"I purchased the large Icon A5 aircraft from my local hobby shop. After only about 5 flights the speed controller overheated and melted. When I called HH the customer service rep was very helpful and sent a replacement to me at no charge.

After I installed the replacement speed controller the LED in the receiver would not illuminate and nothing on the plane worked. So I called HH again and the rep sent me an upgraded replacement for the receiver at no charge.

I replaced the defective receiver but still nothing worked, so I took theplane back to the hobby shop where the sales clerk determined that the battery was defective and dead. Once again HH shipped a replacement to me at no charge. However, on the first flight with the replacement battery smoke came from the battery compartment and control authority was lost resulting in an unplanned landing with the plane still smoking. I quickly unplugged the battery and saw that it had swollen up and was partially charred, as was the surrounding styrofoam and the battery retainer.

I emailed HH product support with pictures of the battery and received an automatically generated reply. But when I did not hear from anyone at HH I sent two follow-up emails and still have not heard anything.

Since then I attempted to operate my Icon A5 using my 2nd battery. The aircraft worked nominally on the bench and just before launching the plane on the water. Upon launch I attempted to power up but the motor was very sporadic. I only tried for a couple of seconds before smoke came from beneath the canopy. Upon investigation it appears that the speed controller became excessively hot. I plugged the battery in on the bench and the speed controller immediately began to smoke again and appears to have partially melted.

I have had nothing but problems with this aircraft since I bought it but, at least up until now, I have received exceptional customer service from Horizon Hobby.

Now I am left with a plane that has a bad left aileron servo, a melted battery and hold down, and a partially melted speed control and HH will not reply to my emails. Their customer support must have gone on permanent vacation."

"Here is my experience with HH. I bought a UMX Mig 15 DF from my local hobby shop. After four flights I notice the left aileron servo is not working. If you touch the gear is then works. Kinda hard to do when its 200 feet in the air. So, I call HH. Go through the phone menu and talk to an American person. I explain my issue. He says he will send out a new servo. He gets my shipping info off of caller ID, I didn't even have to give him my name and address, just confirmed it, and we were done. Two days later its here. Problem solved. Some of the best service I have ever received from any online retailer."

"I started buying from Horizon Hobby in Jan 2013. The first order was shipped quickly but they offer zero discounts and you pay full retail for everything. I did not mind paying a little more to get shipments quicker but now that I have a problem and they are not willing to help, it is making me think twice. I ordered a Blade 130X 2/28/13. It has been sitting on the shelf since. They shipped it with defective tail gears that in turn stripped the forward gear. They have sent 2 sets of replacements and both have been defective as well. Since replacing the front gear with metal, it now sits almost touching electronics, which is a very poor design and surely will not last long. Some reviews I am reading now say this helicopter is a money pit and I see why. I am not happy with my purchase and it has been within 30 days, as stated in their policies, and they are refusing to give me my money back. So anything you buy from Horizon is yours to keep whether it works or not, or is well designed or poor! They just want your money. I have spent almost $1500 directly with them and this does not matter. Dennis Davenport told me in an email that even though they are distributors for online and local hobby shops, selling direct to the consumer is not in any way competition. This should give you an idea what is most important to Horizon Hobby. I will not spend another dime and I will think twice about buying another one of its product lines in the future. I encourage you to do the same. Support companies, products and businesses that CARE about you as a customer and not just what is in your wallet!"

"my experience with these people are great my first plane i ever got was the first super cub they made and it was great still flying it just with a new motor and a dx5e transmitter and it has turned into a great STOL aircraft. my next plane i got was the F-4 phantom from banana hobby and i still have not gotten it flying and it has been like 5 years the next plane i got was the E-FLITE apprentice and i ordered it through HH i still am flying that to and no problems yet many crashes but that is due to my pilot error for example flying in 30mph winds or trying to fly low to ground inverted at full power and it still has not fully broken. i then got the p51d mustang from nitro planes and could not fly it at all it would roll to the left and the only way to compinsate was to put two dubble A batteries on the right wing just to make it fly straight and wings level. it broke on a crash when i nosed it into the ground at full power. i had done the same thing with Apprentice and only the cowl motor mount and fire wall was damaged. the next plane i got was the dynam turbo jet aka cessna 550 citation great edf jet got it through nitro planes and it flew grew until the right esc burned out idk why but i had to make a engine out landing and almost took out a car that was driving down the road/landing strip. i think i will buy ALL E-FLITE stuff for this aircraft and hope to fly it soon. i also have the parkzone su 26xp and thagt little plane is so amazing i love it and hope to order more from HH. Horizon Hobby took the su 26m back when i got it in the mail broken and they gave me a new one really quickly and no problems with costumer service or anything else. i think that if anyone is going to buy from banana hobby only get a arf or kit because the planes are great..well some are like my F-4 but the transmitter and receivers and battries suck . Igot the f 4 flying and actualy it is a great plane so i think i will buy again from banana hobby. i am looking at the B-25j nitro planes, they are ok good plane some anyway try to look at other peoples comments on the plane on this website and from HH they are great no bad stuff all planes are perfect still look at other people comments but this is such a good site and the people seem to really care about you and NOT money so this raps this up so yeah oh yes please comment or something if you have the apprentice and have flap mods....i am thinking of putting them on the plane."

"I'm terribly disappointed with Horizon Hobby. I will admit that their purchasing set-up is efficient, fast and reliable. Unfortunately they do not back their Blade line of Helicopters very well at all. I wrote a couple of emails regarding Blade's advertising that all their helis are test flown at the factory. I wrote them that I had purchase three different helis advertised to be ready to fly 3d, yet all three came set-up with virtually NO negative pitch. Now how are you going to fly inverted with no negative pitch. It's not easy let me tell you. Horizon did not reply to these emails.

Now for the worst part. I purchased a Blade 130X. Straight out the box it literally shook itself so hard that the onboard computer shut the damn thing off. A lock nut was missing from a servo, and the gear that drives the tail rotor was stripped. Now how could they have test flown this heli and sent it off to a customer? (Me)

So, for the first time after spending over a thousand dollars with Horizon, I asked them for not a refund, but a credit towards a t-rex or other brand of heli. After five days of waiting they finally replied by telling me, "No way". We will not be issuing a credit or refund. But, if you send the heli in to us well be glad to do a "Free" warranty appraisal. Isn't that nice? $265.00 for a heli that can barely make it off the ground, after I do repairs that shouldn't have been necessary in the first place. The bottom line is that this heli should never have made it to a customer, and their response is, "Sorry, we will not give a credit" I didn't even ask for a refund which by all rights I should have been able to get in this situation.

I will not do any further business with Horizon Hobby other than to attempt to get a, imagine this, a working helicopter for my $265.00."

"Horizon hobby was a huge help with my boat purchase from a hobby shop which I had ship the boat to me. I had issues with some parts on the boat which needed to be replaced and horizon hobbies support team went out of their way to help me by sending me new parts free of charge. During each phone call they made sure I was satisfied with their service which I feel is second to none. I highly recommend their product because they truly stand behind what they sell, how many other companies do that? I had an issue with shipping damage in the past and it was handled professionally as well. I cant wait to purchase another boat from them! Their shipping time was super fast and they made sure everything was packaged properly which included putting parts in over sized boxes free of charge to make sure the replacement parts arrived safe and sound. Thank you Horizon Hobby for making my experience like no other, when ever I have the chance to give you my business I will make sure to! The product support team deserves a special thanks for their hard work and patience to make sure my experience was a good one!"

"I do not usually feel compelled to offer a review however in the case of Horizon Hobby I feel I must. I have received the best customer service I could possibly imagine from Horizon. Shannon Funk was my customer service representative. I submitted a radio transmitter which I did not purchase from Horizon for service out of warranty. Not only was the transmitter serviced without charge, my loss of a model airplane was compensated as a result of the transmitter failure. This is not typical customer support. This is above and beyond Horizon should be commended. I will not purchase hobby items from any other vendor, Horizon has my unconditional and highest recommendation! If you are considering a hobby purchase, radio control, remote operated vehicle or any item which Horizon carries purchase the item from them, the support you will receive will be nothing less than stellar!"

"I have to say, I'm beyond impressed with this company. Plain and simple, I ordered a product and got two repeat e-mails in one day saying my order was processed. The next day I get an apology e-mail for the inconvenience of receiving 2 e-mails? With a discount code for 10% off anything! Now THAT is customer service, and says a lot about how they feel about their customers.It was no inconvenience to me, but they've got my vote for how business and customer service should be handled.
Neil"

"Great company that cares about their customers. "

"I love this shop, I've ordered time and time again over the past 5 or 6 years and have NEVER had a lost, damaged, forgotten, or overpriced item. Their customer service is the best I've ever seen, they not only know what they're talking about but you can tell they aren't there to screw you over. Repair service is also good. Totally will always buy from them! Just wish they'd release a coupon once in a while ;)"

"I've had a horrible experience with HH. It's one thing to have a rough experience, it's another thing to be told on 3 occasions you'd be called back by someone and have not yet received a call.

I wouldn't buy from them again unless I was unable to get the product elsewhere. "

"i ordered a rerelease of the Tamiya midnight pumpkin kit. Best price i found. came FAST and well packed. i have no problems ordering from them again. was a great way to get this kit."

"Ordered a corsair from the company that was shipped free to my APO address. Was so happy with the plane and purchasing experience that I also purchased their ultra micro version. Both planes look and fly great, will recommend to anyone getting into the sport.
Was happy to see that parts for the planes are in stock and cheap. Shipping packaging is great."

"I purchased a Proboat Radio Controlled boat from horizon hobby.

I ran the boat once with the stock transmitter and then for some unknown reason the transmitter failed.

I called Horizon Hobby and explained to them the situation.

They told me that they were back ordered on the stock transmitter that came with my boat and offered me a Spektrum (One of the name brands that they sell) transmitter for no charge, so that I did not have to wait. I took their generous offer, I did not even have to pay shipping. 6 days later, it arrived.

If you are new to the radio controlled hobby or an old pro, regardless if it is planes, helicopter, cars, trucks or boats, I highly recommend Horizon Hobby just based on their customer service.


"

"I've placed several orders with this company now. Each one has been properly packaged and promptly shipped. They quickly respond to order changes and cancellations. They have an excellent inventory of product. Have one preorder pending with them now and will continue to order from them."