WOW, Hobbyking and fast in one sentence.

Stambo

Stambo

Well-Known Member
I just ordered some stuff from Hobbyking last night.
Status went from paid at 3:35am 29/11/13 their time to shipped at 7pm 29/11/13 their time.
I wonder what the delivery will be like this close to Christmas, especially with a lipo in the mix.
I will keep you posted.

I have destroyed my TX battery by forgetting to turn it off, it just does not want to charge one cell fully.
At the moment I have a 3s lipo sticking out the back with duct tape holding it in so it would be nice to have it in time for my Christmas break.
Won't be holding my breath though.
 
A main hobbies and Horizon Hobbies have just about everything I need. Horizon is in Illinois and usually get my parts in 1 or 2 days. A main hobbies takes a little longer but ships from California at a decent shipping rate.

OK so why do I dislike Hobby King. Number one I bought 2 batteries from them, it took me almost 2 months to get them to acknowledge that my order must have gotten lost. They kept telling me to contact my post office that they are probably holding them. The tracking number only showed that the order had posted but never moved anywhere. I must have made contact with at least 15 different people and always got the same answer. So if any of you ever have a problem with HK, you have to open a case. I did as instructed and kept getting lame answers. I finally solved the problem by opening 6 cases a day (for the same issue) until I got someone to acknowledge that my order had gotten lost. I mentioned in each case that I would continue opening cases everyday until my problem got resolved. It took 3 days before someone finally decided they should go ahead and cancel out the first order and send my batteries. It still took a week and a half to get my batteries after they placed the order again.

I was contacted a few days after receiving my batteries by a Hobby King customer support representative from California. She told me that communication with foreign tech support gets messed up like that from time to time and was very apologetic about my situation. Didn't offer any coupons or any discounts for my trouble. But asked me to continue to shop Hobby King. I said maybe.

Second, I bought an HK500 don't remember the exact model. It was flybarless with torque tube tail. After spending a month with several quality issues and blaming my IKON gyro, I took the electronics off the heli and it is still sitting in a box in my storage unit. I will not spend another dime on it. I had experimented with some cheap torque tube parts while I was learning and crashing a lot. If you look closely at Align torque tube gear parts you will see the gears are mounted on the shafts with pins. HK and other cheap clone parts use the hot cold method with raised barbed metal on the shaft. Not worth crashing over. I also received my brand new helicopter with a bent main shaft and the blades that came with it were junk. I balanced them but they still wobbled so bad I thought I had a few bent main shafts. Put my align blades on it that's how I figured out the blades were bad.

Back to the barbed metal shaft and plastic gears. My tail kept washing out which was why I blamed the IKON. It ended up being the bevel gear in the front gear set was intermittently slipping. It took a dozen or so flights until one day I spun up the heli and the tail wasn't turning at all. So yes I had a bad experience and maybe they have some useful stuff but I'll stick with the companies that have treated me right and sell quality products. The Heli I am flying was originally a belt drive EXI with flybar. It is now a DFC flybarless, torque tube with 3GX. 95% Align. I don't put cheap parts on it anymore because I am flying much better and I learned my lesson. I was into saving money and although it seemed like I was saving, crashing because of a cheap part does not save anything!

Sorry Tony, had to tell my story.

Ken
 
Why are you apologizing to me? I can't stand HK, probably more so than you lol.

You should send me that helicopter. :chuckles:
 
This is order number 20 for me from Hobbyking and I have still not had a bad experience.
I understand the frustration of those that have but when buying local costs 3 times as much I will continue to push my luck.
I do so with the full understanding that eventually I may lose out on a deal but I have saved so much on previous stuff that to me, it's worth it.

I generally only get components like motors, ESCs and batteries as well as other minor electronic stuff.
I have now given up on the cheap plastic props for my multi's as they have been the cause of my last 2 crashes.
I have just installed some CF props and had to tweak FC board settings but flight seems a lot crisper.

It will be interesting to see when this stuff arrives.
 
I've bought three times from HK. Mostly batteries, but a few odds and ends otherwise. No problems at all. Fast turnaround to shipping. I make sure to buy from their US warehouse, though. I've never ordered from their HK warehouse.
 
Stambo said:
This is order number 20 for me from Hobbyking and I have still not had a bad experience.
I understand the frustration of those that have but when buying local costs 3 times as much I will continue to push my luck.
I do so with the full understanding that eventually I may lose out on a deal but I have saved so much on previous stuff that to me, it's worth it.

I generally only get components like motors, ESCs and batteries as well as other minor electronic stuff.
I have now given up on the cheap plastic props for my multi's as they have been the cause of my last 2 crashes.
I have just installed some CF props and had to tweak FC board settings but flight seems a lot crisper.

It will be interesting to see when this stuff arrives.
Click to expand...

100% agree with you.
I have ordered a tonne of stuff from them. All orders have been delivered to me in a week from the Int warehouse.
Before I buy anything from them, I read the the public reviews under the item. If there are any bad comments at all, I don't buy it.
I have not had a single thing fail on me or turn up already damaged yet.
Guess I'm just lucky.
 
Ok, I'll toss my comments in the mix, too, lol.

I have 26 purchases from Hobby King. A combination of orders from the US warehouse as well as the International warehouse. I've ordered from the International warehouse because there are some items that are only sold from the International warehouse and not the US warehouse. It sucks, but that's the way it is. Anyway...I've got 26 purchases from Hobby King and I still have yet to have a bad experience. I've seen plenty of videos on Youtube from people that have ordered from HK and really got sour grapes. People here on RCH have ordered from HK (Tony) and have gotten sour grapes. That really sucks and I surely feel bad for those that have gotten the sour grapes. Fortunately for me, I've not gotten sour grapes. Are my days numbered? It's possible. Although I do order from A Main Hobbies, Grayson Hobby, and Heli Direct...I'll still order from Hobby King as well.

Stambo...I surely hope that you continue to get good working parts from Hobby King! I really do!!!
 
Derek said:
Stambo...I surely hope that you continue to get good working parts from Hobby King! I really do!!!
Click to expand...

As far as I am concerned, even if I finally do have a "bad experience" I will continue to buy from HK.
Here in New Zealand the local hobby shops are so expensive that the amount I have already saved will far surpass the cost of anything that goes wrong.
When my LHS asks $40nz for a battery I can get from HK for less than $15nz including shipping you know where my dollar is going.
If I had to pay LHS prices I would not be in this hobby. I just could not afford it.

Like Lee, I always check reviews and comments before I buy.
 
I certainly wouldn't suggest that any customer of HK stop buying. I have my mind set and so do you and you may never have a problem with them. I have other options available so I'm lucky to have multiple choices. Its kind of like fast food restaurants here in the US. You get a bad McDonalds and you won't go there again for years and years. Even if that one improved we've made up our minds sometimes.

I will probably buy batteries from HK again because they are the cheapest on batteries I have seen, but if they make me wait 3 months again for (2) 6s 2650 batteries I'll just get pissed all over again and post a bad report all over again, Lol

Ken
 
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