topspin

I wish everything could be made in America but we all know that is impossible in our global economy. But the argument for not buying from a local hobby store or from a US based mail order company because most of what they sell is made in China is a red herring. We all know that and the point of this thread has nothing to do with goods made in China or anywhere else. Probably 90% of the stuff sold by US based hobby stores and mail order outlets is made in China but their customer service is superb. It is also a false claim that Hobby King has poor customer service to keep prices down, that's simply not true. Hobby King has poor customer service because they only care about getting your money and couldn't care less about what happens after that. They don't respect their customers.


Since they cut out all of the middle men they can sell for less and even at their prices they are making a hefty profit, far more than their US based counterparts like Tower and Horizon so they could easily offer even better customer care than those two if they wanted to. The sad truth is that they simply don't want to.

So please stop with the made in China rant already, we all know that and it has nothing to do with the issue. Not everything made in China is bad and not all hobby distributors are greedy thieves.

init4fun

And it is this customer service that keeps an LHS afloat . I am SUPER fortunate to have great customer relationships with the three LHS ' near me and all three have the BEST customer service a hobbyist could hope for . In the rare instance something ain't right with a product they have replaced it and dealt with the warranty between them and the manufacturer and never once left me to fend for myself with trying to get things fixed . That right there is why paying the premium for LHS service is worth it , at least to me . Additionally , the two "bigs" , Horizon and Hobbico , have never left me "holding the bag" when dealing with them directly as well , both have replaced defective product with no hoops or pictures of malfunctioning components . Only one company made it not worth the chase to get defective product reimbursed , Gee I wonder who that was , eh ?

Now , as to the Edge post , I was quite sure when I first read it that it wasn't meant for toppers , but instead referred to the gent who keeps on with the "buy American made" mantra , even though he's been told that it's just not possible to build an RC model plane with parts truly 100% American made . Really Oneaw , we all love our country just as much as you do , difference is we are informed enough as to the origin of our products to know that what you wish just isn't possible anymore . Good Grief buddy , did you see in last week's news that the most "American made" car in the U.S. is , , , , wait for it , , , a Toyota ??? .... This "outsourcing" began in the 1950s with the baby steps of product "Made in occupied Japan" , anyone else here old enough to remember that label on certain products in the 1950s ??? And now in 2015 the notion of buying anything based on nationality of manufacture seems as dated as the Jukeboxes and Drive in theaters that to most represent the decade of the beginning of the end for "buy American made" ......

topspin

Sorry, I got touchy, I don't normally do that so please accept my apology.

TheEdge

My Feedback: (788)

Accepted but not necessary of course.
Thank you

Mike TX

My Feedback: (8)

Never had a problem with delivery from HK. The website it confusing with 3 warehouses. Shop carefully, make sure its all in same warehouse. I have never been able to pay at exit. Always have to look at existing unpaid orders and pay manually. Once again NO PROBLEMS WITH DELIVERY. Overall I give them a 9 of 10. Never a product defect/disappointment

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

Well I wonder if I should buy something today from HobbyKing?

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

I just received my eletric motor from Hobby King USA warehouse, took about two weeks and the order sat n the DC as many others have stated for no reason. IN the end I still recieved it , saved about $60 in total but still annoyed over the delay in seeing the item sit in the DC.

On a more positive note I made a post about nitro planes and Vertical Grimmace was correct in the comment "always out of stock" .
I should have been more specific "Hobby Parts" owned by Nitro Planes.
sincerly I can not tell you how great they have been as a simple mail order USA based company.
They alert you on out of stocks if you sign up for the alert , they answer emails ect.
I ordered an ESC and two other parts 5 days before 4th of July . On the 4th I was sitting around early morning and sent an email saying I have not recieved shipping confirmaton on my order .
The next day July 5th I get an aploigy email saying "sorry we were closed on the 4th but this is the info you requsted and your order is in transiit along with my tracking number.
In addition to the great servace I have purchased motors, escs , flight stablizers, small cameras ect, all with excellant tracking and great servace. That is way more then I can say for there sister company Nitro Planes .com . Dont know why there is such a big differance but on the parts side Hobby Parts is 100% A+ in my book .
As far as buy American , I buy my stuff like control horns, push rods, hindges , fuel tanks, wheels, collars , props , spinner, spinner adpaters, ect all from American Companies and support my local shops with that business and any plane I can buy from them.

Mike TX

My Feedback: (8)

I ordered an ASP 61 Four Stroke from the International Warehouse on a Wed, it arrives the following Monday. It sometimes takes longer to get it from the West Coat Warehouse. I am not promoting HK, just sharing my experience.

topspin

That's cool Mike, I once knew a guy who ran blindfolded across the 405 freeway in Los Angeles and didn't get tagged.

FWIW I order stuff from Tower, Headsup and Allerc all the time and never have any problems at all and sometimes my stuff arrives within 3 days. I don't understand why I see such huge numbers of complaints against them.... Oh, wait, no one complains about them. How boring.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

About Tower, Horison Really ??? I mean is this about you being right and we are wrong ?
There are complaints about every company , some not justified but trust me they have them .
Horison and Robart tons on Robart ,
Two great companies but lets be real , they dont get complaints like Hobby King , no way but they get there share .
Also if you want just facts no emotion , you should have seen what a DLE cost when you could get one from Hobby King vs Tower , so the great servace is not free , no way free and in fact is clearly about 35% more if you take the gas engines as a business model for Hobby King vs Tower .

jgracco

Maybe buy another transmitter.. You made out very nicely on the last one ...

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

For Sure-I sold both of them -after receiving my money back. I made money!!!! That really burns some peoples' B*TT doesn't it?-I followed the rules and paypal reimbursed and told me that sending the product back was not required since HK wanted it sent to China when it was ordered from a USA warehouse- then Hobbyking sends another out after the dispute was settled for over 120 days. I did not order another and it arrived by US Postal Service which also will allow to keep any item you do not order that is delivered by USPS-

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

Well, at least HK is selling laser cut builders kits!

jim billings

So, you cheated Hobby King instead of Hobby King cheating you? That's a bit backwards from "Do unto others etc." Nevertheless, Hobby King may outlast you if you don't calm down your apoplectic tirades.

ghostofpf1

Sounds like a character defect to me

TheEdge

My Feedback: (788)

Mr init4fun sure does bring some value to this place.

ira d

I think HK was just a victim of their own complicated and unfair customer service policy. If HK wanted a item returned to China they should have sent a prepaid shipping label.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Poet #123 A++++
They really dont want to add value and in reality that takes the value of RCU down. Its the reason why this website has more monitors then any ---yes any RC website on the net .
Children pretending to be adults totally moving away from the orginal posters comments.
I dont be part of the group so to add value I am going to back to orginal OPs concerns .

Yes --HK is changing , the USA DC are probably worse then the HK one .My orders from the USA DCs are shipped with unacceptable boxes and packaging and the lack of damage is luck.
While I was driven to HK on price /value I have found a totally great alternative in Hobby Parts ( division of Nitro Planes ) .
Great compariosn --I orderd a monster 110 motor from Hobby King USA DC . NO tracking , sat in the USA DC for 10 days after the Po was placed when I received the motor it was wrapped in a bag thrown in a box , no protection.
Final cost $76 . I ordered same size motor Talcon 110 from Hobby Parts, tracking all the way , motor received in under 7 days foam molded box incerted inside a corregated box on sale todal cost $68 .
This company has evloved and really has stepped there game up !

I hope to those looking for value alternitives that I have added some value to your hobby options

init4fun

Hi LDM ,

Thank you for agreeing with me about the dark turn this and all other HK threads end up taking . For sure , some love em and some hate em , but what is it about HK in particular that gets folks so riled as to say nasty things to each other ? I'll freely admit that for a short time I too allowed myself to get sucked into the anger and a few of my posts were real ugly as well . One day some months ago it was RC Ken who told me in a PM ;

"Look , like where they shop or not , these are your fellow hobbyists your talking to here , would you really argue so much at the field ? About anything ?"

And you know what ? That struck a chord with me ! Right then I realized that yea , there is no way I'd berate a fellow flyer at the field for using HK , so why do it here ? We would serve ourselves well to keep this in mind when posting to remember there is a fellow hobbyist on the receiving end of all these posts , and as such we all deserve better than to allow a conversation , ANY conversation , to devolve into what this thread turned into .

Like I said , I ain't Mr. "High and mighty" myself , having been involved in the fray in times past . But damn , guys , at least I'm tryin to break free of the meanness and really keep it to the topic subject . Sure ! Go right ahead ! Bash or Praise HK as much as ya want , but this bashing on each other gotta stop , before enough animosities are formed that no one will want to talk to anyone here anymore .

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Well, I would have thought that the first time I had cleaned up this thread that the members here would have taken the message that it was time to start playing well with each other, but obviously that isn't the case because I see a few members that still can't play nicely with others on the playground. So it's time for me to actually come in here and actually give out a verbal warning that leaves no doubt. If you guys can't find a way to discuss this topic without fighting with each other then I would suggest that you refrain from discussing this issue at all. Because if I see anymore of the these childish spitting matches I'm going to start putting people in the corner until can learn to play nicely with each other. I've left Init4fun's last post because he's finally got a handle on what I've been trying to tell people for a long time. Come on guys, let's remember that when in the end we are all here for the same thing. We all enjoy the hobby in some form of fashion, and fighting in an online forum doesn't help anybody. Like init4fun said, we wouldn't act like this at our home flying fields, so let's try to not act that way here. If more people acted the same online as they do in the real world we would have less problems here. So please don't make me have to come back in here to take actions, because nobody is going to like what's going to happen if I do that.

Ken

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

If you do business with them cancel your payment if you have a problem with your order-thru paypal or credit card company. They have helped me in the past and I really don't won't HK credit or jump thru their customer service requirements of contacting the USPS, weighing your package, taking pictures, and the best on-line chat service that they give "CANNED" answers to your questions that do not pertain to your problems.

Watch if you post your problem on RCU due to the SHILLS and FANBOYS of Hobbyking will come out and attack you personally-In which the moderator has to clean up the thread and threaten quiet time enforcement due to reactive posting.

The most important point-HOBBYKING STILL SUCKS!!!!

bradbranch

My Feedback: (25)

why don't you admit that you are a Marxist puke! and guess what you are wrong, Facebook sucks

bogbeagle

In the last 30 days, I have placed 3 separate orders with HK ... the "local" warehouse.

Two-day delivery in each case.




On reflection, the absolute worst customer experience that I've experienced ... RC-related ... was from Horizon Hobby.

Some years ago, I bought a Hanger 9 Sopwith Camel ARF. The wings had various hard-points built into them, to accept interplane fittings. These hard-points were made from a hardwood ... and each of them had been turned to dust by the action of insects. Quite remarkable; the wings were filled with a flour-fine powder. The wings were wrapped in sealed plastic bags, so the insects must have been present at the packaging stage of production.

Anyway, I was required to return the damaged wings ... and new wing panels were sent to me. There was the usual telephone wrangling, of course. Subsequently, the model flew OK. The really irksome bit was the assertions of the Customer Representative (?), who was adamant that this was totally unusual, and had never happened before ... which flew in the face of the retailer's experience; this one retailer told me that he'd seen several such infestations.

So, why was this a bad experience for me? After all, the damaged goods were replaced and I suffered little financial loss. It was bad because the Horizon people treated me like someone who was trying to rip them off, and because they apparently lied to me about the frequency of the infestation problem in some of their kits.

I thought that the best way to deal with such problems is to "come clean", admit that things have gone awry, and then take the appropriate steps to make things good. Most customers know that "things go wrong", and that you can't exert total control over every aspect of the manufacture and distribution. Most customers don't expect perfection, but do expect that you make reasonable efforts to uphold your end of the Contract. Just be human.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Its good to share these things because Horison has been the best ever for me . I had the original 65" SPan Corsair , with great scale mods and I reinforecd the wing , fuse and firewall .
While flying my wing folded at the retract leading edge despite my internal fiberglass reinforcement . Mine was not the first and I only knew to reinforce this area based on others in an RCU thread having the same problem.
I sent the crashed plane less motor and servos back to Horison in a box 100% on my cost with a letter .
I did not call them did not ask for a return number , just told them my story in an included letter ( old school )
With zero communicatin from them -100% true story , they sent a new kit to me in under 5 days .
I have been a loyal customer from that day on because I have never in my life experienced that type of servace in anything that I have been involved rc and non rc

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

I had the same outcome with Horizon several years ago with a ultrastik light-sent the wreckage back due to separation of the the lite ply formers that the glue had let go via my local hobby shop. Received new plane in about two weeks -I made a mistake using HK and now we have several guys in our small club in the middle of a HK dispute-I know they sell a lot but out of 6 members in our club two of them are having problems now and two others have had problems with them.