Hobby King

[lental]

This, however, is not the case with the alerts I've been receiving for the Turnigy eservo. Customer support not only advised that they would not have any for at least three months but had not had any for the past two. Since posting my last note, I've gotten five more alerts advising that those specific servos have "arrived" and are in stock. Alas...they have not arrived, they won't arrive soon and they haven't been in stock for awhile. I understand your recommendation for placing an order on backorder but HK will not accept backorders for that servo.

Further, there are numerous horror stories of HK customers who have done that and waited weeks or months for an item even though shipments arrive and other customers are able to order and get them at the usual tunraround time.

Back before those servos became so popular, I ordered a batch and then usually filled out orders after that with one or two to get the shipment up close to maximum weight. I've got plenty on hand but i don't want to let my supply get down too far so that I run out and have to order more expensive but less reliable servos. Being well aware of HK's shoddy business ethincs, I suspect the delay in getting the eservo in stock is to push the more expensive (but still cheap) Turnigy 900 which the eservo seems to be a clone of.

[Ampair]

After cancelling the back-ordered motors from my order, almost instantly nothing happened. They kept this going for 4 days. Nothing, zilch, nada. I moaned like a stuck pig on their forum; five minutes or less after I posted my bleating I got an email saying the order was off to dispatch. Two hours later or less, it was shipped. I wandered off out of town to pretend I was doing some work. The third day I got a call saying they had been unable to deliver because I was out. Who would have imagined that going to dispatch5:15PM on Tuesday would mean delivery on Thursday at 7.55AM? It came via Hongkong Post EMS (No Li-Po) by the way.
Who can you trust these days?
I got home Saturday afternoon to find it had missed me again on Saturday morning. Now I'll go and collect it on Monday, still a day or two earlier earlier than I would have expected delivery.
It appears that the Swiss POS dorks must have been all working together on smashing packages for some other part of the world.

Posting Date Posting Time Drop-off Point
12-Apr-2011 17:45 Hongkong Post

Date # Location Delivery Status
12-Apr-2011 Hong Kong Item posted.
12-Apr-2011 Hong Kong Processed for departure.
12-Apr-2011 Hong Kong The item left Hong Kong for its destination on 12-Apr-2011
13-Apr-2011 New Zealand Arrived.
13-Apr-2011 New Zealand In transit.
14-Apr-2011 New Zealand Unsuccessful delivery. 7.55am (This was my fault, I was away from home for a few days.)

I think I like Hongkong Post EMS, NZ Post, and NZ Customs were pretty nifty too.

[Ampair]

With bravely beating heart, I made another order with Hoopyding, and as is my wont, requested and paid for Hongkong Post EMS. It only took Hoppyping four days to get the order to the point of shipping, and then they had a brain fart yet again. Apparently selecting Hongkong Post EMS is not always going to do what it says. The tracking number is for Singapore Post The package stealthily slipped out of Hoblededingdong and after four days appeared briefly on Singapore Post's Trick and truce system, where it was described as "Leaving Origin(Singapore) for destination". However, by this evening the trick and truce number was "not found on system".
Oh dear, Swiss Possed started like this, stuff 'em. Meanwhile, an order from RCTimer for some motors and bearings that came via free freight is happily in my parts box. This order replaced some that I tried to order from HK, but it went "back ordered" after 4 days of being reserved and got cancelled. It was ordered 2 days after the Hobbykong order, but in spite of free freight, got here who knows how many days earlier.

If your blood pressure is falling, HK are good to get it right up again, but otherwise they seem to be an useless bunch at times in their despatch department of nincompoops. I hope their pay cheques are sent by Swiss Post.

[b]So Hobbyking, what is it like to be such a powerful unpaid marketing tool for RCTimer and all the other hobby sites that actually do give a toss?[/b]

[kaptain_zero]

I just finished placing my 24th order with HobbyKing. I have no qualms about their turnaround time.... backorders..... etc. They are NOT a local hobby shop, they ship everywhere in the world, get orders from same and must be inundated with orders every second of the day. I've found HK to be honest and reliable..... they cannot be faulted for the various shipping companies dropping the ball, except for those times when they miss-ship via the wrong carrier when a customer has paid for x service. I've never had an issue with HK, only with Canada Customs. When HK ships via Hong Kong post or other basic airmail service, it arrives in the Vancouver port. Canada Post hands it off to Customs Canada in Vancouver who promptly sits on that package for up to 4 weeks before releasing it for delivery. In stark contrast, when HK ships via Swiss Post.... there is a marked delay in reaching Canada vs the other shippers, but Swiss Post drops their Canadian bound packages in Montreal instead of Vancouver. The Customs Port in Montreal will accept, inspect and release for delivery, my package in approximately 15 minutes.... not 15 to 30 days like the Vancouver port, so I get that package the following day and am very happy!

An email to HK cleared this up for me (I was confused that I could not select Swiss Post when placing an order). HK will use Swiss Post when my order contains Lipo cells... No Lipo, no Swiss Post. So for me... where I happen to live, it pays for me to toss in a lipo in each order, just to ensure that I get it shipped via Swiss Post. Again.... Swiss Post is slower than HK or Singapore Post in getting TO Canada... but the fact that they ship to Montreal instead of Vancouver makes all the difference in speed to me.

As for warranty issues.... I never order stuff I'm worried about from China.... I assume all items from China will be without warranty, it's just not practical to ship things back to China. I did that once with another outfit as they shipped me the wrong item. It cost almost as much as the item to ship it back, but back it went. I waited forever and the replacement finally arrived. It was the same durn item again...... a charger, but for the wrong size cells (same model, same appearance, just slightly different in size). I contacted the company and they offered their apologies and apparently the model I ordered was not in stock so I was given a store credit + I was asked to keep the wrong charger. I won't deal with them again, but since then I simply ask myself if I'm willing to risk the $$$ something costs, and if I am, I don't feel cheated if it turns out badly, and I don't worry about it either, nor knock the company for my woes as it was MY decision. If I just have to have something, and I don't want to risk getting a *bad* unit, I'll head down to my local hobby shop and pay the inflated price they charge that includes the "no cost" service of instant replacement of a defective item. I'm not going to knock the local hobby shop either... they are not getting rich, they just have to cover the cost of doing business, like we all do.

With HK, RCtimer etc. place your bets and hope for the best...... if your horse doesn't come in.... well.... that's horse racing, eh?

By the way, I've had great success with RCtimer...... quick shipping and so on.... I get the sense they are no where near as "big" as HK and thus the attention to service appears to be quicker... If they ever get saddled with the same amount of orders per day that HK no doubt gets (and I'd bet they would love that), I suspect their service would also take a serious hit..... just because that's what happens when you grow too quickly... growing pains!

Regards

Christian aka

Kaptain "You pays your monies, and you takes your choices" Zero

[Juanlargo]

My frustration with Hobby King is that they don't always ship the entire order but charge you the full amount. The process for getting them to send the missing bits is also much harder than it should be. I think most just give up when the bits are not expensive. Too bad, they have good selection but terrible service.

[ergocentric]

So, I had an argument with HobbyKing, they harvested the email address I use with Paypal to start spamming me

I know because I use a different email address to logon to HobbyKing's website

I complained, first they denied doing this (it is against Paypal's TOS), then they said I could remove myself, but I could not since the email address was not associated with my HobbyKing account, they eventually removed me after several months.

Well another order, and they have done it again.

Warning: your email address associated with Paypal will be spammed by HobbyKing

I'll post this on RCG now and get myself banned...

edit: and still waiting for the windsocks [facepalm]

[Juanlargo]

Having to weigh and photograph a parcell and then video opening it just to protect yourself from the shop you bought it from seems absurd. They got me once and I went through the weigh and photograph everything drill only to get a store credit and not the part I ordered.

Since there are plenty of other shops, several in Hong Kong as well, Hobby King won't get another penny from me. It is that kind of attitude that will do a company in. If they don't take care of customers they will simply go somewhere else.

[John_Edward]

I have done 4 orders, all at the same time (damn taxes), and so far, two of them have arrived.

Here is info for one of them, from Hobby King to Finland with Air Mail.
Order placed : Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 7:27 PM
Packed : Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 5:13 AM
Sent : Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 7:20 AM

Then they idled at the HongKong post office untill finally getting to the plane on Sun, Jul 10.
And two of them arrived here so that I got the note in my mailbox in Wed, Jul 13 around noon.

Now I'm just waiting for one packet to arrive as Air Parcel, damn big boxes, and still waiting for my 9x radio that was shipped at the same time as these other two.
I'm guessing it got stuck at customs....

[slow_jun]

my first order was a total mess, took a week to ship then sits in HK post for another 4 days and hey, total almost a month to arrive here in SG.
talked to CS and was advise it was due to the CNY fiasco... etc etc... so decided hey why not try again..... same thing happened.... bought stuff and items still sitting in warehouse ( Printed Queue ) but still not shipped ( after 8 days), got a note from Director saying that warehouse improvement fro big planes, replied to Director, did not bought big stuff only lipo batts. tried to talk to a CS again, and asked for a refund and was told that it will take days for it to be processed and also the refund so i told what the heck dont cancel, later i was advise that items are packed , minutes later got an email notification that item was ready to be shipped ( that was yesterday July 28), now status still the same. bummer..


hope that they could be honest and tell what the hell is happening done there, Paid EMS shipping so that items can be shipped faster but the packing and pre-shipping thing whats making the #amn process longer.

service you get when you buy it cheap.

[Jolly-Swagman]

So, I had an argument with HobbyKing, they harvested the email address I use with Paypal to start spamming me

I know because I use a different email address to logon to HobbyKing's website

I complained, first they denied doing this (it is against Paypal's TOS), then they said I could remove myself, but I could not since the email address was not associated with my HobbyKing account, they eventually removed me after several months.

Well another order, and they have done it again.

Warning: your email address associated with Paypal will be spammed by HobbyKing

I'll post this on RCG now and get myself banned...

edit: and still waiting for the windsocks [facepalm]

Yep I too get Emails from both my Registered Email on Hobby King and the one from PayPal and they are both different Addresses, but HobbyKing still swear Blind they DONT DO that ,,, yeah but we know better dont we !!!!

And yes there Customer Service has allot to be desired , the amount of run around they give you is unbelievable