"Paid with pay pal a month ago, they refuse to send item, learned from police they are being investigated for Fraud"

"I tried to purchase an engine from Tower on August 18th. After making the order, I waited 4 days and did not get a shipping notification. I went back to the website and saw a note that says "all shipping are delayed, cancellations are not allowed, and customer service is down. I tried contacting them by email and got no response after 4 days. Something fishy is going on."

"So yesterday I wrote a review of a product. Got an email asking me to confirm my review saw the review on their site about an hour afterwards now 24 hours later its gone. My suggestion is to ignore their reviews and do business with a company that actually let's customers leave critical reviews. In removing critical reviews they are misleading and dishonest "

"I have requested multiple times and multiple ways for upper management/ director level contact information but I was unable to receive them from Tower Hobbies so I am posting this information here and other places online.

Tower Hobbies was my go to Hobby Shop for decades. It will be no more. I pre-ordered quite a few AFX slot cars (4 GT40 Mk IIb, 2 Corvette LT1,4 GT 40 Mk 4, and a single 70 Chevelle and single 71 Chevelle) way back on May 19 just as soon as they posted them on their site. The initial ship date on their site said July 15. After countless shipping delays, we fast forward to first week of September and they finally receive them. These slot cars immediately began hitting Ebay and other stores around the country. I was excited to finally get my slot cars after waiting for FOUR months and being one of the very first to pre-order from Tower Hobbies. So I waited for shipping confirmation for several days (again after seeing other stores post them as available and seeing them appear on Ebay. One small vendor in NY sold 26 of the MK 2b's) But no word from my very, very pre-order from Tower Hobbies. So I sent a message requesting info through their online "customer service" form. Someone replied saying that I would only be getting one car, the 71 Chevelle! After several rounds of emails, the customer service person "Sam R" said they were only able to ship 12% of the outstanding orders because that was all the product they were shipped. I could understand that IF I had just pre-ordered a few weeks or month or two ago. But I pre-ordered as soon as they listed these available back in May 19, FOUR months prior. There is ZERO chance that all 12% of these fulfilled orders were placed before May 19. Zero chance. So the question is, who at Tower Hobbies placed later orders before legitimate early pre-orders and why?

The why is easy. These slot cars are hot ticket items and were already selling at 2-4X markups on Ebay within hours after their release. So PROFIT is the why. The question is who did this. I believe there needs to be an audit. Again, there is NO WAY orders were shipped in the order received as Tower Hobbies promises. Otherwise, I would have received all the GT40 Mk IIb's and Corvettes I pre-ordered.

Tower Hobbies is no longer my go to Hobby Store. And I will NEVER pre-order from them again as there are games being played somewhere along the line."

"The customer service is horrible, it like working with The Marx Brothers... You can call or email, they still don't get it... Call on a back order, I ask the lady to cancel a backorder. We both agree that I will order another product and she will cancel the back order. A week and a half later I call to see where the replacement and my refund is.... its in the mail ALONG WITH THE BACK ORDER!!!!!!! "

"Lousy shipping and customer service

Tower Hobbie's customer service is lousy. I placed an international order on December 5th, 2019 and paid for priority shipping (7-14 days) USPS. When contacting them about this they ran around in circles repeating their same response and that I would have to wait until January 20th to place a claim!! Wait all that time for nothing!! I was expecting my package for Christmas, now a month after I do not need it! Their lack of responsibility and information is frustrating. Now I have no parts, no money, and a terribly bad experience!! My last time doing business with a company like that! Take your business elsewhere!!
"

"DO NOT BUY! VERY NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE with Tower Hobbies. I've placed an order on Dec. 10, 2019. The day after, on Dec. 11, 2019, I've called in to verify that my order was shipped, but it wasn't. I've called again on Dec. 12, 2019, asking again if the order was shipped, and they guaranteed me that the order was going to be shipped out by the end of the day.

I've paid $56 extra to ensure a faster delivery option. I was going to opt for the even faster shipment method paying over $150 in shipping cost, but the Tower Hobbies operator at the phone confirmed to me that the PRIORITY SHIPPING was going to take about 7 days to be delivered. So, I've followed his recommendation.

After 16 days, I still didn't receive the package. I've asked several times a reimbursement for the extra $56 paid, but until now this request has been denied. I've filed a claim to the United States Federal Trade Commission trying to recover at least my $56.

BE CAREFUL ON YOUR ORDER"

"
Lol where to start. I guess I can start off with the fact that the website looks like something out of the late 90s. They can sponsor all kinds of events but can't hire a new developer?
Second the customer service is garbage. I placed an order and payed for priority shipping (1-3 days) USPS tracker said 4 days. When contacting them about this they ran around in circles repeating their same response that they swear they shipped it priority. Don't believe them. Ordered elsewhere the same exact time with priority shipping as well, and my package from elsewhere (further away actuay) will be here sooner, on the third day just like it's supposed to. Take your business elsewhere"

"I have been a long time customer of Tower Hobbies. But a few days ago I just made my last order and they lost a long time customer. I went online the other night and wanting to order the RC4WD K5 Blazer orange body. It was on bacon order (which means no payment). I went ahead and back ordered it (thinking I have some time since it's back order). The next morning, I went online again and saw that the orange body I want is available and can be on payment plan. It was too early for me to call because they are on central time so I was going to call during the day and cancel the back order and buy the available one on payment plan. A few hours passed by and I got an email stating that my backorder has been shipped. So now it's too late for me to cancel. The store will not honor it and give me a payment. Those ****!

Part II of my review:
Tower Hobbies sent me an email link to give them a review. So I did. Needless to say, it was a not so positive review due to a horrible customer service I recently experienced from them. Then another email came a few days later stating that my review could not be posted...I thought that was funny. Tower Hobbies will only post reviews that has a positive feedback apparently..."

"I've given TH so many opportunities to redeem themselves. Although they've made some improvements to their website, you can't rely on the information presented. When I place an order, I specifically order items that they state are in stock at the Illinois warehouse...only to discover the item is not in stock at all, or only available from their CA location.

Plus their shipping practices are horrible. So often I'll receive one small item in a 2-cuft box. That's nuts!

Sorry TH......I'm done with you...there are other online hobby shop with much better order fulfillment systems."

"I remember buying from them back 25 years ago, little by little this company went down hill. I just placed an order, had a coupon, used it, was computed and,....at last step of check out...it vanished and was charged full amount.

So, they are in IL and I am in TN....check this out, they use the most cheap way to ship out your stuff, is going to take exactly SEVEN days to get the stuff here, they give to FedEx, than FedEx will give to USPS that will handle it bellow first class, I could had WALKED to IL in this time !!!!

Customer service was rude and snob.....guess the "workers" own the company, reason is going down hill

Never again, most of the stuff is out of stock anyway, they only sell cheap china stuff now...GOOD BYE TOWER HOBBIES !!! "

"Bought a new OS 65ax motor. It arrived with a bad sleeve, it had visible bumps in the bore, piston would lock up if you tried to rotate the crank. I shipped it to their repair department and after 6 weeks I got back the same defective motor with the same sleeve in it, plus a new feature; one of the rear cover bolt holes was stripped out. I disputed the CC charge as a result. Then to my complete surprise, after another 2 months went by I was informed that my dispute was overruled. Throughout this entire 5 month period, NEVER ONCE WAS I CONTACTED BY TOWER HOBBIES.

It's a pathetic way to treat someone who has been doing business with them since they opened in 1971. I'll never go back."

"all the idiots that say breaking and fixing your rc is part of the hobby are just useful tools. if you pay hundreds of dollars for something it shouldn't break every time you use it. "

"Bought new os. 21tm motor for 280$ ran like crap since day one, they tell me to let it break in, didnt help still runs hot and like crap, i sed ot in under warranty and it had to go 2 horizon hobby aka towers other brand, were they tried charging me another 170$ for a new cylinder piston and labor saying my motor was very dirty with dirt and sand inside it when i know thats not true when it has never been run outside our warehouse and i looked in back plate b4 sending to them and it was perfect and shiny inside, just trying to get another 170 out of me by using a different company they own, big scam! Stay away been a life long tower customer up till now!"

"A one star review was deleted over night by Tower Hobby. They should not deny customer reviews because they don’t agree with them.That makes me wonder how many other reviews were deleted by Tower because they didn’t meet their approval and for the sake of a higher rating."