benjaminwiseman

Well, found this website called hobbycity.com and was wondering what the deal was with their stuff, is it junky or what??? Thanks

zirconx

Many of us here on WF have placed many many orders from Hobby City (AKA Hobby King). Read the reviews on the individual products, some things like the cheaper ESCs have a few issues. For the most part its just decent, inexpensive stuff. I just placed another order for $140 worth of stuff last weekend.

Bub Steve

There kinda ok as the service sucks, but I shopped there for years and not that their that bad (HIGH SHIPP'IN COST! good cheap stuff though) I shop at Heads up RC as He's (Jeff) almost as cheap But Stands Behind His Stuff! Answers E-Mail and Quries FAST! 2$ shipp'in on one to hundred idems, some of his stuff is compobly priced to HC , You'll get you stuff in days instead of weeks( Six weeks on two of my orders with no explanation!!)they Back ordered a RX I ordered and a year a a half later ,, still no RX, I finally got that one strait only to have more probs, bub, steve

rcers

I agree with all here. HobbyKing is OK - has some really decent stuff and some garbage. You will pay through the nose for shipping. If your stuff is lost, or bad - you are likely out of luck.

There are some guys here in the US that are nearly that price (especially when you consider shipping) - but will stand behind their stuff and shipping.

As in all things you pay your money and take your chances.

Mike

CHELLIE

They have some good stuff and some not so good stuff you have to know what you are buying, if in doubt, ask here on Wattflyers, some pointers, the hextronic lipos dont seem to be all that great, the zippy and rhino lipos seem to work great, the turnigy motors are great as is there ESC, for small planes, the 9 gram hex servos also work great, hope that helps, Chellie

Kosh

On Christmas day I ordered from Hobby City, Hobby Lobby, Tower and Nitro Planes. Paying the cheapest shipping rates the Hobby City order showed up 2 days before any of the others from the US. While I still support my local hobby store for the small stuff to the tune of over a $1000 a year I would never think of buying a motor, ESC or battery from them. My last $400+ order from Hobby City would have cost me over $1200 local for parts that were still shipped from China.

Do your homework before ordering and read reviews or ask about parts your not sure of. I've placed 12 orders from HC and been pleased with each and ever part thats shown up here.

merctech

I have been pleased also with hobbycity. My orders take about a week for me in florida. I have ordered zippy batterys and the hxt 9 gram servos and the most exspensive shipping cost was like six bucks but thats for small stuff. Never ordered a plane or something real heavy.

Arbo

Like others have said, they have good stuff and not so good stuff. So they are like most any other vendor in that regard.

Definitely read the product reviews on the site, but even take those with a grain of salt... Look at this and other RC forums to see if anyone is using what you are interested in, you'll find more honest reviews away from the HobbyCity site.

Sir Raleigh

I've placed 4 orders with them so far and I'm satisfied with what I got for what it costs.

One thing to be very careful about, though. DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING THAT HAS A MINUS (-) SIGN IN FRONT OF THE QUANTITY (which means that item is back ordered for them). If you do they will hold your entire order until they receive that/those time(s) into their stock.
Only order stuff without the minus sign in the quantity.

zirconx

Yes that is a good point. In fact many people (including myself) avoid ordering items that have a quantity of less than 30-50 (depending on how fast the item is selling). Some people have gotten their orders delayed even when it showed there was some product in stock. I think this happens because the in-stock quantity is only decreased when an order is filled, not just when its placed. So even if there were 30 widgets in stock when you place your order, by the time they get to actually fulfilling your order, they may have run out.

ovaleye

I have bought from them 8 times and had zero problems. The longest I waited for delivery was 9 days.As for service I havent needed any, if I would get a bad $10
motor I would throw it out and still be several hundred $ ahead.
I would much rather buy locally but If Hobby city can sell for these prices I feel
that a USA company could be a lot cheaper than they are.

Bub Steve

My average delivery Has always been two weeks + , I'm a platinum member and shopped there more than most, I had two orders that took 6 weeks with no backorder , I use the USP air rate (cheapist) I found you can shop around and find good deals elsewhere as well that don't tell you your outta luck where things aren't right, Lots of folk stand behind their stuff,,, some don't,,, this has been the case at HC where you throw dice every time you hit you Pay-Pal button,, The wieght of there shipp'in is always much more than it really is, they got props they say weigh 70-90 grams (13") at their shipp'in rates it's a crime!! bub, steve

Twmaster

Well that is a crap shoot. As many have said some stuff they have is just fine. Other stuff is utter garbage. I've never been a fan of the dude that owns this company, they've gone by at least a dozen names in the past couple of years (maybe we could start a contest to see who can name them all?).

The worst part is their customer disservice. If you have a problem with them you may as well expect to just suck it up and be out that item's cost.

For the record I have ordered from them twice. Once years ago when they were called 'asia-tees' and once under the Hobby City name. One order (via Asia-tees) was totally screwed up and my last order for a half dozen HXT-900 servos went without a hitch. (I really like these servos!).

Spin the wheel Take your chances.

Sir Raleigh

It's my understanding that over the past couple of years their service, parts, not necessarily customer, has improved a thousand fold due to the bad reputation they had.

They also have a warehouse here in the US that should to help with delivery on some parts.

Bub Steve

There not hobby city anymore,, now their HobbyKing,,, and so it goes,,,,,, GWS wouldn't send um stuff for a year & a 1/2 for some reason, Bub steve

zirconx

I had a 3 cell lipo arrive with a completely dead cell a few months ago. I went to their site, followed their instructions, and shipped the battery back. They sent me a brand new one. No problems.

Of course it did cost me $11 to ship the $20 battery back to China.

Bub Steve

zirconx::"$11 to ship the $20 battery back to China." here in lies the problem, not to mention the 3=4 bucks you paid to have it sent the 1st time, I've got alot of GOOD stuff there, but their treatment of customers (me) was deplorable, I live (if you'd like to call it that) on about 10.000 a year, so VALUE is very important to me, so Heads-up is My Store, I gotta trust who I deal with and Jeffs the best! bub, steve

birdDog

I am happy with them.
As for the bad customer service, I think it must have vastly improved since they began taking Paypal. Opening a dispute through Paypal gets results. They DON'T want to loose that service.

I had problems with a different overseas vendor and for about a month they would not even acknowledge me. I filed a Paypal dispute and they shipped me a new item in less that a week.

Bub Steve

Good post'in my Bub,, steve

Sir Raleigh

Has anyone tried dealextreme.com?

I bought a couple of Mystery, 900 mAh, Lipo batteries from them for $7.60 each and free shipping. These seem to be decent batteries and came in about the same time as an order from Hobby City/King. I'll be buying from them again.

zirconx

Yea I've placed a lot of orders from DealExtreme, too.

Got a broken part from them once, I just had to send them pictures of the broken item and they shipped me out a new one no problem.

Twmaster

That's good to know. I'm wanting to order a couple of those 900mA batteries but am concerned about service if there's a problem.

I ordered a lipo from a Chinese vendor on Feebay. The lipo was as advertised. Shipped as fast as could be expected from China. The issue? All they did was drop the non wrapped pack in a manila envelope. No padding. Nothing to keep it from just flopping around in that giant envelope.

Sir Raleigh

Mine came in nice little cardboard backed plastic packages that I can use to store them in. I don't know if the larger ones will, though.

gramps2361

I had good luck with them so far got a set of hitec 55's servos 9.99 a piece had them in 10 days.

CHELLIE

Like others have said, be sure to use PAYPAL when ordering overseas, its Cheap insurance, if there is a problem, with PayPal, They WILL TALK to You Take Care, Chellie