A couple of years ago I requested a couple of five inch turrets for Revell’s ancient Baltimore Class CA as several in the kit were basically plastic blobs. I mailed the defective pieces to Revell as evidence and was informed that no replacement pieces were available due to a faulty mold. Well–the mold managed to produce most of the pieces correctly for the kit I had—why couldn’t they pick out several correct pieces for me?
After waiting until the middle of October, and still no parts, I wrote a third letter to Revell and sent it off-- asking what had happened ot the bag of parts they had promised.
Two days later, a box arrived, with the bag of missing parts! The postmark showed that they mailed it the same day I sent my last (flaming) letter!
So. I finally got them, at least!
Gee lets see how mine comes out I bought a revell/monogram 1/48 F-18C hornetwhen i got home i opened the box to find that the main canopy wasnt fully injected[:O] the hole back of it is missing so i took a picture of it because iam not paying 3 bucks for something ive already paid for and wasnt my fault, so i write down the info in the instructions part # mame of the part and inserted the picture in the envalope with the info, that was only week and half ago so i hope it dosent take no 4 month to get the part. I guess that’s y i pay more for the better kits, havent had any problems with the other name brand kits (yet).
It IS sad the lengths we have to go to to get things we’ve already paid for, be it model parts or cell phone service (Sprint is the devil and I have the pictures to prove it!)
That said, look on the bright side - at least Revell is still in business! I bought a Williams Bros. Lockheed Electra at my local hobby shop recently, took it home and discovered that ALL of the clear parts were missing. No problem, I’ll just write the manufacturer … except for the fact that Williams Bros. went out of business almost a year ago. As I am not much of a scratch building or vacuum forming guru, my only choice was to buy the identical kit on Ebay, in effect paying $45 for a $15 kit. And I am going to build that kit, as soon as my skills get up to the level where I feel I can do it justice.
hello,
I had some missing parts from a second hand kit, and I wrote a mail to the revell company. I got no reply, but after 4 weeks I received a package with the missing parts. It was all for free, so in that way I surely can’t complain…
regards
I had to replace some parts for the Revell Queen Mary 2 model scale 1:400 earlier this year.
I photo copied the relevant part on the instructions and sent a covering letter by registered mail to Revell.
To make the proceedure easier you should quote the reference number on the box.
The parts arrived on time and were very well packed.
Delivery should taake no more than three weeks.
Maybe I have been lucky.
If you think that is bad, try some of the other places…Dragon took SIX months to replace some bits…on a kit I was supposed to review . LOL. I don’t think it’s publishable.
Heller is likely better in this respect. I wrote them an email that I destroyed some parts in my ship kit. Two weeks later a postman knocked on my door and expected me to take delivery of an express package from Heller. I had not additional costs. Okay, I am living in Europe and cannot comment how such a situation had turned out if I were living in America (overseas shipping is not that cheap I assume). Regards, Katzzennahrung PS: I once destroyed some parts in a Revell kit of the “Junkers”. I wrote them an email (Revell Germany) and asked for some replacement parts. However, they wanted me first to give them the serial number of the kit. I have never replied to them since I lost interest in up-bulding the “Junkers” because I like more to build ship kits. However, I am still baffled why on earth they wanted the serial number of the kit. Heller did not ask me of any serial number.
I’ve had similar problems (missing parts) I never had troubles with getting the replacements tho.[:O] Revell didn’t charge me for the missing props for by 1/48 B-17. I normally deal with Squadron so, when something turns up “missing” in a kit, I contact them first. 1 kit I had ordered was warped beyond all help. I tried the manufacturer first (MRC) and nothing was done. squadron replaced the whole kit "free"so, I have a parts kit which, I’ve been scalping parts off for other projects.
Williams Borthers went out of business because one of the founding brothers died and the other brother was ill. They sold everything to a company in Texas that is supposed to be starting production again by the end of the year. You could probably write them for the part.
Bill
I haven’t dealt with Heller, but I have dealt with Airfix, which is the parent company. I have contacted them a few times for parts. When it was a missing or broken part, they always replaced it free and shipping was on them. One time they sent the wrong part, but they sent the right one when I told them what happened and told me to keep the other parts.
There was one time I got three Airfix 1/24 Hurricanes on Ebay that all had missing parts. I wrote them and explained what I was trying to do and they charged me a nominal fee to replace the parts. I think it was something like 5 pounds, which just about covered shipping.
Back when Marco Polo was importing Hasegawa kits, I was able to get some replacement parts from them with no hassle. Since Dragon USA is the importer now, I have not even had responses to my requests for parts.
I’ve had to contact various manufacturers because I buy a number of kits on Ebay and they are sometimes missing parts. Revell-Monogram (US) is very good. Airfix is excellent. Hasegawa used to be great, but not any more. Tamiya is responsive, but expensive. Dragon has said they would get parts to me and I never heard from them again.
Trumpeter is also lousy. I’ve been waiting over a year for replacements for a 1/32 P-38 which came brand new with broken booms. I’ve contacted their US distributor a few times and I always get the answer that they will send the parts soon.
Anyway, that’s been my experience.
Bill
I placed an order via Revell’s online service for ONE part from ONE kit. This was the first time I’ve done this in OVER A YEAR!!. This was two days ago. This morning I get a strongly worded email from a person with the initials A.P. stating:
“We at Revell will no longer honor replacement parts requests from you, any of your family members, or friends (with NAMES given for each of these categories, mind you). You are now banned for life from using our service. If you find a part is missing, defective, or damaged, we suggest you purchase a new kit. If, upon opening the kit, you find a defective or missing part, return it to the store where you purchased it. DO NOT bother us with this again!!!”
AGAIN??? When was the last time I contacted them to have an “again” so soon? Evidently a year and a half is too soon. Well, like I said, NAMES were given and I am now banned, BANNED, for LIFE. And I don’t even know who any of these people she named are…no clue whatsoever! Anyhow, I sent a strongly worded reply to this effect. Who knows what will come of that.
Regardless, I’ve contacted most of the members in all three of my modeling clubs about this, and it was decided unanimously to boycott Revell, and that each member would both email and write to Revell (and this A.P. #!$*^) about it. I hope she got what she wanted!!
Perhaps I am the lucky exception . . . I have not ever had to have missing parts replaced. (I’m knocking on wood!)
Bill
I had a broken fuselage on a Dragon Me 262 that they replaced with no fuss in less than a week after I emailed them a copy of my receipt. I guess like most things it is luck of the draw.
Revell is one company I no longer buy kits from after the bad customer service I had…here’s the story.
I bought the Revell 1:1200 ocean liner Queen Mary 2, however the hull was warped rendering the kit useless. So I sent them a courteous e-mail giving them the kit bar code and info and asked for a replacement of the hull and a few other pieces that were also of poor, poor molding quality.[N]
Here is the email I recieved from Stephan, Inge IStephan@revell.de at Revell
Dear customer,
We are sorry about your complaint.
If you want spare parts, please advise the kit number of the Queen Mary 2 in 1:1200, which is 05808 plus the part numbers you need.
For this purpose please take the instruction sheet and make a circle around the parts you need. Then send us your instruction sheet by mail or by email.
And do not forget to give us your full address so that we can send you the parts.
Best regards,
Dept. X
visit our homepage: http://www.revell.de
Revell GmbH & Co. KG
Henschelstr. 20-30
32257 Bünde / Germany
He clearly didn’t read the e-mail thru, because I didn’t want spare parts I wanted replacement parts for a kit they messed up in the first place.[:@] So I sent them another e-mail asking for some questions to be cleared up, like what shipping costs I’d have to pay and etc. Never got a reply back, thus if they don’t want to answer me then I won’t reward them with being a customer.
I am sorry to hear that you are having such a bad experience with Revell. In the past I have made two requests for parts. One was for an entire hull with some miscellaneous small parts for a 1/96 Cutty Sark;, and recently for a tail light part for a '68 Mustang. Both times the parts were delivered in a timely matter (three days for the tail light). There was no charge and I received what I needed. I can not expect more than that!
I have dealt with four model companies in regards to replacement of damaged or missing parts:
Testors- superb service, no questions asked, prompt delivery!
Revell Monogram- good service, many questions, fairly quick delivery.
Tamiya- good service, a bit of phone tag, part obtained in a reasonable amount of time
Hasegawa/Dragon- fair service, multiple email exchanges, excessive wait (approx 9+months), part eventually obtained.
I dont boycott any particular company, but this is one reason I prefer a LHS to an online one. If there is a problem with a kit, I can return it to the purchase store and get it dealt with there promptly- either exchange or refund, instead of thru customer service which may or may not be responsive.
Actually, I’m not too worried about it and definitely am not loosing sleep over it. I just feel sorry for the people they named. Those poor souls are banned for life and don’t even know that they are or why they are such. What happens when they order something only to find this out? I’d say that Revell would have a tough time getting around that to explain it away. Who knows?
so how do i get parts in the uk? that only appears to be for the us or germany
Wow, I guess I’ll call myself fortunate. I’m pushing 60 and have been building model cars, aircraft, ships and wooden ships almost all my life and haven’t had a missing or damaged part ever on a sealed kit. I’ve had parts missing in opened kits, but knew about it before hand and usually buy kits like that for spare parts and kitbashing anyway. I build, and have well over 400 kits in the stash and I open everyone of them to look at after purchase. Gee I wonder if I should post this, I might jink myself and get half a kit on my next purchase. lol
Ken