Is this normal for Hobby King?

JasonEricAnderson

Senior Member
I'm a newbie and after reading all the stuff about people's problems with Hobby King orders and everything I've been very hesitant to order anything from them. Two golden rules seemed to always come up.
  • Buy from the US warehouse
  • Only order 'In Stock' items
I built my first swappable FT Nutball airframe and power pod and was ready to start getting the electronics.

After a lot of back and forth I decided to give Hobby King a chance. I figured I'd keep it simple for my first order. I ordered my very first transmitter, an OrangeRX T-Six (mode 2) and two HXT900 servos on May 17th. Both items 'In Stock' from the US warehouse. $73.29 + $14.37 USPS shipping to Ohio.

Days went by and nothing happened and then the order was 'Printed' to be pulled from the warehouse and finally on May 28th it was 'Shipped'

On May 29th USPS showed it had "Depart USPS Sort Facility FEDERAL WAY, WA with a Expected Delivery By:
June 4."

So I've been anxiously waiting for my first RC gear to arrive and.... nothing.

Now USPS is showing :
Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility
June 6, 2013, 12:54 am
FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003

It went back to Washington? I even checked the address in the Hobby King custom's invoice and it has my correct address. I'm going to take the USPS tracking info to my post office today and see if they have any answers.

:confused: Does it usually take Hobby King this long to ship two 'In Stock' items from the US warehouse?
:confused: Has anyone else had issues like this with USPS with their Hobby King orders?
 
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510thousandths

Just someone else.
Mentor
Only ordered from us wharehouse once, got the item in less than a week...It sounds like something happened to your package, in USPS land, and is on it's way back to HK.?
 

JasonEricAnderson

Senior Member
So two people at the post office were no help. They looked it up in their system and were only able to tell me:

"It's on its way to [my local post office] and they don't have it yet."

Well technically that has been true since the 28th of May. They couldn't give me any idea where it actually was.

So it appears it has so far gone like this:
It departed from here:
Depart USPS Sort Facility
May 29, 2013
FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003

-Us-post--FEDERAL-WAY--WA-98003---Google-Maps.png


...and it spent a week in transit.
After seven (7) days it has shown up here:



Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility
June 6, 2013, 12:54 am
FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003
-us-post--FEDERAL-WAY--WA-98003---Google-Maps.png

That parking lot must be much larger than it looks.
 
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eagle4

Member
i had one parcel come from their international warehouse and on the shipping invoice it said it was going to London GB, not Montreal, CA. i was worried, contacted HK and all that, turned out it came to me with no problems, within their projected time. wierd.
 

Liemavick

Member
Mentor
The last order (recently) I placed with HK U.S. was processing in the warehouse for 6 days. Progress note said order printed and sent warehouse. It took close to two weeks before I received it. Nothing was listed as out of stock. The previous four orders I placed with them from the US warehouse were shipped in a timely manor with no problem, go figure. Forget about HK "support" live chat, all they seem to do is log in to the same access you have when you check you're order.
 

IBeHoey

The Warranty Voider
They must be really backed up in the US warehouse. I placed an order on the 31st, all in stock items, and it just hit the printer yesterday, still waiting for it to be shipped. I also placed an order from the international warehouse, at the same time, and it left their warehouse on the 1st.

I've placed several orders from both warehouses in the past. This is the longest it's taken for the US warehouse but the quickest it's taken with the international warehouse lol.

Overall, I've had good experiences with HK, this is by far the longest it's ever taken with the US warehouse. Ordering from the international warehouse isn't bad either, it just takes awhile. Oh, one other thing to add to the rules list, if you're in the states, don't order Lipos, or anything with a LiPo from the international warehouse. Unless it's changed, they have to use a different carrier for shipping LiPos overseas (from what I heard, they had a couple fires break out) so your order will take FOREVER.
 
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lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
I haven't read the whole thread, but HK mark the order as 'sent' once they apply the paperwork to the package and stick it in the despatch area. When the postal service actually picks it up is another matter. It could be the same day, or if there are a lot of orders it could be a couple of days later (because they can't fit it in the truck).
 

Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
I just placed an order last Wednesday at the USA warehouse. It was delivered Monday following.
Plenty quick via USPS Priority Mail.

Thurmond
 

earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
My Durafly Corsair shipped from the US warehouse last Friday (June 7) and is scheduled for delivery on Friday, June 14 with UPS small parcel service. I think it is the cheapest option. One week to ship across country isn't horrible, but could be better for sure. I'm really pushing to get as much done on my STOL build before that distraction gets here!
 

Johan

Senior Member
I had 2 HK packages that took quite long, one was listed to have arrived a week earlier (i'd read about customs trouble, delay and such), the other was listed to have arrived in Sweden (oops).

I started calling our local (Dutch) postal service to inquire, you don't get a local tracking code until you call them and request it.
They could not find either of those packages.
I said HK tracking showed at least one of them had arrived a week before. They said: If it is in the country, or in customs we'd know.

I got worried a bit, next day they both show up with the mailman ... Which means they already were in their system anyway.
Go figure ...

Currently I'm still waiting for the Bat Bone frame that left Chicago sorting center on june 29th (two and a half weeks ago...).
They're problably assembling it and trying to make it fly to Europe on its own :)

On the upside: my remaining electronics seem to have arrived at the customs office just now (receiver, ESC's, Lipo', power distribution and some odd bits).

Once those arrive I can build a frameless tri :)
 
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