Pacific Coast Hobbies — Attraction in Lomita

After a very productive and professional telephone call from Mike, the floor manager I am updating my review from 1 star to 4. A good conversation goes a long way to satisfy customers concerns. Original review I have been a customer since this store opened almost 20 years ago, my customer number is below 800 with almost 40k customers now. I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars at this store over the years. Even though I now live an hour away I still gave them my business until now. I dropped off a car in early July for repairs, I received a call that it was ready for pick up a few weeks later, when I drove the hour to pick it up it wasn’t ready so I left it, no further call backs. Here it is Sept 6th and I was driving through the area so I decided to see if it was done so I could pick up saving me a two hour round trip. I called and spoke to Donavan, I told him my situation and that I didn’t have much time, he told me that he would be right back to me to get my information, almost 15 min later while being on hold I hung up and called back, he told me he forgot to get back to me so I asked to speak with a manager. By this time I had already passed the exit to the hobby store from the freeway. 10 min latter I got a call back from Josh the on duty manager who “immediately” started to make excuses that they were busy and he then cut me off before I was finished and gave a “half” hearted apology. When I Dared to continue my conversation and complaint after being cut off mid sentence about the poor customer service in not only being forgotten about but also not receiving a phone call informing me that my car was complete he told me that “he doesn’t need a customer giving him a strange attitude and telling him how to do his job”, the strange attitude was a customer complaining in a calm voice about poor customer service. (I told him that his job as a manager was to de-escalate upset customers and not to escalate the situation by telling them that they are giving him attitude when they have legitimate complaints) I then reminded him that I have been a customer for almost 20 years spending $1,000’s of dollars, his response was that “everyone spends $1,000’s of dollars so that doesn’t matter”, I told him that I’m sure that the owner doesn’t feel that way. When I told him that I would write a review his response was “that’s mature” I left him with a piece of advice, that the customer is always right, his response “not in this industry brother”.

Unfortunately this shop has lost my business, I’m sure that I can find another hobby store that appreciates the money that I...

[Review updated, OG review at the end] This place is the best and the staff are even better. I'm fairly new to the RC hobby so I am breaking a lot of things and I don't know a lot about maintenance or what parts would be better, that kind of stuff. Last time I was in I was greeted immediately by Victor and Josh. Victor helped me out with figuring out which parts and then finding the parts for my LaTrax rally and also for my Slash 4x4. What blew my mind was how all of the staff was willing to not just help me out but also each other. It was cool to see retail staff actually being a team, it made me feel like my presence in the store was not a burden but a joy to these guys. As I asked more questions, Victor would call over other staff, Josh and Shawn, to answer my questions and just generally nerd out on stuff together. It was a super cool experience.

Honestly, made me rethink buying parts from Amazon. When customer service is this good, its worth not getting "the best deal", that is not to say that Pacific Coast Hobbies prices are bad, I felt like they were in line with what I saw online. just saying that when a part is a dollar cheaper online, I'd rather spend that extra buck here now because of how welcomed and engaged the staff were with me. I'm always intimidated to go into hobby shops because it's happened to me often at other places where staff were almost elitists in their opinions and would be unhelpful if I didn't ask the "right" question. The staff here earnestly answered all of my dumb questions with joy and patience. Josh really helped me with answering the many questions I had about my Slash 4x4 and with trying to help me color match paint from car. Josh even went out to the parking lot with me to look at my car! I thought that was a crazy question and was expecting a no but he happily went outside. Super cool! Victor helped me so much with figuring out which parts I needed to buy for my LaTrax rally. Shawn was a blast to talk to and answered some good questions about my Rlaarlo AK-787. I don't know how, but this store just gets better with time. Every time I come back, I am excited and am always impressed by my experience. Why shop anywhere else?!

[Updated my review from 7 years ago. went from 4 stars to 5.] "Great quantity and selection of replacement parts for the majority of popular brands for RC vehicles. Staff was friendly and attentive. This store also offers repair and soldering services for fair prices. I...

Thank you for replying after an unpleasant experience. I figured it must have been a miscommunication issue. So I tried again through your website this time, and I really appreciate your support on this. Yet, I should have just went elsewhere with my business. I ordered online, in good faith, yet noted that my account didn't indicate that I had ordered anything. And I haven't received anything; confirmation,tracking number, etc. So I called and was given a lecture of how the physical store is separate from a online store and said it went through a separate eBay store which Pacific wasn't connected to so there was nothing he could do and no one else there to help. I was going to come up there but I thought better of it because it would have been very unfortunate especially concerning a trivial matter. I will wait another week to hear anything but that holds up my next project, which is teaching kids at a family Homeless Shelter ( I'm a counselor here and after the kids saw my model truck, they wanted to learn. Its where the paints where supposed to be shipped to ) how to use a hobby to channel their feelings. Now I have to get in touch with PayPal and start this arduous steps to reclaiming my funds. I don't want to entertain the thought that it was because of my previous review. I give people second chances every day, but this time it ended unfortunately. The employee acted as if he had no idea about anything. He said he didn't see any purchase from me yet said Pacific wasn't associated with the sellers. Its interesting that he looked but I never gave him my name. He already knew it. He returned and said... I didn't see your order, was it paints ? That's exactly what I ordered. Where did he look when he said there was a disconnect between Pacific and the seller. So the guy who didn't know how the online store was run, and no one else was there, knew not only how and where to look but knew the name to look under. I'm glad I made the decision not to...