Hobbyking 101... Help with HobbyKing stuff

[gunny_jeeves]

I have used Hobbyking for years now. If it was not for them, I would not be in this hobby, and definitely not at the scale I am today. I love these guys to death, and wanted to share some helpful info for ordering from them:

1. Pay attention to the warehouse selection in the top left. There are 3 for us folks in the US. (West WA, East Arkansas, and Global -China.) The US ones will be faster and cheaper on shipping.
2. Order anything in one order from only one warehouse, and make sure nothing is back ordered. (This will delay your whole order till that item arrives)
3. Use PayPal. I have made many orders and only had to resolve one through paypal, but if you need it, you will want that option.
4. China Shipping Tricks - to get some sick deals on shipping from China, there are a few things you can do.
* don't order lipos... (So you will get some airmail options... Some are even cheap too!)
* try to order kits and large boxes from your local warehouse.
* many of their items are "free shipping" if you see one, make sure you order that item by itself because if you put another item in there, you will pay shipping on the whole order.

Last tip, but if you can remember to do it, follow these steps when you get something...
* record yourself opening the package if you had a complex order. I have never ever had a mistake except that they accidentally put like 50 props in one of my orders... (LOL Bonus!!!) never missed anything, but having that would be completely indisputable.
* if something goes wrong that costs less than shipping it back would! write it off, or buy a couple of them. They sell great servos for as low as a couple of dollars each. Buy a servo at your hobby shop for $10, or buy 4 from hobbyking... You're still ahead if only 3 work, but I have never gotten a bad servo there either...
* if something does go wrong with a bigger ticket item, they stand behind it pretty good in my opinion. You should be prepared to show them the problem, with video is best, or send it back. If you send it back, you're out of pocket for shipping one way, but usually they won't make you send it back in, and with the one problem I had, they sent brand new ones back.

There are a lot of ways to get your gear, and I just hope this helps someone out!

[fastblade]

I tell you what... HK has RotorStar esc's (YEP Clone) DIRT CHEAP! 100amp esc $26.97 ... 180amp $124.... I've got both already and they work Great! The 180 is the only one that holds up to me besides a YGE320... I'm buying a couple of 100's right now for my planes...Just passing the info on.....

[jbaum81]

Originally Posted by gunny_jeeves

3. Use PayPal. I have made many orders and only had to resolve one through paypal, but if you need it, you will want that option.

How'd that work out for you? They banned my email address when I did it to them. I had to open a new email account just for HK stuff.

[Cailid]

HK is a bunch of scumbags selling garbage. When I ordered some batteries from them half the batteries had bad cells.

Then they started spamming me with their garbage ads and when I told them to stop they just started sending even more. I had to block their domain to get the spam to stop. They will never get any business from me.

[gunny_jeeves]

I had one issue. Truth is it was a big one.

A $350 order didn't ship. Had the bad luck of one item being back order (or glitch) probably while checking out. Tried working with them up until the last day I could claim it to have paypal settle it. It settled, and that was that. The whole time they were working with me, but couldn't cancel the order since it got printed, wouldn't re-print it, and it was a pain.

Basically, to cancel the order... Problem happens, they request cancellation, it goes to some weird state, (in my case it was printed and then evidently lost...) so they try to pull the order from the folks packing it, (can't ever do that if the damn thing is lost) and never could "confirm that they pulled it".... So they couldn't issue a refund or credit. On that final day, I submitted all the details, and paypal cleared it in 45 minutes. Money was back in my account.

I ordered the same things, it cleared and shipped a day later. (Technically I made them reprint the order). I'm still flying that stuff!

I guess the big thing is that I tried (hard) to work with em, and used paypal as a last resort.

[jbaum81]

I had a pretty big order that said something about a postage issue and that it had been returned to origin. They kept saying they didn't have it yet and wouldn't refund. I gave them like 2 weeks and filed the claim. Couldn't sign into my HK account anymore after that.

[Cailid]

Originally Posted by jbaum81

I had a pretty big order that said something about a postage issue and that it had been returned to origin. They kept saying they didn't have it yet and wouldn't refund. I gave them like 2 weeks and filed the claim. Couldn't sign into my HK account anymore after that.

They treat their customers like that and people still keep dealing with them.

[P@reez]

I've ordered from them a few times and have got my items fine. But the last one went south. I had a $150 order, all items were in stock but it just wouldn't ship. Every time I opened a ticket asking when the hell is the order going to ship, I got some bs saying they're trying to check with the packing warehouse etc. This went on for 4 weeks. I finally lost my patience and asked for a refund. Refund came through without a hitch.

Incidentally the order was to build my first foamy 3d plane. Maybe the heli gods intervened and made sure I don't get into planks.

[ssdaly]

After a few years of HK purchases, I have learned there is good and bad. The good is they are generally reliable with most orders and have a great selection of RC items. The bad is the QC is lacking on many items. This can also be said of some other retailers in the RC industry.
I had the misfortune of ordering lipos from the HK China warehouse at the same time shipping them globally became a problem. The order was delayed for 6 weeks but it arrived as they promised. Certainly a few HK ordered items were delivered sub standard (poor QC ) and were not utilized , but they were cheap enough to not return and just throw away .

[Citizen X]

I consider HobbyKing the Harbor Freight of the far east. Some of the stuff is good and some is bad. You know going in that if you order a $3 part from the main warehouse that it is not going to be worth it to send it back.

I have used the Turnigy/zippy batteries in airplanes for years. Never had one single issue. However, I am debating now as I step up to a non-micro 400 size heli what to do. Heli will be tougher on batteries.

To further qualify the 1 cell batteries do occasionally come out of the box bad. But at $1.26 just order 3.

As far as the shipping from China I never had an issue.

[raisinjack]

sorry, but there are too many good USA based RC businesses that I will gladly pay more for to use.

[Mr.Andersen]

After shopping from hobbyking for years and are using Zippy/Turnigy LiPo i have no problems recomending regular Zippy and Turnigy paks for bought small and big helis.
My biggest is a Logo 600 on 12S and i had a 500 running 12S and have used Turnigy 2650 and Zippy 2800 packs on the 500 and now Zippy 2800 and Turnigy 3000 packs on the 600 i have no rpoblem recomending these packs for big helis.
I still have a set of Turnigy 6S 2650 from 2011 that i bought to the Logo 500 and still could use them for slow flying my 600 last summer.
These year i let them go.
And these is all 30-35C packs.

The only bad experience i have had with Hobbyking is a shipment that never arrived and allmouts year later i got a mail my pack have been returned to HK for credit.
It was nothing expensive so no biggie but now i allways put a LiPo in the pack and they send it with Fedex streight away.

[jbaum81]

I think the zippy yellow's and nanotech's are great for beginners, or even regular light amp draw applications. Once you start punishing them you can heat those packs up pretty quickly.

[Mattinfla]

Originally Posted by fastblade

I tell you what... HK has RotorStar esc's (YEP Clone) DIRT CHEAP! 100amp esc $26.97 ... 180amp $124.... I've got both already and they work Great! The 180 is the only one that holds up to me besides a YGE320... I'm buying a couple of 100's right now for my planes...Just passing the info on.....

YEP Clone = hardware and firmware stolen from YEP.

I refuse to reward thieves.

This sort of thing hurts the whole hobby. On the fixed wing side, Scott Stoops has completely stopped designing models after HobbyKing blatantly stole yet another of his designs.

[19trax95]

Once i found buddy rc and glacier batteries, i stopped using hobby king. I used to use them for batteries, but ive found the glaciers to be as good or better and at about the same price. Plus the guys at buddy rc offer true customer service and shipping is fast. I havent had anything ive ordered that didnt ship out the same day.

[Fauropitotto]

I use nanotech for my receiver packs, and I have one set of 6S 3300 nanotech packs that I use on my 6HVU. Surprisingly, my Pulse flight batteries are puffed but my nanotech flight packs are still flying strong with no puffing, despite the abuse.

Using Glacier from BuddyRC for my 700 flight packs and they're doing very well, with lightning fast shipping.

[prismatic]

Originally Posted by Mattinfla

YEP Clone = hardware and firmware stolen from YEP.

I refuse to reward thieves.

This sort of thing hurts the whole hobby. On the fixed wing side, Scott Stoops has completely stopped designing models after HobbyKing blatantly stole yet another of his designs.

They're not thieves. They haven't stolen anything. In China it is normal to copy a product design. Copying isn't stealing. Only in your mind it is because you were born and raised to think that way. However, in reality they haven't stolen anything.

This sort of thing hurts the whole hobby.

I disaggree. If Align hadn't copied Thunder Tiger back in the early days we wouldn't have these awesome helicopters we have now. The original T-Rex was a clone of the Thunder Tiger Raptor.

And clones offer many people who can't otherwise afford this expensive hobby a chance to participate. If clones didn't exist this forum probably wouldn't exist either. How many members only buy name brand parts?

[Mr.Andersen]

I have Rotorstar BLS servos on my logo and as far as i know its not a clone of anything.
Work fine on their second season.

[Hawk404]

There is no product or service on the face of this planet that I want enough to buy it from HobbyKing.

Never bought from them, never will and don't feel the slightest bit inconvenienced.

[James Recard]

Hobbyking have been awesome for me.... never had any problems after dozens of orders.

The only gripe I do have is the way the price creeps up by the time they convert from Aud to USD then through PP and you always pay more...
I just allow 10% for conversion creep.

They're not thieves. They haven't stolen anything. In China it is normal to copy a product design. Copying isn't stealing. Only in your mind it is because you were born and raised to think that way. However, in reality they haven't stolen anything.

I agree with this to a point....
Why is it ok to copy a design to offer a superior, more expensive product eg. Lynx can offer a CF version of a 450x frame.(I am in no way criticizing Lynx) But it is not ok to copy to offer a cheaper, but often inferior product to some degree. eg.all of the Trex 450 clone frames.