Good service from Ripmax

[Phil Francis]

Bought a Futaba 14sg in 2013 + extra 7008rx. Went to use the RX about 6 weeks ago it would bind but would not operate any servos. Sent it back to Ripmax explaining the situation expecting them to repair and ask for a payment for return. Phoned them a couple of weeks later to find out what was happening and they told me there was a new one on the way to me. Well chuffed.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

It's happened 3 times to me - I've found Ripmax very reasonable if approached in the right manner...unlike the brick wall I've encountered with a couple of their competitors. Shame how Horizon went - they were equally accommodating when the UK operation was still running.

[Cuban8]

Posted by Phil Francis on 31/07/2018 21:45:36:

Bought a Futaba 14sg in 2013 + extra 7008rx. Went to use the RX about 6 weeks ago it would bind but would not operate any servos. Sent it back to Ripmax explaining the situation expecting them to repair and ask for a payment for return. Phoned them a couple of weeks later to find out what was happening and they told me there was a new one on the way to me. Well chuffed.

Probably just as cost effective and convenient for them to give you a new tranny rather than have a tech at the bench spend time and money on spares repairing your old one - maybe getting it returned again - disgruntled customer etc.

What's the retail price of a new 14SG? £400 or so with the wholesaler's markup, the retailers bit and the dreaded VAT?

A guess, but I doubt if Ripmax imports them from the Far Eastern manufacturer for much more than a quarter of that total figure, maybe even less (they all keep that sensitive data very secret), so I doubt if they're actually very much out of pocket, if at all - there's so little to be made on the repairs of consumer goods these days, given the high volumes/low price, generally good quality manufacturing in the first place, limited need for traditional servicing and not long on sale before the next upgrade, but of course they do get the free and very positive advertising about how wonderful they are, spread about the modelling community. Good for Ripmax anyway.

[Chris Walby]

I broke the flap switch on my Spektrum DX8 gen 1 a couple of weeks ago, phoned Al's hobbies and had a chat.

Very helpful and mentioned one of his engineers had just returned from Spektrum training course and I could pop in or post it to get it fixed. He enquired on my soldering skills and said they could dispatch a spare switch for me to solder in.

Turn up 2 days later, fitted and working a treat..perhaps the tide is turning?

[Gordon Tarling]

Cuban8 - the OP's post stated that it was a faulty receiver, not a transmitter.

[Cuban8]

Posted by Gordon Tarling on 01/08/2018 11:41:35:

Cuban8 - the OP's post stated that it was a faulty receiver, not a transmitter.

Fair enough, my mistake... but with a receiver it's even less economic to repair hardware - same reasons, just more so given the low value to the distributor.

I used to work as a bench repair tech for a small company that distributed specialist electronic test gear to the power industry. We used to aim to just break even on the repairs, which was not too bad on a bit of kit worth ten grand, but difficult on say a test meter worth just a couple of hundred.

Edited By Cuban8 on 01/08/2018 16:24:06

[Brian Hammond]

Once again fantastic service from Paul K at Ripmax.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Cuban8]

I was a Futaba user from the mid 70s to 2012 and agree that the gear was excellent, but not Infallible, particularly their PCM gear which claimed many a model in my club back in the day. Never used it or found it necessary over standard PPM.

[Former Member]

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