Hello everyone,
I am wondering if anyone else has had issues with their purchase from Aquacopters. I know several people have posted on other forums that they have experienced many delays and have even had to file claims against them for non-receipt.
Here is what happened to me:
I originally placed my order on Feb 25th. The website states orders are delayed 3-4 weeks. I didn't have a problem with that. 4 weeks go by and not a peep from Aquacopters.
Week 4.. I sent them an email asking for information on a Monday. Didn't hear anything, so I tried calling them and got voicemail. The owner did call me back 2 days later and said that they were still waiting on their supplier.
Week 5.. got a call from them responding to my email 2 weeks earlier. He said they would be shipping it soon.
Week 6.. Still nothing, I opened a dispute on Paypal. Called them the next day and he said he was out of town and would concentrate on getting this out on Wed of that week.
Week 7.. Called him to see the status and he said it would ship soon. Next day there is a tracking number for USPS. 3 days later, still no tracking info for the package as it has not shipped. Unfortunately, I now have to escalate my claim on paypal as I was running out of time to escalate.
Now, I am not the only person with an issue. Here is another one I found on the RCGroups forum:
I would not recommend purchasing from
http://aquacopters.gostorego.com/ to my worst enemy. The owner of this site does not know how to run an online business. Ordered 29/01/2013 ARF model and even stupidly paid for the best United States Postal Service - Express Mail International. Understood the delay stated on the site and patiently waited after paying over $440.00 instantly out of my hard earned money. The wait got to the point of me being very disgruntled and on the 30/03/2013 I contacted them through the site and advised cancel the order and refund me in full. I than had the same issue of no contact from the seller as other people purchasing through them have also stated, and the fact of being unable to get any tracking through the site due to them advising they can't update the order status due to the Paypal acccount caveat is just not on. My contact through the site suddenly resulted in me getting a USPS notification on 02/04/2013 with a tracking number and not my intended cancellation, again this is obsurd. To add to this the Seller has only a USPS status of Electronic Shipping Info Received and there has been no USPS status updates since the initial 02/04/2013 of "Electronic Shipping Info Received" as you would expect so again it is like a bluff from the seller as I contacted for a cancellation and full refund. I warn anybody intending on buying off
https://aquacopters.gostorego.com to really think about my experience with them, it is an utter joke. This very forum also states other buyers with similar experience. To the Seller if you can not operate an International shopping site at this level than don't even try as you on the very edge of Fraud!!!! Buyer beware!!!!
Again, I am posting this to make everyone aware that there may be an issue here. I REALLY wanted this to work out, but I no longer trust who I am dealing with at this company and urge anyone interested in this product to be extremely careful in your dealings here.
If anyone is aware of another waterproof quad out there other than the quadh20 (which looks nice and is in consideration, but kind of expensive), please let me know.
Replies
While I must admit they were indeed slow, I can not agree to the lack of communication or support. Every time I called the number I got Russ. He did not avoid my calls or blow smoke up my bum, but explained what was going on and when he hoped to ship. Yes he was over a month LATE in delivery, and to be honest I was a bit dissappointed that the unit has no way to easily mount a Flight Controller. You have to build your own platform, and mount it, and if you want to externally mount a GPS you have to drill the cover and reseal it with Silicon. A minor point but it makes the uint feel unfinished. Guess you can spin it to flexible, but still, it is extra work that is needed for a project that took forever to get to begin with.
Now in thier defense they do have alot of other irons in the fire, not just the Aquacopter, but other projects they are delivering as well. To Scott and the others, I do share your frustration, it is not easy sitting and waiting for a product when you know your money is already in the companies hands, but on the other hand, I am not seeing folks complaining about poor quality, leaks or anything else significant. My experince is the build quality is very good, the motors and such look like they will do nicely, and the ESC's and Power Distribution board are of quality construction, (I know the PDB is HK).
I felt I had to at least speak up with my expereince, since for the most part except what was mentioned above, it has been a positive one. BTW I am not friends with Russ or getting anything for posting this, but I thought a bit of balance was in order. I do plan of visiting his company next time I am in the South Bay Area, and will no doubt look to him again for these products or others when I look for a waterproof multicopter.
While I am not trying to diss Tim's box copter, (I love it in fact and plan to build one or one like it), the reality is I have clients that look for a certain level of "professional look" when they hire me, so all things being equal in flight charicteristics, as hard as I try, a plastic box with wire ties and/or rubber bands is never gonna look as good to somebody paying me to fly and film, as what Russ's product does. Simple fact of estetics and economics.
Please don't flame me as a snob, I build rotorbones quads and Tri's all the time, and love em. But generally unless I know the client and they already have a good level of trust in me, I am not genrally going to walk onto a job with one of those either.
Well I seem to have gone slightly off topic but hope you get my point. Russ is slow, and behind, but what you get seems to be a pretty well made product, not one slapped out to meet a deadline. I look forward to seeing what else comes from the mind of Russ, I suspect something interesting will indeed be brewing.
yes,im here to lodge yet another bad experience had by aquacopter.com,after ordering I have only very flippant replys by email asking for my patience,all I wanted was sales confirmation didn't get it.paypal has had no response from them,a claim lodged and is final as of today.seven weeks now.i carnt recommend aquacopter lack of communication no1,there are better units out there namely 1 h20 copter but expensive,if you are considering aquacopter be warned.hope you have a better experience.
I've been chatting with the owner of Aquacopter on and off for a few months. I got the impression that they were not able to handle the order load and so I never placed an order with them. Instead I was inspired to make my own frame with similar capabilities with a homemade vacuumform machine. Here is the link to the first progress report...
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/vacuum-formed-water-proof-battl...
sumo-mark-II.jpg