Hey folks,
I'm from the UK and I've got a Maverick Blackout and had it for a little while, great truck not really had any issues with it other than the fact it's a lump so can be a little slow to pick it's feet up.
As you may or may not know the Blackout is basically a like for like clone of the Redcat Rampage MT that's sold in the US.
Now a company called Demon RC are doing an upgraded two speed gearbox for the Rampage, but at $275 not including postage it's a little rich for my blood.(h**p://www.demonrc.com/2spd_mcd.aspx)
So I start looking round to see if anyone else is doing something similar at a cheaper price and I come across this guy on eBay h**p://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/riskestceo?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
He's selling a very similar product but at £99 with free postage, at the time I bought the gearbox he had a feedback of 5 so I was a little sceptical but thought "hey everyone has to start somewhere right?"
So I bought it and paid an extra £20 for faster postage.
First hiccup came when I asked for a specific gear ratio (listing stated that all ratios were available, that's since been amended) which he didn't have.
He even sent me a screen shot of Demon RC's gear ratio calculator so I could figure out which ratio I needed, this instantly raised a flag but then why bother making your own calculator when someone else has a perfectly good one?
So I waited three weeks for him to get the ratio that I wanted and the part took just over a week to arrive.
When it arrived it had been sent by epacket which is the cheapest international postage you can get from China, not the express shipping that I had paid for. Wasn't to bothered as it was still pretty quick really.
I open the packet and it all looked pretty slick, blue anodised backplate and black gears. While inspecting I notice that there was a lot of play in the shafts so it allowed the gears to drift out by about 2 or 3mm so I start to look deeper and notice that a couple of the bearings were seized and out of the 6 bearings on the gearbox (not including the one way bearing) 5 of them need replacing. Now the part was new and tbh the bearings were also new. But non of them were greased they were all dry and the play in them was unreal. I've replaced old used bearings that haven't been as bad as these new ones.
I contact the seller and explain the situation and offer to post back the faulty bearings so he can check them and then replace them. He replied saying that that wasn't needed and he would replace the faulty parts.
After a week I contacted him asking if he would replace the bearings and heard nothing back, I opened a case with ebay asking for a partial refund to cover the cost of replacing the 5 bearings and £10 of the £20 shipping cost back (total of £50) or if he didn't want to refund me he could replace the bearings himself. Here is the response I got from him:
Seller's message:
'ebay charged GBP15 and paypal charged GBP9 from this deal, we got GBP99 from you. GBP99-GBP15-GBP9=GBP75 Now, you ask GBP40, what we get would be GBP75-GBP40=GBP35 finally. If you are the seller, would you accept this deal? Please return our item back, and we would refund GBP99 to you.Thank you! Please do not damage our product, if our product damaged, we would deduct parts cost from your payment. You could get our return address from ebay, and please add our contact phone number on the shipping form, our phone number is: *****************. In China, people is difficult to receive the parcel that posted by normal post, normal post parcel is lost usually. If we do not receive the return parcel, we would not refund the money to you. You'd better send the parcel by express shipment. Even more, please decalre the value with $10 or $15, if you declare it with a high value, China customs would block it, they would return the parcel back to you or destroy it, this is the risk we remind you'
The case is still open and ongoing as I type this, I wont be returning the gearbox to him as it will no doubt get 'lost' in the post and I will be out £118 and he will have another gearbox he can sell.
So long story short the part isn't to badly made, but expect to spend and extra £50 or so putting decent bearings into it.
I don't know how long the gear's will last as I haven't replaced the bearings and ran the part yet but while the gears are all steel they aren't case hardened.
Hopefully by spreading the word I can prevent anyone else from getting stung.
I'm from the UK and I've got a Maverick Blackout and had it for a little while, great truck not really had any issues with it other than the fact it's a lump so can be a little slow to pick it's feet up.
As you may or may not know the Blackout is basically a like for like clone of the Redcat Rampage MT that's sold in the US.
Now a company called Demon RC are doing an upgraded two speed gearbox for the Rampage, but at $275 not including postage it's a little rich for my blood.(h**p://www.demonrc.com/2spd_mcd.aspx)
So I start looking round to see if anyone else is doing something similar at a cheaper price and I come across this guy on eBay h**p://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/riskestceo?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
He's selling a very similar product but at £99 with free postage, at the time I bought the gearbox he had a feedback of 5 so I was a little sceptical but thought "hey everyone has to start somewhere right?"
So I bought it and paid an extra £20 for faster postage.
First hiccup came when I asked for a specific gear ratio (listing stated that all ratios were available, that's since been amended) which he didn't have.
He even sent me a screen shot of Demon RC's gear ratio calculator so I could figure out which ratio I needed, this instantly raised a flag but then why bother making your own calculator when someone else has a perfectly good one?
So I waited three weeks for him to get the ratio that I wanted and the part took just over a week to arrive.
When it arrived it had been sent by epacket which is the cheapest international postage you can get from China, not the express shipping that I had paid for. Wasn't to bothered as it was still pretty quick really.
I open the packet and it all looked pretty slick, blue anodised backplate and black gears. While inspecting I notice that there was a lot of play in the shafts so it allowed the gears to drift out by about 2 or 3mm so I start to look deeper and notice that a couple of the bearings were seized and out of the 6 bearings on the gearbox (not including the one way bearing) 5 of them need replacing. Now the part was new and tbh the bearings were also new. But non of them were greased they were all dry and the play in them was unreal. I've replaced old used bearings that haven't been as bad as these new ones.
I contact the seller and explain the situation and offer to post back the faulty bearings so he can check them and then replace them. He replied saying that that wasn't needed and he would replace the faulty parts.
After a week I contacted him asking if he would replace the bearings and heard nothing back, I opened a case with ebay asking for a partial refund to cover the cost of replacing the 5 bearings and £10 of the £20 shipping cost back (total of £50) or if he didn't want to refund me he could replace the bearings himself. Here is the response I got from him:
Seller's message:
'ebay charged GBP15 and paypal charged GBP9 from this deal, we got GBP99 from you. GBP99-GBP15-GBP9=GBP75 Now, you ask GBP40, what we get would be GBP75-GBP40=GBP35 finally. If you are the seller, would you accept this deal? Please return our item back, and we would refund GBP99 to you.Thank you! Please do not damage our product, if our product damaged, we would deduct parts cost from your payment. You could get our return address from ebay, and please add our contact phone number on the shipping form, our phone number is: *****************. In China, people is difficult to receive the parcel that posted by normal post, normal post parcel is lost usually. If we do not receive the return parcel, we would not refund the money to you. You'd better send the parcel by express shipment. Even more, please decalre the value with $10 or $15, if you declare it with a high value, China customs would block it, they would return the parcel back to you or destroy it, this is the risk we remind you'
The case is still open and ongoing as I type this, I wont be returning the gearbox to him as it will no doubt get 'lost' in the post and I will be out £118 and he will have another gearbox he can sell.
So long story short the part isn't to badly made, but expect to spend and extra £50 or so putting decent bearings into it.
I don't know how long the gear's will last as I haven't replaced the bearings and ran the part yet but while the gears are all steel they aren't case hardened.
Hopefully by spreading the word I can prevent anyone else from getting stung.
