HobbyKing

Unclear delivery time, bad refund policy, no customer service. Very bad online shop. Never again. N

I've been working with HobbyKing since May (now 30th Nov) to resolve a fault with my Quanum Nova. Over this time I was sent replacement parts 3-4 times and each time I had to pay import charges. We were unable to resolve this issue and I was then asked to send it to the UK warehouse to be investigated, and again this was at my expense as I had to pay postage.

They agreed that the unit was faulty and dispatched a replacement. Unfortunately this was dispatched from Hong Kong and I soon received an invoice from DHL for £49 to release the package. As this unit was faulty and sent to the UK for repair I think its a complete joke that I would have to pay the import charge for a 2nd time.

I contacted HobbyKing multiple time and they refuse to help and say it is my responsibility to pay the charge even though I sent this to the UK to be repaired/replaced.

This unit has cost me £100-£150 extra in import charges in total and is only worth £160.

I have never felt the need to review a page before, but HK have really pushed me this time.

I'm a very unhappy HK platinum member

Firstly I used to get all of my RC plane gear from Hobbyking with no problems at all, however my recent experience has completely ruined everything. I purchased a EFX Racer plane, a plane capable of travelling at over 100mph, on the maiden flight after all of the ground checks the throttle stuck at flat out, the result was a plane that was dangerous to all on the ground (I have many witnesses), I had control of all other functions of the plane just not the throttle, but obviously had to get it to the ground before it either crashed into someone, of flew off out of control at 100+mph injuring someone away from the field. So the result was an RMA to Hobbyking, their answer was they can not accept a plane with crash damage, which is not only insulting to my honesty and that of the members of the flying club I was at, but also completely ignores the fact that there product was massively dangerous. Had this been a kit that had my component choices in it I would accept this, it is however their product filled with their hardware, only my Transmitter and Receiver which I have subsequently checked and are absolutely fine. Stay away from them, they are cheap for a reason, their quality control and customer service are now atrocious.

Never again! A few months ago I placed an order with HobbyKing (AUS warehouse) to the value of AUD 189.00 with the belief that orders over $50 were with free shipping. After completing the order I realised I had been billed for shipping charges. I contacted them immediately via their Live Chat and they suggested I cancel the order and after they processed my payment, a store credit would be issued so that I could reorder (with the free shipping). I was informed that the store credit would take up to 24 hours to be issued. After waiting 30+ hours and no store credit in sight I again contacted them on Live Chat - to be told it might take another 24 hours. After waiting another day I checked again and was told that it could take another 24 hours so I raised a dispute through PayPal.

About 2 weeks after my aborted order and no refund or store credit yet received I contacted HobbyKing to find out what was happening. I was told, politely, that as I had raised a PayPal dispute they would not process my refund until I closed it (as resolved)! I consider that practice to be unsatisfactory as how can any dispute be regarded as resolved until both parties agree that it is. I had concerns that once I closed the dispute HobbyKing would be under no pressure to return my money. I have since heard of at least 1 other HK customer in my situation having difficulties in getting their refund. I had been a relatively happy HK customer for 3 years and had few problems with them but no more.

An important point I discovered during this dispute (for anyone not aware of this) - After initiating a PayPal dispute you have something like 14 days to have it resolved or upgrade it to a claim or it will automatically be closed. Once the claim is closed it cannot be reopened which can leave you at the mercy of the merchant.

Hobby King is alleged to be a big company that cares about customers.
They have stores in Australia and UK but these seldom have the items you see on their website. These are all held in their "Global Store", which means you have to pay big bucks for shipping.

I purchased a Turnigy radio transmitter for model aircraft/ drones. It is a simple 5 channel very basic radio, cost only us$32 - but none in Australia! So it cost us$20 to ship and this was the lowest price option for shipping.

I ordered a CC3D RC Flight Controller - it was in Australia so post was only au$6 or so.
It was defective! I have to jump through hoops to make a video to show it does not work!
Then it takes time to get a solution - meanwhile I went on eBay found the same item in an aussie seller and had it delivered in 6 days - while HK are sitting around rather than solve problems. Eventually -rather than send a replacement ( more cost and postage for them) - they offer a refund. Having already replaced this item - I agreed. Mistake!
They do not refund postage - saying its already used!
OK, I know others do this also. BUT why? They sent an item that did not work. So the sales contract is broken by them not me.

HK are OK IF you get a working item and IF you are not forced to buy from "Global store" when you are in UK or Australia and if all goes OK. You will be happy.
BUT if you have a problem... expect a big delay in getting a solution and you will lose your shipping cost.
Also they have a "no quibble" returns option. What they do not say UNTIL you are in the process - is that you only get 80% of the cost charged and paid by you and you lose the shipping cost and also have to pay return shipping and insure the package!

My advice. Check all your options and only buy if you have no other choice of supplier.

Bestel al jaren bij Hobby King tot voor kort levering altijd naar tevredenheid maar ik merk dat als ik zonder trace and trace bestel zending zeer lang onderweg is bij bestelling bij EU warehouse, is in Nederland, en lever adres in Nederland levering 2-3 weken na bericht zending gereed. Bestel ik met trace and trace is standaard bij ca € 180,-- binnen 2-3 dagen. Wacht nu al bijna 3 weken. Bestelling te voet halen is nog sneller. Waar ik in Nederland iets bestel 99,9% levering binnen 24 uur.
Waarom bij Hobby King zo lang, Schermen met levering binnen 39 werkdagen. WAARDELOOS. En dan hier evenement organiseren. De glorie is er af bij.

I placed an order, but it never showed as paid and it was still pending days after I purchased it. Several trouble tickets later and it was clear that Hobby King had NO intentions replying to me. As a result, I lodged a dispute with PayPal. Hobby King's response? Resolve the dispute? Contact me? No, they cancelled the order immediately! After several attempts and after finally contacting customer support on the live chat (I was hung up on once) Hobby King refused to resolve this unless I closed the dispute. DOING THIS WOULD HAVE GIVEN ME NO RECOURSE IF THEY DID NOT SHIP as a closed dispute cannot be reopened. I was repeatedly told that PayPal would have to resolve this. They refused to deal with this through PayPal, a step that would have protected me. Again and again I was told that I had to close the dispute before we could proceed. Looks like I'll have no choice but to escalate this.
I've never seen such poor service in many, many years of dealing with online companies. Other posts refer to Hobby King as a fraudulent company. I cannot help but agree.
And as for you, Dan C. From Hobby King, don't even bother giving me the line about how 'sorry' you are and how you're opening up a US call center... yada yada yada...
Tell me how this will be resolved NOW. You can feed me all the bull you want about how things are GOING TO improve, but if you don't follow through and fix all of the CURRENT problems it's all just a bunch of generic crap without having to back any of it up with action.
Notice how we all want ACTION in RESOLVING Hobby King's fraudulent actions on behalf of us, their customers.
Well, in this case I'm a former customer. I will NEVER be dealing with you again, nor will anyone who I speak to from this moment forward.

I had 3 (three) deals with them.

1. Some spare parts and materials, one of them being on back order and claimed to be available within 5-25 days. After a month I observed the missing item available, but my order not shipped yet. After raising a claim to the Support they tried to pretend that the item is not available, but after receiving the link from their own web site and after several more days of communication the item was shipped.
2, Quanum Nova quadrocopter (RTF) with some spare parts was bought from them. Not serviceable from unboxing. A long and useless communication with the support resulted in nothing. After several months of reading of specialized web sites and after communication with other happy owners of this scrap I managed to spend more 30 USD on Ali Express for spare parts and to make the copter flyable. The reason of initial failure was faulty motherboard of "ready to fly from the box" quadrocopter. No valuable help was received from long communication with Hobby King Support Team. The offer to send back the copter and to get a refund was just one more scum attempt. You will waste your money for two-way shipping, then you wilol get a partial refund of your money wasted for buying and for shipping - and then they will sell the same lot to another dumb.
3. Currently I have an order which was paid on the 12-th of May with all items marked as available. Now, on the 15-th of July, I am still reading fairy tails of Hobby King Support about some servos from order being on backorder (which is a 100% lie) and about 30-days period of restocking the store (which is again a 100% lie because already more than 60 days passed since payment was made for the item that was alreasy available in stock and is not shipped yet).

I filled in the order form I know where I live and I filled in my shipping address then paid for the order and went to bed it was midnight. Then they sent me an e mail at 2AM with a spannish address as the delivery address. I am asleep But they say I should have denied this address there and then. LATER AT 4AM there was another e mail saying they have SHIPPED my order to the address in Spain? I get up in the morning and see this Spanish address and I contact Hobby King. They say I HAD TO have given them this address and wont do anything about it SO I loose the goods and the money! It took a week of Live Chats and e mails and Only when I managed to forward the original order confirmation e mail from THEM that showed my UK address did they investigate. It took a week of me being called a lier and acusations that I gave them that wrong address. Only when I sent them their order confirmation sent to me that showed MY ADDRESS with hard proof that I did give the correct address at the time of ordering did the truth come out. Their shipping department made an error. I get a credit and no apology. THEN I get a request asking me to confirm I am happy that they resolved the problem. It was a nightmare and they seriously thought I gave them this foreign address!