Yet another "ESTES sent me a smashed package" thread.

[tbonerocketeer]

Brick and motar hobby shops that are not owned by franchises like Hobbytown are getting harder to find everyday. We used to have 2 in my area, now we only have Hobbytown and the two good hobby shops are gone. We are lucky that a local gaming and comic book shop carries AT 24mm and 29mm Hobbyline along with Estes and AT kits, at full retail of course. I miss the non-franchise hobby shops as they had some really cool NOS plastic models and even some NOS rockets on occasion at reasonable prices. Hobbytown rarely has deals on much and their inventory is mainly flavor of the month (currently its quadcopters). I will put up with a few squished packagesvfrom Estes so long as they continue with their replacement policy on damaged products.

Internet has killed this. It's hard to sell on site even when customers complain about price and how x has y. They don't even factor in shipping.

 

[DavidMcCann]

brick and mortar everything is basically dead. The few stores left are smaller and carry much less in stock.

 

[Pat_B]

Got my Saturn V yesterday and the box was almost torn open. There was enough space above the kit to protect it, but the problem was obvious. Whoever put the packing tape over the box didn't press it down. The tape was secured at box ends and nowhere in the middle. The entire center of the box had been pushed downward, and the tape was just floating in the air. Paper tape that is applied wet does a pretty good job of eventually adhering, but cello tape does need to be pushed down. And there was no tape applied perpendicular to the seam- it was all over the seam which allowed the box to twist.

This isn't meant to bash Estes, but perhaps someone in the shipping dept could use some more training.

 

[Bat-mite]

Got my Saturn V yesterday and the box was almost torn open. There was enough space above the kit to protect it, but the problem was obvious. Whoever put the packing tape over the box didn't press it down. The tape was secured at box ends and nowhere in the middle. The entire center of the box had been pushed downward, and the tape was just floating in the air. Paper tape that is applied wet does a pretty good job of eventually adhering, but cello tape does need to be pushed down. And there was no tape applied perpendicular to the seam- it was all over the seam which allowed the box to twist.

This isn't meant to bash Estes, but perhaps someone in the shipping dept could use some more training.

That coincides with what my package looked like. Totally Estes' fault, not the shipping company.