some questions about hobbyking.....

[justanoobpassingby]

Hello everybody Once again to my second post.
If you want to know what i'm going to talk about please read my first post: http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?34743-just-looking-for-advice-for-many-things
So i bought all the stuff i need for the mighty ini= mustang kit but i still need a transmitter and battery charger.
I didn't wanted it to be too expensive so i asked and i got some advice, some stuff from hobbyking.
i asked my dad (as always) to pay for me but because my mother bought some shoes off a Chinese website branded as Italian shoes and she didn't get them my father is now ALWAYS checking if the website is rated good by reviews.
when he searched for information about hobbyking he found only bad reviews of 1 star, so he is not planning to buy something off their website (at least for now).
So i want to know:
- Is HobbyKing really that bad
- Why are there so many bad reviews about HobbyKing
- How do i convince my dad to buy from them
That are all my questions.
hope you have a good day!

 

[liamnave]

Hobby king is definitely a Chinese company, however every single component I have gotten from them (10 things) have been flawless. If you want something with good ratings I would check out horizon hobby. There stuff is a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for, which in this case is a good thing. For a charger I would check out this. https://www.horizonhobby.com/produc.../prophet-sport-lipo-35w-ac-charger-dync2005ca
I do not have it, but its a pretty reputable brand. If you want something a little nicer I would go with this one. https://www.horizonhobby.com/produc...ophet-sport-plus-50w-ac-dc-charger-dync2010ca
With this one you can do variable rate charging, different battery chemistry's, and it can do 2-6S, which leaves you some room to grow.
As for a transmitter I would go with the DXe. https://www.horizonhobby.com/produc...ft-transmitters/dxe-transmitter-only-spmr1000
This was my first transmitter, never had a problem. It can do rates, configurations, and, as its 6 channels, can do extra stuff like dropping bombs, flaps, retracts or whatever. You will also need a receiver, this receiver on horizon hobby costs 40$, but you can get it for 10$ from Hobby King! https://hobbyking.com/en_us/orangerx-r615x-dsm2-dsmx-compatible-6ch-2-4ghz-receiver-w-cppm.html
Hope this helps!

 

[Balu]

People always forget that you get what you pay for. If you buy from Hobbyking, you need to be sure you know the product you are getting (or risk getting cheap crap). Of course you will mostly find bad reviews for every online shop. People who had a problem love to complain, people where everything worked flawless, jut enjoy their products.

You can find amazing deals and products at HK, but you can also buy things that break as soon as you touch them. If you need a specific item, like a brand name receiver and it costs less at Hobbyking, go for it. If you read great reviews about planes like the Durafly Tundra (Durafly is a Hobbyking brand) or the Hobbyking Bixler, you can safely buy them from Hobbyking.

Buying from a warehouse that is close to you helps with shipping times and chance of delivery.

I got my first Mini 3D printer from Hobbyking (because it had great reviews) which i loved and recommended to everyone that asked. Now I got the "Version 2" of that printer which is a completely different model rebranded from a cheap Chinese manufacturer and I can't get it to print right. If I had waited for the early reviews, I'd probably not have bought it. But yeah, with the good experiences I had before, I decided to go for it even though I didn't know if it was any good. In that case I just took the risk and "lost". But I knew that might happen.

So: If you know what you want to get, go for it. If you just need "some part", you might be lucky, but you might not. In those cases you get what you pay for.

As far as I remember you can pay with Paypal which has the option to get your money back in case of problems with delivery, etc. That is a nice safety net.

 

[JimCR120]

I remeber Hobby King being more criticized in the past and I think the biggest gripe was shipping times and product manuals. Over the years though they have greatly improved their reputation with higher quality products and multiple wharehouses worldwide. I have purchased through HK and will continue to because their prices are so affordable and I am very satisfied with their products.

All that said, your dad's money is his and it should be expected that he would want to spend it responsibly. My recommendation is to just help him make a well informed decision. If he is willing to spend his money for your hobby you already win. If you help him spend wisely you both win. So show him a list of the things you need to buy for a build and shop that list on HK and a couple other sites. Then show him the results. I suspect when he compares the total prices of each he might be willing to take a risk for the savings. If he'd rather spend more for something he feels is more trustworthy, then I would just concede that it is his choice even though you recommend otherwise. Again, either way you win. Now in appreciation for this you could do is help him spend his money wisely.

 

[Snarls]

In the past Hobbyking (HK) had its share of troubles. Just a few years ago the hobby started to pick up and Hobbyking was the largest and cheapest place to get items. A lot of their items were poorly designed and manufactured products that disappointed many, but there were some gems to be found. Also most of the goods came from their China warehouse. Shipping from China is tricky and it is not uncommon for packages to get damaged or lost, especially with budget shipping companies. HK had a very lack luster support service and it was quite difficult to get help when needed.

Fast forward to today and Hobbyking has vastly changed. Most of the items offered are now of decent quality and HK carries a lot of well respected brands. Prices are not as cheap it seems, but the difference in item quality makes up for it. HK has warehouses around the world, and assuming you are in the US, they have a pretty well stocked US warehouse with fairly good shipping rates and good shipping times. Support is better as far as getting your order fixed if it lost or damaged, but it sure is not as supportive as Flitetest as far as answering general questions. HK recently (this past winter) had a major website update that was very buggy, which may explain some of the recent bad reviews. The website now is better and is actually much easier to use if you just want to shop from one warehouse.

If Hobbyking still doesn't work, and all you need is a transmitter and charger, I am certain that we can help you find some shop in the US that sells those items for a reasonable price.

 

[cranialrectosis]

I have had mixed results from HobbyKing. I have simply found other vendors. If I buy from HobbyKing I use PayPal and I don't give HobbyKing my credit card number.

Is there a reason why you want to shop from HobbyKing? Like Snarls says, there are lots of vendors, particularly in the US.

 

[justanoobpassingby]

i live in the EU so vendors here are kinda hard to find, and HK seems the most accessible for me.
its kinda hard finding a transmitter for the same price as on HK that is the same quality from what i found, and i don't really have the time to find other websites that are affordable and have good quality.

 

[Bricks]

I have used HobbyKing a good bit but they irritate me on there shipping prices.

I have had great results from both of these sites, they take some searching trying to find what you want and need but for there prices well worth it I have gotten some great deals my last was 10X5 electric props 10 for $3.03 delivered. Shipping times take a while so plan for that most vendors have very good communication

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesal...0170526165503&isPremium=y&SearchText=rc+parts This cite is not well laid out takes a bunch of searching.

https://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-Toys-and-Hobbies-c-133.html Much easier site to use and they do well standing behind what you buy.

 

[Wildthing]

I buy quite a bit from HK, I usually wait until I need a little stock order that is 150 or more then shipping is free (china that is). Anything from the US because I am in Canada then they always tend to ship FedEx or UPS and then I always get dinged for customs and brokerage fees. If it can be shipped by USPS I have a 60% chance on no fees. I also buy quite a bit from Aliexpress and BangGood . All of them have their quirks , I use PayPal for all of them.

 

[clolsonus]

My local hobby shop is almost entirely horizon hobby stuff which is good if that's what you are looking at, but they have almost zero inventory these days. It's sad to see inventories shrinking and more and more empty shelves every time I visit a local hobby shop. One local store has gotten rid of all their balsa kits and arfs. Like a gut punch when I walked in there last time. I guess I'm fortunate to have lived during the age of hobby shops. Kids these days have no idea what they missed. So all that said, I order from HK and have always been 100% satisified. The one time I had an issue with something failing out of the box, they resolved the issue fairly. The one time I had an issue with banggood I was so disgusted with what they did I didn't even try to contact them about it.

 

[Wildthing]

I do use my local hobby shop also, some things like motors, esc's, cf rod, batteries, servos and so on they just can't match the price even once I do the exchange rate. But a lot of things because they do stock orders every week which is really nice and if the price is decent there is no freight charge . As an example I wanted a bunch of APC props , I gave them my list and the following week they are in. Some props were even cheaper then what APC advertised them for.

 

[Wildthing]

As far as bad reviews go, people will always take time to post a bad review but never a good one so take the reviews with a grain of salt I say.

 

[clolsonus]

That's a good point Wldthing: my local hobby shop is also very willing to special order just about anything if you give them the list. They add it to their regular order and it comes about as fast as from anywhere else.

 

[Merv]

I have had excellent results with Hobby King, Banggood, Value Hobby, Grayson Hobby as well as many other online vendors too numerous to mention. The time & cost of shipping are issues. It takes 3-5 weeks form China and about 1 week for domestic orders to reach me. My nearest hobby shop is 90 miles away and one with decent inventory is 150 miles away. For me online shopping is my only viable choice.

Support your local hobby shop or risk loosing it.

 

[sprzout]

I've had issues with HobbyKing. I waited TWO MONTHS for them to ship me some items that were on sale. After waiting 30 days for the first order, I wrote them and asked where it was.

"The warehouse is waiting for stock to come in."

"Wait, what do you mean? When I ordered it, they had it IN STOCK."

I checked online and found that the US warehouse was technically "out of stock" due to my order. However, they had ONE of the item in stock in their US warehouse. Because of this, they wouldn't restock in the US warehouse, because the system wouldn't reorder it until they were down to zero. But, nobody else could order any because the system was telling everyone else that it was out of stock and they had to order from Hong Kong.

When I posed this issue to their customer support, I was told to cancel and reorder my item from the Hong Kong warehouse, which had plenty in stock.

"Will I still get the sale price I purchased the item at?"

"Well, no. That sale ended 2 weeks ago."

I complained to supervisors, and eventually got someone to order the item from the Hong Kong Warehouse, and ship it to me, without charging me the difference. It took over 9 weeks before I got my items, from the date of order to the date I got them. While I eventually got what I was supposed to get, I've got no desire to order anything from HobbyKing again.