Dont get the Next Level Racing Flight Pro Set

[Sorata]

I bought the set when they were announced and they finally arrived this week. NLR never responded to emails sent prior to order with questions, let alone about the account /website error that forced me to order with a guest account as you cant add or remove items to my accounts cart to place the order. Regardless of that I ordered from them based on peoples here opinion of them.

Well the set arrived and its an absolute joke of a paper weight. Damage is horrendous on both packages and so bad there is no way this all occurred in shipping. Scrapes to bare metal on parts that are warped in burble wrap that had no signs of damage, missing parts, bent bolts, broken washers, dents, broken plastic fittings and covers warped beams so parts can't sit flat, zip ties that were already sheared or cut prior to arrival and this is on parts that are within another box. I have never received items this damaged and do not suspect all the damage was done by UPS some had to have slipped QC. Preinstalled bolts had actually come out too and the nut to the bolts are missing.

NLR isn't replying to my emails for help so I have a 1000  USD + paperweight. Damage is so bad replacement parts cant fix the stand but the chair might could be saved with many replacement parts and paint to patch and prevent rust. The stand is bent and warped so it can flatten where it needs to and even one preinstalled bolt in the chair cant be used/removed as it has no spares in the package and the bolt head is filled with metal and you cant use the allen wrench you supposed to on it. That for sure was a QC oversight they should have seen that prior to powder coat.

Some of the damage to the brown exterior box is me ripping it anyway to take photos as the parts sticking out of the interior boxes against the other box made it so I couldn't lift them out and the box is a two man lift anyway and I wasnt gonna hurt myself doing it alone to get the photos. The parts where so loose in the inner boxes that they can move around which caused them to try to rip out of the boxes and the scrapping I dont know how it occured unless at their shop as these parts where sealed in full coverage bubble wrap and still are scratched but the bubble wrap was undamaged. 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Sorata

[aleader]

You don't really say, but I assume you ordered directly from Next Level?

[Mr_sukebe]

Sounds like it was a return that has been resold.  As above, where did you buy it from?

[kestrel79]

I got the FGT-Lite off Amazon and it came packaged great, not like this. That's too bad.

[Sorata]

On 6/19/2023 at 10:16 AM, aleader said:

You don't really say, but I assume you ordered directly from Next Level?

Yes I did.

 

Took them quite awhile to finally reply to me after I had to jump through hoops. They stated they would get back with me in 1-2 days after getting with management, QC, RnD team and the shipping company about it. Well They didn't so on the fourth day I contacted them and luckily got a reply that day that they where gonna make it right and are "currently working on a solution" but I am still awaiting any further information, instructions on what to do with this one or any tracking information.

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by Sorata

[Sorata]

Been over a month now since original order was placed right after this products announcement.

Been a week since they sent me a unprompted reply (last time I had to email them first) that they were letting me know they have not forgotten me and had put in an urgent request for update on my case....a week ago.... Doesn't seem too urgent.

EDIT: Well updating me must not be important. Never told me its shipped or gave me tracking. I started to go out the door to work and bumped into the FedEx driver trying to drop off a new chair and table set by himself on a clearly labeled two man lift. Packages where banged a bit from wrong handling again but no where as bad as last time. The box to the flight stand pro is warped and bulged on one side and they had clearly dropped it again on that side as I came out the door off the end of the truck so hopefully when I get back home to check it its not damaged again. They changed shipper from UPS to FedEx this time I guess hoping that helped but clearly both companies don't read labels and are trying to push volume out the door and don't care about damage as this was a FedEx contractor under them not a direct FedEx employee.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Sorata

[Sorata]

Finally got a friend over so we could team lift the boxes and remove the contents without having to cut the outer box away. Again the same parts on the Flight Stand where damaged and this time it is clearly due to how NLR packaged it. The contact I have at NLR over this whole incident doesnt even know they already sent this one as they still havent told him so I am gonna email him and update him, seems they have communication issues.

Its also clear this is damage by their factory and shipping department not Fedex and UPS. It seems they again didnt even install all the bolts and simply laid the metal frame loosely in this   bubble wrap on top on an interior box that cause the damage. FYI the frame is large enough it can fit over the edges of the very heavy interior box which lets the interior box shift and crush it. They clearly need to secure the interior accessory box to the center of the package or put some type of divider on top of the interior box so the frame cant slid over the heavy box and get hurt.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Sorata

[Sorata]

And now they are blowing me off.

They sent an invoice email saying my order is complete and haven't responded to my emails about the replacement being damaged. Guess I am on my own now since it seems their shipping department is so horrible they cant ship things right. I still cant believe they put such a heavy box inside that big a box with enough room to shift and damage the product not once but twice. They really shouldn't ship that hollow stand where it can slip over and be crushed with a hundred pound loose inner accessory box to bounce around against it.

I will wait a few more days to see if they want it shipped back or if they have truly ghosted me or are just that bad at responding before I take the two broken stands and try to have a machine shop rebend and cut the two up to try to make one working stand out of them. May see if I can get measurements and find someone with the right app and a 3D printer to make the broken plastic parts and go to Lowes an hour from my home and see if I can find the right missing nuts and bolts.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Sorata

[bigdaddybones30]

Shoulda done a charge back. Sorry to hear. Monstertech for me, no issues.

 

[corbu1]

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with the Flight Pro Rig.

I got mine a few weeks ago and have no problems with it. It was all packaged very solid and didn‘t have any damage. I ordered just via Amazon and delivery was very fast.

Actually I‘m building my new sim rig.

[corbu1]

This is where I‘m actually with my new rig.

[Ghostrider84]

Hi,

I can support the initial post as I received the Stand with the similar defects. The shipping package was already with dents. The package from NLR showed severe damages like open corners and sides. The inside package with all the parts was more or less destroyed from parts constant moving during shipment. Parts which weight kilograms should be able to move.

Furthermore the surface finish of several parts was damaged till the blank metal. Damage patters on the underside of the stand itself are very similar. For me this shows there is a systematic problem. The surface coating should be more quality checked. I doubt it was from shipping because all the protective foils were intact and the damage pattern suggest sharp angles of force applied. It’s not a surface scratch. Also I couldn’t find the scratched off coating inside the packages.  

The bushing from plastic which is where the beam slides for height adjustment was almost identically damaged and a part of the plastic broke. This occurred because the screws securing the parts for shipment went loose and so the beam could slide freely. During unpacking this screw fell out  Also one Bolt at the joint where stand unfolds was completely off. With the foil around this area i suppose it was not assembled and just placed inside because it’s impossible i comes loose so much and falls out by itself. 

Most drastic damage was the bending of the vertical beams inward by 3cm. The flight deck plate couldn’t be assembled because of a gap of this size. I checked the squareness of the parts with precision tool and it’s so much off that you can see clearly. As the overall build quality of the welding seems good (I have experience with welding myself and can judge this) i suppose the way they pack it for shipping by is the problem. The flight deck plate should be assembled in factory. With this there would be no chance that wrong handling during shipping could bend anything (maybe still in case you throw the package downstairs but with normal handling I doubt it would be possible. 

Until substantial improvements in packaging I would say to buy this stand is lottery. You can can get it intact but this involves very careful handling. Something which because of the weight is difficult. I would ask NLR before i buy and confront them with this informations here.

in case this topic is still of interest I can provide images. 

[Sorata]

Another issue is the direction and provided hardware for installation of step 21 the center HOTAS mount for extended controls is incorrect. The screws are way too short to install per instructions. The only way to install is to buy longer screws. You can see this in their own youtube install video where they clearly swap them out for ones they dont give you at 6:06 to 6:08. Very clearly they lied. So without buying more stiff you cant use that mount. I am curious how corbu1 mounted his as the provided parts and instructions dont work.

 

I should also point out the company ghosted me but did contact me on youtube when I pointed out issues with instructions etc and asked me to contact them but again when I do they ghost me and the guys who were supposed to get back with me (Cameron and Matt) months ago still wont reply. Pretty shady company when it comes to this product yet their other product lines seem fine which makes me wonder if they contacted this out to a sub company?

 

EDIT: I need to find time to make a video of the damages, install issues, poor QC etc and post it on youtube with copies of all the emails they did send and I sent to help others make an informed decision in case they end up like me with no forewarning. 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Sorata

[Ghostrider84]

I would not say "lie" here. The video shows with a cut to another scene two different length of bolts, thats true. I dont know why they decided to counter the plate first and then mount this to the other part. I would use shorter bolts and counter them directy with the other part. Maybe they did for height adjustment? I dont know. Maybe even an error who knows. As they worked with cuts its not a 100 realistic assembly video.

Whats true is that in the video about the Flight Seat Pro and the Flight Stand Pro assembly you can see damages or noticable scratches in the powder coating. So they either not cared for this or the coating itself has a margin in which they accept such damages. They could accept this, but I know there exist coatings which can even withstand mechanical work (to some extent) as well as climate (to some extent). For a premium product which the overall marketing and product design suggest, I would expect that such problems like mentioned in this thread won't happen. At least I would not expect them to happen from the factory. Their quality control should be better. Also the package design to prevent warping/bending from mechanical forces in case of bad handling. As I said I would pre-assemble the flight deck plate in the stand so its a far more ridig construction during shipping. But to save NLR a bit - Noone can prevent that during shipping its not handled as intended. In this case its up to the company to evaluate if the construction can withstand this or if other solutuins work better. The product lifecycle also includes shipping - so its the responsibilty of a company to ensure it arrives in best condition.

I wrote one of the sales representatives from NLR who was answering my questions before I bought and provided him example images. I would encourage everyone who plans a purchase to consider, that you can be lucky and it will be in good condition, but also that it can be broken/damaged. In general I thing the build quality without the problems explained is very good and in my oppinion, if no damages are present it's worth the money. But I would say the price around 500-600 dollars is the maximum I would pay. For the quality issues even being able to fix most of them myself including unbending/welding, repair of the coating I would maximum pay 200-300 dollars.

The good thing is that all of the problems can be solved by NLR.

[VirusAM]

I am sorry about your experience, I received the NLR Flight Seat last week (bought from Amazon) and no issue at all...
I saw other users in this post having a similar experience, so maybe their logistics department needs to step up

[Hammer1-1]

I bought mine off amazon too, came totally perfect. I would agree though that whoever shipped the product wasnt aware that this box was exceptionally heavy and absolutely needs 2 ppl to carry if you dont have a dolly. I begged the fedex guy to help me drag it down the stairs and he told me not only no but hell no. I totally get why its all banged up as Im surprised I didnt bang mine up like that when I rolled it down the stairs like a boss.