Empire Rockets *beware*

Whats the deal with these guys?
Sometimes they ship out stuff pronto, other times they act like aliens abducted them for weeks at a time complete with total memory erasure.

They put up stuff for auction only, demand contact within 3 days, require insurance, and ship priority.

I paid immediately on auction closing, meeting all the demands.
Not a peep out of them.
So much for the speediness and safety of priority/insurance.
Several emails have gone unanswered.
I'll give 'em 24 hours for any response.
After that, paypal gets slapped for a refund and mudslinging commences.

Is this looking like Another Discount Hobby Center??

No

Another 1 person shop who probably wants to do a good job, just in a bit over their head. Like many others who think to make their hobby into a job, his manufacturing facility is probably his dining room table. They seem to surface and submerge every so often. It's a shame as his Nike Ajax and Bomarc are both nice kits.

Not an excuse for poor business practice, just an observation based on my dealings.

I bought a big Bomarc kit from them several years back. It took well over a month to get to the rocket to me after the auction ended, and all of my queries were answered with a "quality control" excuse. When it finally arrived, the ram tubes, one of the parts that was supposedly causing the delay, didn't fit into the body tube provided for the rams. One would slip completely through the tube and the other was too big to fit into the tube at all. I e-mailed them back and was promised a new set of the tubes. That was back in 2003 IIRC, and I'm still waiting. Needless to say, that project has been shoved deep into the queue, where it occasionally pisses me off to this day. If you can't swing the bat, don't get into the game.:kill:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5776&highlight=empire+rockets

You'd think that if he was auctioning off a Bomarc kit, a reasonable assumption would be that he actually had it sitting there ready to go.
Not waiting for someone to win the auction, pay for it, and only then find time to put one together from his kitchen table whenever he felt the urge.
Isn't auctioning off non-existant product grounds to get booted from ebay????
Or is it considered fraud from a payapl perspective?
At least it wasn't advertised as a box with "???" all over the sides.

#1 scammer = DHC

We'll see if Empire Rockets joins them in the #2 slot.

Originally posted by Hospital_Rocket
They seem to surface and submerge every so often. It's a shame as his Nike Ajax and Bomarc are both nice kits.

Click to expand...

It seems by the feedback that its "one month on, one month off, then one month on again" cycle.

Not good.

I think I "won" my auction on ROL and paid by check. I was screwed either way I turned.

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5982689870

Its offered up for auction, it darn well better be there available when the auction ends, ready to ship as promised.

At least with both ebay and paypal involved theres recourse.

If you look closely at the ramjet cones in that picture, you'll notice that they're tooled as one piece. My ramjet piece is done in a cone shape. In other words, it's got a larger diameter at one end than at the other. Both ends are made to fit into a BT-50 tube, but one is BT-48 diameter and the other is BT-52 diameter.

Well, still no response.

Looks like I get to press the "give me my money back" button.

I suppose waiting 10 days for a paypal refund is better than waiting 30 days for a kit.

Ten days have gone by for the "dispute resolution" period.
Verdict---- Empire Rockets is at fault.
Ebay buyer protection remits a whopping $1.24.
Now to get paypal to get them to refund the rest of the money.
Or else (paypal says) their account gets pulled.
I haven't heard from then EVER since the auction ended.
Beware of the kitchen-table-based vendor "Empire Rockets" and ebayer "vin125".
A sad sad way to conduct an auction and a business.

You're $1.24 ahead of me.

Originally posted by CTimm
Ten days have gone by for the "dispute resolution" period.
Verdict---- Empire Rockets is at fault.
Ebay buyer protection remits a whopping $1.24.
Now to get paypal to get them to refund the rest of the money.
Or else (paypal says) their account gets pulled.
I haven't heard from then EVER since the auction ended.
Beware of the kitchen-table-based vendor "Empire Rockets" and ebayer "vin125".
A sad sad way to conduct an auction and a business.

Click to expand...

Are they still selling, I didnt find anything on Ebay??

Apparently paypal feels the case is closed.
Empire Rockets did not respond to the paypal dispute emails within the 10 day timeframe.
Paypal then attempts to reverse the transaction but is unable to due to zero funds in the Empire Rockets paypal account.
Hopefully they'll suspend their account as well.
That might get a response from them.
EBay buyer protection is a joke.
I've now filed for a charge-back with my CC provider for the full amount.

I got notification today of a CHARGEBACK credit being applied to my credit card. 100% Refund!!!! WOO-HOO!!!!

I'm guessing they stuck PAYPAL with the chargeback as they were the MERCHANTS that are referred to on the cc statement.

I wonder if PAYPAL will chargeback the bank account of vin125 and incur some overdraft charges for vin125?

That would be zen-worthy.

It took a few hoops to go thru, but I got my money back.

Keep an eye out for the weasel EMPIRE ROCKETS.

I'm sure he'll pop up eventually under some other name.

Check it out...

They've got their website up again.

https://www.empirerockets.com/

Some people have no shame.

Thats where they've been hiding the last 2 months.
Baiting the hooks for more suckers!!!!

That's funny that Fishhead would link my original post on this clown and his lack of providing the advertised kits. I gave up on ever seeing my Bomarc ages ago. However, since OKTurbo posted the Empire Rockets site link, I decided to go ahead and e-mail the guy again about never getting my kit. Any odds I will actually ever see it???

Originally posted by NUBlackshirts
That's funny that Fishhead would link my original post on this clown and his lack of providing the advertised kits. I gave up on ever seeing my Bomarc ages ago. However, since OKTurbo posted the Empire Rockets site link, I decided to go ahead and e-mail the guy again about never getting my kit. Any odds I will actually ever see it???

Click to expand...

Let us know if you hear anything.

Update:

I actually received an e-mail from Vin asking for more info on the order he never filled. It was so long ago that the only info I could find was from my Paypal receipt. I sent that to him. Will see how it goes from here.

"FISH ON!"

I know this won't make you feel any better, but here's a cool picture of my 1/12 scale Bomarc built from an Empire kit. Pic from the Aug05 Tulsa Rocketry Launch....

https://www.tulsarocketry.org/photos/0508CL_116_1696.JPG

I converted mine from a 2x24mm to a single 29mm MMT. This flight is an AT F24-4.

I hope you get the kit you paid for. Don't expect too much when (if) you get your kit. I had to do so much much fixing with my Empire kit (warped wood / pitiful nose cone and nacelle cones) , that I would just build it from scratch if I did it over again.

Since he seems to be communicating now, you may just ask for your money back....

Hope it works out for you,
John

Does anybody else make a good Bomarc kit. I have seen photos of it in candian colours and it looks good
Cheers
fred

Well, I hate to break up the bash-party here, but I like my Empire BOMARC. Sure, one of the centering rings was missing, and I got no response from Vin after sending three messages over two months.
Customer Service: Poor.
Product Quality: Pretty good.

Here is a picture of mine done in RCAF color scheme. Note that this is NOT the historically inaccurate decal set that Estes included with their BOMARC or MiniBOMARC. I drew up a new set and Phred at Excelsior printed them for me. (BTW, big thumbs up for Phred!)

Here is one photo:

Second photo of 1/24th scale Empire BOMARC in RCAF colors

Third photo of 1/24th scale Empire BOMARC in RCAF colors with Excelsior decals.

Fourth photo of 1/24th scale Empire BOMARC, showing ramjet nozzles.

Fifth photo of 1/24th scale Empire BOMARC in RCAF colors

Originally posted by BobCox
Well, I hate to break up the bash-party here, but I like my Empire BOMARC. Sure, one of the centering rings was missing, and I got no response from Vin after sending three messages over two months.
Customer Service: Poor.
Product Quality: Pretty good.

Click to expand...

This isn't bashing for giggles. I'm relating my experiences to keep others on the board from learning the lesson the way I did. I had the same customer service experience you had, but if my kit was only missing a centering ring, I'd consider myself lucky. If I could post a movie on here I'd make one of the ram cones rolling around the table top in a perfect circle when they were supposed to be going in a straight line. A centering ring I've got on hand. A pair of Bomarc ram tube cones I don't. I honestly can't say anything bad about the rest of the kit, but two years later all I have is a bag of partially constructed parts because a key part was defective and never replaced despite promises that it would be. Kind of kills your enthusiasm for the project and doesn't make one comfortable recommending the vendor to friends.

Oh, yeah. Nice looking rocket. Love those ram cones. Wanna sell a pair?