Ok, y’all, here goes!
I bought myself one of those “Air Power Combo” kits the other day from my local(and favorite!) Hobby Shop. After getting done with the B-1(I did it in a Southeast Asia scheme, just to be different!), when I went to attack the B-2. Problem is, the kit has two bottom fuselage sections, instead of a top and a bottom! Anyone have a spare top half for this kit? Otherwise, I’m going to either A: simply not do the B-2 kit. Or B: Pay Revell-Monogram a shipping and handling fee for THEIR MISTAKE!!
Also, I don’t know if they would give me the right part, as the B-2’s fuselage top is labeled as part 2, which, since there are three kits in the Air Power Combo, is used three times!
Help a Southron out?!
I don’t know about now days but about 5 years ago I had to call R/M about missing part on their 1/32 F-14 and a misshapen deck on their 1/426 Arizona. Both times they sent me the replacement part free of charge. I don’t remember paying any shipping on them either.
So I’d go ahead and give them a call. Unless you think you might be able to modify the bottom to the top[:(]
I had to get parts from them because they failed to put any clear parts in a Spitfire kit I got for my brother. I can’t stand that they made me pay for their mistake, and my dad was outraged. It wasn’t expensive, but it sure was irritating.
This past week, I found that a testors kit I bought had badly molded wing pieces with deep sink marks, and when I ordered a replacement part, it was free and sent via express mail. I had it two days after ordering it! That’s service!
At least Revell-Monogram will still replace parts for you (even at the expense of shipping). Try getting ahold of AMT/Ertl if you have a missing/broken piece.[:(!]
Ray
Yep, I hate paying shipping too, but it is far better than AMT/Ertl’s idea of customer service. You can’t get parts from them at all. You are supposed to take it back to the store of purchase and axchange the whole kit. Fine, every store I have purchased from are out of buisness now. What a joke.
Lee
I know, not only does R/M charge you now, but they also limit you to 5 replacement part requests per year. I found that out when I couldn’t make their internet parts order form work and I wrote them instead. I got my part free, but the slip of paper that came with it said any further part orders would cost and I couldn’t request replacement parts more than five times in a year.
Its great to see a company have such confidence in their product, but the problem isn’t the product its what goes on at qality control and if you’ve got someone working your quality control that sees it as “just a job” well, anything can get through.
Yeah, AMT’s customer service is a joke and a half, found that out a few years back when they forgot to pack the clear parts sprue in my kit. I called them and first they tried to tell me that the kit was out of production and had been for five years, they had no satisfactory answer when I pointed out that the copyright notation on the box and instruction sheet was for the year I was calling them in and the kit showed up as a new release in their catalog that year. Then they gave me the runaround about going to point of purchase (which had gone out of business) when I told them that, they said “just cut the bar code off the box and sent it to us, we’ll provide you with a replacement kit” “What are my kit choices for replacement?” I asked “Oh, we’ll just send you something of equal value”
No thanks.
Some of the best customer service I’ve found comes from Airfix. They get stuff to you quick, even overseas. Very sincerely appologize if a kit is out of production and they cant help. I had one kit that had parts missing (1/72 Handley Page Hampden) and they couldn’t give me replacements as it was out of production at the time. That note came to me in a big package along with their 1/72 Vickers Wellington as compensation for not being able to help me with the Hampden. I don’t know if they still go to such a length as that, but it was a fair trade off with no runaround or increasingly surley “Customer Service” reps when I push for better answers
In defence of the cost factor R/M put in. I know of countless modelers that take advantage of a manufacturer’s offer of replacement parts, and ask for extra parts from a kit under the guise of “replacements” when they want them for conversions and there was nothing wrong with the original kit parts.
Its another form of theft and shoplifting and it costs us all.
Agree that my past experience with R/M has always been positive. They’ve even sent me replacement parts when I admitted I had damaged them myself. Cracked canopies, broken landing gear struts, even a intrument panel I had melted while drying the paint with a hair dryer.
As Upnorth says, don’t abuse this service because these companies don’t have to do this.
Couldn’t the manufacturers offer some of the more popular parts for separate sale though? I’m thinking, in particular, of the tires from the Dodge Sidewinder kit. At a contest a few weeks ago I saw several cars with those tires on them and none of them were the Sidewinder. I know I would gladly pay for quite a few sets of those tires if they offered them. And I’m sure there are many others that would do the same. Obviously they couldn’t offer every part but I’m sure they could make a decent profit selling engines, tire sets, things like that. They wouldn’t even have to package them. Just offer them through the website. They’re already charging for shipping replacement parts. Or am I just out to lunch??
Ray
I need to follow along with every one elses thoughts that it’s crazy for R/M to charge shipping on parts that are not in the kit to start with. also what happens to the modeller that buys up a few kits to stash and when the need to build comes up the kit has a problem. I refer to amt’s ford torino. I bought one to build a replica of my uncles old racer and after opening the box I found the roof crushed flat, no external damage to the box , but roof was flat as a pancake. got mad put it in the closet then when I tried to get a replacement was told it was out of production. what crap that thing is still around and has been rerelased with a " new " product sticker on it.
Not that this comment will allay your feelings much, but these concerns over quality are exactly why I only buy Tamiya, Hasegawa, or other reputable molders whenever possible, no matter the cost, unless the subject is unavailable from them. Case in point the Battlestar Galactica kits, and so forth. It just sucks that quality control exists only on the bookshelfs, and not on the factory floor at Revell-Monogram. Maybe they should move production to Japan!