Any bad experiences with Hobby King ?

[joh2239509]

** Disclaimer: This is strictly my experience and in no way do I feel against Flite Test or anyone there. Again this is strictly my opinion and what happened when I needed to return an item to Hobby King **

I had to return a transmitter to Hobby King that was DOA. Out of the box the transmitter would not work at all no matter what i tried.

After submitting for a return authorization on the Hobby King website things started to get interesting. First I was asked to provide photos showing the non-working item. This was no big deal and I quickly submitted a couple photos as they requested.

When trying to get a response from them on how to send the item back I was contacted by a different person every time who had no idea about my warranty claim and needed all the information explained to them again so they could look into it and contact me back. A week went by with no contact.

After finally getting some responses from email I sent inquiring about the status of my return I was then told I needed to upload a video of the defective device. Huh??? That sounded very strange to me and I am not very tech savvy. I simply told them I did not have a way to upload video and the pictures clearly show that the device was not working at all.

Again another week went by with no response and to this day I can still not get any solid answers from this company. I have since submitted for a refund through PayPal and was approved pending a return of the items. The bad thing is I now have to pay $30 to return the item to Hong Kong which will not be refunded back to me.

One more point of interest: when calculating the return shipping the measurements of the box is grossly exaggerated by Hobby King. The dimensions were way off and their website shows the package weighing roughly 3.04 lbs (after conversion) when in reality it barely weighs 1.2 lbs. What is up with this?

-- Anyone else have problems with Hobby King and feel that Flite Test should not promote their website? --

 

[aiidanwings]

I've not, and I don't think FliteTest should stop promoting Hobby King.

 

[c172ae]

I have not had any problems with HK - except that they once sent 6 HXT900's instead of 5. I'm not going to say anything.

I have heard from different sources that they are moving CS to the states because the management aren't to happy with the current situation. until that happens, I would try to contact someone higher up in the system. I've heard quite a few stories about people being in the situation you are in, and after sending an email to a guy (I wonder if he is called Tom), it hasn't been any problems getting the problem fixed.

 

[Craftydan]

HK is notorius for their poor service and it's not hard to find one complaint or another about them . . . and frankly, if they've earned them, we should see the complaints.


As for promoting the HK, I've yet to see an episode where HK's service was lauded. IMO they've been promoted for what it is: Their products on the whole are cheap but good, and their prices are very good (though in some cases they can be beat). While HK's bureaucracy hasn't gotten any better, their CS is showing signs of improvement -- YES, it used to be worse.

You have a ligitimate gripe here -- I've heared it before and *lived* it -- and I hope they continue to listen and improve their CS. I disagree, however, that their products -- which, believe it or not, we're asking for reviews of -- should recieve a press black-out for poor service when the products can actually be quite nice.

In the end, caveat emptor -- Buyer beware. They have good products for the price, but it's defective, you're going to have to work to prove it to them.

 

[OrcaSea]

I kinda look at it this way: With the prices they have (and their US warehouse 2-days USPS and 70-miles away) I figure it's the price I pay if I ever get a dud (which I have yet to get from HK). Of course, a big ticket item would be different, but frankly just about any other RC hobby item is built in China and I doubt the QC is much different between any of the manufacturers.

That all having been said, you have a legit gripe and I would definitely buck it up the ladder, as this seems like particularly egregious incompetence and poor management.