keyman

My Feedback: (22)

Any idea if the OP ever made a post trying to get his sons car going?

I would think most dads 1st priority would be his kids happiness?

I could not find a single post by the OP on any forum trying to get his kids car going other then this one?

7yr old son: Dad did you learn how to adjust the servo saver or do ANY research for a good servo for my car?

Dad: No son but I did mange to find one of the few places on the web where there is a forum to bad mouth HK and just happened to post in the correct forum and the correct topic.

Son: What about the gentleman who tried real real hard to help you with the servo saver or a better stronger $8 servo?

Dad: I blew him off and totally ignored him.

Son: Gee dad thats just swell!!

RichardGee

My Feedback: (156)

Soooo... the take-aways (for me) are:
Had Dad purchased the RC car from his local hobbyshop, he could have resolved the bad servo problem THE SAME DAY. IF Dad had purchased a car from Tower Hobbies or other reputable online American company, the resolution would have been quick and painless.

IMHO, ALL of you who buy cheap stuff from Chinese companies ought to think beyond your penny-pinching and consider what this is doing to American businesses - YES, including those that sell CHEAP CHINESE STUFF. At least when you buy the Chinese knock-off from an American business, you are putting some money back into our economy and keeping Americans employed.
Too many of you are more concerned with saving a few bucks than SAVING YOUR OWN COUNTRY.
Pretty sad and short-sighted.

btw: save the electrons and keep your flaming emails to yourself. IF you have half a brain, you know I am right and your vitriol will only confirm what I have already stated.

init4fun

Yep , kinda stings when ya realize that your "great deal" only came about cause the company is unwilling to make good with the MANY folks who got no , or defective , product huh ???

You don't need to do the ripping off directly yourself , HK does it for ya .... Almost sounds , , , , Redistributionist , eh ????

init4fun

Thank You , Richard , It's nice to see there ARE folks who see the ugly side of this Wonderful supposed "world economy" we are all supposed to SO willingly embrace .....

keyman

My Feedback: (22)

I admit I could not tell you alot about rc cars, I would think though that there is a reason there is a thing called "upgrades" when it comes to whatever, I have had some fine nitro engines but still required me to run some fuel tubing "upgrade" over the needle valve threads to stop air leaks to get a consistent fuel mixture.

Lets say on this rc car that the closest competitors version was lets say $125 more, and lets say you decided to "upgrade" the steering servo to the $8 Towerpro mg14/mg90 or the $12 Towerpro mg16r as your 7 yr old son may be running into curbs or taking too big of jumps with it or whatever, why not be happy that even if your son goes through whatever learning to run a rc car his happiness is important and futher upgrades of whatever might be necessary as long as he is happy?

Also since the OP was from Australia I doubt he would be interested in buying from an American company. Wouldn't the frieght charges be too high and too long of a wait?

byrne1157

Like i said earlier, I have done nothing to you. If you want to run up and down a chain of events that niether you or I can control to be "the winner", and try to look down on another, then I guess that's up to you. I could've said "has anyone bought any electronics or car parts in the last 10 years? It all comes from china and you are all part of the problem." But, I didn't. And when I posted my opinion earlier, I didn't try to put anyone down for purchasing where they do. It was only when you resort to wholesale attacks on people for saving money whilst enjoying this fine hobby. I couldn't get over the prices of any of this stuff for years, because of the layers of retailers that charged way too much (IMHO) for the things I can get direct from china. Maybe they should try a little harder at the LHS to compete. The closest LHS is 15 miles from me, and the only one in a 35 mile radius. And yet, with the business they get, their prices are still out of reach for me.
I suppose you are going to try to convince me that you don't buy anything made in china. Good luck with that one. That means you're part of the "redistribution" problem yourself.

byrne1157

This is your direct quote from post # 99
"
My only hope is that guys like pope and such get to feel the sting of an order not delivered not once but twice , like my dealings with them went , and then we'll see if they , themselves , become the very Boogyman that they try to make their fellow RCers out to be , just for the simple mistake of ordering by the lowest dollar rather than by the more important yardstick of REPUTATION .....

Yeppers , only TWO kinds of HK customers , those who HAVE been ripped off , and those who eventually will ....... Good Luck with that ......."
What do you call the last line? Is it to call me and countless others ripoff people? Or, is it my misunderstanding that you think I will eventually get ripped off by them?
Sorry for your bad luck, but I have always gotten good service from them, and will trust them until they prove otherwise. I live as best I can, with what I have. I'm pretty sure most of us do. Again, I'm sorry if things haven't always gone as well as they could have. But I still fail to see where it has anything to do with me. Thousands of others deal with them, so if I stop buying from them, or any other place that fits my needs, the only one I'm short-changing is me. I'd love to purchase American-made products. If only someone would build and market them at a competetive price.

topspin

I can promise you that you will eventually get ripped off. I had a couple of bad experiences with HK and that did it for me. I found many many really good hobby merchants with prices just as good or better in some cases than HK's. They also have great customer service, phones that someone actually answers, and are located right here in the good old USA.

So if you can't find competative pricing then you just aren't looking, they are out there. Go look at a plane from HK then factor in the shipping cost, even from the US warehouse. You will find their shipping is higher than anyone elses. I have seen a bunch of people pay $120.00 to ship a $140.00 airplane from Hobby King so is it really a $140.00 plane? Then there are those who get these planes missing parts or broken and have to ship them back at their cost or get $10.00 off on another one because HK does not stock spare parts for anything.

I have already heard all of the excuses but I know I can get anything I want right here in the US as cheap as I can get it from Hobby King and that is only when I want cheap. Sometimes I pay more because I want better.

GerKonig

Fascinating, there is always a troll with 2 or 1 prior messages that starts these threads. All they do is advertise for Hobby King. Because most people know how to buy there or did not have a bad experience. Hard to tell if the threads are started by a hobby store owner with time in his hand, or by Hobby King... But they are repetitive, stupid, and annoying, and a waste of time.
Caveat Emptor still applies in all transactions. And if you do not know what it means, maybe you should not buy stuff at all.

Go build something, I'm going back to my Bucker Joungmann, nothing new here...

Gerry

cloudancer03

My Feedback: (22)

Another one bites the dust.i gave up on hobby king eons ago.they screwed me not once but twice.i learned their customer service is virtually useless.yeah a bunch of flyers here will argue the other side.but I will never ever go to hk.i would find another hobby before they ever get one us penny from me.

silvermansteve

My Feedback: (2)

hk is ok if you understand not to rely on their customer service, and that you might lose sometimes. I order from them still, and have gotten lots of great stuff and a couplle of lemons. if you stay on their c s dept they might make it right, they did with me, not once but twice. go hk!

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

You are going to start a tread over being screwed on an $8 servo? come on get a life. Servos don't last forever and some are defective brand new. I dare say, this scenario would not turn out good for any of the name brand suppliers. This whole thread is ridiculous bringing out the HK haters. It costs money to send things back and forth. Are they supposed to drop everything to work on your $8 servo? not bloody likely.

I sent a bad $200 servo to Tower and they want to charge $150 to repair it... don't want to pay, so they will not return my servo, they fix it and sell it. How do you like that scenario? That is 20x worse than yours. Never again will I send anything for repair to Tower. If I cannot buy the parts and fix it myself it goes into the trash bin.

jester_s1

Anyone who buys from HobbyKing after so very many threads about the way they treat their customers and expects any kind of customer service after the sale simply hasn't done their due diligence in checking out the company. HK is a big warehouse with $2 an hour workers pulling orders. That's it. If someone is literate and can sorta speak Engrish (misspelling is intentional, don't flame me), they get bumped to $2.50 an hour to give complaining customers the runaround and get rid of them. HK is fine if you are buying a whole bunch of stuff and want it cheap and are ok with some of it not working. That's what they do- sell large volumes of junky merchandise at the lowest possible price with no plan to replace the defective items. I'll agree with others- if you wanted service, you should have bought the truck at the LHS or a reputable online retailer. But you wanted cheap, so you got cheap. I hope you're happy.

falcon_56

Ive gotten defective stuff from Tower Hobbies. After I called them, they shipped me a new one and told me to bin the defective one for small stuff. Once a got a plane with a broken tail. They sent me a prepaid shipping label to return the plane and shipped me another one. Recently I purchased an arf in February and did not get to assemble it until August. It happens to miss some hardware. I went to my LHS but they did not have it. Called Tower to purchase the missing parts and they shipped a new bag of hardware free of charge. I have 100% confidence that my purchases at Tower will be satisfactory.

With HK, although I always received the products it took several weeks and the quality of some things left me wanting I purchase the name brand stuff that performs how I want them to for a little extra cash. Some things have been great value but the long wait and uncertainty of quality has limited the type of products I order from them.

I dont mean my post as a HK rant but rather a share of experience for those who want to know what to expect. It is all about knowing the risks you take in exchange for the "savings". Check the reviews of the products and grow a thick skin if the product takes several weeks to arrive or it does not live to the "amazing deal" expectations.

FLYING FREDDIE

My Feedback: (15)

You get what you pay for!!!!! I woulr rather go to Hitec pay a few dollars more for the servo, fly my plane and enjoy it, rather than by a cheap servo stay tensed up while in my first flight waiting for gears to strip or wires to melt. Use nothing but Hitec and have never had anything but good, fast, reliable service.
No they have never give me any thing not even a free T-Shirt at Joe Nall but i still use there product from park flyers to my giant scale.
FLY CHEAP????????????????

asimatt

My Feedback: (26)

Price,Service and Quality. You can't have all three. Sounds like at HK you only get one

countilaw

There is no way in hell I'm going to believe this.

topspin

Originally Posted by on_your_sixYou are going to start a tread over being screwed on an $8 servo? come on get a life. Servos don't last forever and some are defective brand new. I dare say, this scenario would not turn out good for any of the name brand suppliers. This whole thread is ridiculous bringing out the HK haters. It costs money to send things back and forth. Are they supposed to drop everything to work on your $8 servo? not bloody likely.

I sent a bad $200 servo to Tower and they want to charge $150 to repair it... don't want to pay, so they will not return my servo, they fix it and sell it. How do you like that scenario? That is 20x worse than yours. Never again will I send anything for repair to Tower. If I cannot buy the parts and fix it myself it goes into the trash bin.


I have to agree. That story just doesn't pass the common sense test. I have done far too much business with Tower to ever believe a story like that.

FlyBob4

After reading everyone's posts here, I will just go and repaint my plane with supplies bought at the local hobby shop, take it out to the flying field and fly the hell out of it, and plan to spend the extra dollars it takes in the future to get the service I deserve and keep my LHS in buisness, so they are there when I need them. I feel I have learned my lesson and appologise for my stupidity in dealing with the Chinese and expecting everything to work out. Everyone else here can shop where you want. What I cant figure out is why these idiots here that don't have an issue with HK even bother to waste there time defending them. Seriously people, time to reflect on your selves and get a life, seriously. (shaking my head in disbelief)

RiverLarry

+ 1 !!!!! some people don't have A life

when you have A$ 2000.00 project it does not make any since to start cutting cost on anything !!!
but when it goes in it is all ways the TX. or 2.4 or something !!!!! it CANT be the after market RX . can it !!!

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

I swear by all things good and right this is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It happened get over it.

You know, as well as I do, that you send something in for repair, Tower repairs it and then tells you what the cost is. You don't get your non working item back if you say no. I have no reason to lie. All merchants have problems as does Hobby King... but starting a thread over an $8 servo?? The OP is nuts.

vasek

My Feedback: (4)

damn communists! lol (been there...)

triggerpuller03

In my opinion you should use your local hobby shop first. If they do not have what you want, support your american owned online hobby store. Better customer service and you are supporting the american economy (somewhat). Why are you sending your hard earned money strait to China? I have used Hobby King one time and will never do it again. Again support your local economy.

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

Let's see… you willingly spend money with a vendor, knowing that you may get shorted on the product (via defective/missing parts), and further knowing that customer service in that instance is, for all practical purposes, non-existant?????

Sorry, I cannot wrap my head around that line of thought. When one can spend a few more dollars with a CONUS vendor and be reasonably assured of (1) getting a working product, and (2) knowing that the vendor will back said product if it is bad… well, buying from a vendor with known issues, like HobbyKing, just doesn't make any sense.

I'm not waving the flag here. Yes, overseas competition has hurt US businesses, but much of that grief is self-inflicted, so I don't enter that into the equation. What amazes me is the mind-set illustrated by the quote in this post.

Having said all of that… I can understand buying from these folks if it is an unusual item. An example is that ME-163 Komet. If HobbyKing re-introduces it, I'll probably order one and take my chances. But if I can get what I want from Horizon or The Empire, they will get my money.

Because I know that if I have an issue with the product, resolution is just a phone call away. They DO answer their customer service lines, and by someone who speaks understandable English and will make an effort to right the wrong.

.

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

Go look in your closet, look at your feet, look at your TV, look at your computer, your smart phone... almost all of this stuff is made in China... so don't scold me for cutting out the middleman I will buy what I want, and where I want to. I don't need your nose up in my business telling me that I am un American.