MinnSpin

My Feedback: (40)

When this company started, there was a lot of buzz about their impact on big box people like Tower and others.
What exactly has their impact become?

ira d

I dont think they have hurt the established hobby retailers much because of their poor cust service.

bogbeagle

For myself, I have not set foot inside a traditional model shop for ... at least 12 months.

That is, in part, because of HK. It's also because I can rarely find the things that I want, inside traditional establishments.

TomCrump

It has no impact on me, other than to provide some interesting reading, when people encounter their service.

I have not, and have no plans to, buy anything from a company with such a poor reputation.

init4fun

Ok , lets see if THIS post stays longer than the LAST one did .....

I see no impact whatsoever because Horizon and Hobbico seem to be doing well enough , giving the state of the economy and all ......

I guess , to some , customer service really DOES mean something ....

TomCrump

It means everything to some of us. Pinching pennies can be costly in the long run.

If I lay out my hard earned money, I want to know that the product will be backed up with quality service.

TomCrump

[QUOTE=init4fun;11725246]Ok , lets see if THIS post stays longer than the LAST one did .....

QUOTE]

Don't ya love the fact that RCU sends the text of the post, in it's email notifications ?

I know what you said, and I agree !

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I buy most of my stuff from HK now. There is a fellow in our club that buys from HK in bulk and charges his cost + 10%.
If you have a problem he just gives you another and returns the item for credit.
If he don't have what I want I can usually get it from the US warehouse.
I rarely have to return anything. Their products are reliable and very reasonably priced

mkranitz

My Feedback: (60)

The price of cheap merchandise is the WORST customer service (likely fraud) in the industry. I have been wrangling with those idiots for 5 months trying to get money back for an item they still have in their possession, all while they claim to have refunded me:

topspin

I don't think Hobby King has had any noticeable impact on Tower and Horizon, they attract a different kind of customer. I agree that the "good deals" aren't so good after you pay huge shipping charges or it never shows up and you have to spend two months getting your money back. I think the biggest impact they have had is on themselves by driving customers away with their terrible customer service and greedy refund policy.

daddyrabbit1954

The Common Law of Business Balance

“There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

Quote from John Ruskin

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

I think there has been an impact on Tower and Horizon-I see a lot HK stuff at the three flying fields I fly at-as far as the amount of monetary impact I have no idea- but from the amount of guys at this site that get their panties in a wad from talking about HK I know that it has made a large impact on their mental well being!!!!!!!!!!!

topspin

I think you are far too worried about it, quoth MacBeth.

I live in a faily affluent area and most of the stuff at the field where we fly is pretty high end, we don't see a lot of Hobby King stuff. No one at my field really cares much about them/

init4fun

And there you have it , I guess for some out here this really ain't about model airplanes . Got it .

Please see the soon to be posted thread "An open apology to RC Ken" for further clarification .........

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

"Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore!'" (Edgar Allan Poe)
.
Let me help you out with this Topspin --

Also I am not sure what (faily) means in your post-Would that mean you reside in a FAILED area of town such as the ghetto?

Or did you mean to boast where you reside and meant to type FAIRLY?-

A few misplaced letters in certain words can take on a whole new meaning-I would share several examples here but I really don't know you.

topspin

Meant to say fairly but if that's all you got then your life is flimsy. Maybe you should get a hobby. Not boasting just telling it like it is. But I am tired of these back and forth snipe contests, that what kids do.

happycamper

Then why keep doing it? I have a beef with the chinese toy shop too but where do you get off acting like the town sherriff interrogating their customers? Not cool buddy.

Ken Erickson

Is there maybe any indication of an impact in the new pricing Tower has for Futaba receivers?

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I suspect this is a first indication of lower prices we can expect. Those receivers are probably made in the same factory as the orange ones.
In the future, I think the Chinese will be the great exporter of hobby supplies. A number of US distributes are starting to import the same stuff that HK sells.

raptureboy

Just maybe the manufacturers are figuring out we really don't need all the bells and whistles they think we need, and now they can offer us a more reasonably priced product. Lets face it I don't think most of us could really tell the difference in performence between lets say a good analog servo and a digital servo used in a sport plane. I've used both in warbirds and everyday fliers and couldn't tell you the diff.

topspin

Tower has been discounting Futaba off and on for about two years now. Just for fun I checked a couple of Hong Kong vendors and Towers price for Two popular Futaba transmitters, it was acouple of years ago so I don't recall the specifics. Anyway, with free shipping the prices were 30 to 40 dollars less from Tower plus the fact that it would ship in just a couple of days instead of weaks and Tower offers real live customer service.

It is interesting that the Chinese have been manufacturing most of the RC hobby stuff for years but have not sold any of the high end stuff out of China. The Orange six channel transmitter is clearly a knockoff of the Spektrum DX6i but it uses cheaper components like the gimbals. I know a guy who bought one and the display went out two weeks after he got it. The typical goat rodeo of "send pictures of it not working and we will decide if we will send you another one" ensued so he threw it away and bought a DX6i that still works by the way.

I really don't see China having any more of an impact on the US hobby market in terms of direct sales than they already have, which is not really that much.

topspin

While I have not measured any, supposedly the digital servos offer a higher torque to weight ratio than analog and better precision. The way I fly I don't really notice the difference either but I'm sure the expert 3D guys can tell.

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

TOPSPIN-I wish you live close by-I could show you the quality your missing in HK items as well as have a show and tell on FLIMSY!!!! Leave me alone and go swap insults with someone else-thanks

mike31

My Feedback: (67)

Sometimes you get what you pay for. Not saying the expensive stuff is better!

[email protected]

My Feedback: (1)

I try to buy all american items>>