Red Arrow Hobbies

[berlinetta]

My guess is if you ask, Dave will do two separate shipments.

-Kevin

Not if he is paying the Hazmat fee. He would much rather do one huge shipment. I have $400 worth of reloads coming.

Rocketman248, That $6K is of the last $8K that he was missing from what I remember. What he is getting in should fill just about everyone's orders.

 

[Scotty Dog]

Not if he is paying the Hazmat fee. He would much rather do one huge shipment. I have $400 worth of reloads coming.

Rocketman248, That $6K is of the last $8K that he was missing from what I remember. What he is getting in should fill just about everyone's orders.

I got a separate box with 1 pack of q2s sent to me.Said "Toy Propellant" on shipping label.The only thing I can figure is it was cheaper for him to send the Q2s separate cuz of the shipping charge. If he put them in the box the other stuff came in, he may have had to pay hazmat? on the total weight of the box??? Thats the only thing I can figure way my order came in 2 boxes. $400 worth of reloads..someone is going to do some flying

 

[berlinetta]

I definitely plan on doing some flying. The reloads should last me the entire season.

 

[Brian62]

Just placed an order early this morning, Tuesday, with RAH then found this thread.
I only placed 3 motors k185,j340 and I200 for next weekends launch. Enough to cover the no hazmat charge. All listed as in stock on his site, also wanted J135 but said out of stock, so didn't order that.
Will let you know how it goes.
Brian

 

[dixontj93060]

Just placed an order early this morning, Tuesday, with RAH then found this thread.
I only placed 3 motors k185,j340 and I200 for next weekends launch. Enough to cover the no hazmat charge. All listed as in stock on his site, also wanted J135 but said out of stock, so didn't order that.
Will let you know how it goes.
Brian

When you say next week's launch, do you mean Thunderstruck in Lafayette, IN (can't see your location)? If so, I'd call Dave and tell him to bring them to Thunderstruck so you can pick them up as he will be down there Friday-Sunday.

 

[Brian62]

When you say next week's launch, do you mean Thunderstruck in Lafayette, IN (can't see your location)? If so, I'd call Dave and tell him to bring them to Thunderstruck so you can pick them up as he will be down there Friday-Sunday.

Actually a smaller launch Torcfest in Ohio.
Well, to follow up on my order, he took it over the phone first thing Tuesday morning said get it out. Called Wed after seeing this thread just to make sure I had merchandise coming. He had not pulled it yet. Let him know I was just wanting to check in case out so I could substitute something. Late Wed 2of the 3 motors instock on his website, he dont have. No K185, No I200. So, I got a J135W instead, kinda bummed on that really wanted k185. He said would be shipped Thursday Fed Ex.

 

[scsager]

Super high strung Type A personality types should not order from discount vendors like Red Arrow. Those people need to pay the increased prices and go to vendors like Apogee Components for true Class A customer service.

Don't believe I'm the one of the Super high strung Type A kinda guys' But I can relate my experiences ordering online with Red Arrow.

order #1 placed 10/17/2010 (under $75)
Sent email asking about order on 10/29/2010
Never received a reply.
Received order 11/01/2010 (one item missing from order)
Received paypal refund for missing item 11/03/2010

Order #2 placed 11/12/2011 (under $75)
Received order 12/01/2010 (one item missing from order)
Sent email 12/09/2010 asking if he was still planning on shipping missing item, or would give refund.
Never received a reply.
Sent second email 12/15/2010 asking about a refund for missing item.
Received paypal refund for missing item 12/15/2010

These 2 order have not given me a great deal of confidence in RAH. However after seeing the comments in this thread I decided to place a third order

Order #3 placed 03/13/2011 (under $200)
Called RAH on 03/25/2011 - was told the hobbyline cases were expected next week. He asked about my cert for the H128, I told him I emailed a photo copy of my NAR card at the same time I placed my order. He said that would be fine.
03/31/2011 - not too worried yet.

Other orders placed online in March... for comparison
Hobbylinc - received
Railbuttons - received
Quickburst - received
Adept - received
Winkies - received
Aerocon - received
Several misc Ebay orders - received
Several misc Amazon orders - received
Commonwealth - received

Red Arrow Hobbies is the only outstanding order among all of the orders I placed in March.

 

[Scotty Dog]

Looking at this from a view of a dif color. To bad RAH has these issues. People do want to do business with them..Heard Dave is a very nice guy..RAH has stuff I havent found from other vendors and at a good price and all the other good things one looks for from a vendor. Just seems to me with the enconomy the way it is..Id be tightning up the boot straps and be GETTING-IT-DONE.

 

[Brian62]

Actually a smaller launch Torcfest in Ohio.
Well, to follow up on my order, he took it over the phone first thing Tuesday morning said get it out. Called Wed after seeing this thread just to make sure I had merchandise coming. He had not pulled it yet. Let him know I was just wanting to check in case out so I could substitute something. Late Wed 2of the 3 motors instock on his website, he dont have. No K185, No I200. So, I got a J135W instead, kinda bummed on that really wanted k185. He said would be shipped Thursday Fed Ex.

Received everything today Via Fed-ex. So, from date placed,Tuesday to Today, Friday, I would call that great!

I would like to add, that I believe it was due to my follow up call on the instock conditions compared to website. This way I was able to adjust and prevent the delay in shipping. Sure it would be nice if the website was tied directly to warehouse levels to show almost instant updates as items sold and received. This may be an opportunity for RAH to put some new technology to work and in long run be more trouble free.

Brian, Still satisfied RAH guy. I mean it is a 2 way street.
When my local guys do not have what I need, this is where I am going to go, as long as he has it, LOL

 

[Agent Titan]

I agree that RAH is an amazing business. Dave is an awesome guy, but I haven't gotten any communication from him for a few weeks... I need my parts for a prototype! (Did I mention I was in the prototype stage?)

 

[gdjsky01]

This is 2011. Bad customer service can be spread like wildfire. Fair? Not always! That is for sure! Sometimes it is an axe to grind.

But COMMUNICATION is the key. If you email me and say, "Stuff is delayed... continue? Or cancel? Or pay a little more for split shipping?" I can deal with that.

I am not type A either. That comment was just BS. I am smart. I know in the internet age crappy communication has NO excuses. I experienced this with a certain tube vendor. NO communication whatsoever. Nothing. Zippo. Why bother?

Then there are the Uncle Mike's, the Sirius', the Flis', and the JonRockets types. They know a web order is expecting action or communications within a day. They understand the consumer needs to know what the f is going on. And they make sure your mind is put at ease

Get OUT of the online business if you can not deal with that. Or at least warn your customers that you are too busy to deal with things like order status and tracking numbers and they are unlikely to hear anything.

I ordered from another vendor... good email acknowledgement, but no tracking number. Even PARCEL POST offers a tracking number now. For all I know the order is in India. I have no way of knowing. Doubt I'll order from them again.

Fact is, if you can not offer decent customer service on the web, get OUT of the online business. Cause all it take is one thread, like this one, with more than one complaint to make a consumer decide, it is not worth it. I know with all the great vendors I have dealt with in the past 4 months, I won't be ordering from RAH anytime soon. Just no reason when such awesome other vendors exist.

It's funny how some small vendors are determined to stay that way, one lost customer at a time. :no:

And yes
YMMV

 

[UPscaler]

Sometimes it just takes a while to ship them out. He'll take care of you. When I bought my first "big" case. 29/240, they were listed as in stock on his site, and when I called he said they were out of stock, but expected in soon. Received a few days later with two forward seal discs. I didn't even order one! Ordered expanding foam and BT-5 tubing, here in a couple days.



Braden

 

[berlinetta]

I emailed Dave yesterday on a whim to ask for an update on my order. He replied to me within a few minutes telling me that he has my order ready to ship and was just wondering if I was going to Red Glare. He was just going to bring me my order if I was going. I told him that i was not going and I thanked him for the customer service I received and I aplogized to him for being such a pain. I should be receiving a racking number for my order either Monday or Tuesday. I will still order from Dave in the future.

 

[Brian62]

I understand your concern.
Did you ever call ?
I did say it is a 2 way street. I had my order, granted adjusted, rather quickly with communication being key.
Let us be honest, it is a marginal business to run at best. That is why there are so few actual store fronts.
I guess there are 2 ways to look at it. 1- If you find better service, cheaper price with what you need elsewhere, Go for it. 2- To get a cheaper price, it is cheaper for a reason, they are cutting labor,If you don't mind a little
delay and you aren't ordering stuff you needed yesterday, and have the mindset to pick up phone if you have a concern, should not be issue.

The part about acknowledging the order, well, that is right on. He might need to pay a kid 5.00 an hour to do nothing but reply to orders during the silly busy season and say order received. Me, I sent it, I know he got it, I don't need another email telling me they received it, what a waste of time that would be. I would like to know if he, or they , have the item within couple days. That is the email I want.

Who would have an axe to grind ? People that bitch and moan, haters, complainers, just need a life. Shut up and open and run your own business and see how it goes, please stop the excuses before you start with them, America is turning into a crybaby USA. Complaining and trying to tell somebody else how to run their business is an open sore of bad behavior in this country right now. Do not like it, shut up and move on.

Peace out.
Looking forward to putting my new motors up next weekend, wahooo

This is 2011. Bad customer service can be spread like wildfire. Fair? Not always! That is for sure! Sometimes it is an axe to grind.

But COMMUNICATION is the key. If you email me and say, "Stuff is delayed... continue? Or cancel? Or pay a little more for split shipping?" I can deal with that.

I am not type A either. That comment was just BS. I am smart. I know in the internet age crappy communication has NO excuses. I experienced this with a certain tube vendor. NO communication whatsoever. Nothing. Zippo. Why bother?

Then there are the Uncle Mike's, the Sirius', the Flis', and the JonRockets types. They know a web order is expecting action or communications within a day. They understand the consumer needs to know what the f is going on. And they make sure your mind is put at ease

Get OUT of the online business if you can not deal with that. Or at least warn your customers that you are too busy to deal with things like order status and tracking numbers and they are unlikely to hear anything.

I ordered from another vendor... good email acknowledgement, but no tracking number. Even PARCEL POST offers a tracking number now. For all I know the order is in India. I have no way of knowing. Doubt I'll order from them again.

Fact is, if you can not offer decent customer service on the web, get OUT of the online business. Cause all it take is one thread, like this one, with more than one complaint to make a consumer decide, it is not worth it. I know with all the great vendors I have dealt with in the past 4 months, I won't be ordering from RAH anytime soon. Just no reason when such awesome other vendors exist.

It's funny how some small vendors are determined to stay that way, one lost customer at a time. :no:

And yes
YMMV

 

[gdjsky01]

In the interest of full disclosure
A) I have ordered from RAH... it was MANY years ago. Not recently. I do not recall any issues. But as I said, it was years ago.
B) I don't work for any rocketry (or hobby) related business. But I do work for a company that makes all is profits online.

Bottom line is communication is key.

However, assuming I don't make a mistake, I would rather just get an status update when the order is taken, will it ship and when? Better yet, give me a page that give me order status. Pretty basic stuff for online mail order.

Jeff
PS: I forgot to mention my 'local' vendor What's Up Hobbies. Also great service.
It is great there are so many good vendors and products to chose from.

 

[gagreen]

RAH are great people hands down. I bought my cert motor from them onsite today asked if they could supervise my assembling of it they took the time to watch, answer all my questions, and even walked out to the range with me to make sure i didnt have any problems on the pad. I only spent 10 bucks at their table and got all that assistance for free, as far as im concerned if they carry what im looking for they will have my order. I like my money to go to good people and they dont come much better than the guys at rah.

 

[Commonwealth.Net]

This is 2011. Bad customer service can be spread like wildfire. Fair? Not always! That is for sure! Sometimes it is an axe to grind.

But COMMUNICATION is the key. If you email me and say, "Stuff is delayed... continue? Or cancel? Or pay a little more for split shipping?" I can deal with that.

I am not type A either. That comment was just BS. I am smart. I know in the internet age crappy communication has NO excuses. I experienced this with a certain tube vendor. NO communication whatsoever. Nothing. Zippo. Why bother?

Then there are the Uncle Mike's, the Sirius', the Flis', and the JonRockets types. They know a web order is expecting action or communications within a day. They understand the consumer needs to know what the f is going on. And they make sure your mind is put at ease

Get OUT of the online business if you can not deal with that. Or at least warn your customers that you are too busy to deal with things like order status and tracking numbers and they are unlikely to hear anything.

I ordered from another vendor... good email acknowledgement, but no tracking number. Even PARCEL POST offers a tracking number now. For all I know the order is in India. I have no way of knowing. Doubt I'll order from them again.

Fact is, if you can not offer decent customer service on the web, get OUT of the online business. Cause all it take is one thread, like this one, with more than one complaint to make a consumer decide, it is not worth it. I know with all the great vendors I have dealt with in the past 4 months, I won't be ordering from RAH anytime soon. Just no reason when such awesome other vendors exist.

It's funny how some small vendors are determined to stay that way, one lost customer at a time. :no:

And yes
YMMV

Seen above you state even Parcel Post offers tracking numbers now.
This is news to me, I see no way to get a tracking number for Parecl Post on the USPS web site. I use Pitney -Bowes shipping software to print USPS postage and that service also does not offer tracking numbers.

I would love to be able track Parcel Post packages!
Please let me know how to do this, perhaps I am just looking in the wrong place.

Steve @cdi

 

[gdjsky01]

Steve PM sent.

 

[edwinshap1]

also you need to remember, if dave is sellling everything at the best price he can possibly get them out for, then of course he's gonna run out of things, especially the things he sells realllly cheap lol

 

[Daddyisabar]

...I am not type A either. That comment was just BS. I am smart. ...

Ouch! I see that insidious comment is sending normally calm, processes oriented personalities straight to temporary type A's (aggressive.) That is what happened to me on my second RAH order, but after emails and phone calls it all got worked out to just an OK result. Mess with my rocket dollar baby and there will be hell to pay! The fact is that to get those great prices from RAH you might just have to put up with a little BS. Is it worth it? Personally, I think not as the standard has been set so high by other online vendors in this small hobby. That experience taught me a few extra bucks for a good website and good communication is worth it, but not too many extra bucks in this economy! Customer satisfaction is a fine line and where the line gets crossed is always in motion. IMO successful and lasting online vendors seem to error on the customer service side, but I can see where getting the right balance is really tough!

Time to throw out my temporary type A "money" personality and get back to my normal type P (process oriented) "rocket building" personality. IMO all those "scientific" personality tests are mostly just a bunch of BS anyway, so any comment using such lables was bound to chafe the sensiblity of the true rocket scientist. I guess the art of online vending ain't rocket science, or is it?

 

[gdjsky01]

Ouch! I guess the art of online vending ain't rocket science, or is it?

Well I am sure we all agree on more than we disagree on. Anyway there are a lot great vendors. Maybe some greater than others but who knows. :confused2:

Sometimes I buy just to say thanks. Whats Up Hobbies may not be the cheapest, but they support our launches. Thats worth a lot! So I try to buy something from them at or before every launch.

Tim has made Apogee's web site jammed packed with info, thats worth something to me. So I've placed orders with him.

And then there are the great discount guys and gals whose kudos I hand out right here in the vendors forum as they vacuum up my rocket bucks.

And with that, I shall retire from this thread to the rocket shop...

Best wishes,
Jeff

 

[Wayco]

Well I am sure we all agree on more than we disagree on. Anyway there are a lot great vendors. Maybe some greater than others but who knows. :confused2:

Sometimes I buy just to say thanks. Whats Up Hobbies may not be the cheapest, but they support our launches. Thats worth a lot! So I try to buy something from them at or before every launch.

Tim has made Apogee's web site jammed packed with info, thats worth something to me. So I've placed orders with him.

And then there are the great discount guys and gals whose kudos I hand out right here in the vendors forum as they vacuum up my rocket bucks.

And with that, I shall retire from this thread to the rocket shop...

Best wishes,
Jeff

Well said Jeff, If you lost a twin brother at birth, I might be him. I'm off to build another Aspire. Not sure where I got the motor from though.....

 

[jFlds]

One of the big things to consider whenever gauging a vendor's performance.....

The suppliers and manufactures themselves.

If you have read any of the new in the industry you can see the problems in the trade as a whole.

AMW, Loki and others....

Sometimes you just can't get the stuff...

 

[kjohnson]

A recent transaction- emailed Friday to check on stock of an item on the website. Got a reply that day.
Ordered on Saturday.
Got an email about shipping yesterday.

That's pretty darn good service in my book.

kj

 

[english_1969]

While I'm not one to complain too much about orders, I have to say that my experience so far hasn't been that great with RAH from a communication standpoint.

I own a small business so I understand some of the challenges, but I've found the absolute most important thing in being successful in 2011, especially if you operate a website with online ordering, is the ability to respond quickly via e-mail. For us, that means smartphones, call-forwarding, whatever it takes to respond quickly.

Anway, I think I have around $700 or so in orders waiting for shipment with the oldest dating back to Feb 3. I've sent at least 3 e-mails with no responses. I have called and did get a response.

While I certainly believe that the owner is commited to doing a good job, it certainly gives me pause when I go to order anything else.

Of course, the other thing that's important with online ordering is to ensure that the website reflects what is really in stock - this is a failure point for almost all online businesses with any level of market competition. I also understand the challenges given the supply issues with Aerotech.

What makes this all the more important is that we have forums like this where we can share our experiences. Consumers value these opinions and will use them in their future shopping choices.

Just my observations...

 

[liam.mcquellin]

Hey Guys,

I wasnt sure which thread to put this in, but I ordered a Saturn IB (i am assuming this was just as Dave purchased Sheris Hot Rockets), but this was back on the 24th of Nov. I have paid for the model, but its been a few months now and the only thing I have heard from him is that he had to remake all the wraps, but that was back in December. Has anyone had any contact with Dave and know the status of these projects? I have sent him numerous emails over the last few months with no respone. I am Australian so calling him is a bit difficult.


Any help or info would be great.

Liam

 

[bob jablonski]

He had to redo all the kits from scratch. All the molds were junk. He had to look for a machine shop to make the nozels without breaking the bank. Sheri had a relitive (brother inlaw I think) make the nozels cheap. Etc. he may as well come out with his own kits and not buy her out, a big waste of money.
He is working on the kits when he is not filling orders and got a artist making killer molds for the cones.I seen the before and after. Her Mercury and Gemini had half if the details not in it or worn away.
Mr. Bob

 

[troj]

He is working on the kits when he is not filling orders and got a artist making killer molds for the cones.I seen the before and after. Her Mercury and Gemini had half if the details not in it or worn away.
Mr. Bob

Yep. At AirFest last year, Dave showed me a "before" and "after" capsule for one of the kits; Mercury, I'm pretty sure. The "before" was a capsule-shaped lump. The "after" showed a lot of detail, and looked really nice.

-Kevin

 

[bill2654]

This happened to me just the other day. I inquired by email about a recent order from a certain vendor and after my second inquiry I got an email reply "the good thing about having my own business is I can choose who to sell to" and he refunded my money. Cant imagine why HE got pissed after all, I'm putting money in HIS pocket! One more lost customer due to crappy service.

It's funny how some small vendors are determined to stay that way, one lost customer at a time.

 

[liam.mcquellin]

Sorry if it sounded like I was having a go at the work that Dave is doing. As far as I'm concerned he has all the time in the world to finish it. I just wasn't sure where he was up to and was curious to see if anyone else knew.

Thanks for the information.

Liam