Nitro Car Help

Slimer_2

Hi,

As you can see below from the letter I sent to where I bought the car from I purchased a nitro car in Dec 2009 and it has never been right since day one. I initially sent the email below to them

To Whom It May Concern:

I purchased a Nitro 3 RS4 drift car in early December on recommendation from your staff as I had intention to purchase a different model of a lesser value. Your staff explained if I was looking for a drift car to purchase a specific drift car rather than a road car which was capable of drifting which I understood so took his advice. It was purchased as a Christmas present so it didn’t get used until Christmas Day. It came to start the car on Christmas day and no matter what I did it wouldn’t start.

I then came back to your shop and spoke to Johnny who also struggled to get it working and it worked once and stopped and wouldn’t start again. Due to the long queue forming I left and took it to a different shop. To cut a long story short I eventually got it working via a local model shop the next working day after Christmas which was the 28th. Even they struggled and said something about the mixtures were not correct or something which I can only assume that Johnny had changed or wasn’t right from the manufacturer im not quite sure.

I finally got it up and working and as soon as it was started it just had a mind of its own and the wheels just revved and revved and wouldn’t stop. The only way to attempt to control this was to apply the brakes. As you can imagine with the increase wheel spin and applying plastic brakes, the inevitable happened. The brake disc melted onto the disc shoe. I then cleaned up the metal shoe from all the excess plastic.

I then found the part on the internet and in a number of local suppliers who all listed the part as out of stock and no where actually had them in stock!

I spoke to your company to order the replacement part when it was to come into stock but also spoke to HPI directly and they ordered the part for me free of charge as a gesture of goodwill as your company were going to charge me for the part which I was not happy with. The part then arrived the next day and was fitted and everything was ok or so I thought.

I then attempted to fire up the car and noticed it was still moving
> forward upon starting so just had to make do with this. I spoke to a number of friends who also race cars and they advised me to adjust certain things so see what difference this made. I did all this and it made no difference what so ever. I then got to the point of just driving it without the shell on as I couldn’t get the car to stay still long enough (without burning out the brake disc – but I wasn’t going to be doing that again!) to put the shell on.

All in all I think up to that point I had used it for about a day. With all the snow and the wet December/January we had it didn’t get used until about February. I took the car to my local car park and given it was a Sunday the place was empty.
I was driving it around as normal and the rear axle just snapped and the wheel went rolling off in the other direction. As you can imagine I was not impressed with this given my limited usage. I then again searched for the part and found the part I needed (A557) was out of stock everywhere and not even Ebay had one. I then emailed HPI to be informed even they don’t have any stock of this part.

It just appears that this car was an end of the line sale rather than a brand new model as described from your staff which I feel was not entirely true as all parts are not available from anywhere.

I feel this car is not fit for the purpose it was intended and under the Sales of Goods Act it states “Wherever goods are bought they must "conform to contract". This means they must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality (i.e. not inherently faulty at the time of sale).” Given all my previous problems with the car I think you would agree this is not the case and it would be yourselves not HPI who are responsible if goods do not conform to contract.

What I am looking for is a replacement car of a different model and given I have already spent a further £40+ than what I intended to spend I feel this is the least you can do given all previous issues. I have contacted HPI a number of times and they have literally bent over backwards to try and help me in every way and one of their customer service staff called James has been fantastic so if you wanted some confirmation I have contacted them to explain all my issues by all means ask for him.

I have also copied James into this email for their reference.

I then received this email back from them

Thankyou for your message.
I am glad you have involved James. Has James now agreed to see your car and replace it?
You did not make it clear.
Maat

Im sure the above makes perfectly clear what I am looking for does it not?

I then replied with the following email

Hi,

I contacted James about the axle that was required (part number A557) and he stated that they didnt have any stock of this part but advised to get a different "upgraded" axle (which retailed around £30) which I said I wasn’t happy about paying almost three times the cost for the standard one. James agreed to contribute towards the cost of the upgraded one and sell it at the cost of the standard one but I have lost complete faith in this car all together so I was looking at your company to replace this at no cost to myself

Thanks

I then received this weird reply back

Hi xxx,

I understand you have taken advice from our manager Dave, If in doubt please call him on 01789295859 between 9.30am -5.30p.m tomorrow, to finalise your problem.
Maat

This was my reply to that

> Hi,

I haven’t spoken to Dave about anything at all. I haven’t heard anything from anyone since your last email

Then came this

Hi xxx,
Please call him on Monday then on 01789295850,
Thankyou.
Maat

That last email was dated 25th July 2010 and I was on holiday the following week so was unable to ring them.

I sent the following on the 2nd August

Hi,

Im still chasing a reply from my previous email asking if you would replace the car for a different model before I ring Dave and discuss which model I am looking at.

I then resent it again this morning

Hi,

Im still chasing the reply from below from the 25th July. Can you please reply as soon as possible before I look at taking things further.

What options do I have to take it from here?

Im getting sick of having one £300 paperweight sat at home

Thanks
Slimer

Sandoval

That was ten minutes of my life that I'd like back.

Phone them and actually talk to someone rather then sending continual emails back and forth through cyberspace that are clearly achieving nothing.

OlliesDad

I would say the logical thing to do would be to speak to Dave on 01789295859 between 9.30am - 5.30p.m.

fluffnutter

TLDR. And what's a nitro car anyway?

Sandoval

fluffnutter wrote: »

TLDR. And what's a nitro car anyway?

Toy car...

Slimer_2

Yes I can appreciate that and like I said was on holiday when he wanted me to phone and I all I want is a simple email to say yes we will replace or no we wont but can do xxx and if you wanted 10 minutes of your life back you were the one that clicked to view the thread so that’s your problem

Hintza

Sandoval wrote: »

Toy car...

Naw is it not a Dodge Nitro?

Sandoval

Slimer wrote: »

...and if you wanted 10 minutes of your life back you were the one that clicked to view the thread so that’s your problem

And your toy car not working properly is your problem but I have nonetheless offered you sensible advice.

Chimpofdoom

Sandoval wrote: »

And your toy car not working properly is your problem but I have nonetheless offered you sensible advice.

Agreed.

OP, Sandoval + Olliesdad gave the best advice, you should contact Dave and let them try to remedy the situation.

Give that a try, see what they say. Who knows they might refund your cash!

jrrowleyws

A nitro car is reasonably complex and takes time and a fair bit of reading to be able to properly run and maintain it. Your car will never be good if you do not know how to tune it, different weather needs mixture tweaks to get the best performance out of the engine -I think you should have gone electric...

As for the store, it sounds like they have tried to help but you wont call them!