Sorry, but I need to vent!

 

Having had a Honeycomb Alpha yoke on order from Amazon UK since August 18th,today I got the following email:

Quote

We regret to inform you that we have been unable to source the following item:

  "Alpha Flight Controls - Honeycomb Aeronautical PC"
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SH2SFLW

Our supplier has informed us that this item is no longer available.  This item has now been cancelled from your order #xxxxxxxx.  In case you have been charged for it, payment will be refunded within 5-7 business days.

Please accept our apologies for any disappointment or inconvenience caused.

You may visit the product detail page(s) above to see if these item(s) are available from other sellers.

Pathetic. I assume they get their supply from a 3rd party wholesaler rather than Honeycomb direct, otherwise what they say is essentially a lie as Honeycomb would be mad to discontinue production.

I'm now 6 weeks further down any queue to get an Alpha and will probably have to pay more than the £228 I paid Amazon for it. Fuming.🤬

 

Any advice on where to order one now in the UK? I'm thinking about ease (and cost) of returns if there is a fault. Presumably everyone is still out of stock, so the question will be who is most likely to receive it first?

What about writing to the folks over at Honeycomb and tell them about your plight.  Perhaps they will be willing to work out a solution while honouring the price from Amazon.

Good luck!

Robert

20 hours ago, HUSSAR said:

What about writing to the folks over at Honeycomb and tell them about your plight. 

Funnily enough, I have been strongly considering that. My anger is with Amazon, rather than Honeycomb, but I wonder if they are aware that one of their recommended vendors (and one of the world's biggest) claims that their product is no longer available! My only reason for not originally wanting to order direct from Honeycomb was what happens if my product develops a fault. Do I have to return it to San Diego, or does it go to Aerosoft as their European distributor? And who is liable for the return cost? All it says on Honeycomb's site is

Quote

Return Policy

• All orders placed in the North American Region regarding Warranty, Returns, and Defects are to be directed to Honeycomb Aeronautical Ltd.

Honeycomb Aeronautical Ltd.
Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport
8799 Balboa Avenue, Suite 265
San Diego, CA 92123
USA

...

• All cost of shipping and receiving of defective units and replacement parts will be covered through Honeycomb Aeronautical Ltd.

 Nothing regarding non-North American orders.

If anyone knows how European sales and returns are handled, I'd be grateful for the info.

 

In the meantime, I will Contact Honeycomb regarding Amazon's email. And thank you for the good luck wishes.👍

Edited September 29, 20205 yr by 109Sqn
typo

Curry’s have had the yoke in a few times over the last couple of months. 
you can’t pre-order, but you can request stick notice. 

@Dharma66 Thanks, I might just do that as another option, although I had vowed never to use Currys again (long story, but it involved emailing the directors to finally get a successful resolution!). However, if needs must...

 

Still awaiting a response from Honeycomb, but I suppose they have their hands full responding to issues from existing owners. especially anyone who had (potentially legitimate) multiple orders cancelled.

@109Sqn, I don’t know if you’re aware of the about to be released Fulcrum One yoke. Chris is taking orders for it but there is a queue so you may need to wait.

Although it’s pricier than the Honeycomb many believe it’s as good as the £900 Yoko but costs around half that. I’m eagerly awaiting mine.

https://www.fulcrumsim.com/product/fulcrum-one-yoke/

There is a support forum here on AvSim. https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/882-fulcrum-simulator-controls/

@Ray Proudfoot Yes, I had seen that, thank you,  but at £432 it's sadly well above what I can justify spending, much as I'd like to support a British enterprise.

@109Sqn, fair enough. I mentioned it incase you weren't aware of it. Good luck in your search for a Honeycomb.

@Ray Proudfoot Thanks, appreciate the interest. You never know, I might change my mind, but paying that much for a yoke would leave me waiting longer for a throttle quadrant and I'm already facing the prospect of still trying to use the PS4 controller as a throttle if and when I get the Alpha, until the Bravo is available to me. Could be 'fun'!🤯

@109Sqn, the thing about good quality yokes, throttles etc. is they are long-term investments unlike graphics cards which can cost far more but have a life of five years or less. I’ve had my Saitek yoke for 13 years so it’s certainly paid for itself but the Fulcrum will last far longer as there are no pots to wear out. It’s also infinitely better.

You could always use a Logitech single throttle quadrant as a stop-gap.

@Ray Proudfoot

Good points, well made. I'm a long-term investment kind of guy these days. In the last few years I would get tempted by something only to find myself wanting to upgrade it far too soon afterwards. I'm very happy with my new PC but that cost me much more than I'd originally budgeted for. It will last me many years, because it has to!😄 The rigs it replaced had lasted 8 and 12 years before needing new bits to fix them, so that is an idea of my long game.

 

Aside from price, extra 'bits' is the problem for me, looking at the Fulcrum. Aside from the TQ, I'd also need a switch panel, as I want to limit my use of a keyboard for the first time in my flight sim 'career'. More money. Yes, I could ebay them but I'd be losing money (since demand will surely have subsided by the time I'd be ready to sell) and besides, I have a large box (or two) of items I've been planning on ebaying for the last few years, yet I've still to activate my seller account! 

I think that if force feedback was available on the Fulcrum, it might have tipped me over the edge to buying, but that would have added to the price anyway. I'm used to FF in motor racing sims and would appreciate that extra immersion, but at least the visual immersion of MSFS is good enough to often make you forget what you're missing.

 

For now, the Alpha tops my wish list (though it should be my waiting for delivery list, thanks Amazon!) but until there's some sign of me actually being able to successfully order one, I'll keep an open mind. I hope you'll do some sort of review when you get your Fulcrum. Enjoy it when it arrives.👍

'Aside from the TQ, I'd also need a switch panel, as I want to limit my use of a keyboard.'

I dont understand why you would have to purchase a switch panel. Why not make one for your own requirements. Switches are as cheap as chips, and with the use of FSUIPC, the world is your oyster.

Just a idea, that maybe you hadn't thought about.

Cheers

 

@109Sqn, there was a saying along the lines of "buy cheap, buy twice". Seems appropriate for PCs and perhaps yokes etc. If you get plenty of service out of a bit of kit it's paid for itself so chucking or giving it away is okay by me. Resale value is low anyway.

I have a second PC for FS connected via WideFS and run Radar Contact on it plus moving maps. I moved my 3Gb graphics card to it when I changed to a 1080Ti. It's still in daily use after 7 years.

I've tried FF on a very expensive Brunner yoke and it only comes into play on landing and take-off. Adds a huge amount to the cost too. Only Brunner do one I believe.

Lots of companies have asked for the Fulcrum for reviewing so I think there's be plenty of professional reviews available in the coming months.

@109Sqn One could argue that with the advent of powered flying controls in the real world, then there is very little force feedback. Any "feel" is artificial and has been engineered in by the aircraft manufacturer. This all depends upon what aircraft you prefer to fly in the sim of course....

This would defeat the object of buying a yoke, any yoke, but if you liked flying the sidestick-controlled Airbuses then there is no force feedback...

13 hours ago, Freo said:

I dont understand why you would have to purchase a switch panel. Why not make one for your own requirements. Switches are as cheap as chips, and with the use of FSUIPC, the world is your oyster.

You raise a good point. I guess I have really just thought it 'one for the geeks' to go that far (with no insult intended in my use of 'geeks'). I have built all my PCs from scratch (until this one) and built my first bicycle from scratch last year, having always bought fully assembled in the past. But I'm not really a DIY electronics person - the last time I put anything into a circuit board was at school (fun fact, our physics teacher's rule was that if you ever blew a circuit, you had to buy him a pint!). I suppose I could look into it though. I've no experience using FSUIPC other than it being some black magic program you had to have the free version of in previous MS flight sims. Any good sites with tips for first-timers? I've just had a cursory glance at the first search result I found (will read it properly later): DIY Flight Sim Switch Panel on Instructables. 

As for FSUIPC, would I require the paid version? Looks like it's free in Beta till the end of this month. Would I need to buy it for it to continue to work with any panel I made?> You can tell I'm really in the dark about all of this!

I've no plan on building a cockpit as such, just want to have as little keyboard/mouse interaction as I reasonably can, without getting geeky about it!😁 Anything I can do that saves me money over pre-built would be worth considering.