"DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE CHARLATANS!!

The Hobby King website (About Us) gives an impression of a responsible, serious company. The reality is much different. Their order taking/processing appears to be seriously flawed. In truth, I now believe it is "creative incompetence", designed to collect your money - without fulfilling your order.

I placed an order. I received an order confirmation. My credit card has been charged. I received no shipping notification, so I checked my order status on the Hobby King website. The status is shown as "unpaid". I re-checked with my credit card company, and they assure me that Hobby King has, in fact, been paid.

It turns out that Hobby King is some sort of front. The payment trail for my order leads through two other companies: United Hobbies and hexTronik Limited. Billing is made through Singapore.

I have tried repeatedly to contact Hobby King, totally without success. Their email inbox is full, so my emails simply are bounced immediately. The phone number I finally obtained is in Hong Kong and is actually a FAX number. I have no idea if the FAX machine belongs to Hobby King or not.

So, Hobby King has my money, but apparently has absolutely no intention of fulfilling my order. And I am unable to contact them to find out what is going on. This is incompetence, yes, but given the lengths to which Hobby King has gone to conceal their true identity and make contact with them inpossible, I think this incompetence must be deliberate.

I may eventually get the charge on my credit card cancelled, but I am willing to bet that Chase will never get their money back from Hobby King. That is a pretty good way of doing business - for Hobby King. Money collected. No product delivered. 100% profit."

"Received a battery from the UK Warehouse. The packaging was damaged and the battery was swollen which is an indication of over use. I notified HK, they requested photographs, I sent them very high quality pics taken with a professional DSLR camera. After a week of chasing HK they said that the battery had no damage and have refused to refund me. This my first review for HK and I must say that I'm very disappointed with their service. They are very quick to take your money credit card charges but vey slow with the service!!! "

"Ordered lots of stuff in September, still waiting for it. And I don't even know if they actually sent it, because provided tracking number is incorrect."

"Tried to order from 'Hobby King"; a website that gives an 'American corporate' impression but hides it's actual location.
Fact is they wanted $68 for a $32 item because as it turns out, they ship from China. They claim to have an 'American warehouse' but still, Shipping costs more than the product.

Not a chance in Hell I'd do business with someone who operates in this fashion.
"

"I order tons of stuff from these guys. I have had lots of quality control issues with brand new items and there return process is confusing (they have it designed that way) and inconsistent. Support overall is horrible, they do not read tickets and respond just enough and with worthless information to keep you dragging on (with the hopes that you will quit and give up). They will have you making videos and uploading to youtube, then taking pictures, then more pics with multimeter on batteries, etc. Have had $2 defective items that they make you send back for $3-4 to get it replaced. And the replacement is usually credit as they do not want to have to ship at their cost a replacement, nor do they refund any original shipping on the original purchase."

"The worst experience on line i have ever had. Talk about a fed up company it took me three days to straighten out a simple two item order. customer service doesn't exist or respond. I don't think they understand english. finally i got on live support and the third person got it sorted out. I just hope the items actually show up. Once they do I will never use them again and delete all my account info. My advise stay away from hobby king"

"I ordered an AXN Floater from Hobby King's UK warehouse.
When it hadn't shipped same day (Friday), I began to read reviews and was concerned by the comments on this site.
It would seem that I was falsely alarmed...
The model was dispatched on Monday and arrived the next day in perfect condition (well packed) along with all expected accessories.

I might not risk buying from the international warehouse in the future, but my experience of the UK warehouse was excellent.
Great prices and speedy delivery.
"

"Hobby King received my money but did not ship, they waited for me to open a ticket to ask why my order status showed as unpaid.

They changed the status to paid then claimed that my CC info was incomplete and they needed an image.

They had already successfully charged my card at this point. I asked why the need for an image, no response. I have asked them that question at least three times.

I then asked for my order to be cancelled several times. No response. I opened another support ticket asking for my order to be cancelled. They agreed then told me it would take four to six weeks to return my money.


Sep 18 - placed an $80.51 order with Hobby King, paid using a debit card.
Sep 20 - Bank account shows that Hobby King took $80.51 from my account
Sep 21 - Hobby King shows status of order as unpaid.
Sep 21 - I open a support ticket asking why it shows unpaid when they have taken my money.
Sep 22 - receive email from Hobby King stating that the payment was approved.
Sep 22 - receive another email saying that my CC info is incomplete and they need me to send an image of my cc.
Sep 22 - I respond asking why they need an image when they already have my money.
Sep 23 - no response
Sep 24 - I request that my order be canceled and a refund be issued.
Sep 24 - no response
Sep 25 - I request that my order be canceled and a refund be issued. Attempted an online chat, gave up after waiting 15 minutes.
Sep 25 - no response
Sep 26 - I request that my order be canceled and a refund be issued. Attempted an online chat, gave up after waiting 10 minutes.
Sep 26 - Attempted another online chat 12 hours later, gave up after waiting 10 minutes.
Sep 26 - Opened another support ticket requesting cancellation.
Sep 26 - Spoke with my bank, they confirm that HK has the money (not a hold or pre-auth), I have 60 days to file a dispute.
Sep 27 - Hobby King responds to my request to cancel order. They tell me it can take 4 to 6 weeks to get my money back.
Oct 07 - No refund yet."

"Do not order anything with Hobbyking !!!!

They are either incompetent or crooks. I have yet to decide which, but under no circumstances have any dealings with them.

DO NOT SAY YOU WERE NOT WARNED."

"I wasn't dumb enough to have to place the three orders until I realized that this company is fraudulent. Not just absolutely horrible in their customer service but actually fraudulent. The last two orders I placed I received items which have been previously used and not new and lacked features and functionality that the website claimed it had. Customer service consists of people who don't understand English and who have not the slightest sense of accountability in order to rectify a bad situation. On top of all the horrific things that happened they now ask me to pay for shipping of some items back to them. I hope there will be some legal intervention to ban them from being able to do business in the United States."

"Support staff is completely incompetent. I asked them to make a modification to my order and they got it all wrong... twice! Now they refuse to fix it, because they say I reached my 4 modifications limit... even though I'm trying to put back an item that was removed without my consent!
I give them a big ZERO for customer service! BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU DO DECIDE TO DO BUSINESS WITH HOBBY KING."

"should have read the review here for these hobbybastardking. on 30 july i ordered tx9 from hobbyking. total order was about 84.03, then i want to cancel the order that i have paid using my credit card, first the cs told me it will be 7 days to process the refund, but today i contacted the cs and they said i have to wait for 4 to 6 week, finally they settle the refund on 23-08-2013"

"they are a bunch of charlatans. their customer support is horrible. their prices are not that great either. i will not do any business with them again and advise anyone to avoid them as well.

the only reason i ordered from them was to ensure that i'd get a genuine brand product. they have a video on their website showing the differences with a fake. the genuine product is supposed to come with an authentication sticker, serial#, and a product registration card. mine did not. a few days later i discovered a fault with the product.

i dealt with their customer service twice: once to ask whether i received the genuine product and second for a warranty claim. their customer support takes a long time to respond. their responses are generic and sometimes they didn't even seem to read my message. both times i was not satisfied with their service. it is simply crap and a waste of time.

i can truly say i have never experienced lack of service of this magnitude before. companies like this need to be avoided.

you need to realize that their prices are only decent if you don't run into issues. good luck with that."

"I think my chat transcript with one of their "Customer Service" representatives pretty much sums up this companies customer service skills.

Start Time: 07/31/2013 22:32:35
End Time: 07/31/2013 22:50:01
Operators: Henry
Transcripts:
Please wait for a site operator to respond...
If you do not want to wait, please click here to leave us a message.
Operator Henry has joined the chat.
[22:32:35] Henry: Thank you for contacting HobbyKing! How may I help you?
[22:33:02] Corey: When I try to check out my order it tells me I can only pick up in Hong Kong Office
[22:33:10] Corey: I need shipping to the Cayman Islands
[22:38:15] Henry: My apologies. Can I have the order number please?
[22:38:46] Corey: I'm in the checkout section where do I find the order number?
[22:39:12] Corey: I'm at step 3 and this is my only option
[22:39:12] Corey: Postage & Payment type Shipping Options CAYMAN ISLANDS 165x150x50mm 7766g Self Collection in Hong Kong Office
[22:43:59] Corey: Are you still with me?
The visitor has sent an image: ScreenShot0(996*641).jpg
[22:47:12] Corey: Ummmmmm hellllooooooo?
[22:49:59] Henry: My apologies. But you may need to finish the process first to have an order number.
[22:50:00] Corey: Did you take lunch break?
Operator Henry has left the chat.
The chat is ended.


I wish there was a way to give only a Zero Star rating"

"I paid $220.37 and ordered a Piper L4 in the middle of June on a "backorder" basis from the uk warehouse. Three weeks later, still no arrival of the model. I visited the Hobby king site,and told them the situation online, I got a message back saying that due to the high demand etc.etc. but backorders should be delivered within 30 days. Still not satisfied, I went on "live chat" on the Hobbyking site. Acustomer service advisor named daisy said they couldn't give me an estimated time of arrival, but if I wanted, I could either wait,cancel the order and have a credit against my next purchase, or have a full refund through Paypal. After choosing the latter I was told that it would take up to 7 days for the payment to reach me. That was two days ago, still no refund !! why should it take up to 7 days when it's all done on line??? I have never had such a bad customer service as this, they have had my money in their bank account now for 5to6 weeks!! how many more people have done the same as me?? I'm beginning to think this is one great scam !! "