"I tried to purchase an FPV accessory from them, paid for and got their Order Confirmation email. So I thought everything was hunky dory and gave them a couple of weeks before checking back. Then after nearly 3 weeks passed, I shot them a couple of emails asking the status of my order. NO RESPONSE. After a week has passed, I shot them another support request, waited a few days then opened a Paypal dispute.
Throughout my order, my support email\requests and Paypal dispute, not a single email was sent to me as a reply. They didn't even bother responding to the Paypal dispute case. In the end Paypal refunded 100% of my money, but no one could return the time I've wasted on these scammers.
DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE AT ALL.
What good is the low advertised prices if you risk of losing your money by dealing with them?"
"I ordered a transmitter battery for a DX8 and some other batteries and one other item. In January in late february I realized that it had not arrived and I contacted them. The opened a inquiry but closed it so I had to ask again. They finally offered a store credit for something that they lost. Here is the other part they did not offer the credit until like March 12 or so. The other part of the problem is I decided to see about trying them again and put items in my cart and they uned the credit even though I did not check out. I have been trying to get the credit back for an item that I can use. Each time I talk to customer service they assure me they will have the credit back in 24 hrs. I have yet to see it in my account.
If you use Hobby King be sure to realize if things go wrong they will talk a good game but HELP might or might not come.
Good prices if you get the items you order.
Poor customer service.
O I sold the DX8 so if the battery comes I cant use it."
"Read some reviews of HK and saw mixed results. All stated their customer service was terrible.
I ordered and paid with Paypal (recommended). Site returned an error and asked me to order again. But I was charged by PP. Email to them resulted in no response. I finally got through on chat and they basically stated they had no record of the order so they could refund PP. I opted for this... but I also filed a complaint with PP to protect myself. No way I'm going to rely on HK to correct their mistake!
From what I say about 80% of what they sell is out of stock. They _do_ have low prices though. I suspect this is why they stay in business.
Edit: I placed another order with them (could not resist the low prices). This one was fulfilled in 2 days and sent Priority Mail. I ordered again and same results. So I will change my rating."
"Customer Service Nightmare! I ordered multiple items, was contacted to tell me one was out of stock and given the option to cancel or back-order, I cancelled the item but they removed the wrong one from my order and refunded me the wrong amount. I received my order and it was missing both the "backordered" item and the one they mistakenly cancelled. They owe me over $65 and have not responded to help requests over the last 6 days."
"Do not order from Hobby King. My order was placed on 12/31/13. My account was charged on 1/2/14. I checked the status of my order on 2/28/14 and the status was unpaid. I tried to call the US customer service # and it went into a loop with no one answering. I got the live chat and my status was changed to shipped. I was told it will take up to 4 weeks me to get my order. I'm not confident that it will show up"
"I never order at Hobby King again!
Had to pay 50 dollars for shipping for a total price of 250 , It took 5.5 weeks to arrive and I had to pay 55 euros import costs!
It looks cheap on Hobby King, but next time I order it at a local store with prices almost twice as high as Hobby King, but I don't have any unexpected bills and not a shipping time of 5.5 weeks!"
"I simply can no longer understand anyone ordering from Hobby King. Simply put they are crooks! BEC's incorrectly rated, Carbon Rods which are plastic, Motors which shafts break etc. And customer Service which is simply non-existent. I ordered 6 receivers, I have not yet received them so have ordered 10 more from another source.
People try other sites such as Value Hobby, much better equipment, only marginally more expensive and customer service which is excellent.?"
"Ordered some servo motors from Hobbyking. They were extremely inexpensive. Since they were shipped from Asia they took the usual month to deliver. They did not mention this in the emails but once I had the invoice it was clear. The motors look to be of good quality and work so far in my limited testing. These guys have really great deals and that is because they come directly from Asia. So it is worth the wait"
"Found this site after I ordered 3 LiPO batteries (3C 2200mah 11.1V) and got really nervous that I was going to get screwed... I made sure their site said that they were in stock from a USA warehouse and ordered USPS Priority and they arrived right on time... charged them up and flew my eflite 450 Cub on parkzone super cub floats in the snow. They all held a full charge and flew great considering only $12 each! I dont know how they do it when the EFlite batteries are north of $40 now... Both made in China... Anyway, great customer service on this one, just dont know if I am brave enough to tempt fate twice!"
"I'm just frustrated
I placed my first order six months ago and their highly motivated support managed it within only four months to credit me the amount of money I spent on the initial order. Of course not the shipping cost. Because this would be too inconvenient for them, I guess.
So to get at least something for my money I had to place another order. But, suprise, some items that were on stock as I placed the order weren't on stock a few days later. Funny part was: I had to contact their support to ask what is going on with my order and then they told me that not all goods are on stock. I think they don't feel obligated to inform me about this. Obviously the payment I made is not enough for this kind of service. Maybe you should also sell them your soul or promise your firstbory, maybe that will satisfy them enough to do such excessive customer service.
At last I changed that order again and this time everything was on stock. There must be another problem I'm not aware of since this was almost a month ago, and I still don't received my goods. Everything the support can tell me are some prepared non-statements that they'll copy 'n paste.
Short: Six months since my initial order and still waiting
Update 5.1.2014: Guess what, they informed me that some items are on backorder now..."
"This site works like a honey trap;Low prices and everything in stock.But the goods are a very low quality and most of them are defective.Customer service accepted my compliant about damaged goods only after 7 month and refunded item cost only in bonus points with no shipping costs.Beware - There is no money refund. I used my bonus points as a part of my order placed on september 7 . They provided fake tracking info but actualy they send nothing.This is a scam site. Save Your money and buy from a normal and trusted sites."
"First order was great. Second order for same product was a disaster. They cancelled my order because they said they never received funds even though my bank account and Paypal showed a debit to them. I have not received any refund. They wont return with answers from customer service. Can't get through on phone and their chat site is closed. Recommend going to a more reputably site."
"Hobby King DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING if you need your parts or R/C items within a month!!!
Hobby King Slow
I WISH I WOULD HAVE FOUND THIS WEBSITE before I ordered, it never would have happened.
Order placed-2 lipo batteries, 1 Quick charger
Ordered: Nov 21 2013- Credit card billed within minutes!!
Email rec:Nov 26 2013- Notified of order being placed
Email Rec: Nov 28th, 2103- Order being shipped out
LOL...just got a new update as below!!
Email Rec: Dec 5th 2013- A link to news about lipo batteries and problem with warehouse/customs and anything other excuse but they apparently had batteries shipped back to warehouse and had to work out cutoms and now are resending (mass email)!!!
Wow keeps getting better try Nitro RCX.com....items come in two days
Update December 12th, 2013 no package-no updates!!!!
22 DAYS and Counting...Christmas is upon us...no way is this package coming in 2013!
****@****"
"Hobby King's customer service is horrible. It's that simple. I cancelled an order and received an e-mail that I would get a refund within 2-3 weeks - which already was long. However, after 3 weeks I had not yet received my refund so I contacted customer service. They informed me that refunds take 4-6 weeks. This is a ridiculously long period of time; I paid immediately after placing my order, so why would I have to wait up to 6 weeks to get my money back? We're talking about $450 here, so it's a substantial amount of money.
HobbyKing is probably the worst company I have ever dealt with. 4-6 weeks for a refund may have been normal in 1960, but not in 2013. Get your act together, HobbyKing.
"
"To be honest, i placed 8 orders with them so far, all of them successful; i started with small value orders and continued.
But:
- i place a $100+ order in April for an ESC, a motor and some knick-knacks; i wait 3 weeks (as usual) for it to arrive in May;
- second time i run the ESC-motor combo .... motor gets burned (ok, i thought it was my fault, i save more money and order a new motor)
- new motor arrives (after 3+ weeks shipping time, of course) in October
- once i install it ... the ESC goes up in flames (hopefully the motor is ok, i don't know, i haven't tested it yet)
- i contact hobbyking support that same day, they tell me to send them pictures and what-not
-after 5 days, i get a reply to my mail, telling me i have to send it back for warranty .... "Why didn't you say so in the first place, now i wasted 5 days for nothing" ... idiots
- they PROMISE me if the ESC proves to be faulty, they will send me a new ESC ... AND MOTOR... i think to myself... that's super;
- i send the parcel, with tracking number (not so cheap shipping fee) ... i track it online, see it was delivered... THEY SEND ME NO UPDATES
- i check my hobbyking account 1 week later... i see they give me store credit ... so i have to order a new ESC an pay for ANOTHER SHIPPING FEE .. no thank you
- i contact live chat again... threaten to dispute transaction on Pay Pal, ask for a supervisor ... all of a sudden they keep their initial promise, and send me a new esc and motor
So ... threatening them to dispute the transaction is the magical pass-phrase.
Overall, IF you are lucky to receive items without manufacturing flaws, hobbyking is the place for you, but WHEN you receive a faulty item .. it's an absolute nightmare to get things sorted out.
Just pray to God the faulty item is cheap, kiss your money good-bye, and be done with it .. it's not worth it .. my opinion.
In my case, the motor+esc = $75 which is not cheap at all for me, in my local currency, but at last, after more than 2 months of continuous mailing and chatting with their support dept. .. I'm done.
With hobbyking it's not "IF" you receive a faulty item, but "WHEN" you'll receive it, and how expensive and time consuming it is to get it replaced."