HobbyKing

I have been purchasing products from HobbyKing for a couple of years. Their prices are good, but the quality has always been hit and miss--mostly marginal.

I have also been frustrated by the fact that they have so many inventory issues. (I almost never find what I am looking for in stock.)

Up until now, I have been able to accept this as being the price you pay to save money. (They are generally less expensive than other online hobby shops.) But my last order sat for weeks without being processed, even though the items were in stock. And no explanation was ever given.

I opened a service request and asked them to cancel the order. It took so long to get a response that I opened a dispute with PayPal.

When HobbyKing support finally responded, they told me they could not process my refund until I canceled the PayPal dispute. I did as they requested (even though I knew better), and now they have simply become unresponsive. Nor have they refunded my money.

Even worse, you can only open a dispute once for a particular PayPal transaction, so I am stuck having to deal with HobbyKing's silent treatment. (I kind of get the impression at this point that I was just conned into giving them a monetary donation without any recourse. :( )

Never again! This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced with any online merchant.

I doubt they even care, but they have forever lost a formally loyal customer. (And I spend a lot on this hobby!)

Stay away from this website. Pay extra and purchase locally. I placed an order for 2 lipos for an ultra micro airplane and I've been waiting almost 6 weeks for my batteries. According to them, customs has blocked shipment of lipos so they have been returned to warehouse. IF YOU MADE A PURCHASE USING PAYPAL FILE AN ITEM NOT RECEIVED CLAIM AND DON'T CANCEL IT! I opened a claim and HK is trying to convince me to close it to eliminate confusion. Yeah right. I've told them multiple times to refund my purchase and I'll close the claim. Anyway, time is running out. They have until Oct 17th to respond through Paypal. Instead, they just keep emailing through their incompetent claims dept.

This company is misleading customers when they say free post on a item. It's all a big scam as i found out the hard way. If you buy something which says free post be very careful if you add any other item which i did. It, s now not free post and you get stung for the full post amount which cost me £40. All i did was to add 1 very small connector which HK recommend you buy when purchasing this quadcopter. This is were they get you because this connector which they recommend is not free post you now don't qualify for free post any more.We are talking about a very small connector here which could have been placed in the box but HK was having non of it, when i mentioned this all they said was we can cancel the whole order for you. So i ask them well if you can cancel the whole order why can't you just cancel the connector as this is a reasonable request i thought, but you guessed it they said no, When purchasing any item from HK if it says free post don't add anything else to your order or you will lose your free post. This connector i added to my order cost me £40 so you have been warned.

This site is a total crap! I ordered few stuffs for my brother as a gift and paid heavy expedited shipping for it and a week on, the status still says it's processing my order even after payment and everything being in stock, I've emailed them dozen times but no response, their live chat is a joke, it takes half an hour just for them to reply with computer generated bullsht and that too with just a hello, how may I help you and blah blah blah, finally after waiting for an hour it replied saying there was an error with my order and they will have to re order it, I said ok but after a day, turns out they did nothing about it, emailed, no response, live chat same response again and then just while I'm typing this, I find out they reordered and cancelled it on their own two three times and changed the shipping name and address to me! It was a gift, supposed to be shipped to different country! What the hell? I can't even cancel the order or get a refund, damn you hobbyking, may you rot in hell. Guess I just got robbed

I tried to purchase an FPV accessory from them, paid for and got their Order Confirmation email. So I thought everything was hunky dory and gave them a couple of weeks before checking back. Then after nearly 3 weeks passed, I shot them a couple of emails asking the status of my order. NO RESPONSE. After a week has passed, I shot them another support request, waited a few days then opened a Paypal dispute.

Throughout my order, my support email\requests and Paypal dispute, not a single email was sent to me as a reply. They didn't even bother responding to the Paypal dispute case. In the end Paypal refunded 100% of my money, but no one could return the time I've wasted on these scammers.

DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE AT ALL.

What good is the low advertised prices if you risk of losing your money by dealing with them?

"Short story: ordered product on day 1, day 2 order status says "shipped", day 8 FedEx still says "Label created"; FedEx says they never received the package. After several "chats" where they assure me that the item has been shipped, they finally "request an investigation" which will take 2 months! They assure me that item is in stock at the US West warehouse. When I offered to reorder the item and have my brother come self collect the package (he lives in Portland, Oregon), they told me that it will take 2 weeks to process the package for self collection. Hmmm... that is about the same time it takes for a shipment to arrive from China. When I pushed them on their "processing procedures" (i. E., it took one day to process and "ship" my parcel, yet it will take 14 days to process my parcel for pickup?) the representative told me that they don't fully understand the differences in the processing procedures.

In summary, only order if you are okay with the possibility of a major delay. My first order from China (international warehouse) arrived in 5 days; I was shocked (granted, the shipping cost was extreme, but it arrived quickly). I ordered this recent product from the US for the lower cost shipping and with the hope that it would get here quicker. No. I am certain that HKs inventory status on their site is incorrect, and they are waiting for their shipment to arrive so they can send me the unit.

Super dishonest and horrific customer service. I just hope that my item is not damaged on arrival. I can't imagine trying to work with this company to get a refund or make an exchange."

If I could give no stars i would. This company is the single most incompetent entity I have ever had the misfortune of coming across.
They lost my package and have I ignored all my contact. The only help I got was, go to the courier and sort the matter yourself. I spent 6 days trying to resolve it with parcelforce and finally got the proof I needed that the courier lost my package.
I sent this to them and they just ignored it and said they were waiting for another method from me which I never got asked for. It's just one excuse after another. No one will speak to me. Even though I have asked on multiple occasions. It have left me with no choice but to contact my solicitor on Monday morning to have this resolved as i have now run out of time to purchase again for my sons main Xmas present. They have officially ruined his christmas. I feel my rights have been violated.
I am disgusted at this level of disregard and level of customer service (none). I wouldn't recommend anyone to purchase anything from these clowns.
Unless it was within the UK. This package was from Europe so be very careful how you order as it's easy to get it wrong and be misled.
Thank you hobbyking for ruining our Christmas and disappointing a young child beyond belief. You are an absolute disgrace.

Poor service!
I recently purchased a Walkera Scout case from Hobby King costing 119$. It was the last in stock and I needed it soon. When it arrived, there were large dents on the corner and down one side and the paint was scratched on the top. However, the packaging showed no signs of damage, so the case was sent out in that state.
I immediately took photos and informed Hobby King through their warranty procedure. I heard nothing for two weeks and so contacted PayPal and within hours Hobby King offered me a 5$ refund! I advised Hobby King that as they had obviously sent out a damaged product for whatever reason, their offer in my view was unacceptable and offered very poor customer support.
PayPal have offered me a full refund, but only if I return the case, however, postage costs back to China amount to almost what I would receive in a refund, so I would be out of pocket and without a case, in whatever condition it is in! I can't be without a case even though it is unsightly, as I need it to travel, so I am left ‘between a rock and a hard place'!
I have posted this as a warning to members that although it may cost a little more, it might be better to buy more expensive items locally and with the added benefit that it won't take weeks to arrive!

Ordered some products from the site at check out it gave me a couple of shiping methods chosen the 24 hours by parcelforce... 3 days later i still waiting... customer service is going in circles about it's small print 2-5 busines days (ordered Monday today is Thursday) so yes that is their service... no service just got more news fom customer service " Please take note that we can only request for investigation of parcels not received within the allotted time of 4 months from the posted date." nice...!

NEVER EVER ORDER FORM THIS SITE EVER AGAIN

The hobby king Saga continues.
Placed an order, was 1st delayed by Easter holidays, then delayed by warehouse move and then got lost and found, shipping was supposed to take place on the 19th, the shipping label was created and FedEx was informed but since then all i get is we need to get a dangerous goods certificate for this order or we have send the shipment to FedEx or any of ******* other excuses.

When i quoted them the Chinese consumer protection law the chat help (Rowena) went silent and stopped answering me.

Seriously, be aware of the deceiving, lying and plain refusal to do anything on the hobby king end, they will keep you waiting and waiting and when you ask difficult questions they just disconnect chat

Here is a link
http://www.chinalawtranslate.com/consumer-protection-law-/

Article 20: Proprietors shall provide consumers with true and complete information on traits such as the quality, performance, use, and duration of goods or services; and must not conduct any false or misleading publicity.

Think Anthony Hand, Karen Wu or any of their cronies gives a damn about customer service and providing proper and timely shipping and services. You do and i know of a cheap barely used bridge i can sell ya cheap.

Posting this to Hobby kings Facebook leads to immediate removal, posting it to other hobby king owned/controlled websites leads to immediate removal

The Chinese law also states that there must be contact info anyone seen a phone number for the global warehouse? Ever?

Take Heed,
I was looking for a entry level RC kit as a final summer toy for my boys as we build a WWII stoker.
All looked good reasonable info good delivery time... etc.
Until the first email- text ping... ping. You item is printed for dispatch... ACE 24hr express deliver might get it tomorrow, I though.

Next day delivery company text ping, your parcel will be delivered 30th aug,,,,,, HUMMM that's odd we have 24hr. I'll use live chat see what is what. So chatting to Diana Jean... and when people start with "policies we need to follow" I start getting worried. When companies start down that vain I cancel...

Please cancel... was responded by we cant the order has been printed for packing.
And so it went.

Hobby King (aka Lucky stuff LTD, uk) will go round and round finding bits or policies to make you accept the order. Once you have to order, you are statistically lightly not to send it back and reading the WWW many of you when sending stuff back report you don't get a refund.

I have not looked at the parts yet. And if they are rubbish best thing I can do is bin them as my time is not worth the mind numbing hassle of having to deal with them.

If I could give zero stars or minus it would be -5.

My one piece of advice... don't buy from them unless you are happy to accept if it goes wrong it goes in the bin and you have to buy again.

I am writing on behalf of a Sixth form who are entering a robotics competition. We were recommended the company and decided to go with them due to the huge variety of products. Since it was our first time to enter this competition we were unaware of the products that we needed. In a haste we ordered products that did not work with our kit. Due to this, we sent hobbyking and email and asked for a refund. The next day we payed for the package to be sent back and waited for a refund. We constantly sent emails asking of where our refund was but didnt get a reply. We also had to pay and extra £22 pound that the company claimed was for customs. Now we are about £100 out of money. It has been over 5 MONTHS and we still havent got our money back. This is discraceful. DO NOT BUY FROM HOBBYKING IF YOU WANT GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. They havent replied to any of our emails or requests and it is unacceptable!

I ordered and paid for a 1800 Balsa Beaver on 18/8/13. Granted it was on backorder from the Australian Warehouse but they received numerous stocks in early September. I waited and waited for my order to go through but it just sat there. I corresponded with Hobbyking countless times highlighting the fact that there were stocks available in the Australian warehouse. Each time I got a reply telling me my problem was solved. More waiting and still no despatch. More correspondence and same generic replies as I watched stocks slowly dwindle down to zero in December. Pretty annoyed considering I have purchased all the extras, like esc, prop, servos etc and have had them since September. I just can't seem to get through to these people. I have asked for a phone number so I can speak to someone. Does anyone have a number? I loath to complain as my very numerous other experiences with Hobbyking have been good but I'm at my wits end. Don't want to have to contact Fair Trading again like I did with a certain QLD hobby store.

I placed an order and it and it was shipped quickly. The package was lost by FEDEX and they investigated the matter and determined they didn't know where it was. This company has no phone # for US customers that I can find. I did the chat and told them what is going on, and I gave the FEDEX claim#. 5 days later I check what is going on with the matter. I was told they are investigating it and it usually takes 7 Business days. WTF is there to investigate? FEDEX tells me to talk to the shipper and for them to file a claim for lost package. Hobbyking is giving me the run-a-round... NEVER ORDER FROM THEM AGAIN!