Warning! Dont buy from HobbyKing if you expect warranty support

[Pitman]

About 3 weeks ago I ordered a Turnigy ESC
HobbyKing Online R/C Hobby Store : Turnigy Brushless ESC 85A w/ 5A SBEC
from HobbyKing. When it arrived, Shaun connected it up, only for it to fail to arm, and start to smoke - obviously faulty! When I was first looking at buying it, the following message popped up:

Unsure if this product is suitable?
If you're having difficulty deciding on the product to buy, take a look at the product discussion section at the bottom of the page, or view our community forum for help.
Click here to visit our community forum.

Worried about warranty!?
Other stores will force you to ship your faulty item back to China, but not us!
We guarantee all products to be free of defects at the time of sale and have warranty centers in Europe, USA* and Australia*!
We also have instant replacement on some items. Ask our Customer service staff via chat or email for details.
*coming soon!

Based on the fact they claimed to have a European warranty centre, I thought it was worth making the purchase. WRONG!

I completed the Warranty claim on their web site, and was given a RMA ID number, and told to return the faulty ESU to an address in Guangdong Province, CHINA!

I queried this with their customer (dis)service department, only to get the following reply:


Dear Dave:

Thank you for your email and sorry for late reply.


For the information you have provided below:

Worried about warranty!?
Other stores will force you to ship your faulty item back to China, but not us!
We guarantee all products to be free of defects at the time of sale and have warranty centers in Europe, USA* and Australia*!
We also have instant replacement on some items. Ask our Customer service staff via chat or email for details.
*coming soon!

Please note the last 2 words " *coming soon! " Sorry for all the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

*Due to high volume of daily emails, it may take 3 - 7 days before we read your email reply. We thank for your patience during this demanding time.*

Best Regards,

Morgan

HobbyKing Customer Support Team
www.hobbyking.com

Now, there is no asterix next to Europe, only USA and Australia. Obviously false advertising!. To send the faulty unit to China, via recorded post, only for them to find some excuse not to replace it, or for more rubbish to be sent back, is just not worth it. It would be the middle of next year before it was sorted out!

The moral of the story - support your local hobby shop, and HobbyKing is a rip off!!!

[DarkTherapy]

You bought it from HK for one reason, because its cheap.. You'd spend more than £19 just going for a beer..

Remember, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

[Pitman]

You bought it from HK for one reason, because its cheap.. You'd spend more than £19 just going for a beer..

Remember, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

You are 100% correct! I have paid the price for my own stupidity!

[GravityKills]

>> Remember, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Welcome to HobbyKing.

Their definition of "honesty" is a more recent revision than mine. 'nuff said.

[easypickingsere]

I have the view you pay your money and take your chance. To date had no probs with batteries from them and is all I really buy from them, If I wanted a warranty I'd buy from shops here, damn shame you cant get problems like this sorted as the prices really do take some beating at the cost of customer service it seems.

[BaRoN30s]

ordering from hobby king is like putting ya money on the Lotto (its a gamble) ya either get what ya ordered without any problems & all is well.. or like you it turns out faulty then all its fit for is the bin & ya lost the bet.. as sending anything back will just cost more than its worth..

its just taken me over 4 months to get them to refund a missing order, even tho it states they will sort it out after 60 days...

[coolice]

Hey.

As you say there is no star for their warranty centre in Europe only USA and Aus are * but not Europe so ask to send it to their Germany warehouse.
What reason do the give for Europe not being viable to send to?
Did you paypal? Claim it back if so for faulty goods.
.

[Jamin_00]

Did you paypal? Claim it back if so for faulty goods.
.

Thats one of the reason's I always pay by PP when buying from HK.

But not had them issues before I must admit but then I only really buy the batts

[BaRoN30s]

About 3 weeks ago [/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR]

Did you paypal? Claim it back if so for faulty goods.
.

i would hurry up if your thinking of this as i tried with my missing order to claim it back from them & i was 1 day past the 45 days to claim & paypal didnt want to know.....

[Mutley]

Have to say, i order from hobbyking and from Flying-Hobby all the time, the only fault i've had was with an item i got from flying hobby. Clearly faulty a few emails later and a refusal from me to post it and i got a $30 discount towards the repair (Replacement PCB = £20) so i was happy.

Have to say i prefer hobbyking for my orders - i check the reviews for everything and i look for comparisons in the reviews for what i'm flying to make sure nobodys had the same issue.

The deals are to be had from HK - its upto the UK distributors to match the prices then more people would support there local stores.

[Paulice]

The deals are to be had from HK - its upto the UK distributors to match the prices then more people would support there local stores.

But it's dam near impossible for a UK shop to match the HK prices as in the UK and Europe the shop overheads are so much higher.

I would much rather pay a couple of quid more and get it from a shop with service and a smile and a good chat & a coffee!

[5exi]

Thats one of the reason's I always pay by PP when buying from HK.

But not had them issues before I must admit but then I only really buy the batts

Same hear but as well as PP only use a credit card also as a extra back up.

[Pitman]

I realise that I have been had, and have learnt my lesson! My main reason for my original post was to warn others, so that they don't get caught like I was. I did pay by paypal, but here is the second lesson I have learnt. When it was first discovered that the ESC was faulty, I raised a dispute with paypal. My order then dissapeared from my account history with HobbyKing! As such, I could not get the warranty return number. When I queried this with HobbyKing, they said that I had to close the dispute, and they would then supply me with the necessary number, and return address (which I still thought would be in Germany). I foolishly closed the dispute, and then was given the RMA number, and Chinese return address. With paypal, once you close a dispute, you cannot reopen it.

My lesson learnt from this is, as has been said above, don't order from the likes of HobbyKing unless you are prepared to take a gamble on getting what you ordered. Otherwise, buy from reputable local dealers like Midlands, Fast Lads, etc.

[Mslater]

I once placed and order with Hobbyking - well actually I got to the final bit then backed out because the postage seemed way to high.

They took the money anyway and it took six weeks to get it back, I hadn't even confirmed the order.

Just been to my local shop, had a brew,chat , looked over a 2nd hand Gasser they are selling for someone.

Much better than sitting at home with the laptop trying to save a few quid.

[sacko]

You must have confirmed the order?

.. as the step after that takes you to your payment method.