something small and gets great service, chances are next time they want something big they will go back. If they get crap service, I personally would never return. The business world simply doesn't operate by shooting down small customers.

I've had one shop trying to sell me airplane fuel for a car once, and another recommending crap just to clear their stock. In another shop I was just ignored, and told to wait for 10 minutes whilst the guy chatted to his friend, just small talk as well. Fortunately that shop has gone bankrupt, not a nice thing to say when it's someones livelihood I know, but you can't run businesses like that. Another of the modelshops closed, but was later re-opened under different ownership and it better now.

All I can say is I'm damn glad MK Racing exists for car stuff. I would pay a premium if he demanded one, but funnily enough he's the cheapest around also. If only I could find a RC aircraft shop locally as well with same good service/advice....

mk racing is the best service in the uk:thumbsup:fast efficent and helpfull if you buy a bag of screws or a new kit same great service:thumbsup:

Have to disagree Microtech is the best service in the uk :p

DMS and MK are both also very very good.

A

You see, here's what I think. If that shop had been helpful and courteous to the customer, not only would he have bought the small item from them that day, he would have returned in the future and bought more from them. He would also have recommended them to his mates who, in turn, would come in and spend their money at the store.
A few years ago I worked in a moderately busy photographic store. Every customer through that door was treated exactly the same whether they wanted a roll of film or a complete Hasselblad kit. The staff were all keen photographers and understanding to those in need of help or advise. That shop went from a so-so performing turnover to one of the busiest stores in the country and it was purely down to quality of service.
And DMS are the best by the way.:thumbsup:

I must put in a plug for MB Models in leeds
 

I must put in a plug for MB Models in leeds

http://www.rccarshop.co.uk/catalog/i...p?cPath=32_337

I went in to buy a B44 kit but I also did what our original thread starter did "do you have and pillers/spacers with an internal 3mm thread about 22mm long"

Looking back I should have browsed the net and and asked on the forums to find a part number for a likley part, BUT.. Even on a busy Saturday morning the guy serving me started rumaging thro boxs and asking the other staff members for ideas, finaly he comes up with one and I reply do you have 2 of those please, he laughed and went and found me 2 more.

Then to cap it all off they were out of stock of 0.05" allen drivers so he says borrow mine and drop it back when you have finished the kit off.

Now thats what I call service, I apperciate I was spending a couple of hundred quid but I would recomend them to anyone.

At our shop I was giving away unneeded titanium tie-rods from my personal pit box for free to my customers to make sure they could finish their race program. We also have rental cars to use so people can try rc car racing before they commit to spending a bunch of money on a full setup. Not all hobby shops are bad!

my local shop is great. They stock a fair bit and will order anything in that you want and go out of their way to source items for people no matter what the value. He even stocks a near complete set of tamiya 501x spares for the club.

I think it helps that they are themselves heavily interested in various types of models. One is heavily involved in my local club and the other runs a model train club from his house.

what annoys me is when people ask how much is it to me when buying trackside items,tyres etc.i will do all i can to help people at meetings and discount where possible,but surely someone who spends over a grand on a set up from another shop cant expect discount on a set of tyres at 16 quid,can they?i dont expect total loyalty just a bit of fair play.if the internet is so great why did josh smaxx get his grp tyres from me last weekend?delivered by me personally[200 mile round trip].see you northern boys soon.ta jeremy.

Most small shops are really good my local model shop is really good I ordered a few losi parts from them they dont stock off road parts on tc parts they where on the phone straight away to horrizon and ordered them for me i also ordered a sensor lead that was out of stock at horrizon. I was expsecting it to be a week or so i wasnt in a rush for the parts just keep stock of spares. Two days later i got a phone call hi your items are now in stock ready to pick up :o:o:o shocked but they said the sensor wire wasnt in stock then the following week the sesor lead turned up. All i can say is awsome service. Also bought a transmitter from there and one of the pots came loose a few months after i bought it i took it in and they tightened it up super job top service proberly one fo the best model shops in the uk they have some relaly nice planes haging on there roof to top job hobby corner (wrexham)

A

I have found a lot of the same issues with model shops over the years. I find that even if I have the correct manufacturer and part number the worst shops still do not understand. I remember going to one particular shop which mainly does flying models but do sell some boats and cars asking for a motor coupling for a MFA Spear boat with a 10cc Irvine marine engine and the response was that that engine was very big for a boat!!! They have not seen my others then as one has a 15cc glow engine and the other runs a 23cc petrol engine. It really does make a difference if the person behind the counter is a modeller and is enthusiastic about it and not one of the latest ready to run bregade. As soon as I get the comment "what is it for" I know that I may not get anywhere. I like going into different shops asking for items that they would never even think of using for models and the look that they give is so funny. The last one I remember was when I purchased some Shoe Goo! I have to say that I have had fantastic service from MK, DMS, Microtech, DC Racing and Modelsport.

Me 2. Sometimes you meet people there who know nothing about R/C.
At my other shop it's alot different because some of the best drivers in my
hometown work there.

Like "WHAT IS A BRUSHLESS SYSTEM, I HAVE NO CLUE."
oR "What is a 501x, is it a T4?"

Just plain dumb things like that.

tell me about it mate, been there done that but for a plane, a full working transmitter, recievers, servos etc, and the assistant Couldnt be A**ed either and was also rude.

looks like too many grumpy people have taken over these small rc businesses. and to go to a previous point. Every customer, is a valuable customer, none should be treated liek that.

how many shops do you own

I think it depends which side of the counter you are on!

I have stood both sides - and neither is perfect!

RocketRob makes some good points - I lost count of the number of times a car arrived, from eBay (other auction sites are available!) or somewhere, and a customer needed a bit. A hour or so later it was sourced and often fitted FOC in an effort to win a long standing customer. Rarely worked! More often than not, as Rob puts it, I was 'nickle and dimed' to death by said customers.

Worse than that - when busy the people who kept the shop open by buying all their gear from me had to wait for service. Not good - they would have a case to complain as well, perhaps they may have thought we should have more staff as we were snowed under. However those hour long 'dimes' made no real profit to pay for more staff!

Adding to this is the incredibly low margins for shops. Competition is good for consumers - drives down prices. Bad for shops - drives down proft!

I advise you support a local shop wherever you can - buy everything you can from them and build a relationship. Even if you move away they will remember you and still go out of their way for you.

Take pity on the shopkeeper - he/she works hard for little profit. Trust me, although you spend lots on a kit, he/she takes little from it except to hope that they have a long standing customer.

A friend of mine, a successful business man, says 'In this country profit is a dirty word' - he is right. People begrudge a shop keeper when they focus on profit. But they have to eat! Without a focus on profit, they close - and we all start to loose our local shops.

From a customers' point of view - you have the right to be met with politeness and helpfulness everytime you visit. We always tried to do this. People enjoyed coming to our shop - it was a social meeting place for racers and hobbyists alike.

Just remember - support your favoured shop with all your purchases - it is a lot easier to smile as a shopkeeper when you are making a living rather than working for free!

DMS are great :thumbsup: rang them today to order an X6, very nice on the phone, order went through perfectly and very efficiently :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: from me.

I happen to agree with Rob, before he was required to defend his comments.
Theres always 2 sides to everything, and you have to consider their side as much as your own, im sure if you told them what you wanted and they knew where to find them you'd be in and out in a flash, and a happy customer. But when you consider how they operate, its not ideal for what you were asking.

Shops tend to put all Losi bits in a Losi bin, Associated bits in an associated bin, and so on, and they've got tons of collections of bits, usually grouped together for a specific kit.
So if you go onto a website, pop to the turnbuckles section or whatever, and up comes a list usually with pictures or basic details so you can pick what you want. You want part ABC-12345 they'll go straight off and get you that part from the ABC bin and stick it in the post for you.
But if you walked into the exact same shop and described the exact same thing, a turnbuckle of Xmm they'd have to go through dozens of boxes of spare parts, they dont have a turnbuckle box, they have an AE, Losi, Schumacher etc box though, so when a customer comes in asking for a specific part, they can find it easy enough.

Its just the situation you were in, and the organisation of it not being set up with clueless (i dont mean that in a mean way) customers in mind, so they can bring out a box of similar items and have dig, they do it by kit, so when a customer with a B4 goes in asking for X, Y & Z they go to 1 box and pull them all out, rather than go from arms, to C-hubs to 'others' etc. Tell them what you want, and they'll get it, but if your not sure what your looking for with something that vague i guess its not too suprising thats how they responded. Not saying its right, but not much of a suprise.


In saying that, there is a local shop to me who are great if you get the right lads, but get the owner and sometimes he's particularly grumpy and you feel like he'd rather have an empty shop than one full of people asking for something.

Just wanted to add a thank you, got a rare TC from Kyosho the other day, needed a spur gear, only place that listed the kit was Alan's models in Whitley Bay.
Rang the shop, explained what I wanted, he emailed me an exploded view, and found the right gear in a bag on the rack, posted straight out.
Can't fault the service or friendliness, I always check his site first for bits I need now.
:thumbsup:

bad customer service: with racers buying from ebay or the internet for less. these shop must sell as much stock as they can to bashers rather than racers that is where they make there money. They don't have time for racers as they always need the latest and greatest which cause them to lose money.

for the racer the internet is your friend

I have to agree with you there,the internet is very useful.I race 1/8th nitro buggy,and with it being a Kyosho,very few shops have a stock of the parts that you usually require.However there is a great ebay shop that does carry quite a few parts that have helped me out more times than I care to remember,Greetwell Models.Their turnround is terrific,usually within 2 days,and their prices are extremely competative,a lot less than if you had to buy from Kyosho themselves.Highly recommended.:thumbsup:

I went in to my Local shop for some shock oil- I would have taken 45, 50 , 55 or possibly 60.BUT they did not have 1 bottle of any grade "There's been a bit of a run on it lately" I was told. Another (possibly the Last) wasted trip into town!

Hello,this post is cool.I came back to rc car after stoped for 15 years.
In my memories back in the days every thing was much more expensive, at this time i quited 'cause i had broke the tranny on my rc10, the price at this time was 750 francs what would be more than 100€ so 80 pounds...
So when i got back into rc cars i was at first astonished how the prices got down.I bought on Ebay a B4 and every thing i needed else, then i discover there's a shop nearby where i live.After a few days i raced my car i've broke a part due to my very poor driver skills.

So i go to the shop, enter, the guy is on the phone and stay on it for like...a long time...but i'm a nice guy so i say nothing he barrelly says hello and ask what i need.Of course he doesn't have the part so he order it...
It was 3 months ago.During this time i ordered tons of stuff in the Us, Uk and China most of the time i got my things in 10 days with super online services and when i call the shops they're always friendly and give good advices.

I go back to that shop sometimes to buy tires or whatever he has in stock that i need.But i have to admit that i'm not mother theresa so why would i buy a new servo 90 pounds when i can buy it online for 48 pounds...
So my point here is to say that if the shops want to survive they really should rise a lot their customer services like help tuning the car, give kick ass advices and at least try to be friendly etc...It's there and only there that they have a chance that some customers find it is worth the price.Sad but true to me.
Cheers.