Hobby King

[ergocentric]

CC company called me yesterday to sell me some services, they wanted all my info from me before they would talk to me.

Paypal works well with Hobbyking (but rest assured Hobbyking WILL SPAM your paypal email address, even though it is against Paypal TOS)

[quarry44]

Isn't paypal related to flea-bay?I try to avoid paypal unless there is absolutely no alternative.

[RCModelReviews]

There are many potential issues when dealing with online sellers.

HK seem to quite often require extra verification when people are making their first order paid by credit-card -- which is a little understandable, since CC fraud is so common online. If they don't take extra care, I suspect they'd be losing a *lot* of money to little snots who use stolen card information to order their toys.

The credit-card refund shouldn't take 4-6 weeks though -- check with your local credit card issuer and find out for sure -- then go back to HK and ask why there's a disparity in timeframes, if there is.

Once you know what to do and what not to do, HK (and many other online shops) offer an affordable source of RC products. However, as I said, there are traps for the novice.

[rogueqd]

CC company called me yesterday to sell me some services, they wanted all my info from me before they would talk to me.

Sounds dodgy to me. How did you confirm it was a legit call?

[Juanlargo]

CC company called me yesterday to sell me some services, they wanted all my info from me before they would talk to me.

Sounds dodgy to me. How did you confirm it was a legit call?

That sounds like a Physhing scam to me. I hope you didn't tell them anything. If I call them then I know it's OK If they call me I tell them I'll call them right back, ask for their extension and call the CC compay.

In as much as I understand HK's need to verify payments, they have no problem stiffing their customers. There are so many Chinese companies to do business with these days that have great prices and actually treat customers well I just don't understand why anyone still puts up with Hobby City's crap. They act like they want to go out of business.

[quarry44]

My mate and I have 4 orders under our belt,and all arrived within 8 days,except one which had a model in it,this took 11 days.Now,having a 5th order on the way,this one seems to have been handed to the dreaded swiss post.So far,13 days and counting.It took 10 days for the tracking number to become active.This parcel was only to the 750gram limit,where previous ones had been to the 1kg.So why did it go to swiss post?Cost?It's the same registered international air mail as all previous parcels.1 of the previous parcels was only 500grams,and cost around $10us for shipping.Yet this only took 7 days to arrive at my door in new zealand.The cost for the current parcel was $17us.13 days and counting..........
Btw,most of the previous parcels all contained Li-poly batteries!What ban?

[Aussie Joe]

My mate and I have 4 orders under our belt,and all arrived within 8 days,except one which had a model in it,this took 11 days.Now,having a 5th order on the way,this one seems to have been handed to the dreaded swiss post.So far,13 days and counting.It took 10 days for the tracking number to become active.This parcel was only to the 750gram limit,where previous ones had been to the 1kg.So why did it go to swiss post?Cost?It's the same registered international air mail as all previous parcels.1 of the previous parcels was only 500grams,and cost around $10us for shipping.Yet this only took 7 days to arrive at my door in new zealand.The cost for the current parcel was $17us.13 days and counting..........
Btw,most of the previous parcels all contained Li-poly batteries!What ban?

Hi,
Not too long ago HK could sneek small li-po batterys in to a HongKong post order, but no more thay must go by Swiss Post, HongKong Post thought it was to un safe, but for Swiss Post some how its safe enough for a trip around the world before it gets to you

[Descolada]

Hi Bruce, thanks for all the content, it's both entertaining and packed full of information. Keep up the great work.

So, HobbyKing.

I placed my first order at the start of the week and then grew more and more despondent as I started to read user experiences with this vendor. The payment was taken instantly but then started the long wait for the 'Status' to change on their site. After a couple of days I started to consider damage limitation and contacted them to ask about their 'cancellation policy'. I got a response, but at no point were they able to discuss such a policy or whether such a thing actually existed.

So here we have a large internet vendor, taking in (I guess) hundreds of orders each day, with a less than stellar reputation (customer services at least) and no sign of a structured, advertised approach to customers wishing to cancel their order.

Now, you could take the view that they had expended valuable time and energy in getting a supply of the item I ordered, but that's not the case, I made sure that the site showed stock of this device before placing an order.

I was also told that, as the item had been picked, the order could not now be cancelled. What a load of cobblers.

To be honest, I am a little concerned about what will arrive, when it arrives. But anyone anticipating doing business with these folks should be aware that they do not have a cancellations policy and will be very resistant should you wish to do so.

As has been said before, "buyer beware".

Regards

Des Colada

[UPDATE]

Hello Everyone.

So, I wanted to post an update to my earlier post re: Hobby King.

It was well over a week before my order status changed. It seemed to be stuck in "Paid, Waiting to be processed" for so long I now doubt that their stock status is remotely accurate and they are in fact operating an "on-demand" system. The order comes in and they send out to whatever factory or supplier they partner with the request for the item. It is this interval that causes the delay in processing an order.

I finally got the information (in a chat session) that the parcel had been sent to HK postal over a week ago and watched closely to make sure it had been sent on it's merry way. Unfortunately I was naive enough to think that once it was on it's way my problems would be over. The parcel arrived in the UK and then spent another week in UK Customs waiting to be inspected. That status changed to "in transit" a couple of days ago but there was no further information and no additional tracking information.

In the meantime I had been reading up on what others had experienced with their purchases and was becoming aware that it was quite common for packages to get hit with an Customs Charge and the packages would not be released until that charge had been paid. I contacted ParcelForce and was infrormed that the item had been held because there was a Customs Charge (an additional £18+) and that I would now have to wait for a letter containing a code that would allow me to pay the additional cost before the package was assigned for delivery.

So now I am waiting for the jolly British Postman to arrive with a letter from ParceForce.

This whole thing has made me determined not to use the HobbyKing people because the experience is just so dire!

However, many in this forum thread have talked of using a different supplier of some sort or another and it would be hugely helpful (to a newbie such as myself) if we could start to list the supplier that might prove to be a viable alternative to HK?

Regards

Des

[Keith]

I guess it's the luck of the draw, but I've had 117 dealings with HK in the last year and could not be happier with there service. All orders have arrived in reasonable time and been correct. I had one problem with some 450 booms that came with personalized engraving, the engraving was wrong. I sent pictures and they replaced them with the correct engraving. So I ended up with twice as many... The only time I have had to cancel or change an order was when it was on backorder. Personally I would not order something I wanted to cancel later...

[quarry44]

Woohoo,got my parcel this morning.All in good shape,and really 17 days is not too bad considering it did damn near the same distance as going completely around the world.Swiss post tracking was ok once it registered on their site,nz post is no better.In any case,not HK's fault.
Anyway,since the Turnigy 9 radios were back in stock,I had to put another order together.Considering the money I'm saving,I'm quite happy with HK.