How many warranty replacements is too many?

[Hector_Fisher]

I'm waiting on a 2nd replacement for my BLX100 in my Big Rock, so my 3rd in total I'll have been through.

The Arrma warranty is two years. But I'm looking for people's thoughts about that; like to what extent they have used it or when you personally stop (or should stop) using it. I feel like there are three camps:

1) I like Arrma and want to support them, so i don't want to use an excessive number of warranties because it could backfire on me as a future customer. Excessive warranties could hurt business, which could create higher prices or risk longevity of the company.

2) The warranty is free but it takes so much time and effort to keep pulling all the screws and swapping out to the new components (especially when stuff breaks often) that i'd rather spend my own money on upgrades when stuff breaks to save my own time in the long run.

3) Arrma has a two year warranty. Full stop. I'm going to use that warranty for anything that breaks on the RC, as many times as I need, right up through day 729.

What camp do you fall into?

 

[Cereal_killer]

Personally. If it breaks. I either upgrade or 99% replace it. Knowing that I caused it to break. Some people just take advantage of the warranty. Which in return. Makes it harder for the ones who actually have a problem.. so no... I don't use it.. that's why I sold all my spektrum stuff.... but I wish they would step it up with photos and things instead of hanging out free parts on about 70% people who want something for nothing after they broke it...

 

[StephenSchandelmayer]

Well general consensus is spectrum stuff dies far too often to consider it reliable. But lots of people have no issues with it. I would say you are at the point of just getting something else that isn't going to die so easy and get rid of the headache

 

[Hector_Fisher]

I think i'm starting to lean towards #2 for electronics. But there's alot of non-electronics on the vehicle. Wheels/tires fall apart from normal use, bodies disintegrate, bumpers eventually snap from regular use. Lots of stuff just breaks without serious abuse, so do you use #1 or #3 for those cases?

 

[StephenSchandelmayer]

I think i'm starting to lean towards #2 for electronics. But there's alot of non-electronics on the vehicle. Wheels/tires fall apart from normal use, bodies disintegrate, bumpers eventually snap from regular use. Lots of stuff just breaks without serious abuse, so do you use #1 or #3 for those cases?

I think tires are highly dependant on the user. Maybe certain tires like the stock senton 3s are known to fail badly. But I used to destroy tires until I started venting my tires and sealing the rim and then also checking on them on a regular basis and regluing if needed. Since then I don't have issues. I don't consider a bumper snapping "normal use" you also have cheap and good alternatives for bumpers. We put these cars through A LOT of abuse. You cannot blame arrma for it. It would be like going back to the dealership after putting 30k miles on a set of tires and saying "HEY these are no good!!!"

 

[Hector_Fisher]

I think tires are highly dependant on the user. Maybe certain tires like the stock senton 3s are known to fail badly. But I used to destroy tires until I started venting my tires and sealing the rim and then also checking on them on a regular basis and regluing if needed. Since then I don't have issues. I don't consider a bumper snapping "normal use" you also have cheap and good alternatives for bumpers. We put these cars through A LOT of abuse. You cannot blame arrma for it. It would be like going back to the dealership after putting 30k miles on a set of tires and saying "HEY these are no good!!!"

I think this is all exactly my point though. Arrma hasn't set any limitations for what should/shouldn't be warrantied, and as @real_name_hidden pointed out, the warranty process has apparently next to no filter for rejecting warranties. Unless something is written somewhere that people aren't seeing, I'd say this gives the impression that Arrma has a very "open warranty" policy. So are you reading it right, or are the "warranty abusers" reading it right?

The senton body starts to give way after 10 runs or so. Esc and motor fans die pretty quickly. The servos don't last long. The 6s spektrum esc is a gamble about whether it will catch fire. The 3s power module will collect dust/rocks that shred the spur. The 6s Kraton/outcast front drive cups get bind when to the driveshafts pop out. I've had 3 granite tires blow apart from normal use. Oddly enough, my senton tires have outlived them all.

The cars aren't designed to be put on a shelf and looked at, they're designed to be "blasted" and "bashed", as per the Arrma marketing. And the average user is not going to land every single jump or avoid every single curb. So without anything explicitly outlined from Arrma, it's like they're leaving it up to the interpretation of the user to determine what they want to warranty.

That's why i'm stumped on this one.

 

[TheMightyAtom]

If I was given a warranty that was basically just a blank check (which it sounds like Arrma's is), I wouldn't feel bad about using it to its fullest potential.

If I destroyed a stock bumper in two runs, and Arrma said "here you go, here's a new one", I'd use that as a reason to buy more Arrma products in the future. I'd argue that would be better for their business in the long run, instead of worse.

Having a warranty like that for two full years is an incredible value. I mean it already sounds like you've saved a bunch of money on buying your own replacement ESCs just from the warranty alone.

 

[Kylerc]

Honestly prices are so out of control already i feel like it wouldnt really make much of a difference with future price increases. They probably already considered the amount of warranties they were going to get from dead products and thats why they are so expensive in the first place.

If i warranty escs im going to take every opportunity i can get because i have not gotten my moneys worth out of any of the escs ive bought recently…

 

[Hector_Fisher]

If I was given a warranty that was basically just a blank check (which it sounds like Arrma's is), I wouldn't feel bad about using it to its fullest potential.

If I destroyed a stock bumper in two runs, and Arrma said "here you go, here's a new one", I'd use that as a reason to buy more Arrma products in the future. I'd argue that would be better for their business in the long run, instead of worse.

Having a warranty like that for two full years is an incredible value. I mean it already sounds like you've saved a bunch of money on buying your own replacement ESCs just from the warranty alone.

I agree it's a great marketing move for arrma for that warranty. I cant imagine how many people they've converted to RC with that, and how many fans of other manufacturers they've converted to arrma with that!

It just makes me wonder if there's a catch somewhere. No one offers a crazy warranty like that. Almost anywhere. Why??? How can arrma do that and stay afloat financially? Cheaper electronics maybe? Gamble that fewer warranties would needed to counter costs?

If I knew arrma was financially good with me and everyone else warrantying EVERYTHING, I'd do it more often. But I'm hesitant with alot of the parts I break.

Honestly prices are so out of control already i feel like it wouldnt really make much of a difference with future price increases. They probably already considered the amount of warranties they were going to get from dead products and thats why they are so expensive in the first place.

If i warranty escs im going to take every opportunity i can get because i have not gotten my moneys worth out of any of the escs ive bought recently…

The motors and esc's yeah for sure. Those are usually the things don't last very long. Partly it leads me to want lean towards option #2 above...

 

[TheMightyAtom]

My hope would be that Arrma's financial department has already planned out the costs of offering such generous warranties vs. the benefits, and they've realized it makes more sense to offer good warranties. Perhaps they expect more sales and more converted customers to offset the costs.

If they haven't accurately calculated something like this, they're going to have bigger financial issues than whether or not a few hobbyists use the warranty to its fullest extent.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

For me it does not matter because I shoehorn in a big castle ESC and TP motor 99% of the time.

On the other hand there is the concept of some analytics guy crunching numbers and making visualizations for board slides that the company directors use for making business decisions based on customers' warranty claims. Without warranty claims and costs to the business, they won't know about the problems.

 

[Adiabatic]

I suppose I have my limbs stretched far enough to stake ground in all 3 camps.

My philosophy with warranties mainly revolves around keeping companies honest. I'll pay for things that failed under circumstances in which they can reasonably be expected to, Horizon can pay for things that failed due to poor design or QC. ESC catches fire due to a manufacturing defect or differential melts due to being shipped with low oil level, that's a warranty claim. Suspension arm breaks due to crashing into a pole or poorly landing a jump, that's on me.

Making a company pay for what it does wrong lends the highest chance of getting issues addressed and practices reformed. Making them pay for things the consumer does wrong merely increases their costs, which are eventually passed on to us, or harm the company financially and increase the chance of them following the path of Hobbico. In an industry that my intuition says is already on shaky ground, I'd rather not contribute unnecessarily to higher prices or the financial woes of one of the last remaining big R/C companies.

Another point is that a warranty like Horizon's can function as a sort of financial subsidy for people who can't easily afford replacement parts. I have plenty of disposable income to spend on R/C so I pay for most parts out of pocket, and this helps offset the costs incurred by Horizon liberally granting warranty requests to those who are more strapped for cash.

 

[KnowAir]

In general, I don't bother with warranties. I mean, sure, if my rig goes up in flames when I feel I've done everything right I would. But if I'm out ripping in 90f plus temps with my rig over geared, I know it's my fault.
My rule is if it fails twice and I feel it shouldn't have, then I'm looking for something that's an upgrade. Usually aftermarket.
I have gotten some warranty parts from Redcat as well as Team Corally. My kaiju had the drive pins falling out of the drive axles, the pressed in ones at the diff outdrives..unfortunately, the replacements did the same so I put sleeves over the outdrives. Hasn't been an issue since. Of course that left me with some spares as a result.
On my TC Kronos XTR, it was the diff cups. They were wearing really fast for the use.. I run it on 4s mostly and since it's 6s rated I felt there shouldn't be an issue. Apparently TC agreed, they sent the swiss upgrade parts FOC..8 pairs. Front,center and rear diffs as well as front and rear pinion input cups..
Sometimes it just isn't worth the downtime and wrenching to end up broke again with stock parts. Such seems to be the case with the Spektrum electronics.

 

[Dakratfink]

I worked at Harbor Freight for a year between military service and my current life teaching .
If there is anything I learned from Harbor Freight’s warranty policy , there is no such thing as too many replacements lol