Another HobbyKing victim

[Dandare]

I give up with HK. Two A-Spec shorty pack ordered, one was over-discharged & my charger wouldn't charge it. Got the ball rolling via their website, I posted the faulty pack back to HK uk for inspection as requested, in the mean time I order another as I needed two asap. After about a month I receive an email confirming the battery was indeed faulty.

I only wanted a refund but, they tell me a replacement battery is waiting for me at the UK warehouse All good you may think, the issues I have are that a) I wanted a refund not another pack, b) they never offered to cover my postage cost for sending the faulty one back & c) they now won't even post the new one (the one I don't want !) to me, instead they expect me to do a 1:45min round trip to pick it up.

So, I write a snotty email saying how dis-satisfied I am & that they can either refund me of at least post the new battery to me blah blah, even suggesting they don't bother putting 'have a nice day' at the bottom of each email they send . Today I get an email apologizing for the delays (a week each time I email to get a reply) as they've had a high volume of emails recently etc etc, yet all they've said is that my replacement battery is still waiting for collection at Elmsett & ended by saying 'have a nice day' Honestly, I may as well head butt something really really hard !
I honestly didn't care whether this matter was over a £20 or £200 product, I just wanted a simple refund. I guess i'll to have to pick up this battery at some point or else i'll probably loose that too.

Certainly i'll think again before ordering anything more, if I do buy more lipos I'll be going in to collect & checking the voltage at the desk.

[russmini]

Well, wouldn't have all this trouble had you supported a UK Hobby Shop. Not always rosy to get a cheaper product....

[Dandare]

Originally Posted by russmini

Well, wouldn't have all this trouble had you supported a UK Hobby Shop. Not always rosy to get a cheaper product....

I try exhaustively to support at least my local shops, & ultimately I buy way more from UK shops than from HK, but you try buying an equivalent shorty lipo for anything less than double or triple the cost of an Nano-Tech A-Spec...

This particular product is rosy, just unfortunate the customer service isn't.

[mattr]

Originally Posted by russmini

Well, wouldn't have all this trouble had you supported a UK Hobby Shop. Not always rosy to get a cheaper product....

Funny that, I've been more thoroughly ripped off by bricks and mortar shops than I ever have by Internet retailers.......

[sparkyboy22]

£34 not too bad. http://rcshopsearch.co.uk/?s=Shorty+7.4

[Pacman]

Have you reviewed your consumer rights? This page on money expert seems to cover everything including buying online.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sho...-exchange#must

[racingdwarf]

Right couple of things here

A) I know dan, he races at my club,now here in norfolk it's actually quite hard to support your local LHS we have two, and both are as good as useless for anything offroad, I have used my LHS for 15+years and as long as I can wait for anything I order to come in all is ok and he is a top bloke who really looks after me, BUT if I need a part in less than four days I have to hit the internet with MB etc. So back off with the support your local shop comments!!

B) from what I understand as I have never used them, HK is an online shop parts sent from uk warehouse, so I don't understand why they are asking to you to collect?they are a mail order firm,I don't think if I popped down there and said can I come in and have a look around they would let me in so I think it's totally wrong to say you should collect, think they are working on the fact you will not collect and they will never have to give you a lipo, but in all correspondence they are saying they are willing to replace. So as far as they are concerned they are within the law(I'm no expert)……..Have a nice day

[beale]

There is a risk buying online from anyone but yes this is more when not on our shores or currency, the fact it is cheaper always begs a question WHY?
Personally I have 8 Lipo packs all supplied by Hk in less than 2 weeks with1 fAilure but it was replaced. I gave the undervoltage pack to a flyer who charged on ni cad settings for 2 mins then swapped to balance and he now asks if I have any more to give away?

[DanW]

Originally Posted by Pacman

Have you reviewed your consumer rights? This page on money expert seems to cover everything including buying online.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sho...-exchange#must

You can forgot consumer rights if buying from Hobbyking... Even though the stock is from a UK warehouse you are actaully making an overseas purchase. You buy the products abroad and they arrange for a 3rd party company (lucky stuff ltd) to dispatch from stock they hold in the UK.

[DanW]

Originally Posted by beale

There is a risk buying online from anyone but yes this is more when not on our shores or currency, the fact it is cheaper always begs a question WHY?

Theres a 20% reason.... VAT.

[DCM]

Originally Posted by DanW

You can forgot consumer rights if buying from Hobbyking... Even though the stock is from a UK warehouse you are actaully making an overseas purchase. You buy the products abroad and they arrange for a 3rd party company (lucky stuff ltd) to dispatch from stock they hold in the UK.

That is correct, Lucky Stuff hold a small stock of popular items but they are not a shop. If you have a failure or RMA, it may go back to Lucky Stuff, but what they fail to tell you, it then gets passed onto their Worldwide Warehouse for checking, hence a stupidly long delay.

[tonydevon]

I had to just keep plugging away and despite filing with Paypal and losing!! I carried on harrassing them, in the end I was in contact with a guy in USA?

I asked him to measure the packaging of the charger that I had ordered, then asked him if it would fit in the box that they had sent the parts in, result was a firm, erm no, not a chance,

LOL

so despite a month of being asked to send photos of the missing parts, losing a paypal dispute, and countless other stupid problems I have now been told that they will send a replacement

they had said that I didnt order the part, thats why I lost the paypal dispute, they told paypal I hadnt ordered a charger?? despite me sending screenshots of my HK account etc

not going to hold my breath waiting for the replacement though

I firmly beleive in supporting local business where possible, but for me not only is it a matter of trying to do a hobby on budget, but Im looking at 200 mile round trip to a model shop, thats 35 quid of petrol gone

[Teaboy]

HobbyKing are not my favorite people right now. I ordered a replacement servo for a fellow racer (he lent me one so ordered the same for him) from the UK warehouse. It took 4 weeks to come from HK then i was charged import duty on it, how does that work seeing i ordered it specifically from the UK.

Cheers

Rich

[Chris56]

Thats really unlucky mate - must be that they were actually out of stock in the uk warehouse so had to send from HK. I would take it up with them (how successful this would be I don't know!)

My own views on Hobbyking are mixed - when they work, they are excellent, but when they don't its a disaster. Prices are unbeleivable but I will only order from the UK website (logging in first!), UK warehouse and for items listed as "in stock", items out of stock or only available from HK aren't worth the risk.

For spares I will always use back any of the UK model shops but for electrics I will take the risk for Hobbyking as LHS prices are way too much for me to justify paying for extra piece of mind especially on good lipos and speed controllers.

[racingdwarf]

One thing that does seem to come from all these posts is quite simple don't bother buying from Hobby king! as they are crap:thumb down:

Shame as most people I know that used them didn't do it to shaft there local shops, they simply didn't have the extra 30+quid to buy the same spec lipo,esc or motor from well known shops.

[neallewis]

My latest hobbyking order just turned up. All present and correct, again no issues. Ordered on Chinese new year, and they emailed me to expect a slight delay. It has taken exactly 20 days to arrive (including weekends), but the wait was fine given the stuff wasn't urgent.

Good local service and value for money will always win out. I'm a reasonably big spender with my local shops, and will happily also order from HK where they offer something not available or simply the same product for a lot cheaper. I'm not on a tight budget, but I won't over pay where I don't need to.

Hobbyking stock little that will keep the racer running in terms of cars and parts, but do offer some interesting electronics, tools, glues and accessories which are in many cases the same as offered from brands like horizon hobby and hobbywing.

[V6Jim]

Love Hobby King!

Great fun trawling through the website gawking at how cheaply they can sell stuff!

We actually don't have a local shop anyway and, as Neil said, HK don't really sell that much that is of real use to out and out racers. So, yeah, good for odd bits and pieces like tools and glues and bits and bobs.

I got a complete set of hex drivers and sockets for £12 delivered. Decent quality Turnigy stuff.

Jimmy

[Dr Fly]

The debate could run and run.

At the end of the day, you now all know where the extra few pounds goes when you buy from a UK source with bricks mortar, staff, local reps etc.

I also use hobby king LiPo's for a couple of things, but if it went wrong i would not be surprised.

Its no different from buying a kebab on a Friday night. There may be a shop cheaper than the rest with a couple more cockroaches. But you may also get food poisoning.

I came accross a proverb this week that just about sums it all up: If you buy quality, you only cry once.

[andys]

Just placed order no.39 with them. Apart from the odd tiny problems (that were resolved) I think it's great to have a cheaper option to buy various bits and pieces.

I buy all my 'Quality' gear and kits (although quality is I believe sometimes perceived...) from MB in Leeds as they are local and I believe in supporting my local shop as they support racers at meetings.

That said - they do not sell Quadcopter Gear and I like a bargain, so as well as all my flying gear, i've bought some buggy related bits as well as Lipos recently. I don't think i'd be far wrong suggesting lots of the stuff we buy comes from similar / the same sources in China anyway - you just need to decide if you want to pay double / triple or even quadruple for a different packaging / stickers on many items IMO.

Just bought some of the new Turnigy Performance servo's to try and they look awesome, also some 120amp ESC's for peanuts (Hobbywing inside apparently..) for when I build up my cars for my twin boys.

As anyone who has tried them knows - Turnigy buggy Lipo's are fantastic value - £20 ish a pack - can't argue with that - best lipo's i've used to date.

I sympathise with anyone having to deal with their after sales as it's utter crap. But don't knock them until you have tried them. We are used to paying through the nose for everything in the UK - doesn't necessarily mean it's better gear. You do need to know what you are looking for on the site - as there is a lot of unsuitable / cheaper gear on there too, which does look pretty crap!

[jpmatrix]

I just purchased 2 shorty lipo turnigy a spec battery's at just over £40 including postage. Tested them and their performance is awesome. Ordered through uk warehouse and received within 5 days.

Also bought a 120amp turnigy esc which is basically a rebadged hobbywing v2.1 and is compatible with the hobbywing firmware at a cost of £ 23 including postage. I've used it several times in my dex410 and never missed a beat.

I'm on a a tight budget so I'm obviously going to purchase lipos and esc from hobbyking. Even if money was no object I would still go to hobbyking for lipos.

Why should I spend £60 on a shorty lipo when I can get one for£20.

Same with the esc... £20 odd for a rebadged hobbywing ; it's a no brainer.