Take a look at the reviews people. Hobbking is $#*!. I bought a hobbyking skysword off this site because their youtube videos were captivating and pretty much sold me. I must admit I was regretfully hasty. I've been in the hobby industry for 8 yeats now and really know my stuff so take it from me when you read this. NEVER BUY OFF HOBBYKING! I recieved my skysword along with 2 6s lipo batteries. I was really excited to get it up in the air. I assembled it. Assigned the channels on my sanwa sd10g transmitter and powered it up. Immediately 3 servos failed. 1 of the elevator servos was stripped indicating that it was a plastic gear servo. Now who would make a high performance 6s jet using plastic gear servos let alone poor quality servos?!. I also noticed that the servos were warped indicating that they were of very poor quality. I went to put in a claim through hobbyking and it required photos to proceed with the claim. Problem is the pics had to be under 2mb. Wtf?! A pic that takes 2mb of data is around 2 mega pixels. I have nothing that is that poor in image quality so I escolated a claim through paypal. Hobbking agreed to give give a refund if I sent the plane and lipos to their head office in Hong Kong within 5 days of this email! For starters it is illegal to send lipos via air mail and the box was over 105cm so it would cost me a fortune in ocean shipping which would never make it to Hong Kong in 5 days! On top of that. It's illegal to send lipos overseas! Now the warehouse it was sent from is 28 Shelley Rd Moruya NSW. Obviously these bloody crooks do their best to make it very hard
For you to exercise your rights as a consumer. I must admit. I shouldn't of headed the warnings people gave me about these dodgey douchebags. NEVER EVER AGAIN. NEVER EVER EVER BUY FROM THESE GRONKS! God knows i never will again. Btw. The owner is Australian

Hobbyking order #******* dated 18 Jul 18 had items missing and even after communicating for three months they have refused to resolve the issue. They are not ready to accept their mistake and just wanna eat customers money. It is really disappointing that out out of four items ordered three were missing and they are not ready to accept that.
Even in their reply they are arrogant and not ready to listen to the customer who has spent so much time in pursuing the matter. They are further blaming Fed Ex but not Authorizing me to deal with them. I have ultimately suffered loss of items and money.
They just don't believe the customer and ultimately its me who has lost the trust and my money spent on hobbyking's website. So my advice to other simple trusting people is that HOBBYKING IS A THIEF WEBSITE. Do NOT BUY from this site as you can not be sure they will send your goods and thereafter tell you are a liar and EVEN GO TO THE EXTENT OF GOING INTO YOUR ETHNICITY AND COUNTRY TO REFUSE THE RESPONSIBILITY, as per our records and the shipment weight we sent you everything correct. Although there is no proof of that. When the items werent there in package, they weren't there... period.

THEY ARE ONLY TRYING TO PROVE THE CUSTOMER IS LYING TO GET THE gain of few dollars. I HAVE LOST MY ITEMS BUT I WONT LOSE MY PRIDE by accepting your lies on the shipment weight hobbyking. You ARE A CHEAT... PLEASE ACCEPT THAT AND KEEP MY MONEY. YOU ARE A CHEAT IN MY EYES AND YOU HAVE CHEATED NUMEROUS CUSTOMERS IN PAST LIKE ME. Just that now I have experienced it mysef
If the items werent received they weren't. WHY IS HOBBYKING BRINGING OUT SILLY REASONS TO DENY THEIR RESPONSIBILITY OF DELIVERING ITEMS I PAID FOR... Those items just weren't there
Even I was a very loyal customer of hobbyking but with this bitter and painful experience I have been hurt to no end.
So NEVER BUY FROM HOBBYKING... Or u have a bright chance of losing it. They won't listen to the CUSTOMER at all. They will Just repeat the same story of weight of package.
HOBBYKING is just denying everything I have been stating and this isn't what they call accepting their mistake. Shame on you... Keep my money. Accept you are a cheat. What will you gain by denying me my rightful items I have paid for with my hard earned money?

If the items are not there in package or stolen by somebody as the shipping company did not take anyone's signature for receipt... Who pays for my loss? Shameful behaviour by the company of international repute Hobbyking. At least accept that your shipping agent is at fault and make them pay.

Please keep my money. But have some shame...

THRERFORE YOU MAY DECIDE TO BUY FROM HOBBYKING IF WANT TO GET CONNED

I wish I had visited here first

***EDIT: Latest deceptive business practice... Dropped from 3 to 1 star only because there it no option for any less!

HK last week introduced "FREE ECONOMY SHIPPING from our International warehouse on orders over US$150."

Sounds good right?

But... They jacked up the price of everything at the Int. Warehouse! The Int. Warehouse prior to the promotion, for around the 10 to 20% less than regional stores. Check it now, everything is dearer at the Int. Warehouse. The Turnigy G46 Brushless Outrunner 550kv is AU68.00 at the AU warehouse and AU86.71 at the Int. Warehouse! One model is $90 dearer at Int. Than the AU where prior to free shipping $20 cheaper at the Int. They have whacked on $110AUD!

This sort of bollocks is store wide!

It's like the marketing team comprises a dozen or so Nigerian princes if you know what I mean, hardly oozing credibility.

END EDIT***

2.5 years ago HK was reasonably good however CS has never been good. The main problem apart from CS is what I see as deceptive business practices and I am a little perplexed as to how they get away with it particularly here in Australia as we have laws do deal with this sort of issue. Some examples; The May Day sale that HK held was a farce. They fairly heavily discounted a range of products however the products would often end up costing more in reality because they would limit postal options to the most expensive. One PNP model (EPO Flybaby) was $55AUD off and yet the only postal option saw it actually $29 more than presale! I had bought it the week before. Postal gouging. I have half a dozen support tickets requesting a refund for postal costs when I had paid for premium delivery which was then sent via the budget option. I gave up on this issue after a long, frustrating bout with CS and use the budget option now. Postage is a rort full stop. Phantom flying wing as example. From HK's AU warehouse postage is AU153.28 and yet in their EBAY store post is AU $22.17! Both sites are AU warehouse and both claiming to be delivered by AusPost eParcel Basic! The AU $22.17 is the delivery cost of most models from HK's ebay store and yet you can get no where near this price at HK's AU warehouse. Ridiculous! The HobbyKing lottery? Wow, not even sure this business practice is legal in most jurisdictions! The lottery ran on bonus points. 1 point (US$1) was required to enter. Products would be allegedly won when the timer ran out, however, if the product had not earned enough in entries the product draw was cancelled and the bonus point returned. Sounds cool. But... I saw many products clock up 200 to 300% of their store listed price and then get cancelled. Products that accumulated more than this were indeed won, sometimes reaching 400 to 500% of their listed price. Not a bad scam aye? Anyway, I could go on but 3 stars for HK is being generous. About the only thing I buy there now is SK3 motors, Plush ESC, Tunigy servos and batteries which really can't be beaten for value. I swear by them!

I purchased a Turnigy Accucel-8 150W 7A Balancer/Charger from Hobby King on 07/21/2015. Prior to the purchase, I inquired about the charger, it's capabilities and included components. I was directed to a hobbyking website that contained the operations manual for my item. After reviewing the manual, I purchased the item. It was shipped quickly and I received it sooner than I thought. As soon as I opened the box, I noticed that quite a few items were missing that included the connecting cords and temperature sensor. I tried to use their 24hr online customer service but received nothing but being told to wait. For what, I already had the item and it was missing the cords. I initiated a complaint with Pay Pal and HobbyKings attitude immediately changed. They "Ordered the missing parts". They asked me to remove the complaint with PayPal so their rating would not be affected. I was stupid and ended the PayPal complaint. I WAS STUPID; DO NOT EVER CLOSE THE COMPLAINT! After 33 days and numerous attempts by me to get a resolution, they gave me some options such as wait an unlimited time for the parts to come in (I had already waited over 30 days,), pay to have the item shipped back across the US to theit Arkansas factory, purchase the missing items and send them a copy of the receipt or accept $10.00 in lu of the missing parts. The cheapest thing for me was to receive the 10.00. I assumed it would be credited to my PayPal account but no, I had to accept Hobbyking credits. To purchase the missing cables from them ( yes they have the cables for sale individually) would cost mt 19.77 PLUS shipping and tax. A loss of 9.77 plus. I will never do any business with them again and I advise you to do the same. If you do purchase anything from them and use PayPal, STICK TO YOUR GUNS, NEVER REMOVE THE PAYPAL COMPLAINT UNTIL YOU HAVE THE OBJECT IN YOUR HANDS.

DO NOT shop here!

I guess with Hobby King, the price is king, but the customer experience is far from royal.

First the Pros:

They do have low prices, and a fairly good selection in some items.

Now the Cons:

The Hobby king web site has to rank as one of the most frustrating retail web site experiences I can remember (and I have a good memory).

On the surface, the web site looks professionally designed, but once you start to navigate and use it, the reality of how bad this site (and possibly the company) is rears it's ugly head.

I already had a good idea of which items I wanted, and as a word of caution: do any research before you go to the Hobby king web site, because any information that would help you make a decision is not easy to find.

Locating the items you want will test your patients. Don't use the search field unless you have the product ID number. Entering an item name or description (without the product ID#) will get you a list of items– most of which aren't even close to what you're looking for, and what you really want probably won't show up on the list. It's better to use the links on the left side of the home page, and go from there.

They do have what should be useful features that would help you make a decision, but the ones I tried were not only useless, but also counterproductive:

Such as the "Compare" button, when you're looking for electric motors or batteries, and are trying to find something equivalent that's in stock and not backordered (which as you'll see, a lot of items are backordered). Don't even waste your time with this feature. You get to it by clicking on a particular item (battery or motor), when the product page comes up, scroll to the bottom and click on the "compare" button, it will bring up a field with sliders so you can choose the size and specifications you're looking for. This is where it falls apart: after your sliders are set to the specs you want, click "search" and you'll get a long list of items that don't match the specifications you just entered. Here's the kicker: they might actually carry items that should be on the list, but you'll have to ferret them out on your own, because they won't show up in the compare list (at least they didn't on the few searches I did).

An interesting feature is the automated "one time only" discount that will pop up if you stay on a product page for several minutes. The problem is: when you add the discounted item to your cart, that item may or may not show up in your cart, and if it doesn't: say goodbye to the discount (it's not that much anyway). And if you change the number of items before you click the "add to cart" button, it absolutely won't show up in your cart.

Several times I had the dozen or so items in my cart, or wish list, just vanish, and the discounts along with them. I would advise making a written list of everything you're putting in your cart (with the product ID#), so you can recreate your cart when everything you've loaded into it suddenly disappears.

And don't bother trying to get help from anyone on the live chat when your order starts acting weird: I tried that several times, and never got a helpful suggestion. However the Product Specialists have found some products I was having trouble finding, so the live chat was useful for that purpose.

I did wind up ordering with Hobby king, and my order showed up reasonably fast (however, I didn't have any backordered or bulky items on my order).

About Hobby King's return policy:

I'm guessing Hobby King makes their return policy time consuming (weighing the package you want to return (it must be accurate within a few grams), taking pictures of the whole order, etc) to discourage customers from sending back items that are either damaged, or the wrong item, that are not expensive enough to be worth their while. But so far I haven't had to return anything, so I don't have that experience to report.

Buyer beware!. Well, like so many of you I too have lots to complain about one customer service person by the name of Rohel of Hobby King. She promised to lift the shipping costs on a nitro buggy and the transcript's was sent to a Dan C. A rep for hobbyking. Lets see if he makes good on there reputation once and for all.
1st complaint:

Ticket #*******: Dissatisfied customer.

Your request (#*******) has been received, and is being reviewed by our support staff.

To review the status of the request and add additional comments, please visit www.HobbyKing.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carlo, Mar 25 07:00:
I have never had so many problems with a hobby store like Hobby King. I have dealt with great hobby stores in the past but you customer service, your (800) phone number, and the company in general is the worst company I've dealt with to date. I was going to order from your company for the very first time. I was going to purchase the Turnigy Nitro Rumble 1/8th scale buggy with great anticipation, but after being rudely cut off by Ashjerah of customer service, I will never deal nor order any of your products EVER!. Your more than free to contact me by either e-mail or by phone.

E-Mail: *******@hotmail.com Cell number: *******627
I hope this never happens again as I also am a business owner and I know how important it is to keep your customers happy and keeping the money rolling in. Good luck. Your going to need it!

2nd complaint.
Start Time: 03/26/2014 05:41:08
End Time: 03/26/2014 06:36:47
Operators: Rohel
Transcripts:
Please wait for a site operator to respond...
If you do not want to wait, please click here to leave us a message.
Operator Rohel has joined the chat.
[05:41:08] Rohel: Thank you for waiting. This is Rohel, what can I help you with?
[05:41:55] Carlo: Were do I go to see whats happened with my complaint?
[05:42:24] Rohel: Sorry, may I know what seems to be the concern?
[05:44:06] Carlo: ## Please do not write below this line ## Ticket #*******: Disatified customer. Your request (#*******) has been received, and is being reviewed by our support staff. To review the status of the request and add additional comments, please visit www.HobbyKing.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carlo, Mar 25 07:00: I have never had so many problems with a hobby store like Hobby King. I have dealt with great hobby stores in the past but you customer service, your (800) phone number, and the company in general is the worst company I've dealt with to date. I was going to order from your company for the very first time. I was going to purchase the Turnigy Nitro Rumble 1/8th scale buggy with great anticipation, but after being rudely cut off by Ashjerah of customer service, I will never deal nor order any of your products EVER!. Your more than free to contact me by either e-mail or by phone. E-Mail: *******@hotmail.com Cell number: *******627 I hope this never happens again as I also am a business owner and I know how important it is to keep your customers happy and keeping the money rolling in. Good luck. Your going to need it!
[05:45:45] Carlo: Unberstand now?
[05:47:44] Rohel: I reviewed the conversation.
[05:48:15] Rohel: It seems that you can't login your hobbyking account, is that right?
[05:48:49] Carlo: No, I need to know what will be done about my complaint.
[05:49:11] Rohel: I see.
[05:49:26] Rohel: Let me help this time.
[05:49:33] Rohel: By the way.
[05:49:50] Carlo: Im on line with you.
[05:50:11] Rohel: Do you have an account already?
[05:50:24] Carlo: Of course
[05:50:55] Carlo: Again, the question is what will be done about my complaint.
[05:50:56] Rohel: Great
[05:53:30] Rohel: You're asking for a free shipping, right?
[05:55:10] Carlo: Correct, however I was ready to never order from your company due to the rudeness of your rep. But If this shipping will be lifted then I will reconsider it.
[05:56:06] Carlo: hen mabey in this way you can have a customer for life.
[05:56:15] Rohel: Yes, we offer an item for a free shipping.
[05:57:01] Rohel: However.
[05:57:39] Carlo: The item is: *******747-0 - Turnigy Nitro Rumble 1/8th 4wd Nitro Rac.
[05:57:51] Rohel: As you mentioned, you've already account with us.
[05:58:25] Rohel: In order for me to check this on my end. Can you provide me the registered email with us please?
[05:59:19] Carlo: I sent that already, read the complaint I sent you.
[05:59:42] Carlo: my email is there along with my cell number
[06:00:34] Rohel: Sorry, our phone support is not available at this moment.
[06:01:09] Carlo: What are you talking about... LOL...
[06:01:41] Rohel: Please, we need to solve first issue, before we jump to our conclusion or any suggestion.
[06:02:12] Carlo: What exactly do you need?
[06:03:21] Rohel: I need a details or information from your registered account.
[06:04:51] Carlo: I haven't purchased anything yet. But I have an account because if I didn't we would not be chatting on hobbykings live online chat room
[06:05:19] Carlo: my e-mail address is *******@hotmail.com
[06:06:58] Rohel: Yes I know, but the problem is I cannot pull up your account through this email: *******@hotmail.com.
[06:07:34] Carlo: Again, what do you need exactly?
[06:07:51] Rohel: Please wait.
[06:08:47] Rohel: In order for us to help you with your concern, please provide us the following information: Name: Last Name: Company: Phone: Email: Password: Address: Zip: State: Another State: City: Country:
[06:09:25] Carlo: Carlo Sanchez
[06:10:35] Rohel: No need to provide the password.
[06:10:46] Carlo: *******627 password-UkTwON adres- ******* Covello st. Canoga Park, calif *******
[06:12:22] Rohel: Thank you, please wait.
[06:13:20] Rohel: asd
[06:13:48] Carlo: Sure, i'll wait.
[06:13:56] Rohel: Sorry, is possible for you to place an order with us now?
[06:14:18] Rohel: Just for dummy order,
[06:14:39] Carlo: No, I need for you to waive the shipping costs first then I will place the order.
[06:15:12] Rohel: No, we don't offer a free shipping for the 1st time order.
[06:15:17] Rohel: But
[06:15:47] Rohel: You may avail that, once you log in your account.
[06:15:55] Rohel: and
[06:16:19] Rohel: Find on our website, an item for free shipping.
[06:17:02] Carlo: I lost you, I don't understand your writing?
[06:17:25] Rohel: I'm sorry to say that without the free shipping offer for particular item, we're unable to sent or to ship it to you for free.
[06:18:08] Carlo: Then we can't ever do business again. Nothing has changed.
[06:19:10] Rohel: Yes, you can have a free shipping but for that item.
[06:19:33] Carlo: That's alright, I have a good hobby company that I place regular orders from I don't know why I ever considered trying to use your company.
[06:20:48] Rohel: Because, We sell great products and offer great promo''s.
[06:21:18] Carlo: Let me chat with a supervisor, another words please have a superviser come on line right now.
[06:21:26] Rohel: For the latest offers and promotions, you can visit our website at www.hobbyking.com and sign up for our discount price letter. Also, if you are a Gold or Platinum member, you can enjoy discounts on the majority of our products by simply logging into your account before adding items to your cart.
[06:22:23] Carlo: 3:21:18 PM Let me chat with a supervisor, another words please have a supervisor come on line right now.
[06:23:07] Rohel: I'm sorry, our supervisor's not available at the moment.
[06:23:12] Carlo: I'll wait for the supervisor.
[06:23:35] Rohel: By the way, we have your complaint on our email.
[06:24:18] Rohel: What I can help you with, will forward it to our supervisor for further review.
[06:24:39] Carlo: Why is the supervisor not available?
[06:25:53] Rohel: They have an ongoing meeting for our next promotion's.
[06:26:02] Carlo: There should always be a supervisor available at all times.
[06:26:46] Rohel: Sorry to say as well, our supervisor will not agree for the free shipping.
[06:26:55] Carlo: I hope you realize that our conversation is being recorded.
[06:27:22] Carlo: That's not the question, I asked to speak to the supervisor.
[06:27:28] Rohel: and I hope you realize too, that your asking for a impossible.
[06:28:27] Rohel: At first, your asking for a free shipping but you cannot provide us right/exact information about your account.
[06:28:59] Carlo: I gave you exactly what you were asking for, so whats the problem?
[06:29:25] Rohel: and I'm asking you further information and little cooperation, so I can help you but you don't want to.
[06:29:48] Carlo: I'm not angry with you I just wanted to speak to a manager or a supervisor.
[06:30:11] Rohel: Of course, I understand you completely.
[06:30:44] Rohel: But sad to say, that our supervisor is not available to talk to.
[06:31:45] Carlo: Ok, i'll get a hold of a representative from your company and speak to them about my concerns.
[06:31:58] Carlo: Thank you.
[06:32:13] Rohel: Alright, how about this.
[06:32:57] Rohel: I will coordinate this matter to my supervisor for the free shipping that you asking for.
[06:33:24] Carlo: How will you get a hold of me after that?
[06:33:32] Rohel: No need to wait.
[06:33:59] Rohel: Will update you via email notification or since we have your phone number.
[06:34:35] Rohel: We can call you but there's no assurance for the call.
[06:35:23] Carlo: Well, you can e-mail me then you now have that in this same chat.
[06:36:00] Rohel: Please have no worries, will explain everything to my supervisor.
[06:36:12] Carlo: Ok
[06:36:31] Rohel: Then we will see what we can offer for you.
[06:36:34] Rohel: Sound fair?
[06:36:43] Carlo: Thanks
The visitor has left the chat.
The chat is ended.

Order not received, customer support inexistent!

SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM