Hobbyking Shipping Issues

[knoxie]

:lol: only waiting a week!!

I nearly had to wait a month! I got caught up right in the middle of the last Lipo fiasco back in the end of May, my package went out to the airport back to HK then out to Singapore then here in Britain, I got clobbered with another 25 quid thanks to our UK parcel force deeming it worth 12 pounds to look at a ticket! but guess what I was happy! 8) really happy.

Nobody anywhere can offer these amazing batteries at such a great price I was happy to wait a month knowing how good the cells would be, packaging was OK all parts were fine and the batteries are just mind blowing.

I have dealt with many companies over the years in the PRC and believe me HK are top flight compared to the others that I have used, if Steve Head from tech bikes still posted he could tell you a few horror stories about containers of stuff he ordered from PRC, HK website, prices and even delivery (we now have an EU warehouse) are simply brilliant.

Bottom line is its a risk getting anything shipped long distance, esp batteries! I knew this when I placed my order and there is no way I would even think of sending a 50 dollar battery half way back round the world if it didnt work? If folks want risk free transactions with vendor backup and support then you will have to pay I am afraid but hey you can feel happy you are supporting your local hobby shop?

For me they are worth the risk, my cells are stonking along nicely, perfectly balanced and thump out the power, I would happily wait a month again than to ever pay 3 times for them and or use cells that do not perform as well.

Just my 2 cents worth and cmon guys lets not throw insults around :? happy ebiking one and all.

Knoxie

 

[Floont]

The fact that a lot of you guys are so smart about electronics and development is awesome but it's time to realize how your actions in other areas affect the rest of the world. Basically, your only voice/vote/way to really change things is your money and who you spend it with. If you haven't thought about all of this, you know, stuff like how your actions affect the future of the human race, honestly, you are lucky, but if you have, and still continue spending money with companies that pollute, produce disposable crap, skirt international shipping laws designed to keep aircraft from falling out of the sky, and through their negligence and or ignorance, cause thousands of people per year, based on Luke's 10 per day number, which was based completely upon HK order support forum posts, to lose money or time because of making the decision to do business with them, then you are not needed on this planet and have lost your value as a human. It's time to re-evaluate your position here on earth or prepare to be swept away because your lifestyle is not sustainable.

We are all truly sorry you had a bad shipping experience with HK. One of the ways to get back at HK is to muster as many people to hurt the business that hurt you. It's a quite basic vengeance response in humans. With a little more diplomacy, you could have had some success. But demonizing those who are here to help each other with our hobby by being judge, jury and executioner regarding their purpose and usefulness on this earth is hardly a way to win allies. However, with some polish and tact, you still may be able to convince some people to take up your fight for justice.

FA

 

[StudEbiker]

Beyond everything else that has been said about the safety of shipping LiPo, it looks like the unintended consequence is that I may be waiting a three weeks to a month for three watt meters when I use to get them in less than a week. That sucks. At least the upside is I ordered an extra one beyond what I currently need.

 

[johnrobholmes]

Am I the only one that sees how F'd up the board is treating mdd over this? He gets a horribly shipped bulk of lipo, HK won't rectify. He tries to send it back and is honest on the claim form. USPS gets word of HK skirting EMS airmail hazmat and likely starts the chain of events. Now you are mad at him for HK's shitty packaging and unwillingness to put forth any effort?


We have all seen HK's packaging. I was amazed that my last shipment came in safe. 1/4 of the box was air space. HK needs to learn how to package their batteries, plain and simple. You guys defending them for being the cheapest source is getting old really quick, that is their only saving grace and they STILL won't add in 3 more cents of bubble wrap or maybe another 5 cent box to keep this from happening. If you put in 1/2 the effort telling HK how to package as you have put into ripping mdd a new asshole, we wouldn't have to worry about damaged lipos anymore.

 

[dnmun]

my understanding is that he deliberately snitched on HK to the guvment in retaliation for not getting HIS WAY.

HK didn't mash his package to begin with, and a snitch is a snitch is a snitch.

 

[zap]

Am I the only one that sees how F'd up the board is treating mdd over this? He gets a horribly shipped bulk of lipo, HK won't rectify. He tries to send it back and is honest on the claim form. USPS gets word of HK skirting EMS airmail hazmat and likely starts the chain of events. Now you are mad at him for HK's shitty packaging and unwillingness to put forth any effort?

Agreed!

It seems to me like the squeaky wheel got the grease and the rest are mad they didn't squeak loud and/or soon enough.

I've never ordered from HK but from what I've read it sounds like what has happened was bound to happen any way.

 

[johnrobholmes]

Is there some snitch hotline now? I don't recall reading that he called up anybody except his CC company to dispute a mysterious charge from HK for "CC processing", that is against CC policy anyway.


At any rate the EMS hong kong service got word of what hobby city was shipping out and stopped it. Now they are using singapore to ship out via EMS and they will likely get caught again. My box was labeled as some other electronics, and not batteries. Hobby King/ city is just asking to get in bigger trouble. We aren't talking UN regulations, we are talking regulations of the shipping company that is used.

 

[mwkeefer]

3 watt meters - should come through HK intl and experience no issues, my last 3 orders of NON Lipo all came super quick via EMS through HK Intl - the rest dispatched through "Private Courrier" to various post origins.

Can we just drop this whole thing, lock this thread and be done with it?

-Mike

 

[mdd0127]

My squeaky wheel never got any grease but I've definitely posted all the info I care to about this. I really felt the need to clear the air. I just never could understand how getting shafted and trying to do something about it made me a bad guy. I'm really sorry that some of your shipments have been delayed but maybe they'll tighten up their act because of all of this and everyone will benefit. I have been seeing reports of better packaged shipments here and there and they got on the ball setting up the new warehouses so even though I didn't benefit personally from calling them out on my deal, I really think that others will.

As far as the subsidy thing goes, I know it's totally OT but from my research, ALL of the asian lithium battery manufacturers are being heavily subsidized so maybe HK itself is not receiving the money directly but they are definitely benefiting from the low prices. The sad part is that they're not using those unfairly gained profits to hire good customer support or buy new boxes for shipping. I don't think it's right.

Here is an example: This is all totally hypothetical and meant to illustrate a point. If you don't agree with this, that's totally fine, do your thing. Gas is artificially cheap in the US. I don't want to get into why but it's cost should reflect the total cost of using it and it doesn't. Let's compare, for example, me exporting American gas to HK selling subsidized lipo. Say I can buy a thousand gallons of gas here for $2.00/gallon and found out that gas is $10.00/gallon in the UK, as a random example. So I buy some of the oldest, nastiest tankers I can find(comparison to HK packaging) and ship the gas to the UK. Since I got it so artificially cheap, bypassed export/shipping laws, and scrimped on shipping, I can sell the cheapest gas in the UK. So everyone starts buying gas from me...for a while....but wait....the crappy tankers leaked a bunch of water into the gas and started ruining people's cars. Instead of refunding the money that I was so lucky to make pretty much illegally, I insist that all of the people with bad gas claims send the bad gas back to me for testing and either wait for replacement gas or a refund. No matter how cheap my gas was, do you think people would or should keep doing business with me? Just something to think about.

Feel free to close or lock the thread but I don't feel that there's a need to. I would leave the thread open so people can report how fast and well packaged their items came, or not. That way it will be easy for those who want to order to see when things are going smoothly or if they've hit another legal obstacle. The risks, benefits, and social impacts of purchasing from HobbyKing have now been thoroughly covered here and anyone doing research can now see both sides. I have no doubt that HobbyKing successfully serves thousands of people per day. It's the thousands per year that they inconvenience and rip off that I' feel bad for. Like I said before, hopefully all of this will either make them better or inspire others to come up with some competition.

Where's the little smiley thing for beer? :beer:

 

[Floont]

Sounds like you'd make a great world dictator so you could rule the world as you think it ought to be run.

Perhaps your signature line should be improved to read:

"I will tell you how to spend your money with manufacturers that practice business practices that I approve of, produce products that meet my arbitrarily high standards, and have policies that suit my personal agenda and world view, or I will censor and punish your speech and thoughts if you disagree with me because I consider you to be a problem that needs to be eradicated".

 

[StudEbiker]

Here is the tracking so far of my non-LiPo HK order:

Fri 13.08.2010 18:20 Mailed
Fri 13.08.2010 18:20 Mailed Swiss Post SINGAPORE
Fri 13.08.2010 18:20 Arrival at border point of country of mailing Swiss Post SINGAPORE
Fri 13.08.2010 18:45 Departed transit country
Fri 13.08.2010 18:45 Departed transit country Swiss Post SINGAPORE
Fri 13.08.2010 18:45 Departure from border point of country of mailing Swiss Post SINGAPORE
Wed 18.08.2010 11:59 Mailed
Thu 19.08.2010 22:28 Arrival at border point of country of mailing CH-8010 Zürich 1
Thu 19.08.2010 22:30 Departure from border point of country of mailing CH-8010 Zürich 1
Fri 20.08.2010 16:11 Arrival at border point of destination country

 

[dequinox]

Dude wth is this crap? Nice of you all to flame over a few shipments of stuff... back to the topic at hand for me.

I ordered yesterday and went ahead and paid for the UPS shipping...I don't want to wait that long for my charger. I'll let you all know when it gets here so there's a concrete example of what the extra ~$7 or $8 is worth.

 

[itchynackers]

FYI,
I ordered 555wh of lipo on August 16, and it arrived at US customs the night of August 24.
Update: August 16...Order placed

Update: August 24...Arrived at US Customs

Update: August 25...Departed from Destination Transit Centre

Update: August 28...Delivered!

12 days, not too shabby

 

[StudEbiker]

So the meters arrived on Friday. Placed order 8/10/10, arrived on 8/27/10. Seventeen days to Oregon, no LiPo.

 

[itchynackers]

Update on this one. My previous post, it took 12 days from Hong Kong. Pretty good. I recently ordered a bunch from the USA warehouse. Order placed October 8. Today is the 31st, and still no lipo. Apparently it takes at least twice as long from the USA warehouse....to a destination in the USA WTF?

 

[auraslip]

I would totally believe that the Chinese subsidize lithium battery production in order to make it economically unfeasible for companies in other countries to develop such industries.

In fact I would go so far as to say that any country would be stupid not to subsidize the battery industry.

Any one got a citation on these claims?

 

[neptronix]

I would totally believe that the Chinese subsidize lithium battery production in order to make it economically unfeasible for companies in other countries to develop such industries.
In fact I would go so far as to say that any country would be stupid not to subsidize the battery industry.
Any one got a citation on these claims?

Well, hobbyking for one sells things at a very low margin.
Also, China's exchange rate is extremely tuned to be in our favor.

I think you're just accustomed to the 33%-100% markup on Chinese/Korean products that occurs when the white devil gets them in his hands ... 'straight from china' prices are insanely low. Dealextreme is another fine example.

I'm not complaining. We don't make lithium batteries or hub motors here. What you gonna do, run a brushed starter motor and lead acid batteries like a true patriot? :lol:

 

[liveforphysics]

I would totally believe that the Chinese subsidize lithium battery production in order to make it economically unfeasible for companies in other countries to develop such industries.

In fact I would go so far as to say that any country would be stupid not to subsidize the battery industry.

Any one got a citation on these claims?

No, the Chinese gov does not subsidize anything HC sells.
Unlike our own government that subsidizes SUVs, gasoline, and stupid amounts of corn, etc, China just taxes HC, which is out of hong kong not China anyways.

If you suppot capitalism and freetrade, Hong Kong is pretty much the pinicle example of how it thrives when a government stays the heck out of interfering.

 

[mdd0127]

That's BS and you know it. HobbyKing gets all of their products from mainland China. The ones that they sell the most of are made with rare earth materials. China HEAVILY subsidizes REMs and Hobbyking is able to profit from those subsidies by purchasing from China at an artificially very low cost.

To put it bluntly, some small portion of your money spent with HK goes straight to the communist, Chinese government that likes to squash human rights with tanks and is trying to censor the internet.... and every cent you spend with them gives an evil government more power and digs the grave a little deeper for other honest businessmen in the hobby business.

As far as I'm concerned, the rest of the "free" world is at war with countries like China. We may not be shooting yet because this is an economic war but it's consequences could be just as deadly. So that's why I post this stuff. I'm not against the Chinese people in any way, in fact I feel very sorry for them. Their government, (and ours), need to be completely rearranged if we are going to avoid WWW3. Basically, I'm fighting a war against unsustainable practices and corrupt, out of control governments one post at a time. If you don't like what I have to say, don't read it, but if even one person rethinks their position in humanity because of my posts and starts to make changes in the way they do things, all of this typing will be worth it.

If you support HK, you are supporting Red China and allowing it to become stronger, not to mention supporting a crappy business that's run by crooks, evades shipping laws, and treats their customers like criminals. You may not care now but when your landlord and your boss are Communist Chinese and you're making ten cents a week making clothes for India, I bet you'll care.

 

[GCinDC]

my order of 8 5s 5Ah lipos from USA Warehouse, shipped priority mail:

 

[dnmun]

that guy is insane. not just a snitch.

 

[GCinDC]

that guy is insane. not just a snitch.

seems a bit histrionic. hate to participate, but he had one cell/one pack damaged? damn shame, but he acts like he was robbed for $600? calls visa and god knows who...

come on.

we've all suffered losses at one time or another. how we handle it is telling...

 

[mdd0127]

Sweet, the new warehouse is in Kent. Now I can report them to the BBB and chamber of commerce. They're in my territory now.

Id rather be a snitch than a treasonous Red Chinese supporting consumer idiot any day. Do you feel good about how your financial decisions negatively affect the world or do you just not care?

Rhetorical question. I really don't want to know if/what you think.

I received 7 out of eight damaged packs, got the runaround, then got my credit card info stolen.

HK was the straw that broke the camel's back. I have been VERY tired of poorly produced, unsustainable Chinese crap for years. HobbyKing took it to the next level and decided to fail in every way possible. We all have to make compromises and buy crap from people we don't support here and there but buying it from a-holes is even worse. There is a HK proponent on here that likes to defend them no matter what and post misinformation about their ties to an evil power. So now there is someone on here to counter that BS with some truth.

 

[GCinDC]

7 of 8? whoa... i just thought it was one like you reported in May:

 

[neptronix]

Pretty much all electronics come from mainland China, dude. The metals come mostly from Africa/South America where people are literally starving and enslaved; Chinese work standards would be an upgrade for them!!!

You got a problem with how electronics make their way to our door? get rid of all yours including your PC which was made in China and go build yourself a log cabin in Montana.

Hobbyking offers an amazing value. If you have a problem with their service, just go buy their products from an American reseller that will mark it up 2x-3x from now on.