How do I obtain a replacement of a damaged resin set from Hannants?

[Jon Bryon]

Sadly I don't think that's a manufacturing fault - it's a design fault, and one for which Kitty Hawk have a reputation.  The product is not defective as such as they're all like that by design. Rather than buying a jacket with a faulty zip, it's rather like buying a jacket expecting a zip and finding out there isn't one. I personally would doubt whether the retailer or importer will deal with the matter as there's not much they can do.

 

Jon

[Circloy]

7 hours ago, MrProd said:

Sorry Circloy, I hadn't explained, I contracted emodels.co.uk in December, they replied that day, asked if I could send photos which I did. They agreed it looked like a manufacturing fault and said they would contact the importer to see about replacement parts/sprue. I left it a couple of months because pandemic etc but hadn't heard anything so I got back in touch. Emodels.co.uk said they're waiting to hear back. Its only after I asked if they could tell me who the importer was (because at this point I doubted emodels when they said the importer couldn't be called by phone) that i found out it was Hannants.

 

Even so Hannants are only legally responsible to emodels who in turn are legally responsible to you. 

 

[MrProd]

3 hours ago, Jon Bryon said:

Sadly I don't think that's a manufacturing fault - it's a design fault, and one for which Kitty Hawk have a reputation.  The product is not defective as such as they're all like that by design. Rather than buying a jacket with a faulty zip, it's rather like buying a jacket expecting a zip and finding out there isn't one. I personally would doubt whether the retailer or importer will deal with the matter as there's not much they can do.

 

Jon

Not the case, axles are clearly shown in the instructions, the wheels have holes to take the axles and kits bought now have axles. And the retailer agrees. It just the importer have switched off the phones and don't like to answer emails.

[bentwaters81tfw]

Hannants have been having huge problems sending stuff out post Brexit/Covid. They are up to their eyeballs in backlogs, so if you don't get instant gratification, that is the problem.

As to KH getting things wrong, that is the nature of the beast. They belatedly retooled a sprue for one version of kit, and boxed it with another variant. Thing is, they never re released to kit with the original problem.

You might get lucky, you might have to improvise.

[Graham Boak]

Your relationship is with the retailer, and stops there.  It is not with Hannants, and to slag them off on the word of your retailer is possibly totally unjustified.  They have been wrong to involve Hannants in the matter of their contract with you.   You have a choice: either accept the flawed kit or return the kit and get the money back from your retailer.  If there is, as it appears, no chance of actually getting the kit in the condition you require, slagging anybody off is a waste of time and energy.  So make your decision.  Send it back, end of story: but it might be best to read their Terms and Conditions first, as legally there is a time limit to refunding returns.

 

If you decide to keep it, then  consider just what you need to do.  If it is simply a matter of finding/making new axles, just how difficult would they be to make?  As for buying a £63 pound kit (and the paints, brushes/thinners/varnishes required) but cavilling at the cost of such a cheap basic modelling tool as a pin vice, I shall only ask what you would have done had (as is quite common) the axles provided turned out to be too large for the holes they had to go into?

[Dave Swindell]

Top tip when emailing Hannants - ensure the order number and a very brief description of the problem is in the subject line.

 

Order 123456 incorrect item supplied got  me a reply inside 20 minutes today, granted I may have been lucky with this response time, but I've always had a good response from them to any issues with orders.

They likely get hundreds of general enquiries by email every day which may or may not be replied to at some point, but if your subject line makes it obvious you have a customer service issue with an order it's much more likely to get a quick response.

 

Sending from the email your account is registered with might help as well.

[RobL]

14 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

Your relationship is with the retailer, and stops there.  It is not with Hannants, and to slag them off on the word of your retailer is possibly totally unjustified.  They have been wrong to involve Hannants in the matter of their contract with you. You have a choice: either accept the flawed kit or return the kit and get the money back from your retailer.  If there is, as it appears, no chance of actually getting the kit in the condition you require, slagging anybody off is a waste of time and energy.

 

^^ This.

 

Spot on.

 

  

On 17/05/2021 at 23:31, MrProd said:

Graham Boak, consider the following before replying

I only got back into modelling in the last year when I found lots of time on my hands due to being self employed and a pandemic made it illegal to do my job.

Lacking experience, trying to put axles on the heaviest kit I've built, knowing that if it goes wrong I've ruined the most expensive kit I've bought doesn't sound like something I want to do. 

Having spent £63 on a kit I could resent needing to spend more money on tubing, pin vice, drill bits etc. Maybe £63 on a kit is  nothing to you but in my present circumstances it was hard to justify and I think it reasonable to expect it to be manufactured to a standard I can build it OOB.

If I'd spent £63 on a jacket and found the stitching holding the zip in place was coming away and the zip wouldn't do up, imagine if someone told me to go and buy a needle and thread because "diddums" people used to make their own clothes don't you know. 

I hope you didn't mean to come across as patronising. 

 

 

 

 

You paid £63 for the kit, you've only been back in the hobby since last year because you're self employed and the government took steps to mitigate a pandemic.  So what?  Do you even know or understand how that comes across?  The term Karen springs to mind.  Seems there's a lot of that attitude around at the moment.

 

What you paid for the kit and your employment status are irrelevant. 

 

FYI Kitty Hawk kits have never had a reputation of being straightforward out of the box shake and bake builds like Tamiya kits are - some modelling is required and modelling is part of the hobby, including buying tubing/rod/wire etc., a pin vice and drill bits.  

 

And I say that as someone who currently can only dream of being able to drop £60+ on a single kit.

 

Yes the kit should have had the parts, yes the kit should be buildable out of the box, yes [insert frequently heard/read complaint here] shouldn't be the case, however...

 

...I've just done a quick google search and at least 2 reviewers, with results very near the top of the google search, mention missing axles, in reviews of Kitty Hawk 1/48 Flankers, dating as far back as April of last year, both of them in the US -

 

July 2020 - https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/builds/kh/build_kh_80168.shtml

August 2020 - https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/builds/kh/build_kh_80163.shtml

April 2020 - https://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/su-27ub-flanker-c

 

 

And to quote the IPMS USA article -

 

"With some effort you will have a wonderful version of this awesome aircraft."  "can't recommend this kit to a beginner; there is too much trouble shooting and fixing required"

 

 

Edited May 19, 2021 by RobL

[Circloy]

8 hours ago, Dave Swindell said:

Top tip when emailing Hannants - ensure the order number and a very brief description of the problem is in the subject line.

 

Order 123456 incorrect item supplied got  me a reply inside 20 minutes today, granted I may have been lucky with this response time, but I've always had a good response from them to any issues with orders.

They likely get hundreds of general enquiries by email every day which may or may not be replied to at some point, but if your subject line makes it obvious you have a customer service issue with an order it's much more likely to get a quick response.

 

Sending from the email your account is registered with might help as well.

He can't do that 'cause he never ordered for Hannants

[Dave Swindell]

1 hour ago, Circloy said:

He can't do that 'cause he never ordered for Hannants

I refer you to post 1:-

On 28/03/2021 at 02:20, Wm Blecky said:

I recently received an order from Hannants.  One of the Quickboost sets was received damaged.  I've tried emailing Hannants and included pictures of the unopened package to show the broken piece.  A week plus later, there has been no reply from them - which I find quite disappointing.

The set is still listed on their website and they do have stock.

Any suggestions?

My post was general advice for anyone wanting to contact Hannants (or any other supplier for that matter) regarding a customer service issue with an order.

Hannants seem to get a fair bit of flack for a lack of response to emails, but that has never been my experience, and I suspect if people follow the advice they will be much more likely to receive a timely response.

The thread has got a little off topic, and as others have stated, the complainant's issue isn't with Hannants, it's with E-Models, and this is probably why he hasn't had a response.

[Graham Boak]

Dave: there are two different orders being discussed, and this may have led to confusion (not just you!).  Wm Blecky did indeed order from Hannants, but Mrprod didn't.  I would agree that Wm Blecky deserves a better response. but also that these are not normal times. 

 

Comments above understate the current problems with all international trade, due to problems with unloading full container ships because of congestion at the ports, distributing the containers from the ports, returning empty containers.  Stock is building up in producer countries, and blocking their ports and warehouses.  There is an overall lack of ships in the right place.  It will take some time yet to clear this mess.  At the core of the problem is the inflexibility of the highly efficient modern economic system with dispersed specialising companies relying upon highly efficient transport for their "just in time" procedures.  Having cut back on storage facilities, this system has proven unable to cope with disruption.  Solutions will require extra expense resulting in greater costs, and a less "efficient" operation.  Prices will rise; you don't get something for nothing.  Or we will return to the old system, which will function superbly until the next crisis.

 

You may or may not care to draw comparison with the effort to "improve the efficiency" of the Health Service (services around the world) which has resulted in severe shortages of hospital beds, equipment and staff in a crisis.  The price is paid by excess deaths, overworked staff, and postponed treatments (more pain and deaths).  In the UK, we have also seen ill-informed over-reaction exploited by the corrupt - but to some measure this is probably inevitable anywhere and many other tales could be told worldwide.

 

The message from both is that "slack" has to be built into any system in any way of life in order to cope well with the inevitable crises.  The monomaniacal managerial pursuit of efficiency in itself is a recipe for disaster.

[Greg B]

 Closed. It’s started to reach the name calling stage….