topspin

I'm sure Rob can provide you with those....

topspin

You know for years I would only buy German or Japanese automobiles but I recently bought a Ford and I am amazed with the quality and the technology. We all know that most RC hobby stuff is made overseas and not all Chinese made goods are junk but the good stuff is not cheap. Hobby King sells name brand stuff like Futaba and they are not cheap at all compared to their other stuff. Add the cost of shipping and it works out to be within a few bucks of US distributors who don't charge shipping on those items.

Your argument is correct in some aspects but not very relevent to the topic.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

I am not going to knock the USA companies or distributors , considering i am getting paid so much from hobby king I must continue to post mindless loyalty towards my leader .
I have a spectrum trans , wont go to anything else , but I have used the orange receivers from Hobby King , problem free .
I was totally afraid to do so and to date have not found one issue .
As far as Hitec h55 , I also found replacements with medal gears at 1/3 the cost on the HK site , dont know the HK number , shame on me but i am still new with HK and dont know all the item numbers yet .
This is the funny thing about this hobby we tout brand names bla bla bla , then go to the RCU sales area we bash a guy who trys to get a return on his investment on brand names lol , every time the same thing .
If a poor soul has to sell his good , forbid him if he try's to break even or take a 30% loss , he better be at 50% or more !!
Yep , that is what you get when you stick with brand names, you pay major dollars , and your resale is less then 25 at receipt of goods !!!!
Enjoy the Hobby Fellas and buy and pay as you wish , no worries on my end , I am happy with my current methods and so is my wallet

Tony Iannucelli

My Feedback: (193)

Just received my order #110 from Hobby King. A total of three minor problems in all those products. Service has been fine. Latest issue took 20 minutes to explain and solve on Live Chat. The issue was actually my fault, and they fixed it. I've also been informed I am a "platinum member" and also, now, an "elite club" member with a line to the boss. Pretty sweet. According to some of you it's only a matter of time before they start sending me money, shirts, free stuff, etc. Looking forward to it. One can only hope.

On2_n_On4

to the topic? no... to erik valdez reply? yes

countilaw

Notice how Rob makes one post right after another. Do you guys get paid by the post? Must be, that's the only reason you make post after posts, kinda like answering your own posts. LMAO

Rob, I don't even bother reading your posts, because it burns you up to read mine and you have to fire off a post in a rebuttal. LMAO

Frank

topspin

It only takes about ten orders to become a Platinum member, are you sure you don't mean 10 orders?

topspin

With 400 orders I should think so. I don't think I have made 400 orders in total in the last ten years and I have more planes than anyone I know. You really have to wonder about the credibility of those kinds of statements and put them in perspective. No one in their right mind would go to such an extreme level to defend a hobby shop unless they were being compensated in some way.

warningshot

Topspin. You might want to go back and read post #86.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Considering this thread adds no value at this point but enless bashing and is clearly being moderated and adjusted , I want to attempt to add some value for those who may be confused on and if they should purchase from Hobby King .
A) back to the basic rules of doing business with Hobby King
1)never order items on back order or out of stock ---never ever
2)pay with pay pal , you can always file a grevance if needed and get your money back
3)read the reviews especially on esc, batterys and motors , they change brands and suppliers and it can change quality
4)On lipos the NanoTech brand is quite good and worth the purchase vs other expensive brands
5)easy purchases that really make sence are props, spinners , wheels ect
6)The orange 2.4 receiver (spectrum copies ) have been great at 7 channels and less , higher have reports of problems
7) can not speak for the orange Futaba copies at all
8) the new Copies of DLE engine seem to have problems , personally I would advoide them (my own opinion )
9)Retracts -you will see the Brand Turnegy , the problem is that many of these are the Lanseng Brand , the company really means well but I am still not convinced that the eboard have the tolerance to work slow free . Some USA guys are working with Lanseng but I am not convinced they are problem free. Your better off trying the FMS brand sold by Motion Rc in Florida , Veteran run business but these retract range from 60 and under size planes , so you cany exceed 12 lbs in weight . If you need larger eletric retracts try ESM or Parkflyers .com, they have a new P40 set for $179 .
Robart is still way off in reasonable cost as they have to source to many parts to make there eletric retracts function .
10) Glow , have not seen anything worth trying , they were useing the same factory as Magnum and making the copies ( name escapes me at this time)
11)Servos , read the reviews , some of the servos are incredible in value and function /cost , especailly the medal gear H55 knockoffs
12) wont buy the transmitters even if they were $10 , read to many problems on them
13) there smaller eplanes that are copies of the Great planes smaller format wood line are not worth the purchase because Great PLanes has price parity in this segment
14) If you want a good EPO format Hobby King is best for Jets vs prop planes . FMS sold by Motion is at the top of the prop line , LX is really nice but only avaible thru Bananha hobby and you dont want to get started on that company lol , however the LX planes are really great. As an earlier posted said , the Hobby King Durafly brand is nice but the planes are small for my taiste
15) So in closing I hope that allows those that really want facts to make an educated decison .
16) as far as eletric retracts i consider myself way ahead of the curve with 5 years of experience in what has been release if you have any question feel free to PM me so I dont get accused of selling anyt particular brand. I am still tesing my 3.5 esm Corsair retracts , verdict is still out

perreback

Good, sensible reading, LDM.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Thank you Perre !

ira d

If you need to take all the precautions that you suggest just to do business with a company why bother?

Rob2160

All excellent advice and I fully concur

As for Point #7 - the Orange FASST receivers are excellent - as good as an original Futaba for 1/3rd the cost.

I use several of them in Helis and fixed wing, zero issues in more than 2 years and hundreds of flights.

Here is a vid of the Orange FASST during a range check. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMet7-BEQWc

Rob2160

I can help you put it in perspective..

1. Spent 23 years of my life on a Cop salary / supplemented by doing flight instruction at a local flying school - essentially working 7 days a week
2. In Dec 2008 was offered a great Corporate Pilot job in Perth for 3 times the salary - yes THREE times
3. Started the new job which entailed flying 4 or 5 days a month - giving me 25 days free EVERY month..
4. For the first time in my life.. lots of spare time.. with lots of extra cash.. what to do??

I spent the first year buying every model train I ever wanted - the 2nd year I got bored with the trains - and came back to RC - got totally hooked on RC Helicopters..

I flew them on average 25 times a day, 25 days per month..

Building a Heli takes on average 3-4 days - flight testing etc, another few days.. for almost a year I was building a new heli every month - just to keep myself occupied.

Each heli requires numerous parts to complete... I would often buy 3 or 4 different motors for each helicopter purely to test various configurations.

Also bought dozens of tools, servo testers, chargers, telemetry units.

139 orders over 3 years - that averages less than 1 order per week - several items per order.. sounds about right.

If you like I will post the contents of every single order and you can count them for yourself?

This vid was made during the "crossover" from Trains to Helis in June 2010...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FAEnDyA-70 Hornby and Kato paid me lots of money to post my train videos also..

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

There was no need,, not suprised you didn't get that

bth9318

My Feedback: (24)

omg rob stop. im laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes and my wife is wondering *** im looking at. hobbyking island that's great. sign me up please. on a more serious note I do love how you have backed everything you have said up with FACTS not opinion or ignorance. I challenge the others to do the same. Ldm your list of hobbyking rules is almost spot on. The nano batteries are great, the hxt 9 gr servos are good, my cheap ecko six charger is 2 yrs old and still going strong, their one meter led strip lights are great, I have the turnigy 9x radio for 2 yrs now no issues they where so cheap I bought 2 and the second one is still in the box, be sure to range check the recievers out of ten 6 and 8 channel I did have 2 bad 8 ch but at 9 dollars a piece I just throw away and think of the 5-700 hundred I saved by not buying jr or futaba 2.4, the deans style battery plugs are great. Say what you want but hobby king and others like them should be opening your eyes to the absolutely ridiculous mark up the usa distributers have been doing to us for years. I would buy from tower and the like if they where even remotely competitive. You will never convince me that customer service makes the dx9 cost over $200 more than the frysky taranis and in my opinion the taranis is the better radio. but in their defense horizon hobby did lower their receiver prices [h=3]AR635 6-Channel AS3X Sport Receiver[/h]By: Spektrum
Item: SPMAR635
In Stock Out Of Stock
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.00000
(16)
Qualifies for Free Shipping* (View Details)
Price: Reg. $119.99 new low price $99.99
and look at that they even through in free shipping
wow with deals like that I may just sell all my hobbyking stuff add $500 dollars to it and fly one plane this year.

init4fun

Funny that , It appears that a full search of RCU has turned up not one single member who represents themselves as an HK employee acting as a forum representative . And yet there is that HK ad , advertising for paid forum reps .... Now , once everyone has gotten past the well laid smokescreen that Rob has put out (making this thread about himself , rather than the issues with HK) it would be nice to see what the HK faithfull think of the fact that not a SINGLE person ever took HK up on their offer . Was HK just THAT disreputable that NO rc hobbyist in their right mind would associate their name with them ? Is their legendary customer disservice SO notorious that even some average joe nobody wouldn't tie their name to them ? Could that be the reason we have no identified "official" HK reps on board ? Or could it be that maybe , just maybe , a few folks DID take the job , but dare not identify themselves for fear of the mountain of customer service complaints that would fill their inbox in the minutes after they publicly wore the HK avatar ?

Attack me all ya want , but the simple glaring fact of the ad for forum reps coupled with NO one admitting HK financial association makes the tireless defenders look mighty suspicious to me . Now if HK cared enough about their customers to actually take care of Dirtybird's ESC (remember that ? ya know , the lack of customer service that started this thread in the first place ?) maybe they wouldn't need to hire sneaky "Nope ! not me ! I ain't an employee !!!" defenders who are as easy to see through as a clean window ,,,,,,

perreback

"I had a visit from Heidi, Helga (?) and Olga. They're the Swedish girls that operate the warehouse in Sweden". Apparently these girls are imported from Switzerland, Poland and Russia, respectively. Stay away from those girls, Rob.

init4fun

Is this supposed to be an intelligent response ? I thought we were discussing HobbyKing's lack of customer service ? What does Rob and Swedish women have to do with the fact that HK did Dirtybird wrong on the ESC ? If you want to discuss off topic drivel would you please take it elsewhere ? Real people have real problems with HK that they would like to discuss here , specifically HK's lack of customer service . Now , if any HK reps would like to step up and take care of dirtybird's failed ESC that would really be most welcome right about now . Oh wait , My bad , , , THERE ARE NO HK COMPANY REPS HERE , , , right ????

Ok , HK reps , Dirtybird is waiting ..............

(cue the sound of crickets chirping)

perreback

Well, intelligent responses have hardly been the main ingredient in this thread anyway --- with some notable exceptions --- so calm down.

init4fun

Yep , that's right , it's all fun and games when it's somebody else who got screwed out of the price of an ESC , huh ? How would you like it if it were YOU who bought a product that was failed right out of the box , had to pay to fix it yourself , and then got nothing but grief from a bunch of that company's employees who won't even identify themselves publicly when ya rightfully complain about it on line ?? Would it still be funny then ??? You little "calm down" taunt is a joke , I'm perfectly calm and willing to discuss why Dirtybird had to buy TWO escs to get his buggy going (yes , two , the original one that failed and it's replacement) , Now , proper customer service would have had HK replacing the ESC at their expense PERIOD Nothing else matters and is all BS and smoke intended to distract from the fact that HK will NOT stand behind anything they sell . The fact I keep bringing up about the company reps is highly relevant here as it points to a general policy of dishonesty when dealing with the customer . Yes , it IS cheaper to pay a few guys to shoot down bad press on line , rather than to fix the multitudes of bad product , but is that really what our hobby deserves ?

Hobbyking screwed Dirtybird out of an ESC . That is the bottom line here . Everything else is just so much smoke in the wind , , , It'll evaporate and the fact will remain , shop at HK at your own risk .......

init4fun

And yes , I'm still waiting for the HK rep to come and fix Dirtybird's esc , ya know , like how Horizon has Andy who comes on to help with Spektrum and Hobbico has Bax to help with Futaba ? They're forum reps who help their company's customers with product difficulties . I know HK advertised for some forum reps , , , Anyone seen any around who might like to help out Ol Dirtybird with his ESC ???

perreback

I wouldn't like it one bit, obviously. Fortunately for me, though, my experiences with HK have been nothing but positive --- so far. I just put in two new orders yesterday, actually (sometimes it makes sense to have two smaller packages sent rather than one big one), and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be all right this time, too --- as I expect it will.

"Calm down" because I don't like it when people make snotty remarks at me --- as far as I know, I hadn't made one at you.

init4fun

Ok Great , so now that we've gotten past this being about us , we'll just have to sit back and watch as HK's customer service takes care of Dirtybird's failed ESC , right ?

Any guesses as to how long it's gonna take an HK company rep to show up here and save the day for poor ol Dirtybird ????

Curious potential this interesting communication medium possesses , it sure seems to work well for Horizon and Hobbico ... I wonder if HK cares as much about their customers as Horizon and Hobbico do so as to put in place REAL customer service , no useless photographs of a darned right well failed ESC required ????