AVOID Hobby King!

[Lynn Deppe]

I am new to this Drone world and not impressed with the lack of customer service among the retailers!!! I thought I would share my first experience. I purchased a Tali H500 from HobbyKing (my first serious multi rotor). After closely following the recommended procedure I learned that the "Return to Home" did not work correctly. In fact, the drone became uncontrollable. On the first failure I was fortunate that they battery ran out. The second time, the drone would just hover about 2 inches off of the ground and it finally caught the landing gear and crashed (no real harm done. blades destroyed). I did a general flight test and it was okay after replacing the blades. I LOST ALL TRUST of the drone. I had only had it for 20 days. Brand new. After describing the characteristics of the drone in this mode, Hobby King recommended that I complete the RMA process and send it in for evaluation. Following a long delay they came back to me and said they would refund me 80%. This confused me. I asked if the device was bad why would I not get a new one swapped out or the full 100% back. They would not responded to my request and still have not after nearly a month! There is a "Robert" in the service department that seems to control the ship. I tried to get through to him by many various means and had no luck. I worked with the online help desk and they would seem to shield that department. I asked for a management escalation at least one time every week for the past month and no one will help. They still have my faulty drone and will not respond. I submitted a complaint with the BBB but are not real confident that will help. They are making me feel like I am the bad guy. I just want a refund or a new one sent out and the way we go. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY TO ANY OF MY DRONE FRIENDS, but quite the opposite. I would recommend that they do NOT purchase anything from them.

 

[dazzab]

That's quite an unfortunate experience and I can understand your frustration. I believe Walkera uses 3DR APM flight controllers which are quite good but all flight controllers can cause issues in various circumstances. I can't really comment on the specific technical issues you had but you are certainly correct about the level of customer service. It sounds like you have done everything you can and although it is going far too slowly I hope you will get a reasonable outcome from this. Keep us informed.

 

[Motopreserve]

It is unfortunate that you've had this experience. Keep at it - because it seems like eventually they do respond.....hopefully .

They are notorious for having the worst/non-existent customer service and should be avoided for large purchases if you ever hope to get support for that product.

On the other hand, I've had good luck with their cheaper "consumables," batteries (Nano-tech), silicone wire, connectors etc.

It's a crap shoot - but it hurts less if it's cheap!

Hopefully you get a new MR and get back on the air soon.

 

[Dylan M]

It's a crap shoot - but it hurts less if it's cheap!

Most of all of us found this^^^ out the hard way, @Lynn Deppe, you should be lucky it wasn't more expensive I have purchased quite a few products from HK that were far less than satisfactory. Haven't ordering anything from them in at least 2 year but I did get a great deal on a Turnigy Mega-charger and PSU. Although found out the hard way that you should never buy 'nice' lipos from them every one I got was poorly balanced and a few had very unbalanced cells. If you can live with the cheap prices and none-existent customer service then you're good. I boycott them as well...

 

[jbrumberg]

Be persistent, professional, and polite. It can not hurt, and you do not have a lot of options except maybe going through the credit card/PayPal dispute process.

I like everyone else I have had good and bad experiences with HK, but I have to post that all my disputes ended with a positive outcome. I can not post the same for BangGood.

For expensive "RC stuff" I stay away from HK, and try to give my business to USA based companies.

Good Luck.

 

[Lynn Deppe]

Thank you all for your replies. It seems that I am not alone and the Hobby King reality a bit clearer now. I have kept pushing at them and the responses I get are hollow and without a resolution but I will keep at them. I submitted a complaint with the BBB of Washington state. They confirmed that Hobby King has one of the lowest rating of any business in the U.S. This is due in part to their lack of responses to most of their complaints. I went ahead and picked up a Phantom III Pro from Drones Etc and they were quite the opposite of Hobby King. I had a couple of small issues and they resolved it immediately.

I will keep at it. Safe flying all!

 

[Bartman]

was the person you were in contact with based in the US or elsewhere?

HK is at most of the major shows throughout the year, if there's one nearby you should show up with print outs of all of your correspondence and put them on the spot to make it right.

I'm with @Motopreserve on this one, knowing what to buy from HK and what not to buy makes all of the difference.

 

[violetwolf]

I bought some batteries that never arrived. The tracking showed them as returned to HK... Even with tracking evidence it took about 3 months and a ton of emails and real time chat to get a refund. Bottom line it was through polite discourse on the website chat app that was effective. The Chinese value politeness.

 

[Vermiform]

I bought some batteries that never arrived. The tracking showed them as returned to HK... Even with tracking evidence it took about 3 months and a ton of emails and real time chat to get a refund. Bottom line it was through polite discourse on the website chat app that was effective. The Chinese value politeness.

+1 for polite discourse and using the website chat app. That's how any of my problems are resolved with HK.

 

[Lynn Deppe]

Not to carry on the whining too long but day 62 and no resolution. I am taking your advice to be polite and on the back end warning as many people as I can about this company. In the mean time I just chew on rocks

 

[Old Man]

That's quite an unfortunate experience and I can understand your frustration. I believe Walkera uses 3DR APM flight controllers which are quite good but all flight controllers can cause issues in various circumstances..

Dazzab, I believe Walkera used APM type FC's, but not specifically 3DR. More like clones of 3DR products. If the OP can get his aircraft a solution to his problems might be to replace the flight control system with genuine 3DR products. Not an ideal solution from a financial perspective but one that would be far more functional and reliable. He would also obtain the benefits of 3DR's excellent customer support organization.

 

[violetwolf]

We should note that 3DR uses Open Source technology for their Flight Controllers. Both the hardware and software are Open Source. There can be no "clones of 3DR" as anyone who wants to can download the schematics from Git Hub and manufacture the boards and install the open source firmware on the open source circuit board. This is all 3DR does.

3DR would like the public to think otherwise.

 

[Old Man]

I understand, however, those making products for commercial sale from open sourced software/hardware may have a tendency to take short cuts in materials, workmanship, and programming of their products to reduce costs and maximize profits. Not to start an argument but IF Walkera was using 3DR sourced FC's I would have expected Walkera to have marketed a reliable MR package a long time ago with any one of the several offerings they have buggered up, AND failed to support. That they have not speaks loudly for how they have chosen to do things. Open source is open source but you have to do things right for it to function correctly. Anyone can use Linux, another open source product, but if they program incorrectly it won't work. Walkera has consistently failed to perform with almost everything they have marketed.

One thing about a 3DR FC, I have reason to put a lot of trust in them. I do not with FC's using similar names like Fixhawk, etc. Many of them are like a box of chocolates...

 

[dazzab]

There can be no "clones of 3DR" as anyone who wants to can download the schematics from Git Hub and manufacture the boards and install the open source firmware on the open source circuit board. This is all 3DR does.

3DR does a great deal more than just download the open source software. First off, they actually pay those writing the software! Both those on staff and those working on contracts. That's a huge investment right there. They also spend a lot of money developing/manufacturing the hardware and improving it. That would be many millions of dollars to date.

Those who just take the open source software and put it on their cheap boards provide absolutely nothing to the project overall. No code, no money, no investment, no support. When you buy 3DR hardware you are not only supporting ongoing development but you are supporting the company that supports the overall community in countless ways. They also have a large support infrastructure which none of the cloners have.

 

[Motopreserve]

As far as I recall, Whitespy at Ready to Fly Quads contributed to both the software and hardware - at least back when he introduced his version of the hardware a couple years back (he had some goofy play on Pixhawk as well). I believe he had a fork downloadable/flashed at that time that he had a hand in.

Like many things, dealing with some of these companies in China have presented some issues in quality control. Multiwii was the same way. So while VioletWolf is correct, both hardware and the software being open source, I also understand why these guys feel more comfortable dealing with a company who seems to present a customer service closer to what we'd expect for our money.

That said, I've only dealt with APM once, and unfortunately the broken links, mismatched info and frustration that ensued, has turned me off from delving any deeper.

 

[violetwolf]

Well as someone who has been using the Ardu system for several years over many craft, both on my own and for customers, I can say I steer clear of 3DR like the plague. The units from RC Timer have a much higher quality control at 40% lower prices. 3DR "develop" (IE Revise) the hardware but refuse to share the revised schematics which violates the copyright. That is flat out illegal use. They put nothing back into the Open Source community.

Don't buy the hype.

They do answer emails though, I'll give them that. But in my case it was basically to tell me they wouldn't replace defective parts.. I moved on. Nuff said. /

Vote with your wallet that's what I do.

Whitespy on the other hand should be avoided at all costs.. just do a search on RC Groups...

Not arguing, just balancing the discussion. Love you guys.

 

[Motopreserve]

Whitespy was flaky, no doubt about it. I guess the only consolation was that he seemed to be self-aware of his flakiness.

I haven't dealt with him or followed any activity since I moved away from Multiwii, but in fairness, his products did work for me.

I realized I should have clarified that it was the broken links and mismatched information on the ARDU pages (and ARDU associated web sites) that frustrated me. So I don't consider my experience a knock on 3DR, but rather a very similar experience to the one I had trying to chase down answers to the Multiwii programming.