Really GOOD Align/Tarot parts suppliers in the USA?

[Turbojoe]

Hell, I'll be happy if I even get my order. I ordered on the 8th. It's now the 12th and all they have done so far is create a shipping label according to tracking. They're in San Diego. I always get stuff from SoCal in 2 days. It's only a little over 6 hours away for Christ sake! Not impressed with them so far. The 4 day wait to even ship (maybe) and almost nothing is ever in stock. They're going to have a hard time surviving in today's market.

Joe

[fuggetaboutit]

valuehobby.com is in Chicago and another good source for parts

[Turbojoe]

Originally Posted by fuggetaboutit

valuehobby.com is in Chicago and another good source for parts

Bought from them several times. Looks like they recently added a few new parts. Still don't carry the full Tarot line yet though.

Joe

[bobsyouruncle]

Tarot-rc-heli's shipping is ridiculous. Every time. Like you said several days between label generation and actual shipping. That's following a several day wait to generate a label for even in stock items. I used to buy from them because I had no idea where else to get parts and was afraid of China shipping times. Thanks to this thread I'll never have to buy from them again. It's absolute torture wondering when they'll "get around" to shipping your parts.

[CrashNburn420]

I ordered from them once, took way too long to ship. Also half the parts are never in stock with them. Not a good way to run a business.

[ERRATIC]

LoL, I ordered from TRCH a few months back, 5 minutes later I ordered from Ehirobo in China. TRCH is on the west coast, items in stock.

Both Ehirobo and TRCH arrived on the same day 3 weeks later. WTH?


Steve

[Turbojoe]

Tracking from tarot-rc-heli.com now shows the package to be in Phoenix. Should be here in Mesa tomorrow. 8 days to go 600 miles! It would have only taken 3 days if they hadn't waited almost a full work week to ship it. If it was coming from Canada or anywhere else that customs can cause a slow down it would be understandable. Waiting 4 days to even ship and poor stock will make me think twice before ordering from them again.

So far my best Tarot experiences have been with tmkarc1hobby.com (they're in Texas) and Valuehobby.com (they're in Illinois). Both have somewhat limited Tarot stock but they have good prices and ship fast.

Ordering from China scares me because there are so many shipping options that I'm not familiar with. Long delivery also makes me worry that the rowboat may have sunk. I have a Banggood order that was placed 1/25/15. I guess it's out there somewhere. Tracking still shows it to be in China. No more China orders for me.

I just brought out my Beam 450's again and have to ask myself why I'm even messing with Align now. The Beam is SO much nicer! No upgrades available because it doesn't need them. Beam just didn't get supported in the US like the rest of the world so parts are getting hard to find here. I have a decent stock but will likely need to do an order from Korea if I want anything other than what is still gathering dust on shelves here. I don't know if Korean shipping is better or worse than Chinese. Hopefully won't need to find out anytime soon.

I know I'm impatient when it comes to ordering but when I spend money I just like to see what I bought in a reasonable time.

Joe

[mattbeau]

I made the same mistake. I ordered from tarot rc heli on the 8th it says it will be here on Tuesday the 17th. It said shipping label created all the way up to Friday. I'll not order from them again. All of this because they don't include a collar for the main shaft with the split lock head


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[lcc014]

Originally Posted by Turbojoe

Tracking from tarot-rc-heli.com now shows the package to be in Phoenix. Should be here in Mesa tomorrow. 8 days to go 600 miles! It would have only taken 3 days if they hadn't waited almost a full work week to ship it. If it was coming from Canada or anywhere else that customs can cause a slow down it would be understandable. Waiting 4 days to even ship and poor stock will make me think twice before ordering from them again.

So far my best Tarot experiences have been with tmkarc1hobby.com (they're in Texas) and Valuehobby.com (they're in Illinois). Both have somewhat limited Tarot stock but they have good prices and ship fast.

Ordering from China scares me because there are so many shipping options that I'm not familiar with. Long delivery also makes me worry that the rowboat may have sunk. I have a Banggood order that was placed 1/25/15. I guess it's out there somewhere. Tracking still shows it to be in China. No more China orders for me.

I just brought out my Beam 450's again and have to ask myself why I'm even messing with Align now. The Beam is SO much nicer! No upgrades available because it doesn't need them. Beam just didn't get supported in the US like the rest of the world so parts are getting hard to find here. I have a decent stock but will likely need to do an order from Korea if I want anything other than what is still gathering dust on shelves here. I don't know if Korean shipping is better or worse than Chinese. Hopefully won't need to find out anytime soon.

I know I'm impatient when it comes to ordering but when I spend money I just like to see what I bought in a reasonable time.

Joe

I just ordered some beam parts (FBL) from Korea. Shipping was much faster than China - EMS. However, shipping cost was also much higher than China : $21.xx for $11 dollars parts. If you don't mind the extreme high shipping cost then order direct from Korea.

[Turbojoe]

Ouch! Shipping twice the cost of the parts. Boy, it's a no win situation when buying from across the pond.

Joe

[PowerDyne]

Originally Posted by Turbojoe

I've been trying to find the belt drive conversion and finally found it at Tarot-RC-Heli.com Also noticed they have free shipping for the month of February. I ordered the belt drive package and a few other things. The bad thing is that they have have VERY little in stock. The good thing is that there is a note on the site that they did a factory order on the 6th. I guess I'll check back before the end of the month and stock up. I like FREE shipping and not waiting months for the boat to row all the way here.

Joe

Regarding the Tarot-Rc-Heli orders from factory: A lot of the time Dave doesn't carry all parts in stock due to space limitations of his shop. So what he does is if the item is marked "Preorder" or "ETA X weeks" on the site, and someone orders, he puts those items on the next factory order. He may have part of your order ready to go, and will create a shipping label to reflect that the order is being filled while he waits for the factory order to arrive to complete your parts request.

Typically the reason for delays in shipping are he is waiting on an order from the factory to arrive containing items for a customer order. So those factory order dates on the site reflect typically commonly sold parts and specific customer order parts.

If you email him, he might be able to send you the items for your order he has in actual physical stock, and then send the rest when they arrive from the factory.

I hope that makes sense, as it's early and I have only had 1/2 a cup of coffee so far.

Also, with it being Chinese New Year Holiday, parts orders to the factory are a little delayed at this point in the year.

[Turbojoe]

Originally Posted by PowerDyne

Regarding the Tarot-Rc-Heli orders from factory: A lot of the time Dave doesn't carry all parts in stock due to space limitations of his shop. So what he does is if the item is marked "Preorder" or "ETA X weeks" on the site, and someone orders, he puts those items on the next factory order. He may have part of your order ready to go, and will create a shipping label to reflect that the order is being filled while he waits for the factory order to arrive to complete your parts request.

Typically the reason for delays in shipping are he is waiting on an order from the factory to arrive containing items for a customer order. So those factory order dates on the site reflect typically commonly sold parts and specific customer order parts.

If you email him, he might be able to send you the items for your order he has in actual physical stock, and then send the rest when they arrive from the factory.

I hope that makes sense, as it's early and I have only had 1/2 a cup of coffee so far.

Also, with it being Chinese New Year Holiday, parts orders to the factory are a little delayed at this point in the year.

Everything on my order showed to be in stock. If the parts weren't then a simple e-mail to me would have gone a LONG way toward my view of them. Waiting a week to ship for no apparent reason is unacceptable. There are so many other suppliers out there ready to take my money.

It's all moot now as I doubt I'll be buying any more T-Rex stuff now that I have the Beam 450's out again. I really hoped the T-Rex 450 Pro would be worthy of a spot on the bench next to the Beams. In my opinion it's not...


Joe

[Turbojoe]

Out of the blue I got a call from Dave at http://www.tarot-rc-heli.com/ and we talked for quite a while. Pretty nice guy. He explained the reason for the delay for my order. Gotta say that reason has me VERY excited! By IRCHA 2015 the R/C heli world will be in for a real treat! I just hope I can hang on to some of my tax return until then!

Joe

[jcwing123]

Yea I ordered a few things 5 days ago and still says processing on the site. Wonder whats going on.

[bobsyouruncle]

I just started ordering from China. It's my last resort to order fronm tarot Rc. China ships same or next day and gets to my door in 6-10 days beats tarot Rc by a week from San Diego.

[Diggiz]

I know you said USA, But im another Gogorc fan from Ebay. 6 days guaranteed from china to New Zealand. Dont know what it would be like to USA.

[jcwing123]

Heli Direct seems good. I've used them in the past. A little on the expensive side but I know I wont have to wait ~two weeks to get my order if I'm desperate for heli parts.

[lcc014]

HeliDirect always sell parts at manufacture price, no discount. When they have clearance sales, that will be cheap.

[CrashNburn420]

Helidirect does not discount kits but they do discount align parts during a sale.

[Steve Joblin]

Originally Posted by jcwing123

Yea I ordered a few things 5 days ago and still says processing on the site. Wonder whats going on.

I placed an order on May 21... both are "in stock"... sent two email requesting status as to when it will ship... still shows "Processing".

I hadn't noticed before, but on the home page, it says the next Order From Factory is May 5th... perhaps he is no longer placing orders?

Dave is a nice guy and is a reputable business owner, so maybe something is up?