Hobby King: Forewarned is Forearmed

[scottb]

If you paid using PayPal you can initiate a dispute through them if you have order problems.

[Inverse]

Originally Posted by UBHSTRY

Someone said if you get your knickers in a knot easily, HK is not the place for you, well, that hits the nail on the head! Ill take my 15 dollar lipos all day long, and a little miscomunication from chinese to english all day long...LOL

This pretty much covers it!

[65L88]

Originally Posted by driveutwo

Its funny how people try to defend hobbyking because they get lucky and get there stuff. I have ordered items and received them a month later anyway I work hard for my money and I would be pissed if hobbyking stole my money!! There are to many people that have been screwed from hk its not worth taking the chance!!

Yeah, but you gotta ask, out of a thousand customers, how many actually have problems? Out of tens of thousands, maybe hundereds of thousands of orders, you and I only hear about the ones that go bad, never (well, almost never) the ones that are all good. I'm not saying it's a good thing to have an order screwed up, but consider, a lot can happen between Hong Kong and here. Just consider the odds, and take your chances. Or not. So far, I've had 100% good luck with HK, and if something goes wrong, you can bet I won't be happy, but even if I lose a $100 order, I'll still be well ahead of the game. After all, this is a hobby, not life or death..... There's a certain risk in anything one does....

[fbarcenas]

Originally Posted by 65L88

Yeah, but you gotta ask, out of a thousand customers, how many actually have problems? Out of tens of thousands, maybe hundereds of thousands of orders, you and I only hear about the ones that go bad, never (well, almost never) the ones that are all good. I'm not saying it's a good thing to have an order screwed up, but consider, a lot can happen between Hong Kong and here. Just consider the odds, and take your chances. Or not. So far, I've had 100% good luck with HK, and if something goes wrong, you can bet I won't be happy, but even if I lose a $100 order, I'll still be well ahead of the game. After all, this is a hobby, not life or death..... There's a certain risk in anything one does....

+1

[UBHSTRY]

Originally Posted by 65L88 View Post
Yeah, but you gotta ask, out of a thousand customers, how many actually have problems? Out of tens of thousands, maybe hundereds of thousands of orders, you and I only hear about the ones that go bad, never (well, almost never) the ones that are all good. I'm not saying it's a good thing to have an order screwed up, but consider, a lot can happen between Hong Kong and here. Just consider the odds, and take your chances. Or not. So far, I've had 100% good luck with HK, and if something goes wrong, you can bet I won't be happy, but even if I lose a $100 order, I'll still be well ahead of the game. After all, this is a hobby, not life or death..... There's a certain risk in anything one does....
+1

Originally Posted by fbarcenas

+1

+1

[Monkoo]

I am also disappointed with HobbyKing (HK).

A first order with them about a year ago went without any issue.

Then I placed a second one about a month ago. Money was promptly withdrawn from my account, but HK contacted me to require a bank statement copy for the credit card I had used. Since I had used the virtual credit card system of my bank (to precisely avoid any credit card fraud), the credit card number was just a temporary one, for the order concerned, with no statement of any kind that I could show. I was then kindly invited to place another same order with another payment means, while my money would be refunded to me in "between 1 and 3 weeks" (luckily I ended up financing HK only a few days). I remember in the past placing an order with another online RC shop where they had also required me to provide some info (ID) before they would take my order (but the payment was not accepted until all checks were completed, unlike HK).

I decided to try my luck last Mon. 19/03 and placed the same order again with HK for items advertised as "in stock". Payment quickly accepted, order "in the queue for shipping". One week without news from HK despite a request for status update last Thu. 22/03 and today again...

We are more and more used to good and quick service (I find mainstream online stores in the US very good), perhaps it makes us even more impatient when not everything is quick as we'd like... Or perhaps it's just that I should have not placed this one order with HK ! One thing is for sure, it's the last one.

[fbarcenas]

Originally Posted by Monkoo

I am also disappointed with HobbyKing (HK).

A first order with them about a year ago went without any issue.

Then I placed a second one about a month ago. Money was promptly withdrawn from my account, but HK contacted me to require a bank statement copy for the credit card I had used. Since I had used the virtual credit card system of my bank (to precisely avoid any credit card fraud), the credit card number was just a temporary one, for the order concerned, with no statement of any kind that I could show. I was then kindly invited to place another same order with another payment means, while my money would be refunded to me in "between 1 and 3 weeks" (luckily I ended up financing HK only a few days). I remember in the past placing an order with another online RC shop where they had also required me to provide some info (ID) before they would take my order (but the payment was not accepted until all checks were completed, unlike HK).

I decided to try my luck last Mon. 19/03 and placed the same order again with HK for items advertised as "in stock". Payment quickly accepted, order "in the queue for shipping". One week without news from HK despite a request for status update last Thu. 22/03 and today again...

We are more and more used to good and quick service (I find mainstream online stores in the US very good), perhaps it makes us even more impatient when not everything is quick as we'd like... Or perhaps it's just that I should have not placed this one order with HK ! One thing is for sure, it's the last one.

Yeah, I think I'm starting to see a pattern. Those of us that pay with paypal have "virtually" no problems. The nightmares people describe have been always been paid with a credit card.

So I think the moral of the story is "Use Paypal."

[UBHSTRY]

I only use a CC, never paypal. Dont even have a pay pal account. Outside of taking some time to get my orders, and sometimes its fast....I really havnt had any issues. Including my prompt refund on an order that was my fault for canceling. Its a discount store, I guess I just expect discount service. I dont expect the same service as I would if I was dropping a grand at the LHS.

I am just happy to have hobbyking, without them I would in no way still be in this hobby. Entirely toooooo expensive. Last week I just ordered my first FPV HK 500, I have about 300 dollars in it, everything except the TX. Heli, servos, esc, motor, camera items, battery, new esc and the CMT 500. That would be over 1500+ at the LHS.

If I could get the LHS to stock their stuff, I would gladly pay more for it there, but Nooooo, if it isnt Eflite or align, cant dare have that in their store..........well, to each his own.......Ill take hobbyking!

Though I keep thinking of "Plow King" off of the simpsons...LMAO

[Volcano]

They are reliable, but hard to contact. I had a similar issue before and it was my fault. I had one letter off on my email addy and it created another account with them. Most sellers wont let you create an account with a nonfunctional email but whatever-it was my fault.

To all the haters- you do see how cheap their prices are, and theres quality stuff to be got from hobbyking. You cant get it all/ either get ripped off automatically by overpaying for stuff. Or take your chances with hobbyking.

[Hydros27]

I have had 10 or so good experiences with Hobby King and 1 bad. Last June I ordered some batteries from HK. They never showed up. HK tried to shift the responsibility to the shipper. Long story short I kept hounding them and finally got my money back in March. Very poor customer service.

[Gladiator]

I understand the OP point of view. We should sympathize with him if the story is really true, instead of just "defending" HK saying "oh I never had an issue with them".

I know this is a virtual world for most of us. But think about this OP Freak member was one of your buddies at the local flying club. I would be pissed at HK for screwing him over.

OP,
I'm sorry you are having issues with HK. But from my experience, we can't expect good customer service from them. My summary of orders is at the bottom.

*****************************
HK,
If you are reading this....

Get your act together! Just having good prices only will not keep your business up and running for too long.
******************************

I have ordered from them 11 times in the past 7 months. I think it is a hit or miss with them.

I had a problem once where I placed the order and they never shipped it. I kept on inquiring about it via chat and always got the same scripted answer saying something like "we are rushing your order sir".

I kept on asking for an specific date and status of what was happening with my order, but HK always kept on giving me general answers.

At the end, after 5 weeks, I canceled the order. They offered me a refund via PayPal or store credit.

From that day I have learned that I should not expect good customer service from HK, only cheap price and somewhat good quality parts.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rstekeur]

I would only use paypal, I would never give a CC to anywhere in China or prety much any online store for that matter, you hear too many horror stories. Ive ordered 3-4 times from HK and unless it's from the usa warehouse it's takes a long time, but in all cases I got what I ordered

[65L88]

[arcweld]

[Wesley888]

heh. dead horse keep on living.

Anyway, after so many good orders, just lost my first order with them. Just filled a claim with paypal and got my money back in a couple of days. I turn around and order another few hundred dollars worth of stuff from them again. I don't see any problem with that.

[Monkoo]

Great, most people here have mostly had great shopping experiences with HK, I'm happy for you.

In my case, 15 days after the day when I placed my order, I still have no news, and my attempts to seek a status update from HK have been unsuccessful. All items in my order are still marked "in stock" on their website. I don't call that a good shopping experience.

But that's me.

[kachur779]

i ordered 4 6s lipos last month march 3 and it still says processing on my account this is the last time iam getting anything from them bastards it says in stock us warehouse then and still says instock now 4 some reason my order has been crossed out 3 times sick of talking to same idots on there online support

[Ermac]

When I have that problem I just engage them in live support chat or email. It can be slow at times, but I always fire them an email when I figure out my order has backorders on it, they reverse it and give me points to spend, So I now pick things in stock, I will catch those backorder items when their system emails me it's there.

[ktmdiesel]

I've order ten dollars worth of heat shrink before n they still sent it from hk. No issues with them before from me.

[Bthirsk]

I have got 29 orders from HK since Jan 2012. I have had no problems at all. Payments all go through as expected. I have even had several items I did not order thrown in my boxes.