The reason I’m writing this is I want to warn other modelers not to do any business with Banana Hobby.

I had purchased the Banana Hobby little Tiger Moth. The first time out I busted the landing gear, my fault. Following is a chronological order of the events. All events occurred in 2012:

Aug 2 - Requested a replacement landing gear for the Tiger Moth.
Aug 7 - Banana Hobby said MFG has not sent the replacement landing gear.
Aug 7 - I replied that I guess I have to wait for their MFG gets the sent to Banana Hobby. Mean while my plane sits on the shelf.
Aug 8 – Banana Hobby said to click on the alert button so when the landing gear becomes available I would notified.
Sept 6 – The Banana Hobby said doesn’t have any estimated date when the landing gear will be in stock.
Sept 13 – I was told to check back in 4 – 6 weeks for an availability date.
Oct 9 and 11 – They informed me they found one landing gear set and the customer service said she was holding it at her desk for me.
Oct 16 – Was asked to fill out an order and credit card form. I sent in the form with my credit card information.
Oct 23 – Banana Hobby sent me an e-mail saying the landing gear was sold to me and my credit card account was charged.
Nov 8 – Email send from Banana Hobby telling they can’t process the order because they are out of stock. This smells like rotten fish because I know they had the landing gear because in one of the e-mail a picture was included showing the landing gear.

I replied to that e-mail saying I didn’t understand how they could have the landing gear one minute and then they don’t. Banana Hobby is by far the worst company to deal with in the modeling field and I strongly recommend no one purchase any product from the company. I know that it’s the last time I do.

I have been reading on this forum where others have had problems with Banana Hobby. The sad thing is, their management doesn’t care because they figure there are other suckers out that will purchase their shoddy products.

I hope this helps to keep others from dealing with this shoddy company.

Did they actually bill your credit card?

Have they refunded the money? If not, dispute the charges on your credit card.

Merchants fear getting shut off from the credit card companies more than they do irate customers. Too many chargebacks, and they may be in trouble with the cc companies.

I have heard a LOT of people go through this with that company. They have horrible reviews. I have heard that once they get your money, they are done with you.

If you can't make some landing gear you should consider another hobby. Banana hobby whiners should post here: http://www.rcgroups.com/banana-hobby-560/

You read about the problems others have had but decided to order anyway? Sounds like you went into this deal with both eyes open. Like Gohmer said, make a new one and move on. How difficult can this be?

They sent an e-mail telling me they applied a credit to me account, but only after I sent an e-mail asking where the landing was.

Gomer you have missed the point here. Banana Hobby is selling a model plane where they don't have parts available. Now I don't about you but when I purchase a model I like to know if parts will be available so I can replace a broken part. The other thing is, I have been building FROM scratch since I started build ing models when I was 8 years old. So I am fully aware on how to build/create broken parts; done this many times. However, that's not the point here.

Also I don't think your labeling peopel as winners when all they are doing is making a comment about a product or company.

Originally Posted by retiredjb

Gomer you have missed the point here. Banana Hobby is selling a model plane where they don't have parts available. Now I don't about you but when I purchase a model I like to know if parts will be available so I can replace a broken part.

I won't say you're a whiner because you seem genuinely surprised that they don't have the parts. But I can assure you that Banaha Hobby, Nitro Planes, and almost everybody on ebay who sells these cheap models do not keep many (if any) spare parts. When they do, the parts are relatively expensive or simply out of stock.

Even Tower Hobbies sells cheap TechOne planes and no spare parts that I could find. I even went to the TechOne website (as Tower suggests for support) and couldn't find replacement parts for the few models I looked up.

Someone can easily say that companies don't make spare parts for cheap models because they are disposable anyway. You just buy another one.
But that's not the case with many of the "longstanding" companies.

Here are the parts you can get for the $40 Electrifly Mini Slinger (which include the plastic hatch and even the wing tips)
http://secure.hobbyzone.com/catalog/...listType=parts

And you can get a slew of parts for almost every GWS plane made ($25 Slowstick - no problem, $35 Corsair - no problem) from Tower Hobbies.

My advice to anyone wanting to buy any model is check the spare parts listing. Are there any? What about cost + shipping? If the parts have to come from China, the shipping will likely double the cost of the part and it may take months to get. FMS / Airfield parts shipped from China cost almost as much as the whole kit from BH or NP.

I like to know if parts will be available before I purchase a model too. That's why I check first.

You’re absolutely correct in what you’re saying. However, as a customer I would expect a company that’s going to sell models to also carry spare parts or at least send you to a site where they carry the parts. For this reason I will deal only with the large named hobby places like Horizon and in most cases Tower Hobbies.

There are modelers out there that are purchasing a model with hard earned money and don’t appreciate being gouged by saying the model is cheap so buy another one. I don’t appreciate nor like companies that work that way and will not purchase a model from them.

My main goal was to let people know that Banana Hobby sells products were they don't carry nor intend to carry the replacement parts. They should make that statement up front so a buyer can make the the decision whether to purchase or not. My money is hard earned.

Your points are well taken.

i've had no problems at all ordering from Banana Hobby. but like retiredjb mentioned.......most replacement parts are no where to be found

i was given a list from a fello flyer of the grade A companies down to the failing grade companies as far as customer service. as i recall banana hobby was pretty low. thats why i ended up buying a parkzone t-28. best choice i have made so far. leson learned. i guess you should have steered clear after reading reviews. sorry.

For this reason I will deal only with the large named hobby places like Horizon and in most cases Tower Hobbies.

That's my suggestion for anything other than disposable models. However, I should point out that there are some GREAT companies like Twisted Hobbies and 3DHS out there that don't have the presense of the two you mentioned. Don't write off all the the small shops based on the reputaion of a few.

My main goal was to let people know that Banana Hobby sells products were they don't carry nor intend to carry the replacement parts. They should make that statement up front so a buyer can make the the decision whether to purchase or not. My money is hard earned.

You are correct that some of these places sell models with no intention of stocking parts. One reason is probably that their profit is coming directly from the markup on the model itself (and shipping in the case of NP and BH) so when the cheap models are discontinued or the mfg drops the price they aren't left with a lot of stock. NP used to sell FMS planes as "Airfield" but during the summer they switched from FMS to another company. The planes are still branded Airfield but in no way parts compatible. For this kind of business model to work there must be no pretense of customer satisfaction haha.

On the other hand, the companies that make customer satisfaction a priority manage profit in such a way that people don't feel gouged. Some of that profit is used to provide spare parts even to the point that they still have them years after a model is dicontinued. No need to say anything about the customer service that comes with it.

All of this fast turnover is a disservice to the newcomer who might need parts on a more frequent basis. It would be helpful to them to know that certain models come "as-is" and are, in effect, disposable. But that would cut sales and in a non-customer-centric business model, that's bad for business.

Originally Posted by retiredjb

Gomer you have missed the point here. Banana Hobby is selling a model plane where they don't have parts available. Now I don't about you but when I purchase a model I like to know if parts will be available so I can replace a broken part. The other thing is, I have been building FROM scratch since I started build ing models when I was 8 years old. So I am fully aware on how to build/create broken parts; done this many times. However, that's not the point here.

Also I don't think your labeling peopel as winners when all they are doing is making a comment about a product or company.

No, you are seriously misguided. Gohmer's position is that nobody should know that Banana Hobby might not be the place you want to do business with. Any complaints should be placed where they cannot be seen. It is right that companies should have unlimited license to mislead their customers and serve them badly and it is wrong for anyone to attempt to warn fellow modelers when that happens (unless it is done discretely where nobody will read it). That is called "whining."

What could be clearer? Isn't that a reasonable position?

The preceding was a publication of the National Irony Board, which denies any actual opinions which the post may appear to contain.

The bottom line to this is that many people, newbies mostly, get lured in by the fire sale prices that BH advertises. In comparison to products from Horizon Hobby or Tower Hobbies, the prices are indeed alluring. Before I buy anything new, I do research; unfortunately most newbies don't do research. All they see is the 800mm warbird that sells for $65.00 and is $83.00 shipped to your door. Basically, I don't get lured in by price, I tend to favor customer service and product quality. I recently wanted satisfied my curiosity of Banana Hobby and bought one of those cheapie warbirds to see for myself. While I wouldn't characterise it strictly as junk, I also wouldn't put it in the same quality category as a Parkzone, Hobbyzone or Flyzone product. Also, I knew going in that spare parts would be nil. So guys, follow the old adage of "Caveat Emptor" and just suck it up when things go bad; or, you could just stay away despite the price.

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price has been forgotten.