Robanmodel Reviews

Very Poor Communication

I placed an order with Roban for some RC helicopter parts on the 24th of December and the confirmation email I received shortly after thanked me for the order and stated I would be contacted as soon as the order shipped out I had not heard anything by Jan 2nd so I contacted Roban by email to see if the order was shipped if they had a tracking number or if it hadn t what the issue was I was thinking they were perhaps closed over the holidays and just failed to mention that in the order confirmation email I received no reply so I tried a 2nd time Again no reply Never ordering from Roban directly before I was worried and took the next step by opening a PayPal dispute reporting no seller communication and that my order was not received I was contacted immediately by Roban twice that same day after I submitted the PayPal dispute First to say I had been fully refunded for my order with no other explanation Then a little while later the same day receiving another email stating the parts just shipped with a tracking number I was obviously confused by this I ve never been refunded for an order than didn t ship with no explanation and then later the same day it ships out It s almost like they had two different customer service people working on two different solutions to the same problem with no internal communication between them So I emailed them again for clarification and got some weird reason stating I had contacted PayPal to report fraud against them and they felt it best they refund me right away because they didn t want to deal with fraud No I never reported fraud to PayPal I simply filled in a PayPal non-receipt form stating that I had tried to contact the seller multiple times with no response and requested PayPal step in to see if this could be sorted out In short I followed standard PayPal non-receipt protocol Two weeks past and a package arrived in the mail from Roban I was certainly pleased and was going to email them right away both thanking them and request they send me a PayPal invoice so I could re-pay them for the order Unfortunately upon opening the box to my surprise saw they sent totally wrong parts from what I had ordered They didn t even look remotely the same to what I ordered so I can only presume I have someone else s order and they have mine There was no order form or packing list in the box to confirm this however I emailed them right away to let them know that I was prepared to re-pay them but that the wrong parts were shipped I also attached a photo of the wrong parts I received along with a copy of the original order showing the parts I had ordered That was three days ago now and again all is silent from Roban as they continue to ignore my email requests or perhaps they simply don t have time to respond to their customers Either way it s not how any company should handle customer service I m a service manager myself and also own run a small online business If I were to treat any customer this way I would be held accountable Clear timely communication is the foundation of good customer service And no I don t prescribe to the antiquated notion that the customer is always right nonsense After 30 years in the service industry I know the exact opposite is usually the case but respectful communication is still key in this process Regardless I m not out any money of course because Roban did refund the original order still no idea why but I also don t have the parts I ordered almost a month ago and I need them - desperately Seems the only way Roban will communicate is when one opens a PayPal dispute given my anecdotal experience with them I should also add I ve given Roban ample free exposure and positive feedback on my website and YouTube channel I didn t get nor did I expect anything from them for that positive exposure I simply liked their products and wanted to share that with others I even take my time to answer a fair number of technical questions on these specific helicopters of theirs I have when people with the same helicopters contact me with technical questions I m certainly not looking for any special treatment or compensation for any of that I despise entitlement but I do expect to be treated like a somewhat valued customer John SaltOwner Editor - RC Helicopter Fun com