Tekno support.. this is a funny thread since when they call you don't actually get Ne
 

I have now had two issues with tekno products (Brand new) and was basically told OHH WELL on the phone by Tekno-rc. I just started buying some of my other rc needs from them too other than their own branded stuff like the TWO v3 conversion kits I purchased for my 8ight-b and 8ight-t. (lipo’s , MMM, spare parts etc etc) No longer.. unless I have no choice.

I will start with my most recent issue.. a electri-clutch with REALLY bad tolerances... take a look at this picture below.. a gap of several MM between the clutch bell and the end screw. I called tekno with this issue on a BRAND NEW ITEM and they tried to make me BUY MORE PARTS to fix A COMPLETE KIT I Just spent 160 or so on.. WHAT A JOKE!! They didn't offer to send me a replacement; they didn't offer to send me some washers or something to fix their OWN KIT! This has to be the worst customer service I have gotten from any RC company.. EVER, most go out of their way to make good on their products.

The other instance.. I purchased a brand new v3 8ight buggy kit as mentioned and 1/2 the screw holes were not machined properly on the bottom of the 8ight chassis.. the screws all stick out and get damaged and wear and catch on the track constantly.. Well the day I was putting it together I noticed this and called and the guy on the phone laughed!! and said ya we had a bad batch, sorry... it won't affect performance.. and that was the end of the conversation!

What gives.. how can any company pull the crap and stay in business??


I know I'm upset right now, but I have every right to be and I guess with this post I'm just looking for others opinions on this treatment.

Ohh ya the Money shot

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...h/IMG_4746.jpg

Thanks!!!

That sucks, I had an electri clutch adapter that was bent, or not machined correctly. I sent it back to them and they sent me it back, with a replacement. Not the best service, but good enough. I would send them an email, and next time you call, ask for someone higher up. Mention your purchases, and your displeasure...

Hello,

I think I spoke with you today on the phone. All I said was that you may need a shim kit to adjust/take up the slack on the Elektri-Clutch. I didn't know that this would be so offensive. It is very normal to adjust clutch bells back or forth with the use of shims. I mentioned the part # for the shim kit (for this specific purpose) and you basically hung up on me after that. Please let us know what outcome you were looking for today. Were we wrong to suggest the shim kit to solve your problem?

As for the countersinking, it was a manufacturing mistake that we acknowledge, and as stated, it will not affect performance or strength in any way. We would have liked to have this be a better fit as well. I don't recall laughing at you about the issue when you called however. We try very hard to be as helpful and understanding as possible and we didn't earn a stellar customer service reputation by laughing at or belittling our customers.

We meant no offense or disrespect in any way, hopefully you'll reconsider. Thanks.

Daniel Lewis

I'm in the mood to chime in here tonight as I've spent upwards of two hours dealing with Comcast tech support today and getting almost no where. So I understand frustration.

If you make a product that is not up to the tolerances and mechanical design it should be you don't just acknowledge it and say it won't affect performance.

If the user is saying that his screws don't flush mount when they should and are getting chewed up at the track - then that is a serious problem.

You fix the problem and tell the user that you will replace the unit with one that has been manufactured to the right tolerances free of charge.

I fully realize that RC is a destructive hobby and we can't expect things to last long the way they are abused, but if there is something wrong with the product at shipping the replacement is on your dime.

If I spent $100 on a drill that wasn't centered and had a wobbly shaft out of alignment I would return it and expect either a working replacement or my money back, not someone telling me that it will still make a hole in something even if it isn't quite perfectly round. Look at how much $$$ CC has lost on the MMM yet they are still working to make it right. In the growing market for BL conversions I don't think you can afford to be this lax about manufacturing problems - there at least 3 other viable options out there your customer will seek out.

End of vent. :wink:

Daniel,

Here is a chance to see the defective product first hand to see just how bad it is, which I know you were not able to on the phone. Look at that gap, it would take two shim kits to cob that up to fit but then... notice the small recessed space on the shaft, with the pile of shims going into this space they will at high velocities wiggle around and throw off the center and wear considerably on my Neu's bearings. This is not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination nor can it be fixed with some shims as you suggest. If you want to make good on this and keep a paying customer happy simply replace this brand new defective part with a part that is in spec so I don’t ruin a 260.00 brushless motor. I really don't feel like this is too much to ask, it was a "kit" that was suppose to be everything I needed and complete.

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...IMG_4746-1.jpg

No problem. Give us a call tomorrow with your address and we'll set you up (after 10am PST). Thanks.

The narrower diameter is for use with an e-clip just like the stock nitro setup. However, you can also a screw at the end of the shaft with 1/8 scale clutch bells (just like in the picture you posted) because 1/8 cb are wider than the stock revo cb. I have my revo (3.3 engine) setup with an e-clip while my tmaxx (OS .18TZ engine) uses a screw at the end of the shaft to accommodate the wider kyosho cb (or other 1/8 cb for that matter) I'm using.

This is true, when I set my clutch up (that george16 is getting) I used a clip to hold it on... It only took one shim behind the clutch bell to give correct clearance b/t the flywheel and the bell. Might save you some time to use the clip, worked fine for me and never fell off.

Just use a 5x8x.5mm shim with a 5mm e-clip and you'll be fine. By the way, that is how all the tmaxx and revo clutches are setup from the factory.

Tekno basically just copied the stock nitro setup and adapted it for electric flatform. They didn't do anything wrong. You'll be surprised to see the replacement looking exactly the same with the ine you currently have.

I want to thank daniel for taking care of me first off..

For the rest of you guys, I would also like to thank for the alt methods of mounting that you listed. I think that Tekno is moding the future parts so that this issue is corrected. If tekno wanted to as some of you pointed out, I think just including a spacer and e-clip would be a great alternative to having a different part. Again while this works as well as me using my dremel wheel and just modding it, the entire point was it was a brand new part that should have been packed to work from the get go; not everyone has spare parts or a dremel tool or the skills to mod "ready built" kits.

Thanks again to everyone.

Glad it ended well. Sometimes it pays to keep a level head and give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Clearly, there was just a miscommunication.

Customer Service will make or break a company! Glad they are going to help you out. I had a problem with my computer at the begining of the summer, took HP 3 tries to fix my computer, I will never buy another HP! Had they sent me a refurb on the first attemt, I would swear by there product. At the same time that was going on my MMM died on me. I sent it in, got a letter in the mail from them ( I had explained my computer issue to them), and as promised I received a new v2 that is still running and I'm very pleased with. That is CS! I will never recomend an HP product to anyone, on the other hand I swear by CC and think everyone looking for a BL esc should buy from CC.

"This is Ryan in Utah....." Danny (Daniel) from Tekno hears that line at least 3x a week from me as I call him with questions all the time. I have never dealt with someone so helpful and willing to spend time to answer my questions as him. IMO Tekno RC is stellar and Danny is too! I have the same V3 kit for my 8 and when i was assembling i noticed the same thing with the clutch. You know what i did? I threw on 1 washer. there was still a little space so i threw on a 2nd washer and BAM! Perfect. Never had a problem with it. Actually there were a couple of things in the kit that werent quite perfect where i had to do a little modifying but i didnt mind cuz i still knew i had the best kit on the market and half the fun of RC to me is getting creative when i build my cars. And may i make a little recommendation? Use the long shank pinion. I have started using that and it performs way better IMO than the clutch. I may be alone in this thought but it does just fine racing. I can use the trigger on my controller and exponential settings if needed to run that setup sweet. The pinion is quiter, smoother, more responsive, and less hassle. So give that a shot. But you will need to order a long shank pinion AND the long shank pinion motor mounts. Good luck Stum!

I used my dremel on the end to trim it for a PERFECT fit.. the hole point was it should be RTR or state that you need to do work. If I buy things that will need tweaking I expect it and have no issues. The clutch really tames the brushless torque in tight turns and stop and go.. w/o hurting top speed. This is really a must when racing iMO. I have tried both before (not w/ this exact kit) but I know how it feels. You are right about the direct drive w/ pinions though.. it is quite a bit more quiet.

man a 1.5d on a buggy.. THAT is a SUPER fast motor, too fast on 4s iMO. I bet dropping to a 1y, 2d or similar 1512 motor you get better lap times.. that motor can't be geared right iMO, unless you have some of those football field size tracks around you :) I use a Medusa v2 2000kv 60mm motor and no nitro can touch me.. in my v3 8ight buggy; temps around 140 after hours of play. (nice motor for $100.00 can't go wrong) I ran a 1.5d in my erevo all summer and at the end of the summer ended up throwing a bearing and ordering in a new one from neu and they sent a 2.5d by mistake and I kept it and for the last race turned in my fastest lap times all summer.. slower is faster sometimes ;) Anyway.. I plan on dumping the 1.5d in my tekno v3 truggy kit here soon, but I'm sure it will be too fast.. I wish there was a 12t clutchbell.

yeah, i hear your point about the kit stuff.

as far as my 1.5d i love it. a lot of people say that it is probably too fast for racing but i think it works out great. i can almost hit top speed on the straights at my local tracks. besides, i like speed. maybe if i get more serious about racing i will change things up a bit. i will tell you this though. my 1512 1.5D as a lot faster than my 1515 1.5D. i have used both in my buggy but now the 1512 is going in my new losi 8T. i will post some pics of the build as i build it.

i just went to a different local track today than the usual one i go to. it is indoor and very nice but a bit smaller. about 110 guys there to race today and no one drives 1/8 scale. it is electric only but everyone was driving 1/10. so before racing started i had a couple of hours to practice. i was surprised at those little 1/10 buggies. they were flying around the track and look so light weight as they fly in the air. they were faster than my car. mostly because they had better stopping power so they could hit the gas longer. the tires i had were not right for the track despite my brakes working stellar. however, my 1/8 was like the "bully" of the track. i would clobber the other cars as i came up on them. not on purpose, but if i hit them they were toast. my 9 lb buggy vs. their 2 lb buggy. it was a lot of fun.

:smile:Due to the time difference between myself in the U.K. and Tekno in the U.S.A I communicate via e mail and I've had nothing but fast and polite help from Daniel at Tekno.
I have the same issue with you in so much a my screws stand proud of the chassis and Daniel has advised me to swap them out to M4 x 12 & M4 x 16 screws as some of the chassis were mistakenly countersunk for M4 screws. It's slightly annoying but for the sake of the price of a few screws I'll do it as otherwise the kit is spot on. I never had the problems with the spacing on the clutch that you've had so I don't know what went on with yours. I'm running a 1515-1Y so I don't know if the shaft is slightly different?
Anyway glad to hear that your sorted as personally I've found Tekno to be really helpful.:smile:

The issues with the chassis is unacceptable in my opinion. Not only are they countersunk not deep enough, they are countersunk at the wrong angle. Metric screws use a 90 degree countersink, standard uses an 82 degree countersink. Whoever answered the phone for me was pleasant enough, but selling a retail product that is built incorrectly is NOT an acceptable business prectice. They did say they would send me screws, but that is still not right, they need to replace the product and that was never offered. It was put on ME to fix the problem. They told me that they are a small company and cannot afford to send all the chassis back to have them fixed. WHAT??? So evidently in America we can sell junk and use that as an excuse. Amazing.
I am not going to put double length metric screws into my plastic that is already drilled/tapped for larger 8-32 hadrdware. This will also destroy the holes even further if I decide to go back to the nitro setup. Now I need to go buy an 82 degree countersink and fix every single hole in the chassis. (They are ALL countersunk for metric hardware.) The problem with using standard hardware in a metric countersunk hole is that only a tiny amount of the screw head is touching the chassis, right near the center hole, with a small gap around the rest of the screw head taper. The tapers on the screws are supposed to match the taper on the chassis to spread out load and stay tight.
Be forwarned, wish I would have read about this before spending my money and gone with the Losi kit.............

I'm sorry our solution didn't meet your approval and we don't sell junk. Like I said on the phone, we are doing what we can to address the issue. The screws that we're sending you will work perfectly fine and won't compromise a thing. It's the same thing any company would do to fix the problem rather than re-manufacture a $100 chassis. We've been running these chassis with M4 screws and the stock screws every week without any problems whatsoever.

We're having trouble understanding such outrage with such a small cosmetic issue that absolutely doesn't affect anything, while some other companies require heavy mods to get their products to work and get a pass.

BTW it's not every hole on the chassis. There are only 12. We're going to stand up for ourselves on this and send out screws to any customer that requests them. 2 customers out of 100's have tried to make this into a big issue and we have done what we can to help them in a courteous manner.

If you want to ram 4mm x 16mm screws into a hole designed for 8/32" x 1/2" then have at it. In mm a 4mm screw is actually 3.8-3.9mm, depending on brand. An 8/32 is 4.04 +/- depending on brand. May not seem like a lot until you hold the screws side by side. It is NOT the correct way to build a car.
The chassis has 20 8/32 holes in it, not 12.
It also has 20-22 smaller 5/64 sized holes in it. All of those are countersunk for metric hardware also.
Losi would not send out a product like this as you have stated.
This is not a cosmetic issue in any way. If we use 4mm fasteners then the plastic Losi parts are damaged for future use, and they do strip using the holes. (I started assembly per your recommendations, the third one stripped.) Besides the fact that we now have a car with metric and standard fasteners.
If we use the correct hardware for the car we are working on, the heads stick out of the chassis up to 1/16 of an inch and the strength of the fasteners is compromised due to the tapers being incorrect.
Lots of people do lots of things that "work". That doesn't make it right. unfortunately in this hobby, many enthusiasts don't know any better, so when a company tells them to do something to cover their own mistake, the people believe it. People don't know better to stand up for themselves. Or they know that complaining will get them nowhere, as this last post has proven.
If Tekno truly cared about their customers, they would send out 82 degree countersinks wrapped in a $20 bill to cover our time to fix a product that never should have been sold to begin with.

I suppose we can't satisfy everybody. If you'd like to send your V3 kit back to us for a refund, we'd be more than happy to take it back and pay for the shipping. We hope that you keep it and enjoy it as so many others have. But if we can't make it right for you with our suggestions, we'll take it back. Thanks.

edit:
We can apply the refund to the Losi kit if desired. We're just trying to help at this point. Thanks.

:smile:Whilst it's frustrating that these chassis's were countersunk incorrectly I really do think your making a mountain out of a mole hill. Personally it's not a question of not knowing any better as you suggest but being pragmatic. I haven't had one RC kit that doesn't need modding in some way to resolve minor issues that obviously weren't apparent at the time of manufacture, this includes, 1/10th, 1/8th, 1/5th cars and my heli's. Losi aren't immune to this either, everyone knows there's a problem with the CVD pins falling out but you have to buy a third parties upgrade part to fix it, the rear hinge pins on the 8T are made of cheese and I've had to fit the Mugen ones to get over that.
If you don't like changing the screws out for metric, which I personally prefer as US manufacturers are the only ones still using imperial, treat yourself to a countersink and chill out.:smile:

First Gramey, I appreciate your input but you are incorrect. I have raced the Losi cars/trucks in the Pro class, from Texas to Illinios for almost two years. I also run a small metalworking rc business, so I am more than qualified to form opinions on rc race vehicles. If your pins are falling out you don't know how to use Loctite. Losi cars do wear faster than others, that is true, but they don't have blatant manufacturing flaws from the get-go. (I do think that Losi has some issues they addressed with the 2.0 version that should have been taken care of on the new cars, but that is why I am now racing another brand.) I have also run just about every other manufacturer's cars this summer before settling on a brand, and the ones that do have issues (RC8) have them resolved by sending out updates that fully address the problems.

Second, I originally popped back on here to apologize and retract some of what I said. There are a total of 12 large sized holes that need to be reworked, the rest of them use metric fasteners that are included in the kit, so are correct. Also, same with the small ones, there are 6 so far that I have found that use standard Losi hardware so I have re-countersunk them. I will fix any more that I find as I go along, as a lot of metric hardware is included in the kit. I think it is also a little bad to mix/match, it makes wrenching more difficult but that is my opinion. My bad on the hole numbers, I apologize for posting before knowing fully what I was dealing with.
The offer to refund me on the kit is also much appreciated, and is what I should have been offered to begin with, in my opinion. I have already bought the countersink and remachined the appropriate holes, I am looking forward to running this chassis this winter.
I am done with the issue, if anyone wants soem help/info on reworking which holes they can pm me.
Thanks.
Chris

:smile:Devilmanak, I don't want to go trading insults on here and I'm glad you've overcome your issues with a little adaptation, albeit one that shouldn't have been necessary.
I am however intrigued by your comment concerning my ability to use loctite, presumably this has only ever been an issue effecting us lesser mortals? I don't race in the pro class but a number of people have experienced the problem of the CVD centre pins snapping and falling out in two halves. Possibly due to us being too harsh on our transmissions?, at least 3 different manufacturers produce retainers for these pins which I doubt they would do without good reason. I've never actually had one snap yet so by fitting them perhaps I've succumbed to listening to the scare mongers and fixing a problem that doesn't actually exist?
Anyway as I said I'm glad you've overcome the problem concerning the screws, which buggy/truggy did you convert and what set up are you running? I went with the 1515-1Y in my 8T with the MGM 16025 esc and Thunder Power Extreme V2 cells and so far I'm pretty impressed, seems to have better drive than my nitro through the turns.:smile:

I learned a long time ago to not post when irritated with something/someone, unfortunately I don't apply that knowledge all the time. :)
After some coutersinking, things are shaping up nicely, 8-32 bolts in the Losi parts, supplied metric stuff in the Tekno stuff.
I don't think I have heard of the cvd pins breaking, I know there are retainers made as you said to keep them from coming loose, but that problem is the same with any brand. (Pins coming loose and falling out.) The Losi hardware is SOOOOO small that it cannot be really tightened as much as with other brands. (Heat shrink on cvd joints is nothing new.) M2C and GMK recognized that the Losi ones come out easier and came up with solutions.) I ran both the M2C and GMK retainers, when checking/cleaning the joints never had one come loose. It is just nice to know that you are safe using retainers, and I like the way the GMK boots keep dirt out/lube in the joint.
Chris

:smile:That looks a lot neater, I've got to wait a day or so before I can do mine as the local hardware store only had metric countersink bit's so I've had to order one.
Enjoy your racing, hopefully a bit more now you haven't got the worry of screw heads standing proud, I hate that as I'm always afraid they're going to get ripped out. Fortunately I haven't got to run mine before it will be done.:smile: