Price change coming May 15th for Freewing, May 31 for balsa

[Tom]

I see a few comments and questions I'd like to address. First, Thank you everyone for keeping the discussion constructive and staying away from politics. I appreciate it and I've received PM's from others stating how refreshing it is to converse about supply and pricing without going near politics in this discussion. Thanks to all!

Skosh25 - We made the Skynetic Havok and Shrike with a new manufacturer and he had some teething issues keeping production going. We worked together with the factory and I believe we have solved those issues. Those two planes are on the way (along with parts) and they are currently manufacturing a follow-up batch. I know it is super frustrating. These are the things that keep me up at night. I have a shrike and would love a Havok for my personal collection and I can't even get one (I will soon though).

Sanjoseraptor - I am trying my best to keep the spare parts flowing. This has been an extremely difficult task. First we had the factories shut down for Covid for 3-4 months. That dried up our supply. I ordered LOADS of spare parts to restock but all freight is super delayed these days. In the past, it took 3 weeks for a container to move from a factory to Motion RC. Transit time is now a minimum of 2 months and often as much as 3 months. I've added these new variables into my forecasting but it seems every time I extend the lead time in my forecasts, something else causes yet another delay. I realize a good supply of spare parts is extremely important. Before Motion RC, I was constantly frustrated at the lack of spare parts availability. I am trying to pull out all the stops to keep spare parts flowing.

I have a bad feeling in the second part of this year some parts and planes are going to become less available. I'm specifically worried about anything with a chip. The chip shortage is currently hitting the ESC market. Hobbywing may have to shutdown for a while due to lack of chips. Servos, retracts, light control boxes, and sequencers also have chips and are in short supply. The short supply has every supplier and subcomponent factory continually raising prices.

[Elbee]

[QUOTE=James;n312817][USER="2858"[/QUOTE]

James, acknowledged and agreed in every category. Sadly, fuel costs have increased here 69% since Keystone was shutdown, though we have no shortages. I believe your shortages were due to the pipeline hack and not due to shortages in general. We'll need to grin and bear the price increases coming from MotionRC. This is still the greatest hobby ever. Best, LB

[Skosh25]

Thanks Tom. I get it. Understand you’re in a tough spot and doing the best you can to pull all the levers within your span of control. I’ll probably buy 2 Havoks this time around

[T-CAT]

It’s a tough spot to be and I most certainly give business owners a lot of credit for weathering the economic storm, and doing all they can to keep the doors open.

[Tom]

FedEx just increased the prices of every package again:

https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping...peak-surcharge

[Gilatrout]

FedEx just increased the prices of every package again:

https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping...peak-surcharge

I'd be very interested is learning about alternative shipping options. That is, know what the built in shipping costs are in price of the model and how that might compare to cheaper, albeit slower delivery methods.

The idea is have the option to pay less for the model, and paying for shipping separately by electing a combination that would save money.

Heck, if the price was right, I could imagine a bunch of guys order several planes at once on one order and do a local pickup. Road trip! That would be fun

[xviper]

I long for the days when Motion used USPS - cheaper and very low brokerage fees. Motion likely has a contract with FedEx like they used to with UPS, but are they really bound to send planes via FedEx? I can see how LiPos must go "ground", but most planes are not "over-sized" to go my mail.

[Tom]

We're not bound to FedEx. We stopped using USPS temporarily because our local USPS sorting facility in Elk Grove is a black hole. Packages would go into Elk Grove and sit for weeks without any scan. Customers would call USPS and the people at the USPS would tell people we did not ship the package. When this started happening to all USPS shipments on a weekly basis, it became a customer service nightmare. We talked to everyone possible at the USPS and nobody cared to fix the problem. We do still have USPS first class available to Canada. No issue using them but it can take longer. USPS also has maximum size limitations so the majority of our planes do not qualify for USPS shipping.

[xviper]

We're not bound to FedEx. We stopped using USPS temporarily because our local USPS sorting facility in Elk Grove is a black hole. Packages would go into Elk Grove and sit for weeks without any scan. Customers would call USPS and the people at the USPS would tell people we did not ship the package. When this started happening to all USPS shipments on a weekly basis, it became a customer service nightmare. We talked to everyone possible at the USPS and nobody cared to fix the problem. We do still have USPS first class available to Canada. No issue using them but it can take longer. USPS also has maximum size limitations so the majority of our planes do not qualify for USPS shipping.

Understood. Sounds like USPS is worse than Canada Post.

[SanExup]

For me , FedEx is the only option for actually getting a boxed plane to land on my door step. Otherwise, USPS or UPS are a disaster here, I am the last mile delivery person. And UPS pick up hours, Mon through Thurs 2pm to 5pm. Not for working folks. And picking up at USPS, forget it, I've had packages sit there for 5 weeks before being notified that they even have it. I hate to say it but FedEx delivery is the only thing that works where I live.

[Tom]

LOL. Much. We can ship anything by USPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. We add and subtract shipping methods to Canada based on the time it is taking to get it there. There was a time when the Canadian post was very backed up so we removed the shipping methods where it would touch the Canada Post for a bit until they recovered. If a method you want to use is not listed on motionrc.com, feel free to shoot me a PM and I can look into a price for that method or we can set it back up on our website on a temporary basis if needed for an order.

[rifleman_btx]

Gotta thank good ol DC for making the dollar worth less than the actual paper they use to print the bills. Way to go swamp things!