Hobby King

[Buzzkill]

We live in extraordinary times regarding the RC industry and the way we all purchase products. For the last few years the beginning of the end for the 'old school" system or business model has been steadily growing in scope and speed. Here in the USA and other places I'd assume, those like Horizon and Tower for example, are desperately trying to hold onto their steadily decreasing market share.

Over the newt 3-5 years expect to see an ever decreasing supply of "small" online shops as well as local "brick and motor" shops. It's a truly global market now and getting bigger and better daily. Pretty soon (again I'd guess 3-5 years) there ill only be a handful of "survivors" and LOT of manufacturer direct or HK like online sellers.

It's exciting in ome ways but, it's sad in others. Low prices are great but, the death of god customer service will be missed. Most think the market controls how we spend our hobby dollars, it's quite the opposite, we control and shape the market. We've created this monster, now we have to play with it LOL!

[slow_jun]

Worst by Far,

takes 5 days for two small items (DIY + RX) to be shipped out, if i did not followup then i think it will be another 2 days more before it gets shipped out. now the waiting part starts.... im here in Singapore and normally when i order stuff from HK, it will only take 7-14 days tops before the orders comes in,. havent read thru all the pages of this thread, but i think if i have read it first then i could have gotten it somewhere else.

Oh well......Sh*t happens and this is what you call Im F**k*d......

[RCModelReviews]

I think it's generally pretty hit and miss. The last order I placed (just a few days ago) has already shipped but sometimes there's quite a "processing" delay at this time of the year.

Singapore SpeedPost certainly seems a *much* faster option than HK Post or EMS at the moment (touch wood).

[graham]

Over 40 orders over 4 years, so of course I like them.
However if you need somthing quick then I use local suppliers, its mostly just being sensible, never order stuff on backorder, avoid Chinese hols.
Sit back and wait for delivery, be cool you are saving a fortune.

[Merf]

An order placed 6 days ago is still "processing". When you dig into the support pages you get the following message: "We appologise for the delay in dispatch of orders from the International warehouse. We expect to be back to 24-48hr processing within this month." Naturally it would be too much to ask to be given this information BEFORE they take your money! If they respected their customers the message would have been on the home page instead of in a location that customers are likely to visit only when something has gone wrong. And naturally it is too much to expect from them that they should keep their ducks in a row and not be so susceptible to frequent disruptions in service. It is remarkable how smoothly the interaction with HK proceeds up the point of payment. After that it is "hit or miss". I've had enough of this BS. I'm reverting back to spending my $$ at businesses who know the meaning of customer service.

[Ampair]

I put in an order a week ago - all good, then suddenly the motors changed to "Back ordered" after a day or two of delay. Great. Back to that old trick. I mentally hurled thunderbolts, but today my account offered me some choices - cancel the back-ordered items, cancel the lot, or continue waiting. I elected to cancel the back ordered items (dunno why I ordered them from HK in the first place, I like RCTimer).
Naturally enough, the money will not be refunded, just goes to points so they get to have me give them an interest free loan, but at least I did get offered a choice which was a (mostly) pleasant surprise.
At least no Swiss POS was involved - - - yet.

[lental]

Waaaallll....I've accumulated about $2.00 in points which I've tried to use for my last three orders but for some reason, those orders didn't qualify me to use the points, so they just sit there, increasing with each order and I can't do anything about it. I've managed to use my points in the past but they've never explained how you qualify to use them. I saw somewhere that points couldn't be used to cover postage but I don't know how to make the system do that, anyway.

Lately HK has been sending me wishlist and new stock advisories telling me that the $2.00 Turnigy eservos are in stock byt when I go to the HK website, they're still on back order. After getting these advisories twice in a period of three weeks, I contacted support to ask what was going on. I got an aplogy for the inconvenience and they said they didn't expect those servos for at least three months.

Two weeks later I got the same stuff...three wishlist alerts and two in stock advisories for the same servos.

Then, I got five more last week. I suppose I can stop them by dropping them from my alert list but I actually would like to know when they come in so I can place an order.

Once again, an inscrutable occurance at HobbyKing.

[Merf]

When you email HK support, this is the reply:

"Due to high volume of emails accumulated during Chinese New Year holiday, your emails will be answered within 3-7 days. We appreciate your patience during this demanding time."

The Chinese New year was in the BEGINNING OF FEBRUARY!! It is now April 13th.

BTW, my order has now been "Processing" for 11 days. No indications of when it will ship, or any response at all to questions emailed to HK customer service are forthcoming (apart from the automated nonsense quoted above).

[Flash1940]

I'm beginning to think that model products manufacturing isn't keeping up with the demand.....or maybe the business philosophy at HK is migrating toward a zero inventory - JIT (just-in-time) model. Who knows...???

Flash

[SimJen]

generally the first orders awaiting products that are on backorder are assigned the product when it arrives.
This often means that new stock alerts are almost always taken instantly by these backorders.
Just put your order in and wait for it.
I just bought a Turnigy 9x backlight kit and its only just shipped having waited around 15 days for it to come in.
I was informed of new stock coming in twice but each time it was instantly sold out due to the backlog or orders. Just have patience!