I ordered a Kyosho plane from them a few days ago then yesterday they decided to E-mail me (not call me) that they canceled my order because my Credit Card had a P.O Box... different than my home address. I told them my house didn't have a mailing address do to I live right across the street from the Post Office. They took my money from my card and now they are refusing to do business with me and told me that they would be holding my money for a whole week.

I had to contact the BBB in Orange, CA for them to release my funds because they tried to blame my bank for the with held funds. I called the bank and they told me that Ultimate Hobbies was the game player. So I don't know about anyone else... I just want to get the word out that this online hobby shop is terrible for customer support and wanting to do business. I was sucked in by there fantastic prices. Not again![:@]

Buyer beware!

Actually, this does not seem unreasonable to me.

how can you say it is not unreasonable ??????

Most vendors do this as the credit card companies often require it.

P.O. boxes are often used for CC fraud and as a result most on-line merchants either refuse such payments or require additional verification information... e.g. drivers license copies, etc.

Since the credit amount is allocated at point of payment, the CC charge is not immediately released until this is either resolved or the charge is removed from the vendor's account. The latter is done by the vendor to avoid a charge back by the CC company if the reason for all of this is fraud.

How could anyone think that it is reasonable ??

The post that opjose made explains it perfectly.

Last year I ordered some parts from a "popular engine place". The next thing I knew I had also ordered a new computer!!!!! When I made light of the fact and spoke to the computer company they acted like it was no big deal and that a lot of their business comes from phone in orders being delivered to an address other than what was on the card. Funny thing is , the new computer was being delivered within a few miles of the "popular engine place".

i think that Ultimate Hobbies should have checked all the info before charging your card

Listen to me! Everybody! As this economy continues to tank, and we ain't seen nothin' yet, keep your hand on your wallet and your firearms locked and loaded. It's gonna get ugly and every cockroach is gonna come out of hiding to have at you. Buy on-line? OK but be sure of who you are dealing with. I heard on the news that even Pay Pal is at risk.

My mother said I was a procrastinator, I said "Just Wait!"

Bill

"Dogs and Cats, Living together in SIN!"

Well, just to let everyone know I had to call Ultimate Hobbies and my Bank everyday for 3 days. It's true that the squeaky wheel does get the grease after a while.

What made it all bad is the fact they took my money... froze my account and canceled my order without my permission. I wouldn't have minded if they took my money and called me telling me that they wanted to hold the money until it cleared... or told me the order is on hold until I called the bank and put my shipping address on the card.

I had to make a copy of my complaint letter to the BBB, and send it to Ultimate Hobbies for them to get a move on. What's up with California? Nitroplanes double charged me once and when I called them they didn't know English very well, and when I filed a complaint to the BBB on them they finally decided to return my money and cancel the order, now this?

Some businesses needs a serious training course in Business 101.

So far I haven't had any problems with Horizon, Tower, Hobby Lobby, Wholesale Planes, RTL fasteners or Balsa USA. Kyosho USA seems to be good at Customer service... they treated me like I was important to them when I called.

Look, I care enough to Post this warning... you can take it or leave it. If I didn't care I would have just kept quiet and let you all deal with the issues on your own.

Your point is well taken however maybe it should be restated a bit...

e.g.

You may have problems with on-line credit card orders when you list a P.O. box for anything. Get the facts about this first and ideally talk to the vendor before ordering.

I applaud anyone who lets us know when he got a bum deal. How else are we going to know who the good guys are to deal with? I had my day in the sun with nitro planes. Never again. I dont care if they give planes away, it aint worth it.

I understand how they would not want to ship to a P.O. box. But if they cancelled his order there is no reason whatsoever to hold his money. They must have learned that trick from California state government. I read they stopped issueing tax refunds.

One of the great things about R C U is the fact that We can exercise free speech. (within certain guidelines).

Actually there is and it's not done by the vendor.

Once a charge authorization goes through, the credit card company holds the allocated funds off the total allowable line of credit until either the credit is processed in favor of the vendor, or cancelled.

In turn the cancellation is not immediate. So if you put in a charge and then cancel the sale, it can be up to 2-3 weeks before the funds are released off the credit card.

This is normal operating proceedure.

Now in the case of on-line vendors the charge goes through immediately as on-line transactions are handled in an automated manner.

However a human must check the ship-to/billing address and verify that a P.O. is not given. If the latter is done, then they ask for the additional verification.

If the person declines to give it or cancels the sale, the purchaser ends up with a charge against their card until the credit is negated by the vendor and the credit card company.

So the end user ( as the original poster saw ) sees a charge on their card, but if they cancel the order, they may never see any actual entries on their statement... or at worst they will see a charge followed by a credit on their invoice.

It's pretty standard fare and has nothing to do with anyone ripping anyone else off.

Thanks for the heads up!

Where I live, they don't deliver mail to my physical address so my credit card billing address shows both physical address and mailing address. When I order online, I give my address as: physical address pob# all on the same line. Most vendors will accept that, but there occasionally will be one who will give me grief. With the economy the way it is now, if a vendor wants to hassle me about my shipping/billing address, I just cancel the order and move on. I let them know that I will place my order with their competitor because they obviously have enough business and don't need mine.

If they placed a hold on my funds, but didn't actually charge my account, I can live with that for a few days. However, if they actually charged my account and are not releasing the funds, they'll have more of a problem than they bargained for!

Thanks again for the heads up. I won't be ordering anything from them...

7th Angel