cscheli
New Heliman
Location: chicago, il
| BLS451 GlitchingJay hit the nail on the head, this is totally a Futaba mistake. If you go to the Futaba website they say the servo is good for air and surface. Also the retail packaging and manual says nothing about "surface use only". All the online retailers dealing specifically with aircraft and helicopters are selling these as aircraft and heli cyclic servos. Even the part number is the same as the previous brushed version, they just added BLS.
You can’t blame the support people for this because they don't have any control of production, marketing, or distributing, their just the ones responsible for dealing with all the production defects and angry customers. So we can't shoot the messenger, but what does it tell you when the warranty department starts telling the business that a particular servo is not working in a particular application.
My take on the situation is that Futaba released this servo as an all purpose servo only to find out they were having major issues. To try and back pedal out of it by saying latter that "ohh these servos are only good for surface use" is a dishonest comp-out.
That would be like Firestone trying to say "ohh those 4X4 tires that blew out on your SUV were really meant for a Volkswagen Beetle, you need to take it up with Ford for selling you those tires for your Expedition".
All this situation does is damage the Futaba brand and reputation and really hurts the retailers. I think the real culprit here is the distributors. The service shop is a cost center and there not making money off these things.
But the distributors can push them to there dealers and the dealers push them to us (until they get a firestorm of complaints, but then there stuck with all there inventory) and when we have a problem we end up eating it because no retailer is going to take them back for exchange. And Futaba's distributor becomes your ex brother-in-law on moving day 'no where to be found'.
Right now I have 4 of these that I just put in a new 600 nitro and I only had 5 flights on them, and I'm screwed. My retailer is saying if I can get Futaba to give me new servos then he will give me a refund (because he has to sell them as new). But the service center is saying tough cookies we just told you yesterday on Run Ryder that those servos are only good for surface use, ha, ha, ha. Never mind what the website says (which the service center has no control over, by the way)
All in all I think the service center is doing there job and doing it well. It's the Futaba business organization and distributor that's letting them and everyone else down.
I've used nothing but Futaba in all my helis, but this puts a real bitter taste in my mouth. Anybody want to buy 3 new BLS451's with only 5 flights, let me know. I wish they would all fail so at least I can return them and get new ones to return to my retailer for a refund.
Just my two pissed cents! |
