by lental » Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:14 am
Bruce (and others) --
I appreciate this topic. I started in this hobby last November...less than a year ago, and began ordering from HK almost immediately. I was impressed with the prices and shipping was never a problem with any of my 37 orders. But early on I encountered problems. My first was with a battery balancer which reviews had indicated was questionable. Foolishly, I ordered anyway, erroneously thinking the problems must have been fixed. I was wrong and the product was bad out of the box. It was a $22.00 product and I paid $15 to ship it back. After six weeks I received the replacement. It didn't work either but I was smart enough not to ship it back a second time. I spent $37.00 not including the original shipping for a product I could have bought in the US for $45.00 with some expectation that it would have worked the first time. But, I continued to order from HK.
In late April I ordered a large foam Cessna with floats because the price had been reduced from $159 to $99 and shipping had been reduced from $97 to $59. It arrived quickly but without the floats. When I complained HK informed me that the floats had been eliminated and that was why the price had been reduced. The website continued to say floats were included.
In addition, the large (50 A) ESC/BEC included with the airplane didn't work. HK had me send photos of the ESC so they could determine what could be done. After I sent the pictures the conversation ended. I heard nothing from them for three months. In the meantime, I ordered another ESC/BEC from another source for $11.00 with free shipping. It arrived in five days from Hong Kong and it worked.
During that same time but unannounced, HK switched its transmitter system from version 1 to version 2. I had ordered a V1 combo plus an extra V1 6 channel receiver. Neither receiver worked but the V1 transmitter was OK. The V2 system is not compatible with the V1 system. Since the two receivers cost only $12 each, I chalked it up to bad luck. I attempted to order two more V1 receivers but they were out of stock. I asked in two different locations on the HK forum if HK planned to restock the V1 receivers for people who had already invested in the V1 system. I received no answer. I assumed that this meant that there would be no more V1 6 channel receivers but HK had V1 8 channel receivers in stock so I ordered two. As an afterthought, I decided to order two more (at $14) just to make sure I would have V1 receivers for future use.
None ( not one) of the 8 channel V1 receivers worked. I filed a complaint with HK support and received no answer. So, I decided I could no longer afford HKs cheap prices and ordered a new well known and reliable TX/RX system with two spare receivers. After three months I got and email from Yuki at HK support asking me to tell him/her again about the problem with my ESC. By then, I was done with HK. HK, while it has saved me money, it has also cost me money. The costs have outweighed the savings. I simply can't afford HKs cheap prices, anymore.
I may order again but the orders will be small and will only be for stuff that can't go bad or , maybe, batteries which still are pretty cheap compared to US prices even with shipping. However, I've found a US supplier which has good batteries for a few dollars more than HK and flat rate shipping of $2 per order. That makes them cheaper than HK in the long run. At this point they don't have nearly the variety but I expect as people leave HK, and they eventually will.
I don't object to HK having a bad product occasionally...any supplier will...but their unwillingness to provide decent customer support to fix problems is simply bad business. And, it doesn't take a lot of bad product to outweigh the savings. Further, experience has also showed me that HK is an unscrupulous and unethical supplier who doesn't really give a damn about what customers think or experience.
Receiveing six bad receivers in three orders over a three-week period at the end of a product run can only lead me to believe that HK was clearing its inventory of V1 receivers and was shipping product that had been returned earlier. It is virtually impossible to get that many bad receivers in that short of a time period unless it was deliberate.
So I say to anyone that cares...If you buy from HK, do it with caution and carefully calculate what the same product will cost you in your country compared to what it will cost you if you get one or two bad products from HK. You'll be surprised to learn that you really don't save that much in the long run from buying from HK. Plus shipping will be less and if you do have a problem it will likely be fixed quickly and with a smile.
lental
Tallahassee, FL USA