Fine Design visit

[BHChieftain]

Does anybody know a Hydro&Marine distributor that ships to USA other than Fine?

Chief

[ksm2001]

We have a Great Hobbies store here in Edmonton and whenever I go in on a Saturday the place is busy. They don't carry much of boat hardware but have a good selection of building supplies for our boats. Hope things go well for your store there. They are good to deal with when ordering items not in stock from their online website, just tell them you'll pick it up from the store so no shipping charges.

Ken

[Flying Scotsman]

To the best of my knowledge, FD has all rights for North American distribution, which is a shame.

Douggie

Does anybody know a Hydro&Marine distributor that ships to USA other than Fine?

Chief

[graill]

I'll back that up for sure. There's a lot of meatballs out there that can make it tough to keep a positive attitude first.

The LHS here closed up a few months ago. Basically because he said old guys were slowly getting too old to fly and the kids just looked at what to buy online cheaper.

If you saw my shop... well... You'd see a nice Audi. lol. ...and a bunch of boxes.

Just information, not for or against anyone.

There's a trend in China... Shopping malls that don't sell anything. They are just showrooms for merchandise and if you like something you can order it online later to have it delivered. It's really strange, full malls, with nothing for sale, just product showrooms.

Perhaps there is something about that trend that might be headed our way.

Fightercat nails it 100%. This trend is rampant online and in the "i will order it for you crowd".

Many dealers show items but have nothing in stock, but they will not tell you this, case in point a rather popular hobby shop in my state. The issue arises when the well oiled machine of ordering, and then the dealer ordering, and in between the parts supply line gets hosed, parts lost, not delivered, etc, and the customer gets angry over the delay because the dealer never told them the parts werent in stock or the parts will have a long lead time, both unacceptable for the customer.

What happened between Chris fine and myself back in 2003 will stay there, still, i do not purchase from him, this does not change the fact that he knows a helluva lot about FE. He may have failed at the service portion of my order back then and subsequent excuses for months on end, but his knowledge is nothing to dismiss. I wont ever order from him again but i will not dismiss him for his contribution nor his knowledge of our hobby and a great resource of information.

My dollar and two cents adjusted for inflation.

[sigelitest]

I would like to say to Steve, It is nice to see that u would stick up for another store and for me that says a lot about you as a person. So u defiantly have my business.

As far as Chris goes he has taken a lot of time to help me out with some of my builds and that means a lot. I am new to FE boats. I have done Gas boats in the past, But I like The Electric setups much more. I Have been an 1/8th scale truck and 60 size helicopter guy for about 18 years. Since I have gotten into the FE side of the hobby I enjoy it more than flying. If it wasn’t for the help from Chris I probably would have dumped a bunch of money into setups that wouldn’t work. Anyway I guess I have been lucky but every thing I have ordered has shipped fast. I ordered an Hydro & Marine 36” cat last Friday and tracking shows it to be coming Tuesday. 3 working days is not bad at all.

Obviously OSE is great as well, Steve will get back with Emails quickly and never had problems with delivery.

There are not many places to get FE boat stuff online and I hate to put one out of business
You might need parts from that store one day. From what Chris told me he plans on closing his store front and just focusing on the online business it is a shame that everything is going to mail order

[Kenneth Ablack]

Yeah he's turned over a new leaf for sure . I paid him for a Neu 2230 1y and a water jacket for it on January 26th 2010 and I am still waiting for it to be delivered. I guess being the goodly gentleman that he is I will get my motor or my money back when I see him in hell. Chris Fine you suck!!!!!! OSE and FighterCat for me from now on.

[Brushless55]

Man, sorry to hear that Kenneth...

[LarrysDrifter]

Kenny, I am very sorry to hear that. I have made 3 orders from him (Chris) and have recieved them in a timely manner. However, with all the negative hype Ive read here, I am now too paranoid to order from him again. Its very unfortunate to hear anyting negative about any dealer, no matter where they are located. I can say, with pride and experience, that Steve, the owner of OSE is THE most stand up and reliable person to deal with. I understand he doesnt carry everything ever made FE, but he does have plenty. Good luck with your future FE ventures.

[Drax21]

Same is true for all stores, online shops etc. If you mess up my order once and push it, I ain't coming back, but if they do their best to correct the problem then I allow 2nd chances. I haven't heard a bad word said about OSE. As for FD, too many bad words. I would say 30% positive 70% Negative. I have placed many orders with Hobby King in the past, and I have never had any problems other than post being slow.(not really their fault) When I have asked for a refund say if stock didn't arrive when stated, I always get my money back within 3 days. Some people have had a lot of bad experiences with HK and would never shop there again. I'm guessing HK is 80% Positive 20% Negative.
I haven't shopped at FD and I never will. I see about 4 Negatives at least a month, and some of them are quite extreme with a lot of money involved. That is enough to put me off.

Places like
OSE
KINTEC RACING
FIGHTERCAT
and for me
KERSHAW DESIGNS
HOBBYKING
have proven themselves good, safe places to shop time and time again.

[Brushless55]

Kenny, I am very sorry to hear that. I have made 3 orders from him (Chris) and have recieved them in a timely manner. However, with all the negative hype Ive read here, I am now too paranoid to order from him again. Its very unfortunate to hear anyting negative about any dealer, no matter where they are located. I can say, with pride and experience, that Steve, the owner of OSE is THE most stand up and reliable person to deal with. I understand he doesnt carry everything ever made FE, but he does have plenty. Good luck with your future FE ventures.

[Punisher 67]

Yeah he's turned over a new leaf for sure . I paid him for a Neu 2230 1y and a water jacket for it on January 26th 2010 and I am still waiting for it to be delivered. I guess being the goodly gentleman that he is I will get my motor or my money back when I see him in hell. Chris Fine you suck!!!!!! OSE and FighterCat for me from now on.

YUUUP!! thats the chris fine I know . Kenneth I would be in his face like yesterday...... . I would phone and absolutely demand my money back - thats a lot of $$$$$$ to just forget about .

[LarrysDrifter]

Yeah, thats bullspit!!

[ksm2001]

Sorry to hear that Ken.
I would call him, but if Chris is like he was to me almost 5 years ago I would be surprised he picks up your call and more likely won't call you back if you can leave a message. I'm not sure how Chris Fine can sleep at night knowing how many people he's taken and pissed off from his poor business skills but I really believe it will bite him in the ass big time one day (Carma). It's just to bad so many people get stung by him.

Ken

[Brushless55]

YUUUP!! thats the chris fine I know . Kenneth I would be in his face like yesterday...... . I would phone and absolutely demand my money back - thats a lot of $$$$$$ to just forget about .

Interesting thing about this guy to me is, I was asking about where to buy a Cat that looks like he is one of the only ones who carries them and he joined OSE just a few days ago to post his number to call
No way in H@*# will I buy from him because of all this bad crap I keep reading about FD

[ecoovert]

There's somethuing to be said about this being an O.S.E. site. I'm not saying O.S.E. has ever done me wrong but you wouldn't exactly expect to hear a whole lot of negative talk about your business on your own forum. I love O.S.E. and have ordered from them and plan to continue but I was just stating a fact there. As to H.K. I also order from them often but if you go to certain sites you'll find plenty of negative comments regarding them as well. Remember this. Bad news is like a virus, once it starts to spread it's near impossible to stop.

I have never had any issues with Chris and I'm one of those that will say he is a wealth of information. He isn't there every time I call but when I leave a message he does get back with me. I'll also say that any business I've made multiple orderes from there usually comes a time when an order goes wrong. As to Chris I once ordered a Nem. Gold 4082 motor from him whic by the way came with a Leopard water jacket at no additional cost. This was before I saw O.S.E. implement the free water jacket with their Leopard motors. Anyway; the motor I ordered had an issue so I called Chris to explain the issue. Chris told me over the phone that it sounded like the motor was defective and asked me to send it back. Less than 2 weeks later I recieved a replacement and he even refunded me the shipping. By the way I lived in Washingtom state at the time. Chris has always been willing to take plenty of time to answer my questions and if it were not for him I doubt I would have gotten into FE boats. Chris was even willing to tell me how to save money by ordering a hull he didn't offer as a bare hull and doing my own build. His willingness to tell me that kept him from making an extra $600 on that day. Sure, I know some have had problems with orders and I'm not saying those are not real issues but all I can say is before I order anything online I always make sure it's in stock. When I order from a mom and pop type of business I always call and ask "Do you have it in stock right now?" I'd bet if most of us got into that habbit we'd save ourselves a lot of trouble. Maybe that's why I never had any issues with Chris. Another thing I like about Chris is I once asked him about all the bad press he's been getting and he never told me those guys are just a bunch of liars. When I mentioned a specific issue one guy had Chris never said anything negative about the guy with the issue to cover his posterior. If some of these guys talk to Chris the way they express themeselves here I can see where he might not feel so compelled to go the extra yard for them.