Leader Hobby Price Explosion

[Dauntless]

So what's going on there? 3-4 times the price on EVERYTHING!

Let's compare the 6374 motor, popular with many in this community, from HobbyKing and from Leader Hobby.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__18129__Turnigy_Aerodrive_SK3_6374_192kv_Brushless_Outrunner_Motor.html

http://www.leaderhobby.com/product.asp?ID=9394001224350

Somebody has certainly become the high price leader.

Or might the others be about to catch up?

 

[neptronix]

Also the shadiest company i have ever dealt with in my entire life. Literally shipped me a 4-5 year old 1C battery, instead of the 10C battery i ordered. Masterfully delayed the shipping so that i got the order in 47 days, just out of the paypal protection window. They would not give me a refund and suggested i sell it to a friend.

http://neptronix.org/posts/dont_buy_unknown_chinese_batteries.html

Higher prices? no loss..

 

[circuit]

Good info.

Masterfully delayed the shipping so that i got the order in 47 days, just out of the paypal protection window.

Everyone remembers their first time with paypal window... Mine was costly. Learned that lesson, however later on had another lesson with selling stuff. That was even more costly. Account was banned on top of taking my merchandise and >£3k. Ditched paypal and use it exclusively for small purchases for a few years now. Be warned.

 

[Thud]

Daaammmmmnnnn.
Some one pushed the stupid button on their web site....I just bought a bunch of 50mm out runners from there for $8 bucks each....now they are $140 LOL.

This has to be a mistake of some kind.....or a really weird experiment. Or some over reaction by the honcho after discovering they were losing money (which is impossible to believe)

My experience has been generally good from leaders...only had to cancel one back ordered item in 5 purchases. & they refunded me nearly instantly.

 

[Dauntless]

My experience has been good too, I haven't bought lithium from them or anyone yet.

I wonder if they've made ANY sales since. You have to wonder if they're telling themselves they have a captive audience who can't do without. RC planes do not have 'Inelastic demand.'

In college I was writing the newsletter for an insurance with a bar/restaurant/mercantile program. The cutthroat competition got the rates down to where our company was paying out $1.60 for every $1 in premiums we brought in, compared to others as high as $9. Depending on the interest rate at the time, you'll consider a break even "Loss Ratio" to be around 70 cents to the dollar, leaving payroll, etc. at 35 cents/dollar and hopefully the interest rate is good enough to cover it. So our company issued a renewal increase of 225%. . . .

. . . .And the angry phone calls just kept coming. The spoiled business people forgot what they'd been paying just a few years earlier. Lawsuit threats, etc. Very few renewals, but those were mostly without complaint. . . .

. . . .Then a few months later many of those who'd refused were calling our sales reps again. The new company they'd signed up with, as some sort of higher rate, maybe raised it again, maybe didn't pay a claim, maybe went out of business. . . .

But this isn't insurance. If everyone raises their prices as Leader Hobby has, I'm sure the RC will die down a bit. Although I guess there'd be some who'd stay with it.

 

[deepfraught]

I came here to see others experience whether I go ahead with a paypal issue or keep waiting.
I've made one order 6-9 months ago with them and was fine, one part wrongly supplied but was same-ish motor but they agreed to exchange when prompted, I didn't bother it was usable.

This second order now poor responses so off to paypal unfortunately...

14 days since order by EMS Express without any dispatch notice or tracking detail.
Expected delivery prior to the 10th day.
Raised issue on 10th day requesting tracking, and alerting if not already sent, my office delivery address changes by end of week (day 15) so do not send without asking new address.
12th day seller claims no awareness of the order, possibly a system changover issue, so I provided order details directly from their system and Paypal receipt also.
At 14th day, four days since issue raised, no information or action for resolution has been given, only information I should be patient.
After 14 days since payment, with no delivery of the order, no information at all for its status, and only receiving replies requesting my patience after each day with no progress, I am disappointed.
Therefore I am patiently pursuing a refund and cancellation of the order through Paypal.

 

[circuit]

I came here to see others experience whether I go ahead with a paypal issue or keep waiting.
I've made one order 6-9 months ago with them and was fine, one part wrongly supplied but was same-ish motor but they agreed to exchange when prompted, I didn't bother it was usable.

This time poor responses so off to paypal unfortunately...

You can only raise a clain within 45 days after purchase. Sorry...

 

[deepfraught]

I've edited above to clarify my first/only previous experience 6-9months ago was semi-OK.
This current 2nd order experience in progress was 14 days ago, and the one in paypal now.

I had a quick response as per email but in paypal... humorously similar to all the previous that have resulted in more of the same replies. "ASAP", "DO NOT WORRY" though they left out "PLEASE BE PATIENT" this time. Lacking any genuine explanation of what they are doing, why it is taking so long to provide any substantial response, etc. etc.

I would like the motors to mysteriously arrive, but am ready to have a break and do without on principle of the shady responses.
edit: now not getting any responses.

From Buyer
13/03/2013 21:35 PDT
14 days since order by EMS Express without any dispatch notice, tracking detail.
Expected delivery prior to the 10th day.
Raised issue on 10th day requesting tracking, and alerting if not already sent, my office delivery address changes by end of week (day 15) so do not send without asking new address.
12th day seller claims no awareness of the order, so I provided order details directly from their system and Paypal receipt also.
At 14th day, four days since issue raised, no information or action for resolution has been given, only information to be patient.
After 14 days since payment, with no delivery of the order, no information at all for its status, and only receiving replies requesting my patience after each day with no progress, I am disappointed.
Therefore I am patiently pursuing a refund and cancellation of the order through Paypal.

From Seller – http://www.leadershobby.com
14/03/2013 00:26 PDT
Sorry for taking you so many trouble.
We will check and reply you asap.
Please do not worry.
Have a nice day.
Best wishes.

From Buyer
14/03/2013 00:49 PDT
Hi, thanks for the quick reply again, however this is the same reply I've had for the past 4 days, and no information about the order has progressed at all. Please refund my transaction.

From Seller – http://www.leadershobby.com
14/03/2013 23:15 PDT
You're welcome.
We have reported the refund.
Please do not worry.
Thanks for your understanding.
Have a nice day.
Best regards.

From Buyer
16/03/2013 02:20 PDT
No refund of my paypal payment has been received, it has been a day now.

From Buyer
18/03/2013 19:38 PDT
5th day following "we have reported the refund" and no refund received.
Escalating to a Paypal Claim if not received by close of business.

 

[Tiverion]

Is anyone else seeing massive price increases on C63xx outrunners ?

I'm seeing all C6364 motors for $200.00 plus. WTF?

 

[Dauntless]

We've got not one but TWO threads referencing that. It's gonna be time to look elsewhere.

 

[DAND214]

Did you ask if it's a mistake?

Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

dan

 

[Dauntless]

When it's the whole site that's nearly 5 times what it was, with the prices set for a month, it's not a mistake.

 

[spinningmagnets]

I am very happy with the Exceed 63mm 295-Kv RC motor I bought from them, but the price fluctuated wildly. One month it was $145, the next it was $45...I should have bought two of them when the price was down, instead of just one. "Leaders Hobby" may be sketchy, but...the Exceed motor is very nice, runs quieter than my Turnigy motor. The Exceed packaging was excellent.

 

[Johi]

I cannot recommend to order from LEADERHOBBY. I was simply scammed. They could not deliver the items I've ordered. When I finally requested refunding to my PayPal account they started to play a waiting game with me with meaningless e-mails. I'm now waiting for much more than two week for refunding and reminded them at least every 2nd day. So far nothing happened. I guess my money is lost. If you are interested in more details, write me an e-mail: jvogel@vetphys.uzh.ch

 

[Thud]

J,
you have 45 days form the transaction to file a greivence with paypal....if i don't have a confirmed tracking # showing verifiable activity from an over seas seller within 10 days of a purchase...I send a polite e-mail alerting them I am fileing a paypal claim against them in the next 24 hours. I don't care about e-mails with offers or credit.......the sale is blown, its my money.

Leaders took my 1st payment of more than $300 usd on items they said they had & then showed it as a back order on inquiry I made 5 days later. After the e-mail, My money was back in my paypal account within 24 hours.

Later I bought some other items from them & have been very happy with the shipping time & increadably low (give away) pricing...

if your past 45 days with them.....I am afraid you have no recourse other than to spit venom on them in any forum you can find.

If their prices fall back to even reasonable levels I will be a customer again...(I am a platinum member there with 5+ completed orders)

 

[deepfraught]

Paypal process says waiting until the 29th for a reply from Leaders (over a month from the transaction), no response from them to the escalation to claim since they were prompted on 19th, 7 days ago.
I made payment, no dispatch, no tracking info, no explanations, no hope of a transaction being completed.

If they were a lame horse we'd humanely put them of their misery.

 

[deepfraught]

Seems like they've shut down the Leaders Hobby identity, website down, other aircraft RC people on web posting being scammed prior to this.
Probably find them via ebay in the meantime, at least the feedback system is more obvious than Paypal before you commit to buy.
Now I'm looking for 5065 motors again with 30mm BCD.

 

[neptronix]

Probably find them via ebay in the meantime, at least the feedback system is more obvious than Paypal before you commit to buy.
Now I'm looking for 5065 motors again with 30mm BCD.

I hope you're not insinuating that anyone should buy from them on ebay

Be wary of anything associated with 'million power group', that is their parent company, and leaders hobby is just one of the branches.

 

[deepfraught]

No I wouldn't recommend them given my bad experience
Now that their website is down, people won't as easily notice the similarity of their more expensive ebay listings against their same stock photos as used on the website. People will inevitably end up buying from them without knowing the link.
Thanks for the info of their parent company Million Power Group. I did see that they fobbed off and delayed some people beyond their paypal recourse periods... buyer beware.

 

[Dauntless]

The website is gone. But maybe trying to price the site above the eBay price would explain the price hike.

 

[neptronix]

http://store.electricbike.com/monster-rc-motor-80-100-130kv/

electricbike.com is selling this motor BTW..

 

[deepfraught]

Just received and unsolicited email (spam) from Dealmetic and search to instantly find it's Leaders Hobby new spawn identity.

From RC Groups forum top google hit:

Dear sir,
Thanks for your email.

Sorry that the items on the previous Leadershobby page won't be sold any more.

Our page has been updated.
You can buy items from www.dealmetic.com .
Any problems to your new order, please contact with us via email :
sales@dealmetic.com .

I wonder how all the people who they ripped off feel about this...