Asian Mail Order Warranties????

[Whiteprop]

I recently received an order that I placed with HiModel:
1 FrSky JR compatible Transmitter Module/Receiver
10 FrSky 8 channel HV receivers
2 FrSky DIY Hacker Modules

I previously purchased some similar items from FrSky's US distributor...thinking that if it all went bad I would at least have some recourse and the return shipping would be reasonable.

As it turned out the units worked flawlessly and that prompted me to place the large order with HiModel. The HiModel price was a fraction of the US price.

I Binded (Bound?) all ten receivers and just did a quick functional test on them (all worked fine). I will be doing full range test on all of then to attempt to detect any problems within the warranty period (Ha,Ha).

I opened the Transmitter Module/Receiver combo....WOW...bad day for the Q.C. dept!! The Transmitter Module would not plug into my JR Transmitter. You could see that the pc board receptacle was not aligned with the holes in the case.

The receiver board assembly was at an angle withing the case and I could not plug a servo into the plug header.

As per HiModel procedure I opened and incident ticket that inluded pics of the problem units. Received this prompt response from a Mr. Wang:

" Sorry to see this low level problem, showed the pictures to the manufacturer, they suggested to open the case and realign the PCB board.
Due to the high shipping cost for international package, I think seems we can only try as the factory suggested, and let me know if it can not be fixed by open it up and adjust the position."
Regards,
Wang

I don't normally remove labels and open up items for fear of voiding my warranty (Ha,Ha,Ha). Anyway...they gave me the go ahead and the receiver was no problem...just peeled the label back, opened the case, seated the board assembly and reassembled. The Tranmitter module pc board was glued to the case....took quite a bit of very careful prying to get it out. Installed the empty case into the transmitter...plugged in the pc board assembly and re-glued into the proper position.

Tried it all out and it works fine...module binds to receiver..etc.

Sent the following note to Mr. Wang:

"Your response about this problem concerns me. What would have happened if I were not able to repair the units? I could easily have damaged the transmitter module pc board assembly in my attempt to remove it. I understand the issue with the price of international shipping. What is your policy if I have non repairable problems with future items I purchase? As I stated, this type of thing really concerns me and unless you are willing to offer a fair solution if a similar problem occurs in the future, I will not be placing any further orders."


I know that this is a difficult thing to address...shipping for warranty purposes is prohibitive. I really think that under the conditions I previously described,...instead of returning the item, the fair thing for them to do would be to issue a credit. Will be interesting to see Mr. Wang's response.

Has anyone else had warranty issues similar to this?...Do they actually have a warranty policy or is this just a situation that you role the dice and hope for the best?

[RCModelReviews]

Warranty is always an issue when buying online from places that are a long way away.

HiModel are *much* better than some of the other Asian suppliers and FrSky are far better than most of the other manufacturers.

I'm sure that in this case, if the problem couldn't be fixed in the way you manged to, either HiModel or FrSky would have made sure your issues were resolved at no cost to yourself. I have received emails from a couple people who've had product replaced free of charge by FrSky when issues were encountered and Wang at HiModel is very aware of the importance of customer-service.

[Whiteprop]

Received a very encouraging note from Mr. Wang:

"Regarding the warranty issue, in policy, we require the defective items must be returned for warranty, but in practice, if the value of the item is not very high, we will try to discuss with the factory to replace for customers without returning back the bad ones, for some cases even the factory can not accept it, some time we may replace at our cost for customers depending on the value of product and cost of returning, this is what we usually do. In short, in policy, we require the defective items must be returned, but in practice, we handle the warranty very flexible."

Seems to me they are very sensitive to customer service. All correspondence with HiModel & Mr. Wang has been extremely prompt and positive. With this kind of support I will certainly continue to do business with HiModel.