Horizon Hobbies

[DIGGER]

I am sorry but I think we should give them a chance , we know the real reason for HH to move out of the UK, after Brexit they are uncertain what's going to happen, it's not just them other firms are doing it, the doom and gloom people and the media are full of it , they are the ones that need to start being more positive, then businesses might see a better outlook. As for HH in Germany, just resent I had to email HH with a problem it went to the states originally but was then past on to the German dept, the trouble was with a receiver, the problem we thought was solved , plane checked out on the ground, hadn't gone a short distance flipped on its back and crashed. Contacted the technical support people in Germany, gave them a full report, they came back to me next day wanting a full list of parts that were damaged, sent it to them and got a reply the next day saying OK will get them to you. I for one am still very happy with them. So stop the doom and gloom . Give them a chance. I am still going to buy from them.

Chris

[Former Member]

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[Frank Skilbeck]

Agree with Steve, this is more of a response to competing with the internet and companies that have different distribution models (which bypass a traditional distributor), so rather than replicate services across the EU thy have centralised them, and they have picked the largest RC market to be based in. After all the EU isn't bigger than the US and has less timezones, and as far as I am aware HH don't have multiple service centres in the US. It maybe after Brexit that HH see the need to appoint or set up a UK distributor depending on how easy it is for UK customers to deal with the rest of the EU.

[ken anderson.]

 

Posted by Paul Marsh on 15/04/2017 20:04:51:

Ripmax must be rubbing their hands in glee! Now is the chance.

.................................................................................................................................................

don't know about Ripmax...... bet that Hobbyking will be......... another notch(as well as the LMS) on their bed post ..

ken Anderson...ne...1.... the times they are a changing dept.

 

Edited By ken anderson. on 16/04/2017 09:05:23

[Guvnor]

Posted by DIGGER on 16/04/2017 05:23:12:

I am sorry but I think we should give them a chance , we know the real reason for HH to move out of the UK, after Brexit they are uncertain what's going to happen,

Sorry, but this was planned way before Brxit...

This is about one thing, cold hard money.

Or the lack of it...

[Guvnor]

And this will have zero effect on Ripmax.

Little of what they distribute crosses with HH products.

And Futaba is almost as moribund as JR...

[Former Member]

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[I_AM_MARKEVANS]

I think the 'something big is coming' teaser posts were just about the new website and the unboxing live videos on the 6th April from the show.

Although they were still only spoken in German.

Even the Germans themselves are giving HH Europe a hard time on the FB pags, not just us then! haha

In other news, anyone wanna buy a 'like new' DX9 Black in the case, gotta get rid quick before they are worthless.....lol.

[Don Fry]

Do yer 50 quid if yer that daft mate. You know it makes sense. Defunct stuff.

Bottom line, it's not a big market, even as a Europe wide market, and Horizon had made a fair mess of their retrenchment. But don't make a big thing of a small US company going to Europe as their base. In Europe the post services do cheap international charges. Why would they dance to the UK market, learn your place lads.

[Colin Leighfield]

I'm sure the "be patient, wait and see approach" is better than second guessing something we won't influence in the slightest anyway. Similar doom was being predicted for HK when they messed about with their web-site. I've continued to use them without the slightest problem and don't believe for a second that they are going to disappear. The most important thing for me is the expected exchange rate effect on prices, which certainly is noticeable.

[Former Member]

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[Former Member]

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[Paul Marsh]

There is - certain DX20's have been recalled...

**LINK**

[Former Member]

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[Former Member]

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[Cuban8]

"Found not to meet quality expectations"....................is simply management hog wash that can mean anything depending on what they want to not say. Most companies use the same nonsense rather than admit that sometimes things do go wrong. A fault's a fault and a mistake's a mistake no matter how you try to dress it up - and whether the product is software, a car, clothing or R/C gear. The main thing as far as the consumer is concerned is how the issue is resolved and whether confidence in the product, whatever it is, becomes eroded.

[Geoff S]

Posted by Percy Verance on 17/04/2017 07:43:21:

Tom

It might appear HH are dying, but I'd say it was more like a really bad mid life crisis.......... This just isn't the way you go about it. Back in the 70's and 80's I don't remember one single Futaba recall. Ever.

I don't have a dog in this fight but I don't remember there being many recalls of anything in those days. Ralph Nader was kicking up a fuss about unsafe cars which eventually something was done about but it took a while before manufacturers took a lot of notice. Last year I even had a recall on the carbon front forks of a bike frame I bought 7 years ago. The forks were replaced FoC.

I think the litigious nature in the USA has contributed a lot to the current recall system adopted by manufacturers. Perhaps that's a good thing and we're benefiting from that.

Geoff

[Frank Skilbeck]

I can't recall any Digifleet or Skyleader recalls either. my first set was a Futaba 27mhz FM set which gave me no end of trouble and went back several times, living near Fleet at the time, I bought a Digifleet on the premise I could take it in if I needed, but I never did.

Futaba did recall their first 2.4 sets as they had the GUID issue.

[Erfolg]

Comparisons with the USA can be very misleading.

There is a far higher degree of integration with the USA Logistics operations (as the parcel deliveries seem to be called , now) within their borders than is the case with the EU.

Generally speaking, most businesses are English speaking, in the USA. Whereas the EU has a mixture of languages.

For a free trade area, there are a lot of rules that are not universally applied. Two I am aware of ,it is not possible for a non Danish person to buy a property as a home there, it is similar in parts of Austria. Then there is the issue of reciprocity of qualifications for workers, apparently bureaucracy and non recognition occurs dependent on the country, not withstanding the qualifications.

Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects to come to terms with respect to the EU, is that many of the so called rules, are actually principals, rather than laws. That much of the higher courts, contain ex politicians and ex-bureaucrats, rather than being from the Legal Professions. It is the political nuances which allow one country to have a set of regulations which they apply, seen as legal, yet not in the case of another. All of which catches out the UK in particular.

Once the UK leaves the EU, sending and receiving goods from the EU is probably going to become a set of hurdles that many modellers in the UK will not be willing to engage with.

In many respects, the same issues will become an issue for the retail trade, if the distributor and sales departments etc. are located outside of the UK. Where at present small volumes and values of goods can be acceptable to import, the previous issues could make future importation, particularly from the EU, less than attractive.

The best place for HH, with respect to the UK market, is here.

[Ben B]

I almost bought yet more Horizon clobber today (to go with the Eflite Clipped Wing Cub and as3x receiver I bought a few months back). I needed to extend the servo leads (which use JST-ZH 1.5mm connectors). Unfortunately the only ones I can find are Eflites own. I needed 4 extension leads and the original parts are now £15 each. Not surprisingly I ended up buying some wire and heatshrink!!! £100 for a bare plane was bad enough but £60 just on extensions? No way.... I was going to solder up my own extension leads but it's unecessary weight- extending the leads does the same job without the additional weight of two extra connectors with associated resistance / chance of failure. £15 for the 4 required extension leads would be bad enough!

[I_AM_MARKEVANS]

Joking aside, do people still see Spektrum having a market in the UK moving forward or do you think this could be the beginning of the end?

Cause I do have a DX9 to get rid of and various Spektrum rx's if the future is looking bleak, I don't want to hold onto them until it's too late.

[Denis Watkins]

I am looking to buy from the dealers who have stock

As when the price drops, I can stock up for the future

[Devcon1]

I'll always speak highly of the Spektrum stuff I've had and it's never let me down, DX6i, DX8 and various receivers but I won't be buying any more Spektrum stuff as I have completely, for new installations, migrated to FrSky based on price and huge leaps in functionality with OpenTX. (Also converted a couple of models to incorporate Varios and other telemetry)

What did niggle me was having to pay over £20.00 for a programming cable to set up an AR636 receiver, this sort of brazen profiteering should have been negated by any electronic wizardry being built into the receiver. Really did feel cheated when I hit the buy button on that one.

Long term for Spektrum, who knows but I suspect they'll be around for some time to come, good luck to them but I've moved on and wish I'd been enlightened a couple of years ago OpenTX is a revelation .

[I_AM_MARKEVANS]

Without taking this off topic, that's also where i'm at. I love my DX9 and and have flown Spektrum since the DX6i, but for various reasons i now also have the Taranis (2nd one actually) and have finally got my head around the programming.

I too don't like having to buy that cable, and when/if a firmware fix ever gets released to fix the 11ms bug in the new telemetry rx's, i find it a complete joke that we have to buy that cable to program them to fix a problem for Spektrum. Also the cost of a rx+vario with Frsky is hell of a lot less than it would currently cost to buy the same Spektrum set up if i were fitting out a new sailplane and wanted all the telemetry.

I honestly can't see the prices dropping either so i'm at a point now where i need to decide whether to take the Frsky path or stick with Spektrum. Both are lovely radios and it's a tough decision to make to move away from something you have used a while and are comfortable with.

Silly really when we're just dealing with toy planes =)

[DIGGER]

Well I for one will not be changing in fact I have changed completely to all Spektrum. If I want cheaper receivers then I can put Orange ones in, but I can also wait for you lot in the UK to start selling up and we can buy that cheap as well, ha but what about the postage you say, now even that's been taken car off ,we have 2 that I know of, people that ship anything out to here, for instance large boxed kits €15 - €20. smaller ones 5 . No I'm not changing . Hobbyking still can send items to us from the EU at very low cost. I think we have the best of both worlds. I love Spektrum and I am still going to wait and see. I agree with ERFOLG it does make sense to move to Germany.

 

Edited By DIGGER on 18/04/2017 05:53:34