Rider's Hobby Shop — Local services in Flint Charter Township

I took my blade 450 3D in for repair and asked them to fix it all and make it fly. $148.00 dollar’s later ($45.00 of this was for labor), I get my helicopter home an hour later after leaving the hobby shop and it won’t power up. I called up there and immediately the repair guy was super defensive telling me he took it home with him and it flew fine but off to the left a little. Hmmm wait a minute… I can’t get it to even turn on how did he fly it? I took it up there the next day and as the guy and I were looking at it, I seen that he didn’t have one of the wires plugged in right. He fixed that and we took it outside to try it out and my helicopter shook severely bad and took a hard left. “Not flyable” After I seen this they tell me that they don’t know how to set up a fly bar system helicopter. Ok so why did I pay you to set it up and fix it. I asked them for some of the labor back so I can take it to a different hobby shop and have it set up correctly. My Blade 450 3D couldn’t even fly and the guy 100% ignored me and picked up the phone to help out more people. I stood there and he told me after a while that it wasn’t his fault it was the other guys. “OK not my issue” I paid for this to be fixed. I asked for the manager “BTW he was completely rude” he told me it fly’s right!?! yeah if I want it to crash and explode. He then told me that it fly’s and there is nothing he will do for me. I go up there and buy parts all the time and toys for my kids there “not any more I won’t”. I told the guy I was an ASE technician and if he brought me a car in to fix the brakes and the left side was locked up, it’s fixed right? He said no it’s not the same thing. I said but no it is, it stops right!?! But your brakes are locked up to the left side smoking but it stops, so it’s fixed right. He then gave me $20 dollars back and then said. “Hmm let me ask you a question, How did the power wire get plugged into the wrong spot my guy flew your helicopter?” The manager following up with (being extremely rude) “gremlins right?” Wait a minute I didn’t fix it, you did, you tell me. I took my helicopter into a good know name hobby shop and found out my main shaft was bent causing my Blade 450 3D to vibrate so badly. When trying to remove the main shaft “that comes out by hand” the shaft would not pull out at all. When trying to pull it out my main frame broke, do to the main shaft being incorrectly installed or glued in. The other hobby guy had no clue and just shook his head. This is why I took it in to be fixed in the first place because I didn’t have time to fix it myself. Now I’m back to square one and it now cost me over $50.00 in parts that were not broke to begin with. Don’t go to this place for any service at all or anything else for that matter. Their customer service was terrible. I spend over $500.00 a year at a hobby shop on all kinds of stuff. They now lost a long time customer( I have been going to this store on and off since I was a kid ), that would have made them more money in the long run, if they would have just fixed it right and not have been so rude. Due to their lack of customer service I have already informed all of my friends and family of the horrible rude experience I have had with this hobby shop. They will no longer be shopping...

I've wanted a really cool RC car now for years like I used to have as a kid (which was purchased and serviced at Rider's Hobby Shop in Flint at their old location) but with a stay at home wife and four kids couldn't justify buying something I'd be happy with. My wife splurged and got me a Traxxas Stampede VXL for Christmas and the person who helped her was actually off the clock just getting something for himself on his day off. She said he was remarkable helpful and friendly and even though she had zero knowledge of cars felt he didn't try to oversell her. I went in a few days later and bought a couple more things for it and inquired about some possible upgrades. They showed me some of the most common items people upgrade and then said if it were their truck they would just upgrade items as they break instead of buying things in advance. AMAZING right...you have someone in front of you whiling to spend money and they honestly give you their fair advice...Which I took...and I've been upgrading things as they break ever since. I've since bought another car and have upgraded many items on that as well. Yes, you can get some items online for less money, but the service and integrity offered by the staff members I've worked with at this business make it worth every penny to go see people who care about what they do and enjoy seeing us come it. On a side note my seven year old son got his car there about 2 years ago and every time he goes in for service they treat him great and help him resolve the issue...Even though he rarely spends any money there. This is a...

If you are very new to what ever hobby you are taking up make sure you bring someone knowledgeable with you. I made the mistake of going in and trusting the sales person. I wanted to get into airbrushing. and the only thing I new was I wanted a gravity feed airbrush. I told the to 2 guys behind the counter that I have no idea of what to get except I wanted a gravity feed. They pulled one out of the case and said, "this is what you want to get, it will do everything you'll ever need it to and it's even on sale". We exchanged some small talk and they really built it up. I trusted them so I bought it. Over the next couple of weeks I watched a bunch of videos like they suggested. I finally opened it up today to start practicing. To my surprise it was not a gravity feed but a siphon feed. I went back to the store and explained everything. I was told "It's been over 2 weeks there is nothing we can do". I said but your salesman sold me the wrong thing and the response I got was "our salesmen would never do that. I have spent the last hour trying to find the model they sold me but it's so old I can not find it. I even went to the manufactures site typed in the model and all that comes up is "Sorry, we couldn´t find any products". No wonder they pushed the sale. I will never go in...