Century going out of Business?

[helinutz2]

Originally Posted by bwillhite

Dennis P what is the Canadian source for Century parts? I just picked-up a 550 Carbon Swift and having been trying to contact Heli-World about some issues with the kit.

brian

Click on Dennis P username, and go to his homepage.........

[gassed]

well it looks like the site address changed, so I need to update my shortcut...

what in the world is "Pre Order" am I to assume it means backordered?...alot of the crash parts list that as the status...

it really sucks that thier "number 1" dealer (and now the only one) in the US is basically backordered on parts that break (or bend) the most.

[Bustedmp]

I'm pretty bent about Esprit unloading century. Their shipping times were awesome. It is what it is for us Century guys now. Aside from my Mini Titan, the only other helis I have are Centurys.

I can order stuff from Hobby Kings HK warehouse and have it arrive in the same time it takes HW to ship an order across the country.

[carey shurley]

Peter Chao confirms that Century will be producing new helicopters in 2014 as well as continuing support for the existing models

As you know Zenoah is releasing the RC320 engine soon

• Century Helicopter will update the T700-RC conversion to support this engine
• There MAY also be a Radikal 320 RC version. This would be an RC version of the existing Radikal 30V2. There were prototypes of the design produced last year so it would only need to be updated to allow mounting the G320RC engine

[gassed]

"Peter Chao confirms that Century will be producing new helicopters in 2014 "

not with they way they are going...they need to get thier customer service dept back in shape big time. If I were them I would try to establish new relationships with well known shops, the more they sell the better it is for everybody...instead they are starting to resemble a frightened turtle.

[Mr.HillBilly]

I never got around to calling them but they just updated the website with a part i have been needing.

[MotorRotor]

Originally Posted by gassed

"Peter Chao confirms that Century will be producing new helicopters in 2014 "

not with they way they are going...they need to get thier customer service dept back in shape big time. If I were them I would try to establish new relationships with well known shops, the more they sell the better it is for everybody...instead they are starting to resemble a frightened turtle.

For many years, their customer service was better then most. At one time, Ron Lund, from Rick's, even stated that they were an example that others should follow. I do agree that since they got more into multi's and since Paul Pan left to work for DJI, it has deteriorated quickly. That said, it is hard for Peter to replace a long time, knowledgeable manager like Paul was, specially when he still has to spend a lot of time out of country himself in order to oversee his off shore manufacturing and R&D divisions. Hopefully they will be able to find a competent replacement soon.

Also, as Carey stated, they are planning on working more with their currently successful heli platforms, the 30 sized V2 gasser, Their HWC T700 gas conversion kits and their Radikal E640/N640 units.

Many do not seem to be aware of the direct work that Peter/Century does with Zenoah in their HWC line of gasoline engines. These are gasoline heli engines that are co-operative efforts between Zenoah and HWC. Zenoah send their seperate parts to the HWC factory where HWC add their own parts to manufacture the HWC engines. These engines are not Zenoah engines that are taken apart and modified, but engines that are built from the ground up in the HWC factory using a combination of Zenoah parts and HWC parts.

So it is very obvious that Peter and Century are committed to their helicopters for the future.

Also, I am sure the success their retail arm (Heli-World) has been enjoying over the past few years in the multi-rotor area which has resulted in record sales, means that there is always some positive cash flow to move things along.

I am sure that if MinAir had been more versatile in having extra revenue generated by multi-rotor sales and by a co-operative manufacturing agreement with Zenoah, they would have been able to continue with their heli manufacturing.

[907Heli]

How's this for a glitch. Adding up my $27.75 in parts and $6.95 in shipping comes to $104.10. I tried it last night too and it said the same thing. I tried calling them but they're not open until monday. Guess I wait for parts.

I'm not really bitching, it's their new website, I almost think it's funny but holy crap am I glad I read it close and didn't just hit the order button.

[helinutz2]

Originally Posted by MotorRotor

For many years, their customer service was better then most. At one time, Ron Lund, from Rick's, even stated that they were an example that others should follow. I do agree that since they got more into multi's and since Paul Pan left to work for DJI, it has deteriorated quickly. That said, it is hard for Peter to replace a long time, knowledgeable manager like Paul was, specially when he still has to spend a lot of time out of country himself in order to oversee his off shore manufacturing and R&D divisions. Hopefully they will be able to find a competent replacement soon.

Also, as Carey stated, they are planning on working more with their currently successful heli platforms, the 30 sized V2 gasser, Their HWC T700 gas conversion kits and their Radikal E640/N640 units.

Many do not seem to be aware of the direct work that Peter/Century does with Zenoah in their HWC line of gasoline engines. These are gasoline heli engines that are co-operative efforts between Zenoah and HWC. Zenoah send their seperate parts to the HWC factory where HWC add their own parts to manufacture the HWC engines. These engines are not Zenoah engines that are taken apart and modified, but engines that are built from the ground up in the HWC factory using a combination of Zenoah parts and HWC parts.

So it is very obvious that Peter and Century are committed to their helicopters for the future.

Also, I am sure the success their retail arm (Heli-World) has been enjoying over the past few years in the multi-rotor area which has resulted in record sales, means that there is always some positive cash flow to move things along.

I am sure that if MinAir had been more versatile in having extra revenue generated by multi-rotor sales and by a co-operative manufacturing agreement with Zenoah, they would have been able to continue with their heli manufacturing.

Thanks for providing your insight on this, Phil.

.

[gassed]

Originally Posted by Aksport

How's this for a glitch. Adding up my $27.75 in parts and $6.95 in shipping comes to $104.10...

WOW...

maybe the extra $69.40 was the "and handling" part?

maybe if you logged back in and tried to reorder, would it clear up?

who ever is running thier database server Admin duties got some splaining to do...

[907Heli]

I tried it again and it said the same thing. Everytime I clicked the paypal link it would do that, but it wasn't paypal, it would do it when it sent me back to Heli-World to confirm the order.

UPDATE
I tried it again but not through paypal, just used my credit card and it took it without jacking up the price three fold. So far so good. Then it wigs out and doesn't show any confirmation. I looked at my account orders and it's showing, so hopefully they get the order and fill it. I'd sure like to fly my heli when I get back from work in two weeks.

[rcjames]

Ha can I bring subject up? Okay I talk to some of the guys at helicopter world. Century stopped manufacturing helicopter parts and helicopters. They are going after drones now. Can't believe it.

[gassed]

thats not the first time that service people have said that to their customers over the phone, I think they are trying to sabotage the company IMHO.

the parts are still available on the heli world site, nothing official otherwise.