I have made several orders to hobbyking (amounting to several hundreds of pounds) with varying degrees of success (delivery times can be ridiculous) but the last two have been a complete nightmare.
I bought one of their Turnigy 7 in 1 model meters from their UK warehouse which was faulty out of the box. For the money it was complete rubbish so I contacted Hobbyking with a request to send it back for a refund (simple you would think). I filled in one of their warranty forms online as instructed. They then requested that I send them pictures of the fault "as I may not have to send the item back to them for a refund" (how the hell do you photograph something that is not doing anything to show that it's not working?) After a week and many email requesting a returns label plus threatening to report them to the UK trading standards they finally gave me a returns address (I still had to pay for the return postage though), so I could send the meter back for a "refund". They said it would take 2-4 weeks for them to receive the item (It was sent back to them first class paid for by me to the next county, about thirty miles away!) They duly received the meter and "inspected" it confirming that it was indeed faulty. They then informed me that they had given me a store credit minus the original postage. I had already requested a full refund back to the payment option I used to purchase it with (paypal), so I emailed them again to ask that they refund me properly and where was the postage costs! They then proceeded to resend another meter and removed the credit from my account! I emailed them again to request that they not send another meter but refund my payment method as originally requested in full. They replied stating that they had stopped the replacement order and would refund my account in 2-4 weeks!?
I sent the meter back over a month ago but am still waiting for them to refund my money back to my paypal account (which I used to buy the meter) I have not been emailed to tell me weather I will get my postage back despite emailing them several times. I would have put a claim in against them with paypal but It has taken so long to get this far I have missed my chance.
The second problem I have with them is much the same, a faulty out of the box Turnigy four channel LiPo charger. I'm still trying to get it "replaced" but not getting much luck at the moment.
If you are considering buying from this company DON'T, most of the items I have purchased from them have been either poorly made "cheap Knock-offs" or in most other cases can be purchased cheaper elsewhere. Their after sales service is a joke, they don't stand by what they are selling and if you have a problem you will get very little help and they will give you the run around for weeks!
How can a company based in China, operating in the UK get away with ripping people off such bad customer service?