"THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE !!!

NO AFTERSALES SERVICE AT ALL.

AVOID!"

"I've been buying from HK for more than 3 years a total of 114 orders. I beleive that some have encountered with them bad experience by reading some bad review so I guess I'm very lucky. I don't have anything bad to say against them. Their prices are very low and postal fees reasonnable. They take lot of care for their packaging to not have it damadged. Their best I guess is their lipo battery which are very cheap and as good as the one I got from my local hobby store at 4 times the price."

"Another update from 2016: Have placed many orders since original review (which grew too long). Most have been good experiences. Not had broken parts, etc. Any missing items they shipped to me. Have tried to order mostly from their US warehouses but also still order from their China warehouse (International warehouse). They do have some issues when an item is not in stock or back ordered even when listed as in stock. I placed an order recently for two LiPo chargers shown in stock at their USA-East warehouse. I placed the order. Next day I received an email that one item was discontinued and the website was incorrect. They offered to cancel that item, or cancel the whole order. I found another item and asked if they could substitute and I would pay the difference. They said yes, but wanted to make sure that that item was in stock (website said it was but obviously that does not always mean anything). That took about a week for their CS rep to hear back from the warehouse. So after a week I was able to pay the extra amount, which I promptly did. Then I started to wait for them to ship. It took almost 2 weeks for it to ship after I made the updated payment. (All orders I place with all in stock from the same warehouse ship in 1-2 days). Then, after it shipped, they shipped it to the wrong address. Someone in Ohio (I am in Utah). When the day came that it should have arrived and it didn't, I got an email from them that it had mis-shipped. I guess their customer in Ohio contacted them before I had realized what had happened. They said they needed to figure out what to do. It looks like they got the customer in Ohio to forward it on to me as after another week of waiting I finally got an email with new shipping info. I still have not received it 6 weeks or more after the original order, though it is supposed to come in 2 days. They seem to not have good communications with their warehouses and also seem to not have policies, or good policies, on how to make good their mistakes. They could have re-shipped the order with new items and not made me wait to deal with getting the product back from the mis-shipment. The one CS person I dealt with was very good, the others not so good, or maybe they were just out of their league or hamstrung by company policy. I think they just ship containers of stuff to their US warehouse in Arkansas and it is a contract shipping company and not really part of the HK company as their communications with them and control over them is lacking.

I'll still do business with HK but have branched out to other China and other place based sellers.

With HobbyKing, if all goes right, which it usually does, it is good/great. When their are issues, is when they fall flat. Things eventually get resolved, but it takes a lot of time."

"Well, I guess it's the luck of the draw. I have had no issues with this company and I have understood that my order was coming from Hong Kong. I read the statement that says "it may take 45 days to receive your order". I ordered receivers and servo extensions April 4th and received my order yesterday April 16th. I think that's a very reasonable shipping time for an International order.
I felt comfortable placing my order through PayPal.
I also realize that many, many of the planes in their catalog are the exact same planes you see on more popular websites at sometimes 4 times the price so, for the price I can wait.
I received up-to-date processing information through email.
The only thing I was not able to do was follow the tracking number. The progress said shipped and had an icon for tracking but did not work.
All in all, a good international shop."

"DO NOT BUY FROM HOBBY KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ordered 2/15/12 charged my credit card 2/16/12 said they shipped on 2/24/12 and still have not received any of the items I ordered and it is 4/16/12. Have been on live chat many times and sent many e-mails got responses back that we have to wait and finally got rude and said they would credit my credit card for full amount. Still have not received the credit back but my credit card is investigating it and said they would get me my money back since I have a response from them that says they will give me my money back. Hope everyone else gets either their items or money back.

RIP OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Avoid - ordered and paid for an item 19 March. After 15 days, still no show. Logged on to my account and noticed it said "unpaid". Tried to contact the email address listed in the PayPal payment confirmation, but it just bounced. Logged a support call with Hobby King on the 3 April - 5 days later still no reply. Just managed to get hold of someone on chat and she has now "put through my payment manually" and the items will be shipped in the next 2-3 days (allegedly).

Absolutely rubbish!"

"Don't do it! Don't order!
I too was lured in by the low prices. I had 3 orders with them go fine. Then the 4th order was missing items and they would not respond to support requests. I had to go through Paypal for help. I have now found many other online stores in the USA that are competitively priced, not as low as Hobbyking, but at least they have customer service and you get the product in a reasonable time."

"Warning: Do not buy from http://Hobbyking.com , bad service, poor shipping times and bait and switch advertising"

"I ordered a number of items on January 25th. What I didn't realize is that even though they list on the website that they have a USA store, all items come from a China warehouse. With the Chinese new year, I understand that there was some delay. However, I still do not have my order. For items that are listed as "in stock," I believe that 20+ days is a little excessive, and it looks like I may have to wait at least another week for it to arrive, as it's still sitting in China. I sent an e-mail inquiry asking about my order on multiple occasions, and it took 7 days before a generic response was sent. I will not be shopping with them in the future, and unless your desperate, avoid this online store.

Update: February 27 Delivery.

Update 2: The propellers that I use for my multi-copter are not readily available in the US. I scoured the internet for hours looking for an alternative source, and eventually broke down and purchased a slew of them from Hobby King due to limited options. Ordered on 3/16, and even though Hobby King lists it as shipped, it's still just sitting at the parcel company in China collecting dust. I had hoped that my second experience would be better, but it hasn't, and I'm probably looking at waiting another couple of weeks before my part arrives. Buyer beware, or incredibly patient."

"I've bought 3 items from Hobbyking. Every single order took a week just to process. Every time I have had to use their chat service, it takes at LEAST 30 minutes before I get someone. They have no telephone number available to call.
My last purchase was for a battery. It arrived DoA and they refused to replace it because I put a traxxas end on it. Sorry, but I have no way of testing it with a banana plug on it.
I will never buy anything from them again! I hope they go BANKRUPT! This is the worst company to buy from. They do NOT stand behind their products."

"Avoid these guys like the plague. I ordered a plane from them in December of 2011 as a Christmas present for my son. The item arrived late with a broken wing. After sending them pics, they agreed to provide a replacement. Now it is the middle of March and still no replacement despite my having contacted their customer service several times.

They keep saying, "We have petitioned our supplier for a replacement." This despite the fact that their website lists the plane as in stock. Why don't they just take a wing out of one of the kits they have and ship THAT to me. They can wait to be reimbursed by their supplier. THAT'S good customer service. So yeah, screw these guys. Buy local if you can!"

"Well good old HobbyKing are at it again no communication ,phone line on the web site is closed, customer service via email or chat on line is non assistant,in this day an age you would think, maybe im speaking out of turn ,but don't you reckon with all our technology in the world today that communication would be a top priority in this companies presentation, I think so. So lets get the system working Lady s an pull your finger out,regards not happy supplied 1 of 2 items an cannot resolve the issue because its to easy to press resolved button, address the issues you are forward an don't brush them off, that's not Australian"

"Simply ordered some banana connectors. They were light enough to be shipped by International (Registered) Air Mail 0 - 100g $3.99. Order still has not arrived. This company takes too long to ship and shipments take too long to arrive if they ever do."

"I ordered some batteries in February of 2012 and have confirmation of payment. 5 weeks later still have not received my order. They were very fast taking the money, but no order as of yet. Several attempts to use their website for customer service are very frustrating and have not gotten any replies. Also their 1-800 number tells you to use their website. I will not order anything from them again and I will recommend to my club members to use another hobby shop or on line seller. "

"When placing an order from Hobby King all you see mentioned about shipping is their (deceptive) boasts about it coming from their "US Warehouse". This might lead you to believe that shipping should take about 2 weeks at the most, as it would from anywhere else in the US to you, if you're in the US. But if you search for it, and you really have to search, at the bottom of a page never linked to from any product/ordering page is a 'rate table' which lists standard shipments to the US as taking 6-39 days.

But it gets worse; the "6-39 days" clock doesn't actually start until they've "processed the order", which itself could take weeks or more. If you google a bit you'll find many reports of orders taking _six_months_or_more_ to arrive.

It seems the reason for this is that they're lying - the orders are not being shipped from within the US. They come marked with Chinese postal labels, obviously from China. If you're like myself you might have missed their tiny caveat about the horribly slow shipping - you have to search for it. And if you have a problem with it, it will take them about a week to write you back to apologize (and do nothing).

Avoid HobbyKing.com, it's not worth it. Whatever it is they have, some other site will have it too and be more honest about their shipping. Their prices may _seem_ low, but when you figure in the fact that you have to pay extra for any reasonable shipping, their prices are actually much higher than anywhere else.

If you have a HobbyTown USA store in your area I'd recommend going there. Their prices are actually on par with hobby websites, they give great advice, and they can order things in faster than you can get them online.
"