Discount Hobby Center.

[Stewart32]

Mabey I'm in the small percentage that got good service?

I won an ROL auction. I had bid on the rocket prior to reading this thread and quite frankly was expecting a total loss. I did inquire about the order status via email and was not answered. However, I was pleasently surprised when rocket arrived in the mail in an undamaged an timely manner.
I've got no complaints, but am not sure I will push my luck (again).

 

[blike]

After 2 phone calls and dozens of emails, I finally got my rocket yesterday. It says on their website that it includes two single use motors, but they were not included. :/

 

[gregzo]

Here's my $.02

I'm new to HPR. BAR getting the itch after the Rocket Challenge show last fall.
DHC looked to have great prices - I didn't know about any of the forums and warnings about these guys. I decided on a PML Tethys for my first try at HPR.
I ordered Mid Dec 2003. I placed the order via phone and actually talked to someone on the first try. They asked if I wanted a "XMas Rush" put on the order and I said sure. These guys are great looking to get my stuff out in a big hurry!!!
They promptly billed my credit card for over $400 for all the merchandise I ordered.

Well several busy signal calls later. Several unanswered or returned e-mails as undeliverable. Mid Jan I got about 1/4 of my order. But they had all of my $$.
More calls - more frustration.
Mid March - I got about 1/3 more of my order.
Mid April - I tried changing what I had left on order to at least get something for the $$ they still had of mine. I changed my order to another PML kit and motor hardware.
One month later - order was finally filled complete.
They had my $$ for over 5 months before I got all my product.

If you’re stuck dealing with these guys - sorry. I never will again no matter how good their prices are or how low their shipping rates are. (You have to give them kudos on these two points.)
If you are trying to resolve an order issue. Try calling between around 11 AM and 2 PM weekdays - Ed is usually there - but you will get a lame answer that he is not the boss. Jim is. And Ed will relay the message. (But you get no response) Ed will sometimes call you back – but again with info of no value. If he tells you to call back Jim in the afternoon - good luck - I swear he takes the phone off the hook.
E-mails will either bounce back due to a full mailbox (I'm sure of complaints) or they will go unanswered. I did get one e-mail response mid-Feb claiming the balance of my order will go out right away (Lie).

My recommendations:
Merlin Missiles - Lance is great!
CountDown Hobbies - Kevin is great!
Hanger11 - BobbyB will stear you right and give lots of excellent advice.
Magnum - Ross is super!
Can't forget CommonWealth Displays - great shop as well !!

 

[rocketkid88]

gregzo, sorry about your problems.... sounds just like what i did. saw the good prices/shipping and placed my order. i did finally get my "order". i say this becase i place the order back in october of last year, and after many e-mails and no response (although the guy had cashed my MO as soon as he got it) i called him and got thru the first time, to Jim i believe, and eh said the G33's were out of stock, and maye some of the other motters (he didn't even know what i had orderd, or how much). he said he'd call me back... haha. latter ( a few weeks) i tried him again and after a few busy signals got thru, it was Jim and once again he didn't know any info... i should have realised this and made a big fool of him (aka, when he asked me how much money i sent him i should have made it $300 instead of just the $30 i had paid for like 5 reloads)... any way he said he was sorry about the delay but since the fire/ etc things were really tough (he was talkin aobut the AT fire, even tho they had already started shipping mottors again!) and i said i don't care what you have, but just start spitting out whats on your shelvs infront of you and i'll tell you when i wan't somethign... put it in a box and lable it and i'll see it WITHIN two weeks (i made sure i mentioned that a few times). guess what... thats exactly what he did! simply AmAziNg! of course the only 29mm reloads he had other than a few E16s were G33's, exactly what he had told me were out of stock b4... LOL. but now i have 2 G33-7s, an F50-7, and an E16-4 (idn what i can use the E16 in yet). the F and G's are beggin for me to finish up my A2...

so bottome line:::::: DONT DO IT!! it dosn't matter what his prices are like! you'll spend more $$ in phone bills!

 

[DynaSoar]

They auction stuff on ROL that they don't have.
It took me two weeks to get my Weasel from them.
They offer stuff on their web site they don't have.
After a month they finally admitted they couldn't get the Vaughn Brothers BoB I'd ordered.

I could have saved a bit when I bought my Mirage, but I got it from Great Lakes instead, and had it in three days. The better service was worth more than the very small price difference.

I'm not going to waste my time improving DHC's cash flow anymore.

 

[Stewart32]

I've purchased (via ROL auction) from DHC several times. The service while not high caliber is at least honest, and that speaks volumes to me anyway. I have even gone so far as to call the owner at home. He was aware of my auction win, the item, my location, and the status of the order, a pleasent surprise. He admitted that the rocket I had won was not in his inventory, but that it (4" V2) was being sent direct from LOC. We ended up having a good phone conversation, and he didn't seem to be the slightest preturbed at my calling on him at home. I would bid again, but expect to do a little gentle prodding.

I had used reverse lookup to find the home phone number.

 

[gregzo]

Stewart
I'm glad your experience was satisfactory. You do however seem to be the exception to the norm.
I would like to add some commentary to yours however.

You said "The service while not high caliber is at least honest"

You had to call him @ home as there is no other way to get usable info. ????? Honest sevice??? You said he admitted that the product for the auction he posted he did not have. How exactly is that being honest? That borders on down right criminal. Did he already have your money before you discovered he didn't have what you bought and paid for?
He had my cash for five months......

I know most of the rocket vendors do not do this as their only job - they do it for the love of the hobby and hopefully it pays for their own rocket addictions. I do not look for lightning speed on answers to calls or e-mails. I do not look for next day shipments. Most of these guys do this part time. That is fine. If I get my product within one to three weeks - I'm happy.
Good Luck on your future orders. I hope no one has a repeat my experience.

 

[Ryan S.]

I think the complaints are the exception to the norm. I have always had great service from DHC, and I talked to Barry and he said that DHC was one of LOCs biggest sellers, so they probably are shipping out so much stuff they screw up sometimes. I have never had a problem with them, always shipped in a timly manner.

 

[Zippy]

If DHC is honest then I'm Santa Claus. They won't even respond to the BBB. You must be the exception to the rule Ryan and thats great but for anyone else I recommend avoiding DHC like the plague.

 

[Missileman]

I would disagree to bad experience with DHC as being an exception to the rule.
This thread alone is proof of that.
Too many people, myself included, that have had bad experiences with DHC just in this forum alone speaks volumes.
I for one will not buy from them again.
I will stick with vendors like Commonwealth Displays. (ordered a motor casing last Saturday and received it on Tuesday)

 

[rebar_rocketry]

I haven't been in business long, but I've been in it long enough to know that you've got to take care of the people who keep you in business: your customers. It's foolish to ignore emails and stuff like that. I wish I could count all the emails I've sent to certain manufacturers and vendors that were just ignored. 3 already this week OK I'm through ranting. My first post, by the way. Been lurking here a long time, and joined a few months ago, but just now decided to speak up How ya'll doin'?

 

[Stewart32]

to the "occasional" frying pan.

I agree with you, that prompt communication is the key to customer satisfaction. This is easily accomplished via email.

 

[Neil]

Have you ever been to thier warehouse...er...store? The orders sit on those rickety little metal shelves. Motors just sitting on there, on top of pieces of paper with the order on it. It could roll a few inches to the left, and someone in tenesee would get a single streamer for $139, and someone in alaska would get a dozen AP rocket motors for $8.

the only way I am ordering from THEM again is if I happen to be driving by.:kill:

 

[Ryan S.]

how do you know that? You been there?

 

[Neil]

Yes, I have. Its just a warehouse with a load of pegboards with kits in no particular order.... they keep stuff like ACME fincans in boxes with the stuff just thrown in there.... And the orders just sit there on shelves with nothing diving them from the next order...

In other words not a place I would want to order from...

 

[Ryan S.]

I see, interesting, I didnt know that. Not that it matters, I am not gonna bother ordering there again

 

[DPatell]

I have been there too. I have no quarrels with them. Good pair of guys. Jim, the owner, flies with CTRA every now and then and is a great guy. His brother, works there too, another great guy. It's sad to see so many people having issues with them. I will be the first to say that they aren't organized, but they definately have some cool stuff.

 

[Stewart32]

I just confirmed and paid for an ROL win. Let see how things go... again.

 

[saunassa]

I too saw the low prices and that they were listed on rol vendors list. I wish i had known about this forum and the problems others had been having before i placed my order.
i ordered the end of march and after many emails received part of my order the end of april. here is is 3 months later and i am still waiting for the E-30's and F23's.
the only thing that i was happy about was that they sent a few motors so at the May Tripoli launch i could send the tomahawk into the sky.

i have sent multiple emails and even went so far as to send a fax - which i know they received or it would not have xmit to them.
still no response. next time great lakes or anyone else that can send me items within 2 weeks. 3 months is rediculous.

one benefit of having used my charge card is that i am now going to put in a 'charge back' to DHC. that way the visa people send me my money and then take money from DHC along with a charge for having to refund my dollars to me.

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by DPatell
I have been there too. I have no quarrels with them. Good pair of guys. Jim, the owner, flies with CTRA every now and then and is a great guy. His brother, works there too, another great guy. It's sad to see so many people having issues with them. I will be the first to say that they aren't organized, but they definately have some cool stuff.

They're great guys, no doubt. I enjoyed talking with them. They were truly apologetic things took so long. But they were truly apologetic several times. A pattern formed. No matter what cool stuff you have, not shipping stuff you have and have sold is wrong. Not shipping stuff you sold because you don't have it is worse than wrong. Running out of stock I can understand. backorders happen. But selling something on the web site that hasn't been in stock anywhere for over a year? Auctioning things you don't have in order to get the cash so you can order it from the distributor and ship it to the customer?

Heck, if they're having problems but are serious as they appear about supporting the hobby, I'd be willing to support them by ordering and waiting, as long as I knew ahead of time that would happen, rather than finding out after waiting and seeing nothing.

 

[KermieD]

Call and cancel your order. It is the best, fastest way to get them to ship to you.

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by KermieD
Call and cancel your order. It is the best, fastest way to get them to ship to you.

If only that would have worked with the Vaughn Brothers' BoB I ordered from their web site.

 

[solrules]

arrgghh....I am another victim of this store.

Lost ~$70 in motors buying from them a while ago. I got suckered in by the very low prices. Live and learn.....then sue.

After numerous calls and emails, I just gave up. I called and emailed more to cancel the order, but I could not get a hold of them! Suprise!

 

[Stewart32]

Recieved my order in seven days without a hitch (or "weak-suck" excuses for that matter!).

Thanks DHC.

 

[KermieD]

Originally posted by DynaSoar
If only that would have worked with the Vaughn Brothers' BoB I ordered from their web site.

Dunno. Was Vaughn Bros. OOP at that time yet? I just know that the one time I called to cancel the order over the phone, they said that would be fine, then my rocket kit showed up two days later.

 

[Stymye]

same here ,,I once made an order ...never heard back from them after 2 weeks ,,, so I cancelled the order and it showed up 5 days later....I suspect they sent the order after recieving my cancellation as if to say "oops sorry ,we already sent it."

I was happy with what I got for the money but ,I wouldn't be tempted to order from them again

 

[SpartaChris]

Originally posted by DPatell
I have been there too. I have no quarrels with them. Good pair of guys. Jim, the owner, flies with CTRA every now and then and is a great guy. His brother, works there too, another great guy. It's sad to see so many people having issues with them. I will be the first to say that they aren't organized, but they definately have some cool stuff.

They can't be that great after having screwed so many people around for so long. I'm sorry, but having cool stuff and being un-organized do not go hand in hand.

My friend made the mistake of ordering through them two weeks ago. He received the e-mailed confirmation, but no kit. He is going to cancel his order on Monday if he cannot get ahold of them. I told him to talk to Ross at Magnum who is a pretty great guy and delivers excellent service (even called me at work to give me a tracking number for my motor casings!)

-Chris

 

[DynaSoar]

Originally posted by KermieD
Dunno. Was Vaughn Bros. OOP at that time yet? I just know that the one time I called to cancel the order over the phone, they said that would be fine, then my rocket kit showed up two days later.

This was last May. VB had been closed for a year.

The time I wanted to make sure I got what I wanted, I called them and asked if they had it in stock first. They did, I bought it, and it was here in 4 days.

They do have good prices. But Great Lakes has better prices and service both.

 

[SpartaChris]

So my friend was able to pry a tracking number out of them. No idea when it shipped, but it looks to be here Wednesday.

After reading this thread and my recent experience with these people, I will never buy anything from them. I will stick with Magnum or some of the others you guys suggested.

-Chris

 

[rvanstone]

Well, after waiting more than a month for a Vostok order without recieving it as yet.

Sequence of events

Placed order on June 30th

July 8th recieved email reply from me that the rocket is being sent today.

July 21st Sent another email as to where is my order and ask for a tracking number, recieved reply that the order is in route.


Sent 2 more emails on 7/29 & 8/2 never recieved a reply

Call the number post and consta busy or no one answer.


After I see this thread I guess I better call my credit card company and cancel.

Ron
SO Screwed !!!!!!!!!