Nitrotek - the worst ever

[steve_t]

It was around £230 plus some extras I bought. It was the upgraded pro version with metal bits

[jtracks]

Thanks to all your help. I am a newby to the hobby and it's a really bad start. So upset about it. I have bought another tank now, through EBay and Paypal and hope to get a refund from Nitrotek eventually. I have also written direct to Heng Long expressing my anger and frustration.

I did consider buying Tamiya but couldn't stretch to £700.

Maybe also someone knows:
Can I convert my Heng Long Challenger to work with my existing Spektrum DX6 that I use for my planes?

Hello steve_t, first, sorry that you had a bad experience with your very first tank. I did too but 12 tanks later, I've worked through the frustration, now know where and where not to buy.

To answer your question about the DX6, I don't see any reason you can't. I have a Taigen Tiger 1 running on a DX6i. HOWEVER, you will have to purchase an after market electronic board like an IBU2. The hobby grade transmitters and stock electronics that come with the tank are not compatible.

Welcome to a great hobby.

[wibblywobbly]

Sorry to hear about your experience, it's one of those things, you only get experience right away, right after you needed it.

There are, sadly, some companies who are nothing more than box shifters. They simply work from fancy looking websites that are a front for a warehouse, and employees who qualify for the Darwinian Award. Anyone new to this hobby, or any other, has no way of knowing who they are dealing with until it all goes wrong.

You should get your issue resolved via Paypal, they are pretty good. The way that these rogue companies operate is to cut costs by not providing customer support, knowing that a good proportion of customers who received shoddy products will simply shut up and go away. They then only refund those who make a claim via official routes.

The vendors listed above may at times cost a little more, but trust us, and especially for anyone new to the hobby, they are worth their weight in gold for a hassle free purchase. I wish more people would make use of the wealth of knowledge available on the forum before parting with their cash, it's free, and we are more than happy to help you make the decision that is right for you. We love tanks, it's why we are all here!

Rob

[steve_t]

What a fab forum, thanks for all the replies and help. I am hooked on tanks now as well as my planes. The reason i bought the Challenger II is that my father was a rank driving instructor on that particular tank and i am going to paint it up in the Nato colours, as was his tank. I will look at converting for the Spektrum DX6 and might even follow up with another tank so I can battle with my Dad.

Meanwhile, with Nitrotek, still no reply reference the refund so have sent them a recorded letter quoting the Consumer Act and giving them 7 days. PayPal have frozen the payment as well

[jackalope]

Paypal freezing the funds is the BEST way to get a response from them or any other terrible vendors. Glad they were able to freeze them!

I hope at this point you press for a full refund and send them their junk back.

[wibblywobbly]

Here's my experience with Nitrotek.

Order a Taigen King Tiger. So about £220.
It arrives within a couple of days.
Open the box lid.
I can see that the mantlet has snapped on the screw mounts and is floating freely up and down the barrel.
Caused by the barrel not being lowered enough before being packed in the styrene, someone had simply shoved the barrel down and snapped the mounts.
Not Nitrotek's fault if it was done at Taigen, but Nitrotek are responsible for what they sell.
I took pics of it still in the box, and sent them to Nitrotek, saying that I either needed a replacement tank or a new mantlet (the return postage would cost more than a mantlet).
A week later and no response other than an automated email to say that my complaint has been sent to the 'relevant department'.
I typed 'Nitrotek Reviews' into Google and then realised the awful truth.
I am not going to go into details here, you can do a search, but they are breaking virtually every trading law that exists, have been reported to Trading Standards, ask for models to be returned for inspection and then keep the model and the cash, have zero Customer Support, do not respond to phone calls, or emails etc etc. In short, if you get a working model then great, it was cheap, but if there is anything wrong with it then you are on your own.
Paypal customers are not necessarily safe, they appear to claim that customers broke things to get around this. There are many reports of situations like this on the review sites.
I am lucky, I can repair the damage done to the tank I bought, if it had been anything more serious it looks like I would have been up the creek without a paddle.

I actually tried to avoid buying from them in the first place, but was quite amazed to find how few dealers sell Taigen King Tigers with a Porsche turret and all of the metal running gear.

[wibblywobbly]

After two weeks and a lot of emails, they have now agreed to order the mantlet and send it on to me. So, not the fastest retailer in the world, but they have made the effort to put things right.

There was no way I was going to return the tank 'for inspection' though.

[Pebs434]

I fell foul of them last December when I bought my first tank, a Taigen Tiger. Their customer service is absolute shite


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[fury]

Hi Steve its awful that you have to go through this but at least there is one good thing and that is you are covered by PayPal abd hopefully you should get a refund. When I first joined I made the same mistake as you and I ordered a tiger 1 tank and then heard all the bad publicity about Nitrotek. But I must have been one of the lucky few as both my tanks have worked perfectly with no damage to the tank or the packaging.
I hope you get it sorted mate.

[wibblywobbly]

Who dares wins....

All I had was a broken mantlet, and yes I did repair it but as to how long it holds is anyone's guess.

However, I did agree to them sending me a new mantlet if they could get hold of one. I haven't seen one on the web for months. Obviously they couldn't get one either, so they sent me this, it arrived this morning.

They have asked me to amend the 'rather critical' review that I left on a consumer site...but should I?