The hobby store in my city is quite old, their computer is still from the 80/90s... and the rating is barely over 3 stars on Google, which I find fair as the staffs are very annoying and the environment is horrible.
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That goes for Italeri also, they have horrible customer service, will NEVER buy their junk kits again. I was missing a spruein an Italeri kit, emailed their customer service told them I was missing a sprue, they told me they don't make those type of mistakes and that I had to buy a replacement, trashed the kit, chalk it up as a life lesson. I just hope companies like Dragon and Italeri go out of business, serves them right.
DJ

I was told by Dragon Care (USA) that they wouldn't send a replacement part unless they had a returned kit, or one whose box was too crushed to be salable, to take the needed parts from. Never heard from them again.

A few years ago I had a badly warped lower hull to a stug III ausf C/D kit I contacted dragoncare after three emails sending pictures and what not after two months I got the replacement lower hull and I'm in the UK. You have to be very specific and alot of the time it's frustrating going back and forth but they do respond or at least they did, haven't brought a Dragon kit in 6 years or more though so maybe their customer service has gotten worse?

It's likely gotten/getting worse judging from the bulk of experiences here. Truthfully, though, in addition to what Russ said, I don't think plastic kits make up a large segment of Dragon's overall business and it just isn't a priority like it once may have been.

I'd have thought that the normal route when you buy a defective item from a shop (in person or on line) is to go back to the vendor and ask for either a replacement, a refund or an alternative. If you think about it, if you bought a shrink wrapped DVD, got it home and the disk wasn't in the box, you'd go back to the supermarket, you wouldn't contact Universal. It's then the shop's issue to deal with it from their supplier. In the case of buying something from Dragon USA that seems to doubly make sense, and is the only fair way for the purchaser, you'd have thought.

Model companies that offer a customer service but then don't actually provide a decent service are, at the very least, muddying the water by asking you to contact them.

I fully agree, in most cases you do not buy from the manufacturer but you buy from the shopkeeper and the shopkeeper buys from the manufacturer,so it is he who should move in your favor

It seems clear to me that if the customer has lost / broken a piece are his problems.

But in the USA there are no laws that in case a product is broken or defective obliges the dealer to fix the problem? ... in Europe and Australia it is so'

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It seems clear to me that if the customer has lost / broken a piece are his problems.

But in the USA there are no laws that in case a product is broken or defective obliges the dealer to fix the problem? ... in Europe and Australia it is so'

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Most dealers will do that, but laws vary by locality-- in some areas, buyers are required to contact the manufacturers in case of defect, because it's not possible for dealers to actually "fix" the problem. So it depends on the product, and the ability of the dealer to repair or replace it. Most large US retailers do have generous return programs. But LHS are mostly small businesses which don't have the ability to replace or repair an item. And most large hobby manufacturers generally have thier own replacement programs; i.e., Monogram-Revell, Airfix/Hornby, MRC, Merit International and Eduard (and yes ICM) all come to mind. Dragon has their own policy (which has always involved documentation and proof of purchase). Dragon kits come direct from the distributor (in this case Dragon USA) already shrink wrapped. Therefore, the seller is not necessarily obligated to replace a part. Because our LHS was also a distributor, we kept a decent stock of Dragon kits on hand, so we could replace items if necessary, but most small LHS won't have that ability. We also made it a point to fix a problem with any kit--it was just good business to do so, but we were not "required" to do so by any law, since we didn't make the kit. Having explained that, I can honestly say in the 6 years I worked in our LHS, I only saw three Dragon kits (totally different kits) ever returned for missing or incomplete parts-- and we sold several hundreds of kits in those six years (probably close to a thousand), both domestically and overseas (some were even sold to customers in China!). Dragon's QC used to be one of the best in the industry. We had more kits damaged in shipment than we ever had with missing or mal-formed parts. After documenting any problems to Dragon, they would give us wholesale credit on the next order. We kept the damaged kits for use as extras if needed. Generally speaking, the hobby industry works about the same for all manufacturers and dealers. And most reputable business will replace or refund because it's good business to do so, not by rule of law. A pet peeve of mine is when a kit manufacturer asks for "proof of purchase" if I have a kit with a deformed part. What difference does it make? The kit came from the factory with a deformed part, so when or where I bought it has no bearing on the the issue, and the manufacturer should make good on replacing any defective part. Missing parts may be a different story, and logically could be the fault of the buyer--if you drive a car and lose a hubcap, the manufacturer is under no obligation to replace it for free are they? But in Dragon's case, they seem to have a problem replacing parts for free or for purchase.
VR, Russ

In my case I did go back to the vendor and they contacted Italeri directly, they told him the exact same thing they told me. Italeri said quote.

Dear sir,

We inform you that our articles are controlled individually and it is very unlikely to be missing or damaged a piece, we suggest you to contact the seller.

Best regards,
Italeri S.p.A

So pretty much calling us a liar...Screw you Italeri! I hope you go bankrupt. The vendor said he ordered a replacement sprue...that was almost a year ago.

Called them again today...still no part from Italeri.
DJ

Here it is federal law this means that is the same from state to state and says so "In Australia, consumers have a legal right to obtain a refund from a business if the goods are purchased, or not fit for purpose or do not match the seller's description bla bla bla.... " or fix the problem.

In my case I did go back to the vendor and they contacted Italeri directly, they told him the exact same thing they told me. Italeri said quote.

Dear sir,

We inform you that our articles are controlled individually and it is very unlikely to be missing or damaged a piece, we suggest you to contact the seller.

Best regards,
Italeri S.p.A

So pretty much calling us a liar...Screw you Italeri! I hope you go bankrupt. The vendor said he ordered a replacement sprue...that was almost a year ago.

Called them again today...still no part from Italeri.
DJ

"...So I think about ALL of these kits, with their missing sprues, and wonder how on earth QA could overlook such a simple thing..."

"....Model companies are not charities, and I suppose at some point you would say, dude, show me some proof that it was us. After all, they DO hire QA people. I've seen them myself at a couple of different Tamiya locations in Japan. They all seemed like they were taking their jobs seriously...".

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The last time I used Dragoncare, it took 8 months and me messaging them several times to get what I was mussing. Their customer service sucks

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if these stories are true, and all info has been delivered to DragonCare as requested then not only DragonCare s..cks but the whole of Dragon; No decent company allows its customer care to work like this.

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I am surpised by their lack of reply. I used Dragon Care USA twice now and my issues were resolved and had replacement parts within two weeks of first opening a ticket. I hope this is just a isolated case and not the future.

Mark

So I think about ALL of these kits, with their missing sprues, and wonder how on earth QA could overlook such a simple thing . . .