Notice she bit into a "Lemon".

Lemons are the devils fruit...

Still a good face... :P

omg!

I leave for a couple months and it turns into a shouting match!

Really the customer support issues we are running into comes down to our serious growth, + the recall on ICE-HV. We are still getting swamped -- but we are starting now finally to see some daylight.

So please bear with us while we go through some growing pains.

March was our worst month for CS problems and return turn-around. We are getting better as we dig ourselves out of our hole.

Very sorry for the long repair times and CS wait times - -but there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Patrick

Would a surprise if +30.000 ESC's exchange wouldn't cause some trouble...
But the german Castle community stands by you !

heads up
every bad does have a good ... one day

thx for the update !!!

Thanks for the kind words Outlaw...

FYI - it was more like 60,000 total affected by the recall... :surprised:

60.000 ??? no kidd'n

Just a little "reminder" who is "complaining" about Castle these day...

They exchange those 60.000 controlers for free !!!
Try to find a company of the size and the passion like Castle, doing this.

As long you did not found this company, please stop complaining ...
Better buy some Castle products to make sure they stay in business !!!
I just bought 2 Monster

Forgot one thing
There is another Service Advisorie for the Mamba XL2
I saw that one a week ago, send an email to castle support and got an answere and the part shipped within 5 days !

And the latest Mamba XL2 is doing an outstanding job...
prodrucing 3,8kw like nothing ...

60.000!!!!! That is a whole lotta BlueBerries.

Patrick....no matter how hard your company tries, inevitably if you please 95% your are doing very well. Obviously, 100% is the ultimate goal, but in reality rarely happens. With my business that same premise is what usually happens even though I strive for perfection.

Hang in there!

It goes both ways, while people have every right to complain they should keep it balanced, by the same token being a Zealot or total fanboy doesn't help either...

People definitely go too far when it comes to complaining generally because of the emotion involved and that needs to be handled but people voicing their opinions and positions is good for everyone as long as it isn't out of line.

How does that go for people who just ride the fence post padre ?

Who do you think you are Patrick?!?!?!

We were talking about blueberries and you rudely interrupted this serious discussion to talk about ESC's and CS?

Everyone knows that blueberries are what makes the world go round. Without them, the universe would spin off in to complete chaos and implode upon itself.

To BrianG: the four hours comment was tongue and cheek by me.........

BTW, Patrick, keep up the hard work. It's rough when you grow by leaps and bounds over night. I started working for a company a few months back that did much of the same, going through many pains, but moving forward head down all the time. Life is an adventure after all. :intello:

Obvious troll has bein tamed, time to enjoy all the blueberrys in peace

Works every time !

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k1...oll_spray2.jpg

This will only make Castle stronger. A lot of the people complaining might not own a business and have no idea how hard it is to run a company the size of Castle. If something similar happened to any other company, I can see that company going under. Keep up the good work Patrick.

I'm requesting a Special Edition Castle ESC with a Blueberry and a BumbleBee logo. I want the bee to be hovering right over a pair of blueberries.

Hmmmmm.... We were thinking flowers and kitties.

Thank you for illustrating how lightly customer service is taken that we can now poke fun at it so freely.

Meanwhile just clicked onto week 14 for my ESC..... waiting waiting waiting.....

How dare I have the audacity to get what I paid for huh?

Pm me with your info-- I'll check on it

I don't know many company owners who gives tech advise and personal CS on any forum. To me, that speaks volumes. Castle supports ALOT of platforms now...IMHO Castle is responsible for keeping the brushless revolution on track for many of us. Most of the other "brushless" companies produce something, see that it has a few shortcomings an then abandons the product. Patrick has worked tirelessly to get into our hands what we like to run and do it the right way.

The big guys see his efforts too. Associated, HPI, Traxxas, Losi...they all use his brushless stuff. Not to mention a military contract as well. Look at how much Castle has expanded since we saw the MMM V1....

So, on top of supporting several of the top rc companies and making sure their stock is enough so people can buy their favorite cars and trucks, the man has recalled 60k escs....give the guy a break!

I waited 3+ months getting a mmp back probably 6 months ago, but the man replaced it for free....while dealing with the massive recall.

.....so i gotta slip this in....the only small critism i have is to maybe change the repair time on the website to 8-12 weeks. atleast people know that it's probably gonna be a little later than they expected.

There's no way in the world i'd run any other brushless system. Castle has always been reliable... even through my own learning curve, where i was horrible at soldering and probably caused 70% of my own failures before i learned how to do it the right way. after that, i didn't have a single additional failure. it makes me wonder how many of these returns are from user error. probably alot.

You know I love you guys.

We do what we do because we are modelers too. And we love it.

There are industries where we could make a lot more margin, but i sure wouldn't look forward to going to work. :party:

You deserve the support and admiration Patrick, you've single handedly have done sooo much for our beloved hobby.

I just remember were we were 8-10 years ago before there was CC in the car scene.

Let's see, Schultze Motto: It's all the customers fault no matter what, MGM, Motto: we'll get it fixed in 6-9 months if your lucky, BK Motto: sometimes we offer CS, sometimes not, Hacker Motto: we had a car controller, we may again, good luck getting it fixed when it blows up, the Quark, we're smooth but our controller may not actually meet spec.

Not too mention that with the exception of BK (who's quality was very poor) all of these alternatives were twice the price of what CC offers.

While there are many Chinese branded alternatives on the market today, none would be here without Castle's dedication and success.

Patrick, we are glad you have stayed dedicated to the RC world. We have lost many good companies to the higher margin side of things. I can definitely see the lure of this, but sometimes not everything is worth the extra money.

I am a castle fan boy and god damn proud of it . Castle Customer service is the shit. 3 controllers in the last year and they backed me up 100 % .

One of the times Patrick directly resolved my controller problem. I think that's why all my controllers, becs are castle . The man stands behind is product. No one can question that.

Someone on here told me to buy 2 of everything just in case . Send it back and move on with life . RC is the most spendy frigging hobby . If you don't wanna invest this hobby it may not be for you .

The best indicator of future performance is past behavior.

Maturity lends itself to looking at the big picture rather than the immediate circumstances.

fastbaja5b admits Castle was the best of the best, but right now he has the bitter taste of blueberries in his mouth, and damn it, he wants everyone to know!

I stand loyally by Castle's side and fully expect them to return to where they were.

Thank you Castle, Thank you Patrick.:yes:

I am willing to bet that the CC haters here forget that ALL companies go through rough stretches, but, the select few companies who persevere, usually end up becoming the best of the best.

My RC addiction was no where until CC gave us the products we have today. Now, I am a loyal customer for 8+ yrs...and counting!!!

I would work as a volunteer for Castle in my spare time
But the distance is a little to long to get to work "in time"

Mirko, I'd love to have you come volunteer for Castle!!!

It's ok, we'll wait for you to get here. :whistle:

Or a no travel option.... he can help with email overload, just select THE castle inbox and hit forward all! :lol:

None travel option :lol:

This is what i do for 14 year now...
working for a AL Birmingham company as Senior Technical Support Eng.

But certainly not a bad idea... could do some of the "european support"

An "somehow" we do a lot controler and motor testing already
Just for passion

Patrick, next time I'll be in AL i will get some days off and will come up to Kansas...

My Mamba XL2 warranty replacement took about 15 days from the day I shipped it to them to me having a new one on my door step. Seems pretty good to me. I think they are getting more "on top" of the huge rush of XL recalls. I am pretty happy...

My XL2 did not go up in smoke. I had it in a brushless revo and encountered a low speed, but very sharp hit to the chassis from a ridge I did not see in the cement. It went from about 15mph to a dead stop instantly. My XL2 stopped working immediately from the sharp impact. Then later on the bench, trying to see if a connection on the esc failed....it did go up in smoke. Just a little bit...not a huge inferno.

But it was the low speed sharp impact that killed mine.

In my Baja 5t, I have had hundreds of impacts with no XL2 failures...so I kind of figure this failure was a fluke.... Castle took care of me in less than a couple weeks.

I am no fanboy...and I was super mad at them a year ago when i burned up 3 Version 1s and 2s..... But all seems much better now a year later with the XL2.

For my car electronics I have always run Castle, but I'm always trying to save a buck and for my cheaper airplanes since they eventually crash anyway, I tried to get away with cheaper cotrollers, but I'm done with that too. I've tried just about every brand of cheap controller and I really havent found one that works the way its supposed to. You name it and I have it and the issues are always there. Either the controller wont handle anywhere close to its amp rating, or the 3A bec wont handle some of the faster servos, or the startup routines just suck, or the motor loses sink at high rpms. Its always some funny issue and to figure it out I always put my ice controller in to see why the issue is happening. One day I had an idea, maybe I could just put an ice controller in to begin with and bypass the funny issues and slowly but surely I'm converting my fleet over to all Castle controllers. Warranty service is also non-existant on the cheap controllers so there is really no use in complaining. My last warranty claim from oversees took 7 months. 7 months!!!!!!!!! I'm another year older now.
I was a bit annoyed with the failures on the MMM V1 and V2s too, but really there is no one else that comes even close to providing the products and warranty support that Castle offers.

I have to agree with you. Overall, I am pleased now that most of the teething problems seem to be over with the XL controllers. Seems things are good again....or at least that is my thought based on my recent experience. I have to rate my latest warranty repair experience an "A+". I really could not have asked for more.

I have ahd good success from Castle. Started with a MM when they 1st came out, and have run just about everything brushless they have offered, for cars, boats and air/heli.

I have had a few let go, a few were my fault, and a few were not? Anyways, I have used CC warranty support a dozen times or so. Sometimes they were out of stock and I had to wait, other times it was a quick turnaround. A few times they decided that they did not want my money and gave me a replacement free... Cannot complain.

Bottom lines is : YOU ARE PLAYING WITH TOYS!!!! THIS IS UPPOSED TO BE FUN!!! COMPLAINING ABOUT PROBLEMS YOU ARE HAVING WHEN YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING FUN IS POINTLESS!!!

We played on the edge with electric rc back in the day, I remember this. You had to figure it out, seat of the pants style. Nothing was "gauranteed", it was all untested. Now everyone thinks they can just buy some stuff and throw it together and never have to worry about it. If you are having issues with e-rc, go back to nitro.

If you think this is an expensive hobby, you are in the minor leagues. Buy a drag bike or car, or get into gun collecting, or offshore boat racing. RC is cheap and easy. I can build a complete rc monster truck in an evening.

Anyways, good luck to CC, I hope they can catch up and grow. Every business has a model, and I am sure Patrick is more pissed than any customer. I know how he feels, as I own a business too. If you do not, you will never trulyu understand the stress and pressures.

@lincpimp

well written you nailed it more than perfect

Another Satisfied Customer!

I had to mention this as i am really satisfied with the customer service Castle Provides. Had an XL2 that went up in smoke and melted the connector, yes the 6.5mm castle bullet connector melted. Also had another MMM esc that was not working for some time, but as I am in the middle east, due to the cost of shipping didn't send the MMM at that time.
Anyhow sent both the XL2 and MMM on the 5th of June had them back by the 6th of July to my Aramex forwarding address in NY that including the Shipping round time! 4 days later were back home ;)

All i can say is Thank you Castle!

With 2 XL2's and 3 MMM's i will stick with Castle!

I just sent in a V1 MMM and got a replacement FOR FREE to my door within 2 weeks!:yes:

I know it is Castle's policy to replace V1's for free, but I feel like I should have paid.

THANK YOU CASTLE!!!!!!!!!!:yes:

I can only say that the service castle, and Patrick were absolutely fantastic when I had to thank the team castle, and especially to Patrick.

All my problems were solved in a clear and efficient.

I think the people that complain about castle service need to try and deal with some of the other companies in the industry.

+1 Even great companies like Castle have bumps in the road from time to time. People need to remember that this is a hobby, not life and death.