Chris the cabbie Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 I am done with Trumpeter and all their substandard B.S. I bought a 1/48 MiG-21UM and all told it looked nice, until I saw the canopy! Mine came with a nasty flow line in the middle of the pilots section and no amount of polishing will ever solve it. I saw that it had the MMD sticker on the box so I called them in hopes of securing a replacement. Why? MMD did sell this kit and accepted cash for it and to my mind, the most likely one to be contacted- right? So I call MMD and find out that since I am not the original buyer (an eBay purchase that was mint in box!) that they assume no responsibility for the kit or support. Remember that MMD imported this kit and emblazoned it with said sticker! To put this in a clearer light, a year ago I tried to purchase a 1/32 F-14 canopy. I tried everyone imaginable to buy the part stateside and China and found something out. Trumpeter has absolutely NO PRODUCT SUPPORT WHATSOEVER. Now if this was a case of fishing for freebies, I might understand but this is really pathetic IMHO for a kit that retails for over $40US. I'm not trying to engage in mudslinging here but calling out the elephant in the room. On a side note, if anyone happens to have a spare for either kit- please drop me a PM! Sincerely, Chris the cabbie Link to post Share on other sites
nfiler Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Well you now know what MMD knew a long time ago. Trumpeter was not going to help MMD with replacement parts and they were unwilling to burn a whole kit to give you a part. The problem seems to me to be you are expecting a Chinese company to provide customer service to your standards. It ain't gonna happen. They have clearly demonstrated on many occasions that all they care about is getting your money out of your wallet.Once that has occurred, the transaction is over and they no longer care. Link to post Share on other sites
jester292 Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Yay welcome to the He-Man trumpeter haters club. I was president last year. Link to post Share on other sites
crazychinaman Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 I thought they where imported by Stevens company back east.I couple of years ago I got some spare parts from them at no charge.Of course it might have changed since them.Try emailing them direct in China or sending a letter the old fashion way.I did this for Hasegawa a couple of times and got parts and decals,just have to pay for shipping with a overseas money order. Good luck my brother Link to post Share on other sites
ReccePhreak Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 (edited) I know how you feel, because MMD-Squadron does NO PRODUCT SUPPORT WHATSOEVER, and not just Trumpeter. I got a sealed RS Models 1/72 Ju-86P kit that was missing instructions, and it had their USELESS "Exclusively Distributed by MMD-Squadron" sticker on it. When I contacted them, their response was since they didn't sell the kit at Squadron Mail Order, they wouldn't help me. They told me to go online and ask for help. Too bad you didn't have a problem with a Kinetic kit, you would've gotten satisfaction. I had a Kinetic 1/48 F-5A that I got in a trade, and I discovered that the canopy & windscreen both had flow marks in them. I complained about it here on ARC, and Raymond Chung told me to email him with the details. He contacted me, as did someone at the company in Hong Kong, and within a week, I got the entire clear sprue from them. THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE! Larry Edited January 13, 2016 by ReccePhreak Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Ya get what ya pay for. Or in this case, what you dramatically over-pay for. Link to post Share on other sites
Pep Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Actually I have had 2 parts replaced by squadron no issues. A seat from Wing mans Kfir kit, and a canopy for a hobby boss tucano. Never had a problem with them. Wonder what has changed? Link to post Share on other sites
mingwin Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 (edited) Actually I have had 2 parts replaced by squadron no issues. A seat from Wing mans Kfir kit, and a canopy for a hobby boss tucano. Never had a problem with them. Wonder what has changed? maybe because you where the one that makes both the purchase at MMD and the claim? ...i would understand them not to offer support to second and third hand re-buyers... what surprise me more is that you got replacement parts for a HobbyBoss kit! Edited January 13, 2016 by mingwin Link to post Share on other sites
Jeffrey Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Just curious.. Is Trumpeter/Hobbyboss a state company? I am asking this due to the sheer amount of new kits that they push to the market. It seems they have no worries about tooling cost or return of their products. Note I am not a trumpeter fan or hater. Link to post Share on other sites
foxmulder_ms Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 (edited) I failed to see what Trumpeter did wrong here..?? More of the distributor being jerk. Edited January 13, 2016 by foxmulder_ms Link to post Share on other sites
nfiler Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Well,MMD is the distributor for dealers. An individual cannot buy directly from them. So (in theory) an individual would have no recourse to them because they could not prove they bought the kit from them. I would suspect that Squadron would be your only recourse to getting any parts replacement. And I suppose without a direct sale receipt from Squadron, they would be of no help either. Link to post Share on other sites
foxmulder_ms Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Just curious.. Is Trumpeter/Hobbyboss a state company? I am asking this due to the sheer amount of new kits that they push to the market. It seems they have no worries about tooling cost or return of their products. Note I am not a trumpeter fan or hater. I do not think so because when they started like 20 years ago they were nothing, their aggressive nature become apparent in last ~7 years. I actually remember their first hit being 1:32 A-10. I also remember reading it was their most profitable model and brought the company to another level. I think it is just a little success story. Now, since they are relatively large and have access to cheap labor, it is just cheap for them to produce new models. Found the article :) http://www.cybermodeler.com/special/trumpeter09.shtml Link to post Share on other sites
RCAFFAN Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 (edited) Larry....I recently ordered something direct from RS and got the wrong boxing by mistake (same base kit but different markings). I contacted RS direct and by return e-mail they said they were remedying the situation by enclosing a PDF of the right painting instructions and sending a new decal sheet and some resin parts included in the actual kit I ordered such that all would be fixed. The decal,proper kit instructions and parts arrived about a week and a half later. RS were great to deal with so you might contact them directly if you have't fixed you problem yet... Cheers Bruce Edited January 13, 2016 by RCAFFAN Link to post Share on other sites
ReccePhreak Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Larry....I recently ordered something direct from RS and got the wrong boxing by mistake (same base kit but different markings). I contacted RS direct and by return e-mail they said they were remedying the situation by enclosing a PDF of the right painting instructions and sending a new decal sheet and some resin parts included in the actual kit I ordered such that all would be fixed. The decal,proper kit instructions and parts arrived about a week and a half later. RS were great to deal with so you might contact them directly if you have't fixed you problem yet... Cheers Bruce Bruce, I did contact RS Models via email and they sent me scans of all the instructions, which were of better quality than the ones I found online. Larry Link to post Share on other sites
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