HobbyTown — Attraction in Northfield Township

Hello,

I have a 6-year-old son, and we just got into the RC hobby; in the past 4 months, I've spent over 3k at the Northbrook, IL, location. I got a TRX-4, Kraton S6, Bandit XL-5, and many accessories, replacement parts, and 1 repair. During my shopping experiences, their customer service has been substandard at best. I got a TRX-4 repaired, and it took them about 2 months to get it fixed; it’s not so much that it took them such a long time to repair it; what makes this frustrating is their inability to do a simple follow-up. Six weeks ago, I purchased a Kraton S6, and after the second week and 10 uses, it stopped working. I called the store and talked to the salesperson who sold it to me; I explained that the pinion was out of line and grinding the spur. The salesperson told me that he knew what I was talking about and that this was a manufacturer defect.

• On the first phone call, I was told that I should reach out to Arrma; no luck; they are based out of England. • On the second phone call to the store, I was told that they could look at it but could not fix it until Horizon Hobby would approve the repair. • On the third phone call, I reached out to Horizon Hobby, and they told me to take it to Hobby Town and that they could repair it and that this was a normal procedure. • On the fourth phone call on December 13th, I called Hobby Town and told them that per Horizon Hobby, I could bring it in for repair, and this was a normal repair process. They told me that this was correct and to bring it in. • On the 14th of December, I brought it to the store; the salesperson who took it from me was vague about the process but told me that they would wait for Horizon Hobby to approve the repair and that I would get a phone call on the 14th of December. • On December 21st, no one had followed up with me, so I went to the store to see if they had done anything with it. • During my visit, the person that sold it to me was dismissive and gave me this song and dance about the RC not being in the store because it was sent for repairing and walked away. • By now, I’m just irritated that I’ve made so many phone calls and two visits to get this RC repaired. • I left, and a few minutes later, I just decided that this was enough of having to deal with this and went back to the store and took the RC back. When I demanded to have it, it suddenly became available. • I have now reached out to Horizon Hobby, and they will repair it. I’m almost sure that they will not take 2 months to repair it. My position on this is straightforward, Hobby Town takes my money with 0 issues but does as little as possible to provide any basic support. As I mentioned above, I have spent over 3k in the past few months. Hobby Town knowingly selling a product with a manufacturer defect is, by FTC guidelines, a deceptive business practice. Personally, as someone who analyzes industries in the stock markets around the world, the writing is on the wall; retail is in a steep decline that, unfortunately, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The example above plays out repeatedly, and it drives customers to third-party platforms like Amazon, e-Bay, etc.; analyzing the future of retail is incredibly simple; you can see the behavior and evaluation of market caps, and it is clear that retailers are literally forcing customers to purchase the product elsewhere. If I had purchased any of these RCs on Amazon, I could’ve easily gotten a replacement with 0 hassles within 2 days or less. The only reason why I purchased products in a retail store near me was that I wanted product support at the local level. Unfortunately, Hobby Town is unable to do the basics, and it goes out of its way not to provide any support. I will never visit another Hobby Town and will make my next...

So at first I really enjoyed this shop there are a couple employees that I really enjoyed seeing when I would come and we got along great...plus they always did everything they could to help me. I had been buying a ton of RC cars there over the last month. That’s what the hobby shop is for right? They want to sell you their RC cars right?

So I became a rewards member and it is something like every $200 you spend you get $5 in credit towards a future purchase. So I would come in and spend $500-$1500 buying RC cars and use my credits from the last trip and save some money and it was always nice to save $25-$40 bucks.

So Fast forward ... I had spent around $5000 MYSELF over the last month or so during this whole pandemic. Buying all of their most expensive RC cars. I would get thank you’d from employees due to how slow it was with everything going on so it felt good to help the store out.

Well I Started noticing when I’d ask to use my coupons less and less would be applied to my purchases... I realized I started getting limited with how many tickets I could use to buy cars.

The OWNER who put the rewards point in place specifically told his employees to limit my points use on RC car purchases. I went in today to spend close to $1000 I was going to use maybe 6 coupons and the employee came over and says..

“I’m only going to “allow” you to use 1 coupon per car..the owner says it’s bad for us you use your coupons on RC Cars..”

Let me remind you we are talking about maybe $25-$40 bucks I’d save spending $1000 plus in his shop..

I couldnt believe it. He then started talking about how he helped me save $40 on a $950 RC car as if I owed him something when the $40 I saved was because I had spent THOUSANDS before that and had credits. It was the most insane thing I’ve witnessed as a customer.

The employee literally told me I could use my points on anything else I wanted OTHER than the cars obviously because they knew I didn’t buy anything else. I have literally spent around $5000 in their store in less than 2 months. I’ve never been so mistreated.

Word of advice to the owner. DONT OFFER REWARDS IF YOU CANT HANDLE A $40 discount on a $950 Xmaxx. If you are trying to go out of business you are doing a good job.

Again shout out to the employees that helped me they know who they are. I have another $2000-$3000 in orders this month I will take my business Elsewhere from now on and I promise I won’t step foot in that Hobbytown ever again in my life.

Also Amain Hobbies will let you use as many coupons as you have saved on any purchase that’s any...

While its part of a larger brand, the store is independently owned and easily one of the better RC stores in the US. They have a ton of current inventory and their prices are super fair. Especially on random little stuff. But the real reason why this hobby shop is so awesome is because they care. We hear that a lot when describing local businesses, but it's really important with RC car stuff. Especially when first getting into the hobby. A good hobby shop won't oversell you, they'll get you into a really good starter vehicle so you have an amazing experience and stay with it for life. They earn your business for years, not just one sale.

The reason for writing this? I was so blown away today. I've bought stuff from them before, but today I dragged my mom into buy an RC boat for her grandson. She's getting older and we wanted to get him the most ridiculous awesome boat ever. But its totally the wrong purchase for 99% of customers in this situation. The guy at the store knew that and tried so hard to get us into something more practical, knowing that he would make a customer for life if that kid enjoyed his first RC boat experience. So he tried to show us more appropriate boats eventhough it would result in a smaller sale.

Its one thing to care, its another to care so much that youre willing to do the right thing instead of racking up a sale. We bought the awesome boat anyway (the Dad will manage it for his son) and then they took the time to teach us some things that I missed on the internet. This is the other reason why local hobby shops are so important and why we drove out to Northbrook to buy the boat in person. I would have bought the wrong batteries. I mean they would have worked, just not well. And the kid wouldn't have been able to upgrade or use them with his current charger and all that complicated stuff. It was just a really good visit to the hobby store.

But the point of all this? If youre a parent and not really sure what to get your kid, go see the people working at this Hobby Town and tell them about your kid. They'll ask questions and in a few minutes will be like here, this is exactly what you want to start with.

If only my mom had been able to go into a store like this when I was kid. It was years before I was able to get my own RC car. So this place is really special to me. Nice work...