RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

When the US companies closed in 1983 most of the components were manufactured in Japan. A few items were starting to be made in Korea, India, and Taiwan. Now most of the components ( resistors, caps, transistors, coils,ICs) are made in Taiwan, Korea, China, Malaysia and some others, very little in Japan. Today most of the components are similar no matter who produces the radio. I see the big difference in radios brands as the quality control, software engineering and hardware mechanical design.

Cel phone technology has made a big contribution to R/C radio technology. Jim Oddino was advocating Spread Spectrum for R/C in the '70s, we just couldn't produce it economically then.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

Let me guess.......

this thread is near the top of the most active threads on the home page.

Ithink as overall traffic is dying on RCUniverse, a greater proportion of the most active threads are from the jet forum and you get this type of action......A bunch of non turbine flyers calling out guys for being elitist and stupid cause they don't fly their $10K jets with$20 knockoff receivers.

I like HK for wire, LiPOs for my Parkzones, hardware, etc. As someone said, stuff you can throw out if it is no good, like a flea market.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

Nicely put Matt.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

my experience with them was not good .but its part of the hobby and if like them thats ok too.but they have probably the worst customer relations ever!!!!!

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

you have a point the traffic seems to be dying on rc universe .anyone have good input as to why?

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

I guess everyone reads things differently and anyone reading this thread is certainly entitled to put their personal spin on what they are reading.

The fact that it was posted in the Jet section really has no bearing and so far no one has called anyone an elitist or stupid.

I would never fly a $10k plane -turbine or otherwise with a $20 receiver and I for one don't think that was the intent of this whole discussion. True radios did come up quick and have stayed popular in the discussion but no where did I see the original intent to be whether or not to use a "$20 knockoff receiver" in a turbine plane.

Just like I said about the whole Maybach to Fiesta comment, most people driving a Fiesta can't afford a Maybach and those who can afford it choose to do something else with their money. Ifsomeone can afford a $10k turbine RC plane thenthat personcan afford the high end equipment for it and no one will callthem and elitist for doing so. However getting on here and talking down to Fiesta drivers who may not be able to afford such luxury definately puts someone in a different catagory - I prefer to use the terms "self important" and "inflated ego". Granted my comment about someone being more financially savvy for driving the Fiesta when they can afford the Maybach may be considered chiding but that was tounge in cheek. I for one know one person on here who can afford Ferrari's but chooses to drive a KIA.

And just to set the record straight, I have turbines, giant scales, park flyers, helicopters and ground based RC stuff and I use everything from the least expensive Hobby King equipment up to the most expensive Futaba, DA, 3W etc. I also have a high end car but most days I drive my rusted out 91 Chevy S10 because it gets me where I need to go, maybe not as fast or as comfortably but I still get there and whenI do arrive I don't spend 10 minutes looking for a parking spot where I can be sure it's not going to get door dinged or a shopping cart run into it.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

Soon they will be throwing their hat into the Turbine ring ,will you be buying one? I think I may give it a go just to try one out as I feel HK will want this one right to get a good market share of the jet side of things which at the moment they have barely scratched the surface of this end of the market and they are looking for expansion i any direction they can. we can live in hope.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

i HAVE NOTHING BAD TO SAY ABOUT HOBBY KING. AFTER MANY ORDERS I CAN HONESTLY SAY THE PRICES ARE GREAT AND SHIPPING FOR THE MOST PART IS TIMELY. SHIPPING COST SEEM HIGH BUT CONSIDERING THE LOCATION IT IS REASONABLE.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

i order a lot of batteries from them. Have had one battery that was bad out of maybe 50 so far.  They finally gave me a new one, but it was a big fight.   On the other hand, the amount of mo ney I save on batteries it was not even worth the trouble to get the one back replaced.  I have had very good luck with the batteries, do not buy the turnigy esc!

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

Just like many other vendors there are some items they are good for and there are some items they are not good for. Some items are a good value and some items you get what you pay for. As with anything, if it's too good to be true it probably is. So when you order that airplane for a too good to be true price you should know what you are getting.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

I think HK is long overdue. When some people ask astronomical prices for anything RC related like $4 for 4 screws...

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

MMM ... not really sure where this going, are we just having a justified gripe among ourselves or trying to make HobbyKing sit up and take note.

I've had 4 orders over the last 12months ( of multiple items per order ), all have arrived, in good working order, ... servos lipos esc program card etc.
But I never backorder, and order only when they have more than 2 or 3 of the items in stock. Also I look at the reviews of the items at the bottom of the page, if it get's mainly thumbs up, then I place an order, and through PayPal

My only gripe is that it takes 3 to 4 weeks for delivery, but then it's got to come all the way from China to the UK, but the cash I save truly makes it worthwhile the wait [sm=greedy.gif] ! Sometimes the cost of the same item in the UK is double or more [sm=omg_smile.gif] !

So far I've been very happy with HobbyKing, but must admit that all the negative forums and let down customers I've read about are beginning to scare me a little [sm=what_smile.gif], but not enough yet to put me off ordering again .

I guess I'll just carry on ordering and see ................ [sm=49_49.gif]

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

I have 17 mostly good orders from them. Some batteries puffed and one motor didnt work, some esc that where not of good quality. I guess my point is that we all have a deminished expectation of what is acceptable business behavior when it comes to HK. Like its ok to have BS customer service and a certain amount of crap, when I would never allow Great PLanes or Tower that leiniance. I however dont like them since, now you know how bad they have been gouging us all along on things like motors and batteries. Good example is I just ordered 5 jr style twisted extensions for $2 verses $4.95 each and shipping was 4.99 with a lipo for my radio and someother crap. Check out the weights and costs of things that are both in china and the us warehouse. Its mostly cheaper to still order from china

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

ive placed about 6 orders from them, and got burned on a 48 dollar charger.... im willing to give them another chance, if the same crap happens i wont order anymore electronics from them..... just Life batts

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

prices are great, products are on the low side, and the customer service doesn't exist, but they are still better then nitroplanes or banana hobby<div> </div>

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

I will never order from their international Hong Kong again. Paid for airmail and my order took 5 weeks to arrive. Must have shipped it by a biplane and a rowboat.
My items were not on backorder.

Their customer service sucks. Don't even bother.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

I support my local hobby store Hodges Hobby Andersonville , Ga 57 mile trip one way but i can get it in my hand same day and all the information i need on the product 'Support Your Local Hobby Store" and "Support Your Local AMA Club" . i know the people i buy from their reputation is great sure i may pay a little more but who cares not me!!!! Never will order on line or any international site Hodges Hobby has it in stock , or can get it the next day for you !!!! and if there is a problem just call them or take it back and they make it good !! wow that is so simple. now try that with your online stores!!!!!!!!

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

Mail order is fine if you know what you want/need. If you don't, you are pretty much throwing away time and money to use them.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

I have ordered many, many items worth lots of dollars from HobbyKing, Tower Hobbies, Advantage Hobby, Hobby People, NitroPlanes and many other online Hobby stores both domestic and overseas. I tend to read the reviews first and then order based on the reviews. There are very few "dead on arrival" items from HobbyKing or other overseas online Hobby stores. Those I simply do not ship back because of the expense of shipping back to the overseas online stores. Those are very, very few "DOA" items and the money I save from these overseas discounters more than make up for the "failed" items. The brushless motors are reasonably good, so are the LiPo batteries and the chargers are OK. The ARF's you have to be very careful as the "new items" tend to have failure issues with the ESC as we all know the ARF's are so cheap that the quality control on the ESC's are very poor. When the "new item" has been on the inventory for at least a year, then the manufacturer has upgraded the electronics to fix the issues as HobbyKing sells such a huge volume that they can pressure the manufacturer to fix the "bugs" so to speak. Avoid buying the new release ARF, RTF and Plug and Play. You could end up with all the "bugs". Wait at least a year. 'Nuff said.
P.S. Those brand new LiPo's that end up being delivered "dead battery" condition are probably on the warehouse shelf for so long that they are discharged to a low voltage condition. I revive them to enough voltage so that my LiPo charger can pick up the threshold voltage and start charging them back up to full charge condition. However, I cannot give the info for bringing the low voltage LiPo back up to threshold voltage as it can be dangerous if one does not eyeball and guard the process. It is best to just send the "dead" LiPo back if one does not know how to do it. You could burn your house down.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

Hey! If you guys can aford $20.000 jets you are probably not bargain hunters. In my limited experience I am far more dangerous than my servos.

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

Like i said ishall and will support my local hobby shop, question is while you are waiting to rececive your orders i will be flying!!!! with my new products

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

not just jets  our 27% and 33%  have up to 5 or 6000 dollars invested  and more , that is why we put only proven products in them ,  a few dollars more is worth piece of mind while flying our planes  !!!!!! 

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

Had numerous orders from them .Very pleased.Great prices .Especially on great lipo batteries and gas motors.Servo extensions ,Outrunner motors and ESc's.. I also support my local hobby shop .

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

I understand the prices are good but i like to get my parts the same day if possible and i go to my local hobby shop  for that reason not waiting for the mail , fed-ex , or ups  , the price difference is not that much more  , it is all about convinence for me ,  competetion makes all good  but support your hobby shop or one day they wont be there , that is all i am saying   OK

RE: HobbyKing - Good or Bad
 

yes indeed support your local hobby shop, some of them anyway, not the one down the street that resells the hobbyking lipo's priced x2