A couple of months ago I decided to try RC planes, I got a simulator from eBay and after about 10 hours sim time I went out with my first plane, any I'm digressing now this is a supplier review.
Hobbyking
After looking around and various suppliers and having a disastrous transaction with wheelspin models I found Hobbyking, I was very happy with their prices and they had a European warehouse based in Germany.
I was getting excited about the German warehouse, so I clicked on the "DE Warehouse" icon then searched for the plane I was after the "Bixler" (otherwise known as the skysurfer) and found it, I was surprised to see EMS shipping form Germany but never the less placed my order, only to be advised that my item was a JIT item, I was a bit confused so I searched some forums, JIT items are items located in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere in China, they are then shipped to another warehouse in China then shipped out to the customer!
It takes between 3-5 days to get from the JIT warehouse to the front end warehouse then about 5 days to put the order in another box to ship, after that it usually takes 3 days to arrive in the UK.
So after 11 days my express order that I thought was coming from Germany finally turned up :-)
I was very happy with the plane! It really fly's nicely and is a great first plane, see my review on youtube.
I went on to order a few more items including a G-OSD(review) and a Video TX kit(review), this is where things start to get a lot worse, I had the same problem again with the appalling delay in shipping an order on their premium shipping level, but once the items arrived I found more problems, the G-OSD only works for 3-5 mins before crashing and although an excellent item the Video TX is 3 times heavier than listed.
I contacted Hobbyking's customer service about the faulty G-OSD unit, they advised me I would have to send the item back via recorded delivery at my cost and I would only receive the item cost back if they found a fault. The return cost would be about what I would get back if the item was refunded so it wasn't worth the hassle.
Hobbyking is a good site, however when buying bear in mind that ANY problems and you will have to send the item back at YOUR cost! and nothing will arrive quickly, even if you use express shipping!
I managed to send an email prior to writing this blog post to the Managing director of Hobbyking, Anthony Hand, this got passed on to the Product manager Ben Everton and the Customer Services Manager Leason.
Ben was really quick to get back to me to get details on the problems I mentioned, the G-OSD and the Video TX kit. the Video TX kit has been rectified already which is fantastic and he has contacted the manufacturer to get to the bottom of the problems.
Shortly after I received a mail from Leason the CS manager asking for details about the problems I have had with my previous orders, I have advised Leason and I am awaiting a reply,
24 hours still no reply from the CS manager, though from the tone of their message I don't think they were really that bothered, well time will tell.
Typical about 10 mins after my update the CS manager emailed me back, however nothing worth discussing really just a lot of excuses. See below the email below :-
"Hi Steve,
I have look into your order and I am happy to clarify with you the order process of your purchases. I am quite sure that after this clarification, you will have a much better understand on the order process. We understand that when a customer purchase an item from us, they would want to get their hands on them ASAP. So we strive to target our warehouse staffs to have the orders dispatch from our warehouse within 48 hours. Please understand that sometimes warehouse do suffer from backlogs due to high volume of orders/holidays, we cannot always achieve this target.
However, during peak time, we do have staffs working around the clock to process the thousands of orders we may have. To avoid confusion, we clearly state this on our FAQ page:
Orders are packed and posted from 9am-5pm, Monday to Saturday. The time in Hong Kong right now is: 4:59:36 PM
Provided your products are in stock & we are not experiencing unusually high order volumes, the package will be sent within 48hrs except for weekends.
Provided your products are in stock & we are not experiencing unusually high order volumes, the package will be sent within 48hrs except for weekends.
It happens so that your order 32xxxxx was placed on the China National Day. Where the China warehouse had a 5 days holiday. This along with an additional day off due to a Typhoon 8 was the major reason of why the order was not process in the normal transit time as we target. At the moment your order is being pick. The JIT item has left the China warehouse which should arrive to HK in 1-2 days. As we have a backlog of orders from the holiday break, your patience and understanding of this delay will be much appreciated. We do and we will work hard to have your order ship out ASAP. I will have a customer service to help follow up on your order. and get you an updated status. Our system will send you a dispatch email once the order has been posted."
More details to follow as I have them
No comments:
Post a Comment