Kraton Kraton 4S BLX/Horizon Hobby horrible customer service

[Bashas]

I am new to the forum and new the RC world. I purchased a new Kraton 4S over the weekend. On one of my first runs, I flipped the buggy and noted right after that the right front tire was sitting at an sharp angle. A crash, it happens, my fault.

I looked closely and noticed the lower, front A arm was cracked right at the opening of the pin that holds the suspension in place.

I called every hobby shop for a replacement part (including where I bought the Kraton) in my area (Phoenix), the Kraton 4S is so new, very limited (if any) parts are available. I called Horizon Hobby tech support and they were useless (I did find out the part is on back order and will not be available until June 28th...a month for a part???). Who releases a product and has no replacement parts available? Unreal.

I bought the Kraton 4S as I was told Arrma had great customer support (and online reviews) and is a great product. So I spent $400+ for a tough, durable RC (and I wanted to avoid Traxxas) ,it was used a few times and now I have waited for a month to get a part. Perfect. At least Traxxas has parts available for the RC's.

So disappointed in the entire situation. It's true, buyer beware.

 

[bicketybam]

I am new to the forum and new the RC world. I purchased a new Kraton 4S over the weekend. On one of my first runs, I flipped the buggy and noted right after that the right front tire was sitting at an sharp angle. A crash, it happens, my fault.

I looked closely and noticed the lower, front A arm was cracked right at the opening of the pin that holds the suspension in place.

I called every hobby shop for a replacement part (including where I bought the Kraton) in my area (Phoenix), the Kraton 4S is so new, very limited (if any) parts are available. I called Horizon Hobby tech support and they were useless (I did find out the part is on back order and will not be available until June 28th...a month for a part???). Who releases a product and has no replacement parts available? Unreal.

I bought the Kraton 4S as I was told Arrma had great customer support (and online reviews) and is a great product. So I spent $400+ for a tough, durable RC (and I wanted to avoid Traxxas) ,it was used a few times and now I have waited for a month to get a part. Perfect. At least Traxxas has parts available for the RC's.

So disappointed in the entire situation. It's true, buyer beware.

Keep checking here: https://jennysrc.com/

If you are diligent the arms will become available. Check both the Outcast and the Kraton 4s since the arms are the same.

 

[NewToArrma]

I am new to the forum and new the RC world. I purchased a new Kraton 4S over the weekend. On one of my first runs, I flipped the buggy and noted right after that the right front tire was sitting at an sharp angle. A crash, it happens, my fault.

I looked closely and noticed the lower, front A arm was cracked right at the opening of the pin that holds the suspension in place.

I called every hobby shop for a replacement part (including where I bought the Kraton) in my area (Phoenix), the Kraton 4S is so new, very limited (if any) parts are available. I called Horizon Hobby tech support and they were useless (I did find out the part is on back order and will not be available until June 28th...a month for a part???). Who releases a product and has no replacement parts available? Unreal.

I bought the Kraton 4S as I was told Arrma had great customer support (and online reviews) and is a great product. So I spent $400+ for a tough, durable RC (and I wanted to avoid Traxxas) ,it was used a few times and now I have waited for a month to get a part. Perfect. At least Traxxas has parts available for the RC's.

So disappointed in the entire situation. It's true, buyer beware.

Welcome to the forum and to the rc world. It’s unfortunate that you have to introduce yourself with such a post but not all is lost here. This is a great forum with lots of knowledgeable people that will help you. First off, Don’t let this experience turn you off of the Arrma tough brand, every brand has some flaws and the weak point of these new 4s models is the the a-arms breaking where yours did. You aren’t the first person this has happened to. As far as the tech support is concerned, there is a difference between support and parts availability. Yes the part being on back order til the end of June is bad for business but there are other ways you can source the a-arm. Jenny’s rc is a kit breaker business that should have the 4s a-arms available, https://jennysrc.com/ hope you get your Kraton back bashing soon and enjoy this great hobby?

 

[Mongoose]

I love Arrma but they really need to get it together with the back order situation. That would definitely turn me off of the brand as a newcomer and I would be mad too. Sorry this happened brother.

 

[Notorious J]

Welcome to the forum @Bashas. Jenny's is the place to go, and the price is right. Hopefully Arrma and Horizon here the complaints and remedy the situation quickly.

 

[Mongoose]

+1 for checking Jennys RC. It’s cheaper to go this route but you need to check, multiple times a day everyday because the parts sell out fast.

 

[olds97_lss]

It tends to be that way when any company cranks out new models. I remember when the XMaxx first came out, people were scrounging for parts and ended up getting them off ebay part out's for the first month or two. So it likely doesn't matter what company you buy from, if it's a brand new model with model specific parts, being the first to get it means your the first to wait to fix it.

 

[slick2500]

I bought my Typhon 3s in January broke an a arm and had to wait until March to get a replacement........ Rpm released their a arms a few weeks later.

Arrma makes some great products but whoever is doing distribution is doing things pretty frigging backwards, how about next time you release a new vehicle you make batches of spare parts first then release the vehicle not release the vehicle with the few leftover spares from assembly then spend the next 3 months playing catch up with parts demand. We as consumers should not have to rely on 3rd parties for parts.......

My best suggestion is to get some rpm a arms for the Typhon 3s then buy some hub extenders to regain the width. Not sure what size you would need or what extenders you need.

 

[ManhattanRC]

I am new to the forum and new the RC world. I purchased a new Kraton 4S over the weekend. On one of my first runs, I flipped the buggy and noted right after that the right front tire was sitting at an sharp angle. A crash, it happens, my fault.

I looked closely and noticed the lower, front A arm was cracked right at the opening of the pin that holds the suspension in place.

I called every hobby shop for a replacement part (including where I bought the Kraton) in my area (Phoenix), the Kraton 4S is so new, very limited (if any) parts are available. I called Horizon Hobby tech support and they were useless (I did find out the part is on back order and will not be available until June 28th...a month for a part???). Who releases a product and has no replacement parts available? Unreal.

I bought the Kraton 4S as I was told Arrma had great customer support (and online reviews) and is a great product. So I spent $400+ for a tough, durable RC (and I wanted to avoid Traxxas) ,it was used a few times and now I have waited for a month to get a part. Perfect. At least Traxxas has parts available for the RC's.

So disappointed in the entire situation. It's true, buyer beware.

I think what you are missing here is that these are bashers and as such they get bashed hard. As a result stuff beaks more than on a lot of other brands because of what the end user does with them. Most of us break parts on each and every bash session. This makes supplying needs difficult.

It is frustrating, but not Horizons fault. Jenny's RC is great, eBay works too.

 

[Mongoose]

I think what you are missing here is that these It is frustrating, but not Horizons fault. Jenny's RC is great, eBay works too.

I’m not being condescending or anything when I ask this but how is it not Horizons fault? I can understand waiting a month for stock but it’s 3 or 4 months at a time when the new stuff hits the market. They want to be king of the basher market then they need to get on par with Traxxas in this respect....

Edit - Jenny’s and EBay is great but the supplier should never be out of stock.

 

[Bashas]

I think what you are missing here is that these are bashers and as such they get bashed hard. As a result stuff beaks more than on a lot of other brands because of what the end user does with them. Most of us break parts on each and every bash session. This makes supplying needs difficult.

It is frustrating, but not Horizons fault. Jenny's RC is great, eBay works too.

I get it that parts break, my frustration is two fold (the local hobby store over sold Horizon's customer service) and Horizon for not making parts available for new models. A month + wait or longer is ridiculous and poor customer service.

If you buy a new a new product (vacuum, tv, etc), I'm pretty sure you would expect that the manufacturer would have parts available for repair.

The solution is easy, don't release new models if parts are not available to the retail stores. Most hobby stores I contacted told me that they don't carry that many Arrma products for the exact reason that I'm experiencing.

 

[ManhattanRC]

I’m not being condescending or anything when I ask this but how is it not Horizons fault? I can understand waiting a month for stock but it’s 3 or 4 months at a time when the new stuff hits the market. They want to be king of the basher market then they need to get on par with Traxxas in this respect....

Edit - Jenny’s and EBay is great but the supplier should never be out of stock.

Frustrating yes, but the aftermarket is quick for soultions nowadays. I've never had to wait that long. Someone always has a part. As far as Traxxas goes It's easy to stock parts for a platform that doesn't change but every 20 years.

 

[Beniferd]

I'm not sure on cross platform in this case but I watched a video from RCdude81 on YouTube about his 3S Typhon breaking an arm soon after unboxing. He took a 6S Typhon arm, which is available readily and shaved the arm down at the pin. It worked perfect and his 3S had much stronger arms on it. I don't know if this can be done with 4S - 6S Kraton but it might be something to look into.

 

[Mongoose]

Frustrating yes, but the aftermarket is quick for soultions nowadays. I've never had to wait that long. Someone always has a part. As far as Traxxas goes It's easy to stock parts for a platform that doesn't change but every 20 years.

I understand that but as a manufacturer you can’t rely on aftermarket support to carry you through the first few months. They’re going to wait to see how the platform sells before investing into it. The manufacturer should own the first few months to support their customers.

We as a community like to mix and match parts which doesn’t help supply and we buy parts in bulk to have on hand which also doesn’t help supply. At some point Arrma or Horizon needs to get a good understanding of the market and prepare for it on release. I mean come’on, just about every sacrificial part is back ordered the first week of release which is just ridiculous.

 

[Bashas]

I'm not sure on cross platform in this case but I watched a video from RCdude81 on YouTube about his 3S Typhon breaking an arm soon after unboxing. He took a 6S Typhon arm, which is available readily and shaved the arm down at the pin. It worked perfect and his 3S had much stronger arms on it. I don't know if this can be done with 4S - 6S Kraton but it might be something to look into.

Thanks for the positive replies and suggestions. All were very helpful. I'm hoping my local hobby shop can come up with some kind of solution (maybe an Outcast or similar type model to the Kraton 4S).

I checked Jenny's RC and the part is on back order there too. I'll keep researching the part availability.

 

[slick2500]

Thanks for the positive replies and suggestions. All were very helpful. I'm hoping my local hobby shop can come up with some kind of solution (maybe an Outcast or similar type model to the Kraton 4S).

I checked Jenny's RC and the part is on back order there too. I'll keep researching the part availability.

Jenny's gets new stock in every day, so check in every so often and look.

 

[arrmadillo]

There was a complete set of a arms on Ebay yesterday. Check there.

 

[Megasty]

It tends to be that way when any company cranks out new models. I remember when the XMaxx first came out, people were scrounging for parts and ended up getting them off ebay part out's for the first month or two. So it likely doesn't matter what company you buy from, if it's a brand new model with model specific parts, being the first to get it means your the first to wait to fix it.

I was one of the idiots that bought the 6S X-Maxx day 1, & broke it day 3 I busted the rear bulkhead. It sat for 2 months before the parts were in ebay.

In Arrma's & Horizon's case, they already know what the weaknesses of these models are & should be prepared for such. If they don't have the capacity to do so, they shouldn't make the parts so brittle in the first place. It's not like they don't have the materials available. The plastic they used for the body posts is extremely similar to the plastic RPM uses for their arms. If they used that plastic for the arms, I'm sure we would not be having this problem or rather singing its praises But it's kinda hard to make a car into a money pit when the supply of parts is as shallow as a puddle.

 

[YakAttack]

It tends to be that way when any company cranks out new models. I remember when the XMaxx first came out, people were scrounging for parts and ended up getting them off ebay part out's for the first month or two. So it likely doesn't matter what company you buy from, if it's a brand new model with model specific parts, being the first to get it means your the first to wait to fix it.

Definitely agree. When I bought a slash 4x4 on release way back when it was 6+ months to get parts. At least arrma had some stock when these trucks released.

 

[scv484]

it could also be a case of supply and demand. if the trucks sold better than expected out of the gate, its possible they pulled the spare parts stock to build more complete trucks......I'm sure they'd want to sell complete trucks over parts.

not saying it's the right thing to do, just offering another viewpoint.