Local HobbyKing Store Front - South Africa (no more online orders??)

[Arno1978]

Hi guys

South Africa recently got a local store front in Pretoria. The owner recons that HK will stop all online orders for South African clients to force them to only buy his products from the store front seeing that HK sold him a franchise.

I wouldn't have a problem with that, but the prices are far to high at the local store. I did a quote from some parts I required to build my HK 450 and everything worked out more or less $266. I then placed an order with HK (Don't know how long this will still be available) and the order for the exact same parts came to $70.Customs usually comes to between $10 - $15 so a total of $85 which is not bad at all compared to $266 at the local store front.

I now need to know are there any one that has a local HK store front that cannot order from HK online any more? In other words does anybody know about HK customers that cannot order from HK online if they have a local store front in their country.

I enquired about this at HK via their support website, but have not yet received any feedback.

Your response would be appreciated.

 

[fred0000]

I think that the storefront owner told you that hobbyking will stop shipping to South Africa in an effort to get a sale (get you as a customer), I would continue to order from hobbykings website if I was you.

hobbyking has no say as to what the storefronts and store owners who carry hobbyking product price their stuff, unfortunatly the store owners can price it how they want.

 

[Ak Flyer]

I can order from the US warehouse or the international with no problems. I don't see how the store front owner can tell hobbyking what to do. That sounds pretty bogus.

 

[Arno1978]

Thats my thoughts as well, why would HK stop us from ordering from them even if we do have a local store front in our area.

The only products worth buying there are the batteries, so that I will get from them but as for the rest I think they are way over priced to actually keep my hobby going.

Thanks for the replies, I now feel so much better to know that HK have not cancelled online orders for countires that have local store fronts.

 

[lobstermash]

Yeah, he's telling straight out lies. Keep ordering from the online store and go in the shopfront to rub his nose in it. According to the franchisee in Adelaide, Hobbyking doesn't give them much leeway in terms of discounts - 5% was the quoted number. In Australia, there's a goods and services tax of 10% slapped onto retail stuff, plus there's the cost of staff and rent. If the store owner is honest, he's not making much money at all. Of course, you wouldn't be in business if you weren't making money, so there's a bit of BS built in. In short, they can't compete with any online store in terms of pricing. They either need better support (read cheaper prices) for franchisees, or tighter control over what are likely stupidly high profit margins (in which case you'd go to your other LHS or the online store).

Personally I'd love to run a shop here in Canberra and give some competition to the locals. If you could get prompt product deliveries and reasonable prices, you could make a mint here while undercutting the LHS by 30-40%!

 

[Arno1978]

Well that's what is happening, the LHB are not comming close to his prices, but it's even cheaper buying directly from HK, so I would rather wait for 2 weeks and save $200 in the process.

The guy's shop is running for 3 years already, but only recently got the HK franchise, I wish him all of the best cause it took allot of money and guts to start his business, but if he's not going to drop his prices, he may loose the guys that is used to ordering online.

Anyway, hope he makes a success of it, after all they are very friendly people, and they give very good advise which is sometimes worth more than money.

 

[Ak Flyer]

He needs to make his business around customer service. He needs to know his product in and out and be willing to help people out. I don't mind paying a bit more to keep a guy in business if he's making it worth my time to come in there. There's a guy in Anchorage I go see because he's helped me so much, even though I can get things cheaper online. His expertise and teaching is worth the extra.