thats a good point

castle and tekin also pay for return shipping

Novaktwo

i am only refering to the items that are under manufactures defects, stop skipping around the issues.

Most damaged items returned for warranty replacement were not damaged by factory-caused defects; factory defects will generally show up within the first few hours of use.

If a customer has successfully used an item for 6-8-10 months, the possibility of a factory defect showing up is negligible. This is why I addressed your comment about "245 days" because 12 month warranties are pretty useless for this reason.

What issue am I avoiding?

If Tekin and Castle can offer a free return shipping, why can't you? The great customer service of Castle and Tekin is what's keeping my business with them especially since I'm in the military stationed overseas. They had made/offered a lot of great things for us in the military which include replacement of parts even after the warranty period. They also gave us substantial discount for their products hence more and moremilitary members are getting into the brushed/brushless scene for relaxation.

I still have a Novak goat that I use as a paperweight in my office as a reminder not to ever buy any novak products again.

Well my return was due to a short in the stator that took out the ESC... Difficult for that to be anything other than a coil issue but because of the 120days limit I went straight to the upgrade program.

http://rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26406

I must have mis-understood my options - I didn't even think that you'd look at this as a possibility for repair.

We do not generally do any repairs; we switched over to a fixed-price replacement program many years ago. We have a whole department dedicated to re manufacturing items. We completely disassemble (discard all damaged boards/parts), clean the boards (ionic washer) reassemble/rewire and retest all rmf items so we can offer a new warranty.
Having technicians repair customer returns individually, to the point of offering a new warranty, proved far too costly

Most stator damage is due to overheating the motors (mostly due to aggressive timing adjustments); we do not warranty these motors with burnt-out stators. Over heating melts the silicone coating on the wire, which then allows the wire to short out. This damage often demags the rotor too.

We do offer free shipping on warranty returns. We have discussed offering a active-duty Military discount program. Perhaps this summer, we can design and implement such a program.

I would normally agree but this was an 18,5T in a axial scale rock crawler - Its rather hard to over heat one in that use - I thought they also had built in thermal protection or am I mistaken?

agreed, and what Novak products could the user adjust the timing on before last year?

i had a rotor explode in a 5800ss, it was in a lite weight touring car with 6cell sub-c battery's, it couldn't have been caused by overreving and it never made heat but Novak charged me for replacement. i had 2 HV maxx's fail just after warranty expired. i went threw 3 of the old SS systems in onroad cars ( one ss was stock in a losi XXS but i was told the stock gearing was over geared and i had to pay for it even though it was still underwarrenty) and one gtb that was two weeks old (you guys still have it, i wasn't going to pay for repairs on something that was bran new and was setup right but blamed on me. that was the straw that broke my back and turned me you castle).

every time i had a warranty return it was always blamed on me for reasons that never fit the problem and when i questioned the techs they often would tell me i didn't understand or flat out accuse me of lieing.

novaktwo you asked us what we though and what we would change, and all we really want is Novak to treat us like Castle and Tekin does.

I think there is another way to look at this program, and it that light its not so bad.

Basically, I see it as an opportunity to purchase Novak products at a slight discount from street price for those that are impatient or can't plan their purchases to take advantage of existing, known discounts.

I need a Ballistic 17.5 for a certain car because the sensor harness comes out the side on the Ballistics. I have a non-working SS17.5. But, since I can plan to take advantage of other discounts (T's for instance), it is un-economic to use the Novak program. I can get a brand new Ballistic 17.5 for less that it would cost to send my totally useless SS17.5 back to Novak and upgrade to a Ballistic.

But for someone who can't plan, or can't wait, they can get the motor for less than buying from the LHS. They just need a toasted or unwanted motor to send in. So for them, it is a good thing. The deals on the ESCs are actually much better than the deals on the motors when viewed in that light.

This program seems pretty good to me. I bought a Velociti 7.5R for $40 used and now I can use it as about $50 of credit towards a new Ballistic.

????

I don't quite get how that is a good deal. You spent $40 for the motor and you must send Novak an additional $83.65 along with the motor to do the upgrade plus, lets say, at least $3 to mail the motor to them. That's $126.65 for the same new motor you could have bought for $89.99 plus shipping from A-Main or Tower.

I've only had one Novak system, HV 4.5 motor and the original HV esc. IMO the motor was decent but the esc wasn't capable. I'm giving them another shot as I just ordered a SS13.5 for my SC10. The class specs a 13.5 so that's what I'm running, of course I'll ne using a MMPro that I ordered at the same time though. If the motor dies, I just hope the rotor is still good so I have a magnet for my fridge! I won't pay the prices that this program asks. I would either use a tower code and buy a new one or just buy something else! Hopefully ity doesn't happen but if it does I hope Castle has some 1/10 ROAR approved motors by then, otherwise it'l be a Tekin

How do you get $83.65 and $126.65? I send them my motor, and get a new Ballistic for $50, plus $13.65 S/H, and maybe $2-3 for me to send it to them, so close to $65 total I can get a new Ballistic. Considering I've already used my Velociti motor for quite awhile I feel I got my $40 "value" out of it, as far as I'm concerned that $40 (or at least the greater majority) is used up, out of the equation. If you bought a car for $5000, drove it for 5 years, and traded it in towards another $5000 car you wouldn't say that the second car cost $10000. Now the motor has renewed value if I take advantage of the trade-in program. I'm getting more value out of that than if I tried to sell the motor and use the money towards a Ballistic. You can spin the numbers to make it look like a good deal or a bad deal, and it might be good or bad depending on specific situations, but it my mind in my situation it's a good deal.

I'm with semi-pro on this since we have been working with those esc's he was talking about, and they all failed with no reason to. And just to add, I have had my RX8 just about since they came out. I have had to send it in 2 times, once a few runs after I got it, and at the start of this season(well after the warranty) and they fixed it. They also replaced the rotor that had a bent shaft witch I didnt tell them about since I knew that was my fault. So all in all between castle and tekin, they have the best customer service out there.

a) You didn't says the 7.5R was an old, used motor. My impression was you just bought it to do the trade-up. That's what frequently happens with Forum posts - small nuances of information don't always come across.

b) The upgrade price to a Ballistic from any motor is $70, not $50. I beleieve you misinterpreted the chart. They have a specific example: "Example (UPGRADE): Trade in SS Pro Spec 13.5 for a Ballistic Spec 13.5 for $70" Try it - you will see. The return S&H is $13.65 for one item. That is how I got $86.65 (including you shipping the motor to them for $3).

So you'll spend $86.65 to send them the motor and do the upgrade, plus part with the 7.5R. If it still runs and isn't damaged, you could sell it easily for $20 and still come out ahead buying a new one from the aforementioned vendors. Novak still gets a sale either way, but the old motor remains in circulation for someone to use, and you save a few $$$.