heller, the company with the worst, sorry non existent, customer care.

GMorrison

Don't feed the Troll.

 

Don't feed the Troll.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but maybe a fresh pair of eyes can lower the temperature a bit.

I think a lot of the heat in this thread originated in a few poorly chosen words. The original poster started out by stating that Heller had the "worst" customer service. I think that was intended rhetorically. (Surely the OP didn't mean to imply that he had tested out all the companies' customer service and concluded that Heller had the worst.)

I also don't blame the OP for feeling that Heller shafted him. Leaving out a hull half, in a kit that costs over $100, is an inexcusable mistake, and Heller should have corrected it immediately.

I don't know just what's going on at Heller these days. For a long time I had the impression that the company had gone out of business. For a while Airfix was selling some Heller kits (including the Victory) under its own label. Then, within the last year or two, Heller kits started showing up on the "newly arrived" pages of some of the distributors. And as of two minutes ago, Heller had a website up and running: http://www.heller.fr/fr/ .

That website is interesting. The visitor can choose between text in French and an odd form of English. (H.M.S. Victory, Le Soleil Royal, the Preussen, etc. are categorized as "sailboats.") There's a page of "new items." I can't speak for the cars and various other varieties, but the ships and aircraft all seem to be reissues from at least thirty years ago. (Those 1/24 classic cars, as I remember, were mighty nice kits; I imagine car modelers will be glad to see them back. Those nice 1/400 French and German warships are there, too.) I get the distinct impression that Heller has been through a lot of changes over the past few years; maybe kpnuts's parts request fell through a crack between management changes. But I don't actually know.

One thing that's pretty clear from this thread is that different modelers have different experiences with different companies at different times. I've had relatively few experiences of that sort myself, but the ones I have had have generally gone ok. I've never tried to get a replacement part from any of the East Asian companies; I've had pleasant experiences with Revell and Airfix.

And a couple of weeks ago I indiscreetly left the instruction book for my current project, a Model Shipways fishing schooner, on the floor, where my cat pee'd on it. The kit has been out of production for some time. (It's a fine one; I wish it would come back.) I e-mailed Model Expo's customer service address, saying I'd understand if no replacement manual was available, but that I'd be happy to pay for one if the company had one lying around. The following day I got a cc'd e-mail from the president of the company, Marc Mosko, to a lady in distribution (or whatever department it was), asking her to send me a copy of the manual. The day after that, she sent it to me - no charge - as an e-mail attachment. So I printed out the attachment and saved it to my hard drive. If I ever lose the hardcopy, or my feline landlady leaves me another message, I'll just print out a new one.

That's what I call customer service.

Hello ;

 It's me again . Listen , I don't think anyone was trying to upset anyone .We are talking about customer service here . Not personalities . My experience with the subject has been stated , but One more and I will leave .

  I needed an Eduard  P.E. part because I totally screwed one up . I contacted them, explained it was my fault . I asked how much a replacement metal sprue would be . I was told the cost would be figured on the invoice .

 A large padded envelope arrived a week later .Within it was the Whole Set in which that part was one of many , of course . Total cost NO CHARGE .Thank You , for buying our product . Customer Service - - EDUARD .

You are not alone. 

They used to have greaat service, now it is non existrant. I have written, faxed and even called. My HMS Victory has many instruction errors for parts - not enough. 

I buiilt the huge Soleil Royale and got parts quickly.

I need parts fort the HMS Victory and poof - no CS.

A shame because overall the models are fun to build if you are an advanced modeler.

We know who not to buy from now!

Anyone else having issues?

[/quote]

Hi all I received this today (just so I don't get accused of hiding crittical information again)

Dear Customer,
You sended many mails, sorry but i have too mutch work to do, so in you mail you ask for the part 2, is it the Soleil Royal or La Réale De France ?
Regards,
Customer service

this is the first reply of any kind I've had from Heller.

So they dont even communicate within the company or they would know the part had been sent

In all honesty Kpnuts, threatening to sue them is childish in my opinion. Why is everyone so hell bent on threatening lawsuit these days? What ever happen to being more courteous in explaining the issue? What if it was a situation that they no longer produce the kits? What then? Still gonna sue them over a discontiunued kit? Geez....

I would venture that your threatening to sue and the part arriving the next day is more than likely co incidental. Did you check the shipping date on the package? Packages are usually marked with a date that they begin processing thru whatever system used. It's a long flight from Europe to where I live. Not to mention customs delays, ground travel time, business hours, sorting etc. If you got your part less than 18 hours after your threat to sue, odds are it was already on the way.

Threatening to sue? Well, I do not see where you live, but a part for a model would end you up in small claims court where I live. And of course there is the question of how the model was originally obtained. Online? secondhand? from an actual shop? Why not get an exchange from the actual seller?

Non existant customer service? wrong. They did provide you with a replacement part. It just took longer than you wanted. I saw in your ship of the line thread you originally noticed tha part goof in early/mid December or so. Now in mid Febuary you receieved your replacement part. For international shipping at the holiday season and with a few international events occuring in that part of the world, I would not get so upset myself. Ripple effect of unrelated events.

It took over six months for me to get a replacement part for a Hasegawa kit in my one dealing with their customer service. Actually I think closer to nine months. But I did not go ranting like you did here. And in the end, I got my part, plus the whole sprue it is on for lots more parts for my spares bin, so I was happy. I had to drop out of a Group Build here as teh worst consequence. No reason to threaten to sue. Again I say to go try to get a replacement part direct from Trumpeter, Hobby Boss, or Bronco. And if you can and do,please share on here your method for doing so. There is some stuff I need from Hobby Boss that I need for a kit obtained secondhand thru my IPMS chapter.

And yes, omission of critical facts is akin to lying at times. It is certainly being less than truthful. I conduct investigations on a daily basis at work, and the good citizens often slant their talesby omission of facts they later admit to when confronted with that information in the hope that things will turn out in their favor, or just to garner some more sympathy, or whatever reason they may have. It also happens during the complaint process in my line of work that goes on somebody's permanent record. So yes omission of relevant facts does get my hackles raised.

That lawsuit would have cost you $ 500.00 just to set in place and you would probably have had to plan a trip to Paris. I'm sure they were aware of that. I suggest your part was in the mail at the same time as you were fighting with them.

Kpnuts, I never accused you of lying, and I can't help it if you see it that way.

My point is this- often in a conflict we lose sight of the fact that the other party has their own reasons why things are going the way they are. It's usually a good thing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Trust in their good intentions and you most often will not be dissappointed.

The thing that prompted me to even comment at all is this. Way too often, a company gets ripped on the internet with no opportunity to defend themselves. And their business is hit hard. 760 people so far have read this thread, minus a few repeats. What if even 25% of them decided not to buy a Heller kit based on your experience, which turned out ok in the end although you never mentioned that. For a weird old kit, that's a lot.

Actually I am a member of a few forums, this is the only one where its been inferred that I am somhow being less than truthful I think most people would agree having to threaten to sue a company in order to get any service is bad customer service. I didn't mention the arrival of the part because I still stand by what I said, they have no customer service IN MY OPINION, you are all obviously entitled to your opinions.

This will be my last post on here.

Yes you are correct the part came but only after I threatened to sue. No apology no explanation nothing, just the part, can you tell I'm still not happy.

thanks stikpusher, i go to the post to read that.

happy modeling

Jc

Vit13

Hello kpnuts ,

i'm french and as jimbot58 says i live with the coneheads .
Anyway ....... the customer service from Heller is excellent .........believe me.

Maybe not with the international. I think is a big mistake .So if you want tell me the problem (in private message ) and i 'll try to help you.

 

regards

         Jc

 

 

take a look at his Heller "Ship of the line thread". His part came in. 

Delayed, yes. But in the end customer service occurred. And I do not believe I saw any mention of that here. An omission of a critical fact.

You want non existent customer service? Try Hobby Boss or Trumpeter. They have no such thing on their website. Bronco- you're better off talking to yourself. They do have a contact point, but you will never hear back from them.

I have never dealt with Heller myself so I can't say anything about theirs, good or bad. Tamiya and Revell on the other hand both have superb service.  Hasegawa was slow but generous. Academy is all about the money...

No problem Jim , I really love humour . Sorry i forgot the smiley

Vit13

Hello kpnuts ,

i'm french and as jimbot58 says i live with the coneheads .
Anyway ....... the customer service from Heller is excellent .........believe me.

Maybe not with the international. I think is a big mistake .So if you want tell me the problem (in private message ) and i 'll try to help you.

 

regards

         Jc

 

 

No offence intended, I was only making a bit of fun!

Jim

Hello kpnuts ,

i'm french and as jimbot58 says i live with the coneheads .
Anyway ....... the customer service from Heller is excellent .........believe me.

Maybe not with the international. I think is a big mistake .So if you want tell me the problem (in private message ) and i 'll try to help you.

regards

         Jc

Don't you know? it's because Heller kits are from France, and you know who else came from there:

Sorry.I did not intend to offend anyone.But;The information is my first hand encounter with the Heller plant which I wanted to share.I intend to attend the Nationals this year,and I can meet face to face with fellow modelers about this subject.My code name Silver will be on my entry form.Take care and happy modeling.

Customer Service? I've had many phone calls not replied to, this is all the ones I've ever left a message for not just modeling companies. Makes one wonder If you have the plague or something LOL

Anyhow, My experioance with modeling companies is limited. The're Tamiya and Revell. Recently my dog jumped up on my desk and messed up my Tamiya 2 !/2 ton cargo truck The Deuce and and a half. Tamiya charged me for two full sprues for $17.25 But now I have a ton of extra parts.Thats a 1/35 scale ton LOL

Revell has always sent me parts if the have them in stock. They're usually pretty good about it, but in December 2014 I did a replacement parts order. Then I forgot all about it (I made my own replacement B 24 propeller shafts) The first week of June 2015, I received them Oh well

kpnuts

Sorry that will be me who misunderstood then, I'm still offended by his comments though.

 

Well, sometimes we state opinions, that dosent make them fact. I'm sure G wasnt trying to offend you, perhaps he was trying to make a point.

Sorry that will be me who misunderstood then, I'm still offended by his comments though.

kpnuts

You misunderstood, I am the OP Gmorrison inferred I either giving half truths, misinformation or blatantly lying, that is my point.

 

No, I think G is blaming Silver for veering off topic and taking the thread in a direction it wasnt meant to go.

You misunderstood, I am the OP Gmorrison inferred I either giving half truths, misinformation or blatantly lying, that is my point.

GMorrison

 

spiralcity

 

 

GMorrison

I agree PJ. That's why these kinds of threads are not real great. These guys are the best...well no Tamiya is certainly not if you want a good Tiger 1 kit. Heller is the worst. Well no they are not if you want a great plastic HMS Victory.

 

 

 

 

I do not think the OP was stating anyone was the best. From what I read, the OP expressed displeasure with customer service from the Heller Corporation. The OP simply asked if anyone else found the service less than professional and if so please post your expeirence. I do not see anything wrong with a thread discussing customer service from manufacturers in the modeling business. Customer service is HUGE, and in my opinion customer service can make or break a company. It's nice to have a heads-up on problems such as this and I appreciate the shout-out to others.

 

 

 

 

Nope the OP didn't go for "best", a member going by "Silver" did. The OP served up "worst".

 

Here's my take. You have a bad experience with something. Is it all the other parties fault? Maybe you are partially at fault too. But we will never know because we only get to hear, anonymously, your side of it. Which is unfair.

 

Understood G, but thats not the OP's fault. We need to read the OP statemnet and stick to the topic, in other words "dont derail the thread".

And I completely disagree with your statement about customer service. The customer is right and you operate your business in pleasing the customer. No if's, and's, or but's about it. If you want to stay in business, you eat crow when necessary. I wont even argue this statement, I'll just stand by it and know it to be true.

Sorry I disagree 

Gmorrison does, "you are only getting one side of the story, and that is unfair "

Personally I take offence at that. 

Kp

No one is disputing your story. It simply depends on who handles your complaint. Sometimes you get someone who cares and wants to help. Or you may end up with a total jerk that just tells you want you want to hear and does nothing else.

Everything I stated was, is true, even looked at from any perspective being ignored is being ignored, which amounts to contempt when you phone them they say the part was shipped 2 days after you're comunication, this is after weeks of "what's happening " being ignored I prefer emails as you have written proof of what's been said which you can fall back on. The last one I sent said I was suing for my money back (that was last week) no surprise, no reply to that either.

And now for a pleasant story about GOOD service....Last Wed at noon, I ordered a kit from Squadron.  It was delivered to my house by FedEx at 8 AM today.

This is with the premium shipping option, FedEx home delivery.  If you want to save $3 and use the economy option, FedEx drops it off at your local post office and the USPS delivers it to your house.  This usually takes about 10 days total and that is ridiculous.  The only one who saves $ on that deal is the shipper!