Bad hobby king experience

[Carl Muff]

i have alot of stuff off hobby king ,but the i got a small camera and a 50 amp esc which didn,t work i sent them back as instructed by hobby king and i also had them track and over a month late no joy ,i have emailed and at first they had not receieve anything untill i forward them a copy of the royal mail slip saying it had been deliivered ,then they said they would up date me .still nothing would have been easy buying new ones with the money it cost to send them back

[Alan Cantwell]

AH, the blessed international internet shopping, it must be great having a company that sells the occasional duff item, knowing the chances of it being returned with the post cost, is practically nill, not for me, sorry, if it aint on these shores, then it aint being bought!!

[Steve W-O]

I have placed just under 100 orders with HK, and had one problem.

I am a strong supporter of them, as they have enabled me to have a lot of freedom in my hobby, and do far more than if I had to buy locally

However, I think it is a recognised fact that their customer service is pathetic, and it is a factor they clearly have no interest in, or are totally incompetent to implement. This is the conclusion I reach after giving up with my problem, and reading the many posts about others who have had problems.

On the other hand, I have bought things from the UK, and had problems on about 40% of the purchases. Three of those problems have not been resolved, and two of them involve companies that advertise nationally.

[Alan Cantwell]

AH, but over here, we have trading standards, and if you where of the mind, whatever the value, you would have recompense, i am one of these that will hang on to the bitter end if i am in the right

[JayCee]

Ahh Hobby King a bit like' Marmite' you love em or hate em!

I have placed loads of orders with HK over the last three years, in fact I did a tot up £1,465.00!

Not sure how many orders but it was three pages on my account page. In that time I have only had three duff items, all three were Nano Tech batteries! Which I don't buy any more really over hyped, Turnigy or Rhino have been fine.

Did send the first two back but as you say it costs about £10 recorded is it worth it!

All in all I have saved loads of money in spite on the odd duff battery. Now if I can I buy from the De warehouse, items arrive in 3-4 days and I'm told by Alan that the HK UK warehouse will soon be on stream

JC

[Ben B]

The cost of returning an item is so much that it's not worth it but the savings are so much that despite an occasional duff ESC / battery it's still cheaper to buy stuff from them!

[Alan Cantwell]

With al that have had bad gear, whats needed is a collection centre, and send it back at once!! that would shock them!!!!

[Erfolg]

I think a number of contributors have hinted at the position I adopt. I have had a large number of small items, over many, many orders. I cannot guess at the total value as spent, although I note I have very few issues with respect both quality and functionality.

In fact I have had issues with a number of UK purchased items, which have failed after a short period of use. A stabilised power supply and a Lipo charger come to mind. In both cases i ended up just accepting the failure, as Perkins were not interested.

If I look at the value for money aspect, I would conservatively estimate there is a 3 to 1 ratio between UK to HK charges. Many are for the same items, badge engineered.

When dealing with HK, GC, BRC and Robotbirds, I will accept less than perfect after sales services, as being acceptable, due to low relative costs, all other aspects of there services being outstanding. On the other hand I am forced to accept a less than perfect after sales service from many, if not all, UK distributors, by their lack of interest.

Then again I do read from time to time of UK based distributors seeming providing exemplary after sales service, particularly with radio equipment.

[Alan Cantwell]

you accepted the failure???? , there is a sale of goods act that protects you, whatever the value, if you dont use it, then they win, dont they?

Edited By Alan Cantwell on 29/04/2012 16:32:27

[Pete B]

Posted by Alan Cantwell on 29/04/2012 16:31:13:

there is a sale of goods act that protects you, whatever the value, if you dont use it, then they win, dont they?

Not if the shop is in Hong Kong, or China, there isn't!

Shopping abroad without the protection of domestic consumer legislation is a bit like betting - don't stake what you're not prepared to lose. In my experience, with many internet purchases from the UK, Hobbyking and other Far East outlets, the only problems have been with UK suppliers - and fortunately very few of them go wrong.

That's not to say I haven't been occasionally disappointed with some HK items - but I guess you get what you pay for!

Pete

[Alan Cantwell]

The quote from erflog was he had had trouble with OTHER UK COMPANYS, on these, there is indeed a procedure for recompense, go abroad, and accept the almost non existing terms and conditions, the more you use them, the more they will get away with it, so stop moaning, accept that all will not be all beer and skittles, and make more use of companys based in the auk

[Erfolg]

Alan

I am not moaning. I do agree there is legal protection in the UK and it does work, I an sure, yet for lowish value items, is it worth all the jumping through hoops?

My solution is not to purchase in the UK, for modelling stuff.

Companies like Tesco and Asda adhere to both the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, I remain to be convinced the same is true with the UK modelling trade.

HK, at present gets my custom.

Edited By Erfolg on 29/04/2012 17:51:27

[Alan Cantwell]

its worth it for me, i will pursue them to the end of time if i am in the right,

if your lot is to fall in with companys outside the remit of duty of care, then there can be no altrnative than to accpet their way of doing business, therefore, all who do this should not complain, i know you do not, but plenty of others do, but, when you do adhere to the distributers terms and conditions, and they do nothing to recompense you, then all you can do is stamp your feet, and order again--and again--and again, not the way i would want to conduct business,     i have been know to get rid of every trace of every item i have bought off a couple of companys i have had grief with,   i like to get rid of bad memories

Edited By Alan Cantwell on 29/04/2012 17:55:19

[Allan Bowker]

With Hobbyking opening up a UK warehouse in the next few weeks it might be worthwhile sending any future items there.

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Anthony said in a post on their forum that any defective stuff from the Hong Kong warehouse CAN be returned to the UK warehouse when it opens.

However, as with almost all warranty returns there is a slight catch. The item has to be returned to the manufacturer for assessment (to find out if it actually was defective or the buyer simply wrecked it) and that's what takes so much time.

Unless a company is a registered service agent for a manufacturer, that's what happens all the time with any goods. I worked as a service manager for a TV rental company quite a while back and that was the standard procedure. Stuff that we were agents for we could send for replace,ent, IF we found that it was faulty. However, if we found out that the customer had caused the fault through something they did, then there was no warranty. If the apparatus was one we had sold (and not being a service agent) then we had to send that either back to manufacturer or to their agents.

[Allan Bowker]

HK were advertising a UK job for someone to do testing, down to component level, for returned items.