Losing patience with HobbyKing

[tomo55]

Bad service overall then from Hobbyking , Ive never used them or am likely to after reading this thread.

If everyone stopped using them they might get the message maybe.

chris

I

[Greybeard]

It does say a lot about the British sense of stoicism that this company is still receiving orders. Is good service held in such low esteem that few are prepared to pay a premium for it?

[Worden]

I'm sure there must be many like me that are more than satisfied with Hobbyking and their service. I hope I'm not tempting fate here but out of 96 orders over the last few years (going back to when they traded as Hobbycity) from Hong Kong and UK I have never had a parcel go missing or an incorrect item sent. I have had to return a couple of things to the UK warehouse but using the correct returns procedure have received a credit within a week. I will admit that the website could be a little confusing but as long as you don't mix items from different warehouses it works. My last order from the International warehouse using the 'UK Direct Channel' took less than 6 full days from ordering to arriving on the doorstep!

[Bucksboy]

I too have used them many times very successfully. I make sure I only order from UK too. But, when I did have a problem, it took an awful long time to get it put right. They wanted videos posted onto You Tube of the item that didn't work. So, they wanted a video of retracts not moving when they should, what does that really prove?

My thoughts are that they sold me a whole plane for £150, presumably, everyone along the line made some profit, thats how it works. The supplied retracts can only be £5 of that total. But, if they'd spent another £5 providing better quality retracts in the first place, there wouldn't be several forum threads, going back years, on one particular planes poor retracts. I'd only have to pay £155 for the whole plane too. Quality can only be cut to a certain level, below that, its not acceptable.

I have used them since, maybe not for a RTF plane again.

[Colin Leighfield]

It's absolutely right that those who receive poor service should complain vociferously. The measure of the business is not whether things ever go wrong, but in the way that it responds to legitimate concerns. On this measure it is clear that HK needs to take note and act appropriately, perhaps made more difficult by some lack of co-ordination across what seems to be a fairly sprawling empire! However, we need to remember also that those who don't have any problems tend to say nothing and don't get counted. I've had no difficulties so far and the one product defect related to the flap hinges on the first batch of Spitfire 24s was dealt with efficiently and courteously. Something that obviously involved re-design, re-tooling and manufacture still resulted in free replacements in two weeks. The result is what for me is the best ARTF model I've had so far. It looks very realistic and flies brilliantly as well as being excellent value for money.

Clearly something needs to be done, but boycotting might just lead HK to walk away from what is probably a fairly small and complicated market and I'm not sure that we'd be better off if they did.

[Pete B]

Generally speaking, I've been well-satisfied with HK's service and, for the price, their products have met my expectations.

However, last Friday afternoon I ordered a Bixler 2 from the Euro warehouse, in anticipation of my grandson arriving for a week's holiday today. Monday lunchtime, the order check showed that the item was 'being packed' - yet has STILL not been despatched.....

I've not had a delay like this in the International Warehouse, as far as I recall......do buck up, HK - he's only here for a week!!!

Pete

[ericrw]

I was told at RAF Cosford show by HK, that Scott is no longer with Hk. I found him very helpful with my queries.

[Peter Gain 1]

To avoid problems with Far Eastern traders, try your LMS. If there is not a local one, try mail order from a UK supplier.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

If that's the case it is a shame as he has been quite helpful on a couple of occasions. It does tie in with some information I was given a few weeks ago but he responded to me after that - perhaps he's been retained on a consultancy basis - or is simply comitted enough to help off his own bat?

[Mart49]

Posted by ericrw on 31/07/2013 11:35:08:

I was told at RAF Cosford show by HK, that Scott is no longer with Hk. I found him very helpful with my queries.

That may well be true, as they are advertising for staff based in Hong Kong

[Greybeard]

Posted by Peter Gain 1 on 31/07/2013 12:13:11:

To avoid problems with Far Eastern traders, try your LMS. If there is not a local one, try mail order from a UK supplier.

That's the way to go.

[001]

The ideal is to have a LMS in every town as there was 50 years ago. Unfortunately times have changed.

Also, I think it is obvious that all local councils do not want small independent businesses to succeed.

[Foxfan]

Why do people consider going to these pseudo British companies, when there are the many advertisers in RCM&E, Steve Webb, Slough Models, etc.,etc.?

I bought an Orange Rx for a ridiculously lowprice from a British company last week and it arrived in two days with instructions for binding, etc.

It was an ebay advertiser, but British based. I did try my local model shop, which is actually 20 miles away and they don't do the very reasonably priced Orange R/C, although they do have excellent discounts on the Spektrum Rx., but I would only travel there if I needed at least two or three other items from other suppliers in that town to make the petrol and time worthwile.

So, the "LMS" is almost a thing of the past, but buying from proper British based companies need not be and you would almost certainly get a decent service. When my Dad ran a radio & TV shop, we would change a faulty light bulb with a smile. Nothing was too much trouble, which made our customers happy and us feel great all day.

Martin

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I wish that was my experience but I have had mixed experiences with British companies ranging from superb service from Puffin, Electric Wingman Ripmax and Horizon to even worse with a couple of very well known UK companies than my current experience with Hobbyking - where at least I can manage to engage in (very slow and inefficient) meaningful dialogue.

Why shop with offshore companies - well, I don't if there's a viable UK alternative but some things are only cost-effective from such outlets.

In the example above, although you might have delivered a small profit to your Ebay seller, where did he source it from? Not from one of the UK distributors, I'll bet!

[Colin Leighfield]

I suppose I'm fortunate in having a LMS, (Mike's Models) and I use it a lot. However I go on-line looking for specific things, UK or overseas. Probably, I'm typical of most. Overall, I get what I want but you're bound to be frustrated occasionally, we are demanding and selective and we wouldn't be my first choice as an enticing market opportunity!

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Well, just less than 3 months after raising the case with Hobbyking Support, my replacement fan unit has arrived this morning, a nicely packaged RCLander DPS unit.

It shows that persistence pays off in the end and it's cost me nothing but time and frustration, so I suppose all's well that ends well...

...assuming it all works OK when I can rebuild it into the model, of course!

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

All may be well Martin - and I hope it is. But it really shouldn't take 3 months of "persistent effort" to push a company into fullfilling their obligations should it? I don't think the company have come out of this covered in glory.

BEB

[Rich too]

It doesn't matter where you shop, if you don't get the service you deserve you will be unhappy (I no longer use my LMS and the next time I need something in a hurry I'll go back to my old favorite Avicraft) Rich

[Bob Cotsford]

I don't think HK ever had any claims to glory. Like any bulk reseller it can only be judged on prices. It's been said before, only buy from HK if you are prepared to accept slow/poor customer service and a small percentage of items that should have failed any pretence at quality control.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Although I can accept some shortcomings due to location and pricing, these don't excuse sloppy service such as excessive delays in replies and ridiculous suggestions by so called product specialists. The main points of posting here were to highlight the delays (I'd already been attempting to resolve the problem for a month) and hopefully elicit a response from the company - which I did get in some measure from Scott Cuppelo although I'm not certain whether he was still working for them at that time.

If companies are not made aware of their shortcomings then there's little chance of improvement. I do feel that Hobbyking have made certain aspects of our hobby more affordable and I doubt that I would have even considered buying this model without their presence. Local model shops, buying via established distributors, would be unlikely to offer such an attractive package which, I have to admit, was something of an impulse purchase.

Edited By Martin Harris on 13/08/2013 12:22:18

[Fredthepen]

While not particularly relevant to this thread, I ordered some car tyres online, which it transpired had to come from Germany. Tracking the order revealed that it went from Munich to Hamburg on day 1, from Hamburg to Oldbury in UK on day 2, but it took 5 days for the last 25 miles to the fitting station!

[adrian lawrence 1]

I have ordered a fair amount from Hobbyking. On the one occasion I did have problems I found their customer services very responsive and the matter was resolved to my satisfaction. A lot of items in LHS,s are probably sourced from China, so why not buy them direct.

I recently purchased 5 of Ripmax,s New Power metal gear servos, after 20 minutes of flying I removed them all from the model due to excessive play in the gear train. These are I suspect just cheap rebadged servos, with a price far greater than purchasing direct.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

More good news - it worked (at least for the one flight I've had so far!)

I must say that it performed very well and sounded pretty good. The most surprising thing, bearing in mind that it's rated at 1280W as against the 900W unit supplied pre-installed (which pulled around 1 kW on the recommended 6S battery) is that the battery was very much cooler post flight than it was ever getting before - symptomatic of a faulty motor from the outset?

Happily, the battery and ESC seem to have survived the original motor incineration and two minute discharge!

Edited By Martin Harris on 18/08/2013 21:16:15