hobbyking - Liars and Thieves - Filing complaint

[Jetspeedz]

Thought it was important enough to share my experience so the community members here can do their own due diligence when opting to use this crooked company.


Likely not the first incident with HK and their horrible customer service I'm just sharing my experience backed up with facts and emails.

I purchased batteries from HK, got garbage packs that do not hold a charge. Had a couple weeks long conversation with Rob @ HK who is a Lead, to remediate the problem. He told me to send in the packs in promise for a full Paypal refund, I reiterated multiple time I'm expecting a Paypal refund and not store credit and he agreed in every email. I get an email from him after he received the defective battery packs stating this below:

From: Rob:
The bottom line here is that you ordered and paid for 2x batts. We replaced one and refunded the other. You ended up with a total of 3 and returned 2. Since you returned 2 and were compensated for both (again, 1 replaced, one refunded) we're unable to process a refund for another. You stated you're unwilling to accept store credit as any form of resolution so unless you change your mind on that we're unable to process anything further.

Rob not sure if you realize our conversation is documented in emails, which I will be sharing with Paypal and my CC company if you choose not to do the right thing. My friends warned me about HK and why they will never spend another penny with your company, you just lost another customer for life regardless of what happens.

Let’s get the facts straight since you conveniently omitted them. I paid for working Life batteries. What HK sent me was defective batteries which don’t hold a charge with high IR values. I sent pics & uploaded a video to show the problem in the warranty period, I even pointed out a 2017 Review on Amazon which complained about the same charge issue. You told me you would “personally look into it”, but we both know you don’t care and will continue to sell this garbage. According to your own email the warehouse in OR doesn’t test batteries before they ship them, nor are you willing to have a new one shipped to you in NY to test them because of “logistics”, when in reality you genuinely are a liar & dishonest and don’t care about getting to the root of the problem because shipping a battery from OR to NY is such a cumbersome task.

The RMA replacement was also defective with the same problems, per HK policy, the original defective battery was discarded. I don’t have the space in my fridge to store defective garbage batteries your company sells. What I had left at the end of the day was 2 defective Life packs I paid for which don’t hold a charge. I sent them back to you at your request for a full Paypal refund which you agreed to. There is Multiple emails where I stated unless you are going to personally test the replacement batteries I don’t want store credit because I’m not going to buy any more batteries or models from HK and you agreed in every email not to worry and I will get a Paypal refund, did you forget that?

The fact is I have no Life batteries, and no Paypal refund, I don’t even have store credit as of this morning.

This is Theft. You owe me a full refund for the two returned packs.

Following this exchange I filled a complaint with Paypal.





Fast forward to yesterday:

From Rob: You are not in a position to make statements as to our intent or whether we care or not. Considering the staggering amount of batteries of all types that we sell the few bad ones that you claim to have received is a drop in the bucket - and in the end you were compensated for them. While we strive to ensure all our batteries are up to spec it's a simple matter of numbers that even at a very low failure rate some will be faulty. We happily warranty faulty batteries that are within the warranty period. As to your specific case, we were unable to replicate the poor performance you claim to have experienced with the batteries you returned.

The continued dishonesty and lies says a lot about hobbyking and its leadership! The gall to respond the way you did speaks volumes about how badly you want this PR nightmare to end.

Lets examine the fact, because facts matter.

“You are not in a position to make statements as to our intent or whether we care or not.”

You shot yourself in the foot with all the email traffic and your lame excuses and lies for lack of testing defective batteries. Perhaps you need your memory refreshed from the emails you sent:

From Rob Email Sept 23rd: "Again I ask that you check the batteries yourself when you send the replacement" - again I will state that this is not possible. The warehouses are in either OR or HK and I'm in NY. The co will not authorize a shipment to my office to simply test 2 lipos which would then need to re-shipped to you in CA."

From Rob Email Sept 24th: "When you tell me you are not willing to have batteries from OR shipped to NY to test or have someone in that warehouse test any that says a lot." - I never told you that. First, the OR is simply a fulfillment location, there are no techs there to properly evaluate lipos. Second, it's just simply not reasonable logistically unless it is determined to be a widespread issue. If once I get your batts and test them I find them all to be faulty I will then inquire about having stock quarantined for evaluation."

Let us recap the web of lies and deception:
1 - As a Supervisor of HK, the company would not authorize you to get to the root cause of the problem by having a pair of measly battery shipped from OR to NY.

LOL, yeah this is real believable, I mean who are you trying to fool here.

2 – Your fulfillment center OR does not have any techs.

So not a single person is competent to simply charge a battery and check as the voltage drops immediately down to nominal voltage b/c the cells are defective and garbage which don’t hold a charge? Fine, I can live with the fact no one is capable of plugging in a battery into a charger at OR facility.

3 – “…it's just simply not reasonable logistically unless it is determined to be a widespread issue…”

Here in lies your problem, you are not authorized to have batteries shipped from OR to NY, nor can any personal in OR test batteries, the batteries I shipped back were defective garbage with video proof they don’t hold a charge.

So how did you manage to determine there was no problem? Because your statement “As to your specific case, we were unable to replicate the poor performance you claim to have experienced with the batteries you returned.” is a disgraceful lie since I have multiple videos with the serial number shown on the packs in the videos with the problem reported.

This exact problem was reported in a 2017 review on Amazon about the defect of the cells in these packs, fortunately you can’t filter and delete bad reviews like your website. To have the audacity to say you care is utter nonsense. Neither you nor hobbyking care about fixing any issues or getting to the root of a problem and facts back it up.

You see, when you continue to lie and try to cover the deceit the truth will always come out. Your lack of candor is shameful. When you say “and in the end you were compensated for them”, the truth is you had multiple opportunities not to commit theft, and provide the Paypal refund you promised in a handful of emails, but you failed to be honest and do right thing, I filed a complaint with Paypal and it was Paypal who gave me the refund, not you or hobbyking.

As I said, I’m done with your company, and will tell everyone about my experience with you and hk. You can continue to try to flag and block my posts, I will continue to appeal them so everyone in this community can see the facts!

 

[Vegas Mike]

Thanks almost ordered servo

 

[Greywolf74]

From Rob: You are not in a position to make statements as to our intent or whether we care or not. Considering the staggering amount of batteries of all types that we sell the few bad ones that you claim to have received is a drop in the bucket - and in the end you were compensated for them. While we strive to ensure all our batteries are up to spec it's a simple matter of numbers that even at a very low failure rate some will be faulty. We happily warranty faulty batteries that are within the warranty period. As to your specific case, we were unable to replicate the poor performance you claim to have experienced with the batteries you returned.

Rob claims to have refunded you twice, once for each battery Are you saying HK never issued either refund?

I've been buying stuff from HK for the better part of 15 years and I've never had any issues with them. The one or two times I did have issues I had no problems getting my issues resolved. Granted I mainly only buy lipos, wire, and connectors from them but that doesn't sound like any experience I ever had. Plus you sound awfully argumentative and hostile in your messages to HK. I dont have the full email chain to read through but just based off of what I'm seeing here, I feel like you could have left out the insults and the insinuations of their intent and presented a more polite and professional argument that may have gotten the squeaky wheel greased a little better if you know what I mean. Just my .02

 

[Maximum_Quake_Pro.com]

Hobby king is not like it used to be years ago I've noticed. I frequent nitrorcx / hobbypartz still since 2008

 

[jakebullett]

Thought it was important enough to share my experience so the community members here can do their own due diligence when opting to use this crooked company.


Likely not the first incident with HK and their horrible customer service I'm just sharing my experience backed up with facts and emails.

I purchased batteries from HK, got garbage packs that do not hold a charge. Had a couple weeks long conversation with Rob @ HK who is a Lead, to remediate the problem. He told me to send in the packs in promise for a full Paypal refund, I reiterated multiple time I'm expecting a Paypal refund and not store credit and he agreed in every email. I get an email from him after he received the defective battery packs stating this below:

Rob not sure if you realize our conversation is documented in emails, which I will be sharing with Paypal and my CC company if you choose not to do the right thing. My friends warned me about HK and why they will never spend another penny with your company, you just lost another customer for life regardless of what happens.

Let’s get the facts straight since you conveniently omitted them. I paid for working Life batteries. What HK sent me was defective batteries which don’t hold a charge with high IR values. I sent pics & uploaded a video to show the problem in the warranty period, I even pointed out a 2017 Review on Amazon which complained about the same charge issue. You told me you would “personally look into it”, but we both know you don’t care and will continue to sell this garbage. According to your own email the warehouse in OR doesn’t test batteries before they ship them, nor are you willing to have a new one shipped to you in NY to test them because of “logistics”, when in reality you genuinely are a liar & dishonest and don’t care about getting to the root of the problem because shipping a battery from OR to NY is such a cumbersome task.

The RMA replacement was also defective with the same problems, per HK policy, the original defective battery was discarded. I don’t have the space in my fridge to store defective garbage batteries your company sells. What I had left at the end of the day was 2 defective Life packs I paid for which don’t hold a charge. I sent them back to you at your request for a full Paypal refund which you agreed to. There is Multiple emails where I stated unless you are going to personally test the replacement batteries I don’t want store credit because I’m not going to buy any more batteries or models from HK and you agreed in every email not to worry and I will get a Paypal refund, did you forget that?

The fact is I have no Life batteries, and no Paypal refund, I don’t even have store credit as of this morning.

This is Theft. You owe me a full refund for the two returned packs.

Following this exchange I filled a complaint with Paypal.





Fast forward to yesterday:


The continued dishonesty and lies says a lot about hobbyking and its leadership! The gall to respond the way you did speaks volumes about how badly you want this PR nightmare to end.

Lets examine the fact, because facts matter.
You shot yourself in the foot with all the email traffic and your lame excuses and lies for lack of testing defective batteries. Perhaps you need your memory refreshed from the emails you sent:

Let us recap the web of lies and deception:
1 - As a Supervisor of HK, the company would not authorize you to get to the root cause of the problem by having a pair of measly battery shipped from OR to NY.

LOL, yeah this is real believable, I mean who are you trying to fool here.

2 – Your fulfillment center OR does not have any techs.

So not a single person is competent to simply charge a battery and check as the voltage drops immediately down to nominal voltage b/c the cells are defective and garbage which don’t hold a charge? Fine, I can live with the fact no one is capable of plugging in a battery into a charger at OR facility.

3 – “…it's just simply not reasonable logistically unless it is determined to be a widespread issue…”

Here in lies your problem, you are not authorized to have batteries shipped from OR to NY, nor can any personal in OR test batteries, the batteries I shipped back were defective garbage with video proof they don’t hold a charge.

So how did you manage to determine there was no problem? Because your statement “As to your specific case, we were unable to replicate the poor performance you claim to have experienced with the batteries you returned.” is a disgraceful lie since I have multiple videos with the serial number shown on the packs in the videos with the problem reported.

This exact problem was reported in a 2017 review on Amazon about the defect of the cells in these packs, fortunately you can’t filter and delete bad reviews like your website. To have the audacity to say you care is utter nonsense. Neither you nor hobbyking care about fixing any issues or getting to the root of a problem and facts back it up.

You see, when you continue to lie and try to cover the deceit the truth will always come out. Your lack of candor is shameful. When you say “and in the end you were compensated for them”, the truth is you had multiple opportunities not to commit theft, and provide the Paypal refund you promised in a handful of emails, but you failed to be honest and do right thing, I filed a complaint with Paypal and it was Paypal who gave me the refund, not you or hobbyking.

As I said, I’m done with your company, and will tell everyone about my experience with you and hk. You can continue to try to flag and block my posts, I will continue to appeal them so everyone in this community can see the facts!

I have had nothing but bad luck with HK stuff. Everything they sell is garbage, They have zero CS. I have not purchased from them in years. Stay away. FMS is the same. Their products are horrible and they have Zero CS, All they do is call their customers liars when they are the one shoveling the BS.

Rob claims to have refunded you twice, once for each battery Are you saying HK never issued either refund?

I've been buying stuff from HK for the better part of 15 years and I've never had any issues with them. The one or two times I did have issues I had no problems getting my issues resolved. Granted I mainly only buy lipos, wire, and connectors from them but that doesn't sound like any experience I ever had. Plus you sound awfully argumentative and hostile in your messages to HK. I dont have the full email chain to read through but just based off of what I'm seeing here, I feel like you could have left out the insults and the insinuations of their intent and presented a more polite and professional argument that may have gotten the squeaky wheel greased a little better if you know what I mean. Just my .02

I must interject. Polite is your main concern here ay? That's funny. So, you are more worried about hurting their feelings than them maintaining a good relationship with their customers and doing the right thing? Ha, you must live a blissful life lol! His email was neither aggressive nor unreasonable. Facts matter! You appear to defend the people in the wrong. Hmm. Their reply to him was unprofessional and unhelpful. There is right and wrong, nothing in the middle. I think you may be looking through a foggy lens. Nothing Personal. This is about business and how to handle and respond to customers. You can slice this up any way you want. This was not the way HK should have responded to this issue. They should have given his money back and called it a day. That, and only that would have been the right thing to do. If the buyer was lying and making stuff up, well then, that will come back to haunt him in some way or another. It really doesn't change how this should have been handled by HK. WE are THEIR customers. Peace and love!

 

[Tunedfrog]

I have had nothing but bad luck with HK stuff. Everything they sell is garbage, They have zero CS. I have not purchased from them in years. Stay away. FMS is the same. Their products are horrible and they have Zero CS, All they do is call their customers liars when they are the one shoveling the BS.

I must interject. Polite is your main concern here ay? That's funny. So, you are more worried about hurting their feelings than them maintaining a good relationship with their customers and doing the right thing? Ha, you must live a blissful life lol! His email was neither aggressive nor unreasonable. Facts matter! You appear to defend the people in the wrong. Hmm. Their reply to him was unprofessional and unhelpful. There is right and wrong, nothing in the middle. I think you may be looking through a foggy lens. Nothing Personal. This is about business and how to handle and respond to customers. You can slice this up any way you want. This was not the way HK should have responded to this issue. They should have given his money back and called it a day. That, and only that would have been the right thing to do. If the buyer was lying and making stuff up, well then, that will come back to haunt him in some way or another. It really doesn't change how this should have been handled by HK. WE are THEIR customers. Peace and love!

I understand your frustration but with that being said, why do you keep ordering from them of you keep getting garbage?
It only takes one bad purchase for me not to buy from a company any longer.

 

[jakebullett]

I am not usually a one and done guy. I'll try anything three times. I believe that having a bad first experience is sometimes bad luck or someone there was hving a bad day. The second time, I figured it was just a manufacturer thing. Now I realize it's the brand as a whole. They use very inferior electronic components. They have P poor CS. So just to be clear, I am not continuing to order from them. Giving them three chances is a fair and impartial offering. They sucked all three times. It just takes me a bit longer than others to give up on someone.

 

[Greywolf74]

I have had nothing but bad luck with HK stuff. Everything they sell is garbage, They have zero CS. I have not purchased from them in years. Stay away. FMS is the same. Their products are horrible and they have Zero CS, All they do is call their customers liars when they are the one shoveling the BS.

I must interject. Polite is your main concern here ay? That's funny. So, you are more worried about hurting their feelings than them maintaining a good relationship with their customers and doing the right thing? Ha, you must live a blissful life lol! His email was neither aggressive nor unreasonable. Facts matter! You appear to defend the people in the wrong. Hmm. Their reply to him was unprofessional and unhelpful. There is right and wrong, nothing in the middle. I think you may be looking through a foggy lens. Nothing Personal. This is about business and how to handle and respond to customers. You can slice this up any way you want. This was not the way HK should have responded to this issue. They should have given his money back and called it a day. That, and only that would have been the right thing to do. If the buyer was lying and making stuff up, well then, that will come back to haunt him in some way or another. It really doesn't change how this should have been handled by HK. WE are THEIR customers. Peace and love!

I dont give a crap about offending people necessarily, but when you tick people off you're less likely to get what you want or need from them so its in your best interest to be professional when dealing with issues of this nature. You know the old saying "Youll catch more flys with honey than vinegar"? It exists for a reason. Theres another saying "A fool is quick-tempered, but a wise person stays calm when insulted". Not that I'm calling you a fool and not that I'm saying I havent gotten all up in my feels and gone ballistic on occasion myself, but the principle is a good one.

 

[jakebullett]

That's true! But, we must always be true to ourselves. If we feel we have been wronged, there is no reason to pretend you are something you are not just to get what you want especially when you know you are right. With that said, I do completely agree with your statement. Although it's just not always an option.