I agree, I sent mine in and it completely ticks me off that now I hear another few weeks it may take. Why would Patrick say a couple days and then the repair dept say they are still working on a fix. Um...my V2 was working fine...send the damn thing back so I can play......and I will mail it back for the update when the snow is flying here in Nebraska.

Patrick....any chance you can clear things up. Got some unhappy guys that were led to believe the fix would not take long....mine has been about 3 weeks now....with no report on an actual return date. Frustrating is an understatement.

Kirk --

I understand, and apologize. The fix shouldn't take long -- we are happy with the new control boards, and have tested extensively in the Baja.

I'm just back from China, so I'll check on status.

Thanx!

Great feedback Patrick. Thank you for your personal approach. Love your products. Thank you.

Patrick...I already have my eye on the new Losi 5ive T. It is a 4wd 5th scale truck that I plan to own. Only , I will be converting it to brushless. How about Castle making a brushless conversion kit for the Losi 5ive????

I can't get it why people can't wait.
It is great Castle does "offer" the Service Advisories" and don't let there customer "wait" until the product does burn....

Thanks Castle !

Outlaw...here is why guys are a bit "put-off". We were led to believe it would be a quick turn around...(Couple days in the shop and then shipping)...well, mine has been gone three weeks. Conflict comes when companies don't do what they say. 2 days in the shop vs 3 weeks is a big difference. I am one of those guys that sen't it in the day the advisory came out...being told it would take a couple days.... hmmm, here I sit.

Sure I appreciate the service update...but let me know how long it is really going to take. If you cannot understand that, then you flunked customer service 101.

Got an email today from Castle confirming the receipt of my return, after 2 weeks they physically got it. The email also says I can expect getting the unit back in my hand in 15 business days, sounds promising.

Sometimes crap happens and you just don't know. They obviously thought it would be done in two days or wouldn't have said it. It happens in life. Not like being without your toy car for a month will kill anyone.

Bottom line is they found a potential problem and are fixing it. What more can you really ask for?!

Better than so many of the other RC companies who have known issue and act like they don't even exist.

TexasSP
You got my point 100%

thx

Have to apologize for the delays -- the number of controllers we got back in the first week kind of took us by surprise...

About 9K of the ICE2 controllers have shipped, and the Mamba XL controllers start going out this week.

Thanks!

Patrick, thanks for the update. -Kirk

You have no idea...

I work 15 years in customer service for a US company like Castle Creations only differnce is, our product is way bigger but at least as complex as Castles products.

It is all about reputation and even if some things don't work as expected and /or some bits and pices don't work for a certain amount of people.
You need to see the hole picture and the picture does tell one story

This guys try real hard and the meet almost ever customers needs
this is the feedback you will get back from almost every Castle customer in Europe.

customer support is NOT an deparment, it is an attitude

And in my opinion Castle is one of the only companys I know about, showing a great attitude towards there customers.

stop blaming and support Castle to make there products even better our go and buy Hobbywing or Tekin

just my 2 cents

Patrick, any updates on the XL status?

IMO Customers want a warranty but they want a product that's reliable so they need never have to use the warranty, and when the turnaround on that warranty is in excess of 2-3 weeks now? Then doesn't that say that the product is anything but reliable?

For people in the US it's an inconvenience, sure, $5-$6 post, send it in etc, but to send a MMM or MMMXL from Australia, tracked, insured etc it gets to the $35-$40 mark rather quickly, a week there, 2-3 week turnaround, 1 week back.....

You know what for $40 we can buy a Hobbyking 1/8 Esc, even if I blow one a month, I'm financially better off than buying a $100-$200 Castle ESC and sending it in for warranty every 4-5 months and having one spare sending it in every 4-5 months (which seems to be rather common). Plus it's a lot less stressful than waiting for the postman to show up with your warranty return or chasing customer support on the phone waiting for an answer. Any other company we'd be all over them like a rash, but Castle built a very strong "fan boy" base with the Mamba 25 and original Mamba Max (and yeah they were good strong reliable products) but how long can you live off past glory?

With all due respect, No matter what you say about enjoying castle products, Your sig and comments tell otherwise. I am no fanboy by any means, Most of my esc's are quarks with one MM, They won't die. With the comments i have read, If i were running Castle, yours would be the last ones fixed. Patrick has tryed to hasten the process, but with thousands of esc's coming in for repair or replace, They can only do so much. If hobbywing had a 1/5 esc, You'd never get this service. Of course you may only pay 75.00 for it, could justify buying 6 more and forgetting about it. Hobbywing will never recall anything, they got your money, they could care less. Patrick and Castle is making sure you get your money's worth, That's worth a bit of a wait, in my opinion. Anyone that will mail a free castle link to unbrick a 4-5 year old MM Is worthy of my money any day of the week.

Sorry, I think 4 pages of ranting due to a recall, is uncalled for. Doesn't matter if it's Castle, Tekin Or even Novak.

So..Mambas XL will start going out in a few days...that is a news i been waiting..now i will ship my second MXL to you.

As for first MXL i sent...i been waiting like 4 months for it now.

My point is if someone pays $500+ for a MMMXL combo, it's not an unrealistic expectation for it to work.

Knez' 4 month wait for a replacement on such a high end esc isn't acceptable IMO.

Just because they do a recall, you do not need to send in. Even in the recall notice, it said most will probably work fine through their life. I can't account for Knez's wait, Figure they were researching the problem before either replacing or repairing. His was a repair or replace, so it wasn't a victim of the recall anyways. I admit it should have been fixed before the recalled HV160's though

..just noticed on the HPI Savage Flux XS forums that there are a LOT of ESC Flameouts there (rebadged Sidewinder SV2)

.....so the issues may not just be the MMMXL!

Would it be safe to say that the factory Castle contracted to build these decided to cut costs and use cheaper parts not originally specified by Castle?

Just a thought. :neutral:

It seems like the component manufacturer skimped and lowered their quality.

From the recall notice:

ESC are made by Castle in their own facility in the US..

Still nothing huh?

It's getting to the point of me being ticked off now. Over a month ago CC received my MXL's and I've received nothing other than a notice that they received them. Where is this fantastic service CC is supposed to be providing to the customer? I sure as heck am not seeing it.

did you call them?

I haven't even received that yet and I dropped mine in the mail the Sunday of the recall. I do however have the receipt USPS sent me of the person who signed for it, with the actual signature. Really working on being patient, will give it another month I think and see.

Patrick,

Any inisight would be appreciated, it seems the answer will most likely be negative however any information is better than a black hole since credibility continues to deteriorate.

I've been in this position myself, the component manufacturer changed tolerances and engineering did not catch the change or was not properly notified of the change.

I was involved with a similar situation where engineering was given an updated data sheet for an IC on a board and didn't catch it so millions of dollars later we had to recall and change everything, in the end it killed a product and cost 5M+, all for a 0.10 cent part.

Yes and it's total BS. I was told that none have been shipped out yet.

To anyone at CC:
At this point, you guys at Castle need to get your act together and man up and let us know what's going on. I've got over $1k in brand new ESC's (4 MXL's) sitting there collecting dust. You guys have my $ held hostage as I have no recourse at this point. I'm extremely disappointed in your service, especially since we were all told it would be a quick 1 day swap for the replacement board. I took your word for that and sent in my brand new ESC's. Now I have nothing to show for it other than being pissed off and not having any information on when they'll actually be returned.

The original quote by Patrick was based on the assumption we would have the replacement control boards available. Unfortunately things do not always go as planned and there have been some hang ups in getting the controller corrected. We had to redesign the control board and source new parts. The redesign took MUCH more work and time that we ever thought it would. We also had some troubles getting the right parts.

We had to initiate the recall immediately because of the risk involved in using the ESC in its current state. Unfortunately at that time we did not have all of the components required to make the modifications to fix the controllers. It has taken much longer than expected to get the correct components and get the new control board design and has led to longer delays than we originally planned.

We also wanted to make sure that the changes being made would take care of the problem completely. We didn't want to have to go through another revision that didn't fix all of the potential issues. We have finalized the design, and all of the components are now in house. The control boards have been completed and the power boards are in production at the beginning of next week. I just talked with the production planner today, and she is hoping to have the first new controllers coming out of testing late next week.

I understand the frustrating part with all of this is because of the expectations we gave initially and since then the complete lack of updates and communication. This is inexcusable and the one thing that was avoidable and could have been fixed easily. Most of the frustration people have expressed to me is not knowing what was going on with their controller. As you can imagine this has been a VERY busy and stressful time for us, but is not a good excuse by any stretch of the imagination.

But rest assured we are working as quickly and as diligently as possible to get controller back to our customers. Everyone has been very understanding and patient with us, but long delays and being left in the dark will start to annoy the most patient person. If you sent in a new ESC, you are guaranteed to get back a new, unused ESC. If you sent in a used ESC, we will replace the control board and if it passes testing, you will get your original controller back; if it fails testing, then it will be replaced with a new controller.

We can't apologize enough for the delays, frustration and lack of communication; but I can tell you we are VERY close to getting the Mamba XL's shipped out. As most of you know this is not how things normally work for us, but this recall is far from normal.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

I really appreciate your response and the included information. Indeed, the lack of communication is the most frustrating part of the ordeal. Thank you for the update.

I've just about had it with this recall. I sent my Hydra HV ESC to the Belgian repair center in the first week of the recall and have heard nothing since then. Not even a confirmation of receipt. This is more than 7 weeks ago. Sending emails to tech support is useless because you only get a reply every 3 emails you send.

I already had to buy another esc to get my boat going.

I would rather just get a refund for the esc, shipping & tax costs.

5 months of waiting...shipped to castle on 18th May 2011.
1 MXL
1 1520
1 bec pro


Today, 18th October 2011 i send another MXL but this time to Belgium.
I also had to buy another esc to get my flux going.


Received mail from Thomas yesterday..
"Right now the average turn around for the Mamba XL is about 6-8 weeks"

Just hoping i receive items this year...

We have just over 700 Mamba XL's coming out of production, we are hoping to have some of the first ones ready to ship by the end of the week. You have the 3rd oldest Mamba XL order pending, so you will get one of the very first ones that is ready for shipment.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Hi,
The listing of Mamba XL on Towerhobby which is indicated as VS2. Are they the latest rev with the modified controller board?

Since they don't have them in stock yet, I'd assume so.

It's been 10 days since your post. Any updates?

Received mail today from Castle, package was shipped to me.
Black 5b will wheel again :party:

Just to let you all know Castle started to ship out.

Thanks Castle !

Look what I had waiting for me when I got home tonight!!!!!!

Mamba XL2. New outer case design. I like it.

http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...ambaxl2002.jpg
http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...ambaxl2001.jpg
http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...ambaxl2003.jpg
http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...ambaxl2004.jpg



Ran like a champ. It was cold as hell in Nebraska...but I drove anyway. 39 degrees. My lipos have been sitting half charged on the shelf for 2-3 months...and I could not wait for them to fully charge. They were at about 90% which was good enough.

Street where I drive was obviously cold so I did more tire spinning than I usually do..but like always....it would pretty much wheelie anytime I wanted...once I kept the tires hot.

Here is the link to the data log. Not huge amps being pulled because It was hard keeping the tires warm and sticky.

http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/...7/Picture1.jpg

Damn, it sure feels good to have my 5t up and running again. Ripple Current was a low 5.5%. at the end of the run the motor was 85 degrees, ESC was 70 degrees, and lipos were 110 degrees. highest temp registered in data logging for the ESC was 90 degrees. Ran good. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I definately want to keep my new XL2 alive...I see castle has a new CapPack that fits on the battery input leads. Is this good insurance? Worth doing?