WOW, I wish I read this first, here is my story.
To anyone that considers buying from HobbyKing, if you have other options I advise you to use them. I recently ordered a Pitts 12 EPO 1600mm w/Brushless Motor & Servos (ARF) (Yellow/Black). When it arrived the white parts of the plane were baldly yellowed and discolored. It looks like coffee was dumped on it and left to dry. After the anticipation of opening a box with my new toy in it, I was very disappointed to say the least! I had spent hours online looking for the right model to buy considering performance rating, quality, price and most of all appearance. They informed me that that the appearance had no affect on performance. That made me very angry. I am very fussy about the appearance of my models.
HobbyKing offered 2 options to me. Return the plane for a replacement, at my own cost. The lowest quote that I got was $120 to send it to the US warehouse. The model was $187.00 and I paid another $100.00 to have it shipped to me. After paying over $285 to receive the model, I was expected to pay another $120.00 to return it. I decided this was not a viable option. Why should I pay another $120.00 to send back what I had already paid for with no guarantee the next one would be any better? The second option given was to accept a $20.00 store credit. If you look at this model and see the graphics and imagine the work involved in repainting all of the white, would you do it for 20 bucks? I know that my time is worth a lot more than that and I am sure yours is too. I considered this offer to be an insult and let them know. I asked for 50 dollars store credit to accept the model as is and repair it myself and was told this was unreasonable. I refuse to accept the 20 dollars as a matter of principal, and will not pay to ship it back, so as you see, I am forced to accept this model in its present state. This will show you that HobbyKing can ship you any product in any condition and you are stuck with it and they don’t care. If you choose to shop at HobbyKing, you may have better luck than me, but you are on your own if you don’t get what you expected when you placed your order. Don’t order anything larger than you would be willing to pay the shipping on to return.