Dear Xheli (posted @ rc discuss)

[ranben]

Dear Xheli,
« on: Today at 09:15:48 AM » Quote Modify Remove

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I appreciate the use of this forum as I am sure do many others. It is your forum to do with as you choose. Over the past few months I have learned quite a bit from the guys in the forum discussion. Thank God for that, because I cant get any accurate response from the online live chat or phone service from Xheli. I cant even get Xhei to return my calls when they ask me to call them. You do have a few good people there, but some have been very short and rude. I have actually been disconnected several times with the on line live chat group, even after I asked them to give me a minute to type my question.

I agree with you completely that no other company should be able to advertise or list a link for sales against you, but most of the links, (not all) , are listed because you are out of stock on things people are looking for, or it is something you dont sell to begin with. A lot of these posts even bring sales back to you eventually. For example if someone buys an EXI kit from you and decides they can purchase better equipment for it elsewhere, when they crash, they will be back to you to buy parts for the EXI.

I originally was against your editing of the forum, then decided it was yours to do whatever you decide and agreed with the advertising problem(to a certain degree), but now I see that you have removed the members list in order to prevent PM's. THATS A BIT MUCH. I dont know if you realize it or not but you are only causing damage to your forum which can only lead to damage in sales. You could have gone about the whole thing in a different mannor and not created the harsh feelings of the forum group, but you are shoving things down their throat and they are not liking it.

I think your new monthly contest is a good idea, but a lot of forum members are viewing this as a bribe or desperate measure for the problem that has occured with the forum. The idea is great, the timing is bad.

I have personally stood up for accusations against Xheli at times, but you are making it very difficult for me with the forum situation.
The forum should be a place for people to help each other with the hobby, not STRICTLY a place to promote sales for Xheli.
Just my Opinion.

[19000rpm]

ranben, I agree with most of what you have said. I don't agree that they should censor any links or remove information about other resources and still call themselves a "forum". They can do this if they like, It's their website, but I think they are shooting themselves in the foot. I'll be history there if they don't come around.

Happy landings

[BTCat]

Very good post, Ranben. I think the key to the Xheli forum survival is their ability to answer these points in an open environment and in a professional way. Someone there is throwing gasoline and matches. They have people who have completely lost sight of customer service. I know I can curse a customer and gripe all I want, as long as I do it in private. When I am dealing with a customer, it is my job to handle it professionally. They need to learn but if posts like yours are not a wakeup call, I don't think they will.

[ranben]

Feb 9, 2009 10:38:25 GMT -6 19000rpm said:

ranben, I agree with most of what you have said. I don't agree that they should censor any links or remove information about other resources and still call themselves a "forum". They can do this if they like, It's their website, but I think they are shooting themselves in the foot. I'll be history there if they don't come around.

Happy landings

Hey 1900rpm,

Good morning to you! I thought about this situation with xheli last night and decided to stay out of it and be neutral. When I got up this morning, I went to look at the member list to PM someone and it was gone. That kind of did me in with the situation and thats when I made my post to Xheli. I realy hope they can get it straight. Its realy a shame for them to handle this the way they did. Maybe they will see the light.............who knows.

Randy

[akent]

I'm done with that place until it is fixed.
Raygun over there just wrote that they banned RTFheli because he was selling a few mod parts.
Unbelievable.
Kent

[kiwi1080]

This whole situation is gonna blow up in their face like a bad firework made by a one-armed blind chinese man. They didn't have the foresight to realise that people need to go to other places for parts they don't sell, but will still have to return there for certain things, as mentioned in the EXI example. I see this morning that they have been trying a bribe thing with a few members to try and fix the situtation, but is still like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound, it ain't gonna fix it!! That removing of the ability to PM is definitely the last straw in this saga.

Their customer service is terrible and they seem incapable of simple things like sending the right parts. This was made abundantly clear today after receiving the wrong parts (and missing some altogether) for the second time on a product that came to me broken. I have been waiting on a servo and tail stabilizer for 2 weeks now and have received 3 stabilizer bars for the paddles on the head, but not the parts I actually need!! I even said, and I quote: "the stabilizer fin that sits horizontally across the tail, half way between the tail and main body" How is that not clear This has been explained twice also.

Then with the tail belt flying off-center, jamming the motor, and making the heli almost lose it on the ground at about 25% throttle on Saturday afternoon on a "RTF", I am ready to fly to California and slap some sense into the idiots working there . I fully understand RTF needs some adjusting, but not checking the product before leaving the shop, and terrible follow-up service is inexcusable. They even quote on their site saying that all you need to do is charge the battery and fly, bull-s#*t!!! This heli will be flying back to them in a box this afternoon to get my money back and spend it elsewhere.

Anyway, I can no-longer in good conscience promote xheli to anyone other than saying they do have cheap prices. Dealing with them has made my introduction to RC heli's soured, and if it wasn't for the little flying tank, HBFP, I would have almost given up I think.

Well, with my rant out of the way, I now need a good project to either build myself or to get a heli that I can depend on with good customer service to back it. Perhaps the build thing would be the best, then I know I will get quality parts and make sure they are put on properly with the help of all the great people on this forum. You guys help out a lot and make the hobby much more enjoyable. This forum is all about the hobby and not about the selling so lets make it into something great.

Wow, this turned into a lot longer message than I thought ;D

[19000rpm]

This hobby can be frustrating enough at times on its own merits without the company selling you the product, making money from it, and still leaving you out in the cold.

Even though I still vist that "other" foum I won't make flattering comments about their customer service any longer because it looks like more and more people are getting more and more defective helis and less and less is being done about.

Happy landings