"I have never been more disappointed with an online retailer than BananaHobby. I ordered an RC Helicopter and received it after a couple of weeks (?). I opened the box, removed only instructions, determined it was over my head skill wise and decided to return it. It took almost a MONTH to obtain a return authorization to return it! They DO NOT ANSWER PHONES OR EMAILS !! I finally got it returned in perfect & unused condition and then I thought, or rather, MISTAKENLY THOUGHT I would be receiving my refund. The joke was on me! They received their merchandise back on 02/15/12. It is now March 16th and still no refund...I'm beginning to feel that I will never receive my refund and that I've simply been robbed by crooks! DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY AT ANY COST OR YOU WILL BE SORRY YOU DID! This is an extremely poorly run online company and should be shut down by someone. You've been warned. I wish I had been."

" UPDATE! BALLEY YOUR COMPANY (IF THAT IS WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE. I JUST GOT THE NEW REPLACEMENT TRANSMITER, WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE YOU, THE INVOICE SAYS "**REPLACEMENT TRANSMITTER (SERIAL #TX44818, CE0678), ON THE TRANSMITER IT SAYS "TS744722, CE2200. i TOOK THE CAR AND TRANSMITER TO A LOCAL HOBBY SHOP AND ASKED WHAT THEY COULD DO FOR ME. THEIR REPLY WAS WAHT KIND OF SHOP ARE YOU DEALING WITH DON'T THEY KNOW THEIR PRODUCT! YOU NEEDED A 2.4G TRANSMITER NOT AN AM TRANSMITER. I HAVE HAD IT WITH BANANA HOBBY, YOU PEOPLE MUST BE A JOKE. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND YOUR SHOP FOR ANYTHING. PLEASE ANYONE READING THIS!!!!!!!!! DO NOT BUY FROM BANANA HOBBY

hi balley it is strange that you would respond to this review when i have sent 5 emails through your web sight and four phone calls, i did get through on one call but after i gave my order # i was promply disconnected.

I got a rc car from this place, controller will not work. tried to reach some kind of coustmer service, ( on line chat,phone, email) no replay. I have now read some of the other reviews and have to agree this has to be one of worst if not the worst online merchants, all they want is your money. "

"Ok im reading a lot of bad reviews regarding BH however i have a few friends who religiously purchase from them and seldom have any problems..... so i ordered a plane and did not receive it when I thought it should have, long story short i made a phone call and ohh i would say about 2 minutes it was answered by a nice fellow. I told him i was concerned on my shipment. he put me on hold for about 4 minutes and then told me that it was there and will be shipped that day. Well, it was and when i receive it i will post again. So far i have had excellent customer service and quick responses to my issues. I didn't get free shipping because i didn't read the special on the main page but ohh well. im excited for my plane and cant wait it comes tomorrow thx BH.



so i received my plane today and everything works and is in immaculate condition it was so easy to put together a caveman could have done it. they even threw in some free glue. both of the batteries are working i have charged them and depleted them several times and they all of the cells in both of my batteries are charging to full and holding the charge. (checked with a cell reader). Again thx a tun and i will absolutely order from all of ya again!!"

"I purchased the Piper Cub 40" RC airplane. I have been flying for 30 years (not consistently) Airplane was good, flew it couple times on different days. 2nd flight had it trimmed which took adjusting the elevator rod at the servo, and slowing down the ailerons. 3rd flight didn't happen, battery didn't take or hold a charge, or charger didn't work. Banana's girl who wrote down my problem and had to consult with a real tech said, I hurt battery by flying it over 5 minuets, and again by charging it over 1 1/2 hours. So where in their website does it say these things are only good for 5 minuets? So I am buying another battery, I am suspect of the charger which I can only measure 1.4 volts output when the battery is suppose to be 11 volts. So If this is true I only fly 5 minuets then wait 1 to 1.5 hours to fly again, I am not impressed with this deal. I am an old Gas RC flyer."

"All the products I've bought have been damaged or didn't come! I bought a remote control and it came with no antenna, i had to wait another week and a half for it to come to use my boat. The remote control had white stains all along the bottom. Then the propeller shaft i also bought broke while using the boat and i had to retrieve it with a friends boat. Customer service is awful, you have to wait 20 to 25 minutes to finally speak to someone. I will NEVER purchase anything from them ever again, and i discourage anyone from buying their products. Don't waste your time and money on banana hobby!!!!"

"There is no doubt, that it is tough to get a hold of someone at Banana Hobby. But, once you do get them on the phone, they are helpful. There

After receiving my Razor 200 heli from Banana as a birthday present from my wife Christina, I discovered several problems with it. The initial problem was an out of adjustment swash plate and a tail rotor speed problem. I adjusted the swash plate but, could not fix the tail rotor problem. I called Banana and waited about 21 minutes for someone to take my call. The gentleman (did not get his name) that spoke to me suggested that I wait about 45 seconds after powering up the heli and controls. This did cure the problem.

After getting the heli to hover, I found that it would not go forward or backward. Although the servo’s were working, they would not work in conjunction for forward and backward flight. I again called Banana and waited for about 35 minutes before someone finally answered. The young lady (did not get her name) that answered was not qualified to answer a heli question. She had trouble even grasping what I was trying to tell her. Although polite, she kept going back to talk to tech support but, I don’t believe she was explaining my problem correctly based on the answers she was giving me. She promised to research it further and get back to me via e-mail.

After waiting two days for an e-mail, I decided to call again. After waiting about 23 minutes, Crystal answered. She was knowledgeable and after she talked to tech support, it was decided that the control board in the heli was bad. She asked if they could send me one and if I could install it myself. I agreed and she said that it would take several days to get approval for shipment of the board, which was in stock. That was on Friday…the board was shipped Tuesday.

Although customer support availability needs a tremendous amount of improvement, Banana Hobby is an honest company. They attempt to answer questions and respond to complaints. If you look at the reviews for some of the other on-line RC companies, you will find them crammed with phony reviews and no responses to complaints.

Please Banana, take some time to look at your customer support system. It needs a lot of work. Your web site and videos are top notch…that’s what made me a customer.

Mike Levine"

"This is the worst company I have ever dealt with and will recommend that nobody ever use this company. The 100% satisfaction guarantee is total CRAP! This is the worst company I have ever dealt with in my LIFE. I would pay the 300.00$ to erase this experience from my memory. 7 hours on hold, non-operating product and then they want me to pay all the cost associated with the return. Or they give me 86.00$ back and I keep the tank????? Really that is the shipping that I asked to split with them. Who runs a business like that??? Are they Stupid??? So does anyone feel that it is a good business move for me to keep the broken Tank and u return 86.00$ back to me, REALLY, FOR REAL, REALLY!!

I absolutely despise this company, and will recommend to every military member who does business on line to punch them self in the face before they buy anything from this company!!!

I am going on every review web site I can find to tell them about my experience!!!

Ryan




"

"My order came on time. However, There was a problem with the fuselage. One of the two nuts that hold the wing on, was the wrong size. After 5 days of chatting on line, Banana Hobbies would not replace the fuselage. They sent me a new nut of the right size and I had the try to remove the wrong nut from inside the fuselage. They should have replaced the fuselage and send the other one back to the manufacture. I will never buy from Banana Hobby's again."

"Ordered a A10 Warthog from banahahobby.It came, that was the only good experience.
nothing works.The radio doesn't work. the plane has faulty wiring,
There receiver doesn't bind with anything. They don't answer their phone or emails.
You can't very well get any satisfaction from this incredibly poor service.
This is no documentation thats really intelligent. Overall what a bad experience.
I will never buy anything off them again.

Waldo"

"One more time Bailey.The problem with the batteries is they will not take a full charge.Why do you keep saying its my fault because I did not charge them,and I keep telling you the problem is they will not take a charge.Is that so hard to understand?You also say I did not contact support,but I have been posting here and trading info with you for weeks.I guess that means you don't work in support.Is your job blowing smoke up peoples behinds and doing nothing else?Nobody from BH has contacted me about returing the batteries,so your so-called tech can test them for his/herself.Aren't you glad BH screwed me out of $$$$ so I can post what crooks you are with no end in sight?
These batteries are junk,and the 6 month return warranty posted on BH site is complete BS.
I enjoy chatting with you Bailey,and look forward to it for years to come."

"I love your website, your stuff, etc. Workersin shipping Dept. should be more carefuland make sure they don't missanything."

"Ordered rc heli on 1-17-12. Received on 1-25-12. Charged battery and followed all startup instructions. But heli would not fly. Contacted BH via live chat on 1-26-12. Spent two hours with June. Finally instructed to send photos to receive RMA#. Sent photos and waited. After 4 days and no RMA#, talked to Marry on live chat 1-30-12. She emailed me RMA#. I requested a refund and sent heli back on 1-31-12. USPS#0308 2690 0000 4771 3925. According to tracking number, heli arrived at Banana Hobby on 2-6-12. No word from BH so I contacted them via live chat and talked to Marry again. She said it would be 15 business days and BH would contact me. Well after said time, no refund and no contact from BH. Attempted live chat on 2-28-12 but it is shut down, so I sent an email. No response yet. Tried to call customer support today 1-29-12 but was told BH is closed. This was 7:15 pm eastern time, that's 4:15 pm pacific time. I am starting to get a bad feeling about this company. I have no helicopter, I am out $151.65. And another $15.46 to send it back. Not to mention my time in dealing with this. "

"I ordered a Goblin helicopter and an rc airplane from bananahobby. They were delivered as described. I flew the helicopter for less than an hour when a tiny piece of the linkage for the rotor head on the helicopter broke. I ordered a small parts kit from bananahobby on their website.

The first issue I had was that they charged me over $11.00 for shipping and handling parts that cost just over $4.00. These parts were small enough that they could have been placed in a small envelope and mailed for something around $1.00.

When that parts kit arrived, the link that I needed was not in the package. I sent them a message to that affect through the "contact us" form on their web site, but never heard from anyone. Several days later, I call ed them on the phone and sat on hold for about ten minutes before anyone answered the phone. When I explained the missing part to the fellow on the phone, he said he would check into it and call me by the end of the week. It is now Wednesday of the next week and no one has called. I called again today and after sitting on hold for five minutes, reached a gal on the phone. When I explained that I had never received a return call last week, she said she couldn't help me and that I would have to talk to the fellow that I had originally talked to. When I asked how soon I could expect a call, she stated that he should call by the end of the day. It in now 5 pm and I haven't heard from anyone.

In my business I survive on repeat and referral business. I can't imagine these folks have the same business plan. Apparently a customer who spend nearly $350.00 with these folks isn't very valuable to them."

"There shipping prices are way to high.
If you order parts and they add up to lets say 20 dollars ,you will pay about 19 dollars for shipping.
Other than that there planes are great, if you stay with the less expensive ones .
I bought a sky surfer, an f 22 and a f18..64mm... great planes .
I bought a p51 large w/ retracts. Retracts are very fragile.. major pain .stay away from planes w/ retracts"

"This is a very nice to scale Cessna R/C Plane. That being said, lets get into the order / delivery / assembly reviews.

First off, I must admit we were a little hesitant to order from Banana Hobby considering all of the bad reviews and horror stories out there on the internet regarding them, but we decided to go ahead and still place the order.

ORDER / SHIPPING:

The order process was a little sketchy. The first couple of times we tried to place the order that evening, whether direct payment through their site or payment via Paypal, we continued to get some nondescript error and couldn’t order. After waiting a few hours, we tried again and were easily able to place the order and pay via Paypal.

It took a few days for shipping status and order confirmation to show up on their site as well as for the package to ship. However, after updating the shipping and tracking info on their site, the package arrived safely 5 days later. All said and done it took about 1 week from ordering to receiving.

ASSEMBLY:

BlitzRCWorks Cessna 182 500 Class PartsThe assembly process I assumed would be relatively easy considering their site says it’s 90% complete, and it was. As you can see from the picture on the left, there are very few pieces remaining to be put together – even almost all of the decals were put on (not the best application of them, but not bad either). The plane came with the receiver, ESC and servos installed on the necessary parts.

What remained for assembly was basically: The wings (inserting the wing rods through the fuselage, plugging in the servo / light connectors for the wings to the fuselage and then screwing in the one screw for each wing and connecting the wing struts to the fuselage.), tail / rudder (which required some A/B glue and some patience), wheels ( just pop them in place), propeller assembly (slide the couple pieces on the prop shaft and tighten the nut).

Problems: The first problem I ran into was that one of the two A/B glue compounds had dried out almost entirely. I was able to cut a slit into the bottom of the tube and get out just enough to complete the project. Personally I wouldn’t hold this against Banana Hobby as I have see this happen with MANY companies when you order things like this. Problem number two was that the directions said to install a screw into each end of the wing struts so as to hold them into place. The wing strut material is not very cooperative to installing a screw without a guide hole to get started. I would recommend a quick turn of a fine, sharp drill bit to get the holes started and then install the screws. Problem three was the battery cover had a small cracked. Not a big deal when it comes to functionality, but for $200 – I expect better. Problem number four was a simple one and common with RTF planes, the radio and receiver were not bound together. The information for binding in the directions sucked but here is a great video for binding instruction for quite a few radios by Pete of BH. The last problem was that the guide tube for the rudder push rod was loose and not attached in the fuselage on the end near the servo. A little bit of glue and some tape and all better.

Full Review can be found here: http://rwsdev.net/2012/02/banana-hobby-blitzrcworks-6-channel-cessna-182-500-class-rc-plane-order-and-assembly-review/"