Has anyone had an bad experiences with HobbyKing? I went through the motions of purchasing a RC txn and rxn from them and realised I had the wrong item in my order. I contacted them to cancel immediatly after reecieving the confirmation and was ignored - up until the point the item shipped. I was then told I could return it - but at my own cost.
I was just wondering if anyone else has had issues dealing with them?
Thanks
Tonino
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I took pictures and weighed the package (?) as Hobby King's website directed, and corresponded with one of their people by email. After some going back and forth about investigation, I heard nothing further for two weeks. When I asked for a follow up, I was told to pack and ship the broken radio back _at my own expense_, and they would investigate whether there was anything they would do about it.
The cost to re-pack correctly and ship it is about equal to the original cost of the radio. It will also take weeks, and they won't tell me whether they will repair, replace, or simply deny the claim. Rather than go though that, I'm cutting my losses, and apply that money to a different radio from a reputable manufacturer.
Anyone got a dead Turnigy radio I can salvage a gimbal out of, or want a deal on my 9X as-is?
Instead of combining orders they sent them out separately, fair enough. The first order arrived today and everything was as ordered. They sent a power plug for a different country, but luckily I happened to have plenty of compatible plugs handy.
The products were well packaged and everything seems to be working to specification.
But I am mildly concerned about the second order. They sent it via 'nothing special' post and the tracking number and link they provided doesn't work.
So hopefully it'll show up soon, and next time I'll make sure I order more than US300 per transaction ; )
I've had one issue - one order which I originally selected to be paid with Visa, I paid with Paypal, and this order did not go into "Processing" status automatically. I sent e-mail to support and got no reply for couple of days. Then, I waited for an hour to get contact with live support, and he fixed the issue in 5 min. I believe the customer support person they have talks to 4 people simultaneously and has buttons for standard phrases.
Goods quality varies - I did not know that one needs to balance propellers or glue loose magnets back to motors before use, while I dealt with LHS only. However, the price is so much cheaper at Hobbyking, and if you do your own Q&A you come out pretty good. Its also good to read product reviews.
If you cancel an order, then the money goes into your bonus balance, which you can use for new purchases - but you cannot pay for shipping with bonus points, you will get billed for that anyway.
One more issue that comes into my mind - sometimes they have delays with shipments. This is usually caused by local holiday or some disaster which affects shipping companies.
The second time, however, didn't go so smoothly. I placed a small order this spring and had some LiPos in it. One of the three LiPos was severly puffed when it arrived and had its wrap badly molten. It clearly was in no condition to be returned to HongKong but still HK insisted that I should return it at my own expense and more importantly on my own risk. They stated that I should take the risk even though I didn't even ask about it. To me that was almost like a threat on their part not to return the item.
Generally the problem is that there is absolutely no QC what so ever and that they don't hesitate to send you faulty items since 99% of the time the customer is not going to return the broken item and it's still good money for the HK. This makes it pretty hard to compare the eventual prices with the prices of European or American dealer's prices.
I think it all comes down to cultural differences: in China companies' and the country's interests come first and the individual is of very little importance to the system. So it's quite the opposite to what we're used to...
Just placed an order for two Flightmax 5000 mahr 3S LiPos with HK this evening. LiPos are about the only thing that I will purchase from HK lately. So far I have placed 19 successful orders. However, most of what HK sells is marginal at best especially the motors which can develop bad bearings in a hurry. Their ESCs are not too bad, but I would put them through a burn-in period if you are going to use them on a drone that you have put a lot of time and money into.
Regards,
TCIII
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