Hobby King

Had good or bad service from a supplier, online store or hobby shop? Share your experiences here.

How do you rate your satisfactioin with HobbyKing's service?

Excellent
38
21%
Good
83
46%
Average
16
9%
Fair
17
9%
Poor
27
15%
 
Total votes : 181

Hobby King

Postby RCModelReviews » Tue Aug 03, 2010 4:18 am

Okay, let it rip. What has your experience with Hobby King been like?

Good, bad or indifferent?
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Re: Hobby King

Postby rdhood » Tue Aug 03, 2010 8:11 pm

Okay, here is my recent/only experience:

Order #1: Turnigy Transmitter/Rx + two spare receivers. All were on backorder. Of course, HK's line is "10-15 days" It was more like 30 days. Once the Transmitter came in, I waited 3 or four more days for the Receivers to come in. Finally, I canceled the receivers so that the transmitter would ship (I want to fly sometime this summer!). LESS THAN 10 MINUTES AFTER CANCELING THE RECEIVERS, they magically came into stock. HK would NOT re-add the RX back to my order. The order shipped via HK post. It supposedly has left the country

Order #2: This was held for 22 days waiting on a particular motor. It finally shipped... via Swiss Post. This must be some kind of dead-hole of Swiss labor! no news for a week, no updates to tracking, etc.

Order #3: The website says that it shipped from HK the same day as #1. Unfortunately, the shipping number comes up blank. HK says give it three business days. So while it shipped the same day as #1, it is now 5 days behind.

Well, that's a wrap. IMHO, 3 failures out of 3 tries. HK stock prediction is horrid, CS is pretty bad and shipping is a black hole.
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Re: Hobby King

Postby jeffie8696 » Wed Aug 04, 2010 7:38 am

I have put in several orders this year and most of them have been OK. One servo was bad and replaced but the return shipping would have paid for a new one. Gained nothing there. My Hextronic voltage regulator makes so much noise it blocks the transmitter signal, I am going to try and fix it myself. And my Corona 2.4 DIY module doesnt work. The module is going to be the true test of HK returns. I will post accordingly.
Seems that HK should have the US warehouse accept returns so to save us some shipping cash?? :roll: That would be a big step in the right direction.
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Re: Hobby King

Postby pwy » Wed Aug 04, 2010 8:56 am

Good prices, no service. Shipping varies from very quick to hideously slow.

I guess I was lucky so far. More than 60 orders and only about $40 wasted due to faulty goods. (Not worth sending back...)

Placed two bigger orders lately consisting of LiPos only. Only ordered what was in stock and selected UPS for shipping. One order arrived after 2 days (ordered Sunday, received Tuesday) the other one took 3 days. Not cheap but seems to be the only reliable and quick way to get big LiPos.

Btw I'm in Australia...
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Re: Hobby King

Postby Daedalus » Thu Aug 05, 2010 1:56 pm

I have made over 70 orders with Hobbyking and I have good service and delivery time has been excellent.
I have noticed that delivery time appears to be dependent on when you order. I found if I ordered parts on a Thursday night, I would often receive it on the following Monday/Tuesday. I see some criticism with back orders holding delivery up - don't buy anything on back order and if you do what do you expect? I never back order any parts as they have an excellent notification system to let you know when things come into stock. Other point I would make is that I always pay the extra for UPS. Hold ups with Lipos appear to be outside HobbyKings hands, so when you buy them you should be understanding of possible delays. You could go to your LHS if you want something straight away and are prepared to pay the prices.
I was at a flying field the other day and I think every person there had something purchased from HobbyKing and that in itself shows how much this company has done to supply good gear at great prices. Can't really imagine the turnover.
A friend made an order one night and forgot something, so made another order a couple of hours later and the differences in order numbers was in the hundreds, so if you consider that I think they do pretty well.
Only criticism I have is that sometimes gear is a little untested and there has been some fallout at times.
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Re: Hobby King

Postby Ampair » Sat Aug 07, 2010 11:17 am

Today's order took 8h 17min from ordered to dispatched, only Wattsup in Hawkes Bay have beaten that so far. However, the combined skills of Hong Kong post, NZPost and the NZ Customs can undo that good work -and they frequently do. Given the choice, I would take UPS, DHL, FedEx in that order of preference for overseas shipment, even if it costs double. If EMS only acknowledge that they have received the package after I have it in my hot wee hands about 4,000 miles away, I fail to see the value of their track/trace system from an information point of view. FedEx were a bit the other way once - - they told me in embarrassing (for them) detail how my package left Nevada and meandered across a great deal of the USA heading vaguely North East before virtually retracing the route with a couple of short cuts that saved about 200 miles and 4 towns before winding up at the depot it started from, then headed commendably direct South West to New Zealand. Given that the package contained the guts of an Autopilot with GPS, I wonder if a battery and display should have been provided that could have been viewed to give hints about desired track vs track made bad. ;-)

Edit.
Whoops. I spoke too soon - it appears that for reasons known only to the Gods Of The Internet, my order is being handled by Swiss Post. Timing is bound to be good, but, my word, it is going to travel a long way - does Switzerland to New Zealand mean I have to plant three trees and cycle 50 KM to gain the necessary carbon credits? Will my parcel be shockproof, waterproof, and anti-magnetic including none (0) jewels? Will I get chocolate instead? Will it need a 15,000 KM service before flight?
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Re: Hobby King

Postby RCModelReviews » Sat Aug 07, 2010 10:24 pm

Ampair wrote:Today's order took 8h 17min from ordered to dispatched, only Wattsup in Hawkes Bay have beaten that so far. However, the combined skills of Hong Kong post, NZPost and the NZ Customs can undo that good work -and they frequently do. Given the choice, I would take UPS, DHL, FedEx in that order of preference for overseas shipment, even if it costs double.

Unfortunately, it often costs triple or more times the cost of EMS to use one of the big-three courier services. What's more, they'll dob you in if the collectible GST amount is $50 ore more, most EMS/mail consignments slip under the radar. Once one of the big three sniff that there's GST to be paid, they'll add their handling and clearance fees to boost the total shipping cost to five or six times the EMS price.

What's more (at least around these parts) FedEx, DLH and UPS are far slower once the product reaches NZ than EMS ever is. Most of the consignments that I (grudgingly) use FedEx etc for spend longer making their way from Auckland to my door than it takes them to get from the sender's door to NZ. With EMS it's usually here within less than a working day once it hits NZ.

If EMS only acknowledge that they have received the package after I have it in my hot wee hands about 4,000 miles away, I fail to see the value of their track/trace system from an information point of view.

Which track&trace website are you using?

I find it pays to check the T&T at both the sender's end and the NZ end. Sometimes there's a huge difference in the speed at which they're updated (usually NZ is slower by far). It's not at all uncommon for the sender's EMS T&T facility (eg: ems.com.cn) to show that the package has been received by me even before NZPost shows that it's in the country.

Whoops. I spoke too soon - it appears that for reasons known only to the Gods Of The Internet, my order is being handled by Swiss Post.

Ordered a few lipos did we?
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Re: Hobby King

Postby pwy » Sun Aug 08, 2010 12:07 am

Yes, shipping can spoil the experience big time.
Everything with Swiss post seems to go to Switzerland first and then makes it's way to the destination. Additionally HobbyKing must have a special agreement with Swiss post to always use the slowest possible means of transport.

My last parcel posted via regular post in Switzerland on Monday afternoon arrived on my doorstep in Australia Friday morning. That's an excellent time but the HobbyKing Swiss post parcels always take significantly longer for the same (Switzerland - Australia) leg of the way. Indicates to me that HK uses a lower than normal standard mail class....

But we can be happy that HK doesn't use DHL. I'm still waiting for my parcel ordered from Germany a month ago! DHL tracking shows >one week delay in export facility in Germany, >2 weeks transit time from Germany to Australia and it's now waiting for delivery about 40k from me and this from experience means another week to final delivery :(
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Re: Hobby King

Postby jeffie8696 » Sun Aug 08, 2010 4:11 am

Worried about warranty!?
We guarantee all products to be free of defects at the time of sale and have warranty centers in Europe, USA* and Australia*!
We also have instant replacement on some items. Ask our Customer service staff via chat or email for details.
*opening September 15th.
Just found this on the HK site.
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Re: Hobby King

Postby jomarx » Mon Aug 09, 2010 1:02 am

pwy wrote:Good prices, no service. Shipping varies from very quick to hideously slow.


This is a good summary.

As long HK have the best price, I will keep ordering from them. Time is not much of an issue for me. Registered airmail usually takes 2 weeks usually (thank god the PH is near to HK :D)
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