Post by luke213 on Mar 2, 2015 12:55:05 GMT -5
NOTE: Things have changed since I posted this, though I'm going to leave the bulk of it here since it's still accurate to how the situation was handled. That said I was too harsh on them based on how everything shook out and I'll explain below.
Well I ordered some lipos from HobbyKing.com per recommendations from somewhere either here or Facebook etc. I ordered on the 21st. and since then they have supposedly printed a label on the 24th. though it hasn't hit their local post office. So I contact them, yeah 10 days to delivery from the date of shipment. Well that is the 6th which is this Friday. Now I'll be happy to post if it comes in on that date. But this is more of a story of customer service or how not to do customer service.
So I placed the order, since I paid via paypal I didn't get an order number via email nor tracking. So I contact their customer service via Live Chat. Request shipping information along with the order number that I haven't received. Got both, checked the USPS link, and the label is printed but hasn't hit USPS anywhere. I should note I ordered from their "East Coast US Warehouse" which I hoped wasn't the east coast of China but I'm starting to wonder. At this point I wasn't upset or anything stuff takes time, and I don't mind waiting a reasonable amount of time. However that said I ordered from a US warehouse and paid for 3 day USPS Priority shipping because I expected it might take a day or two to ship, and 3 days to receive depending on how things went.
So today is day 9, but the previous person I spoke to had said that the package would be here by the 2nd. So this morning I checked the tracking same status message same spot it's been sitting since the 24th. So best case scenario it hits USPS today, and gets here in 48 hours. Worst case it's somewhere else and I never see it. But I mentioned this to the person I talked to today and was told 10 days from the "ship" date and I use quotes there since they haven't actually shipped anything yet since it hasn't left their location. They say if it hasn't arrived in 10 days, go check with my local customs location, and my local post office. Well there isn't a customs location, other than the post office anywhere remotely near here. Post office I deal with daily for my business I know them well, I ship around 500+ packages a year through the post office I've known them for years perks of a small town. When I get signature required packages they call my cell phone and meet me down at the mail box to sign for it and get it, we've got a good working relationship. If something hits my post office and for any reason it's weird I'll get a call, hell they could just put Adams or Luke without a full name and I'd get it, or no address just Channing MI I've gotten stuff both ways over the years. I mentioned that A customs shouldn't be involved since this was a purely interstate shipment, it shouldn't be leaving or entering the country. To which they replied again with the same canned message about checking with the post office and customs.
Now she also mentioned that they wouldn't be able to do anything about the order until it was lost for 4 months. Seriously? In what world is that acceptable anymore. This is the very reason I paid via paypal rather than using a credit card for this initial order. I have 45 days from purchase to dispute the sale, and be refunded. I told the person that in no way will I wait 4 months for the shipment to be found. If it's not received by the 6th as promised I'll be filing a dispute with Paypal and getting a refund.
This isn't an expensive order, it honestly isn't that big of a deal. It's a $20 order with 2 batteries and a cheap lipo charger(yep I'm planning on getting a better one very soon but it wasn't in the cards right now). This was my first order, I planned on ordering a much larger order today with 5-6 batteries for my other guns and a few other people's batteries here locally. But in light of the way the customer service was handled I'll be sourcing my batteries elsewhere. Had they said "Hey the order didn't leave our warehouse, we're having a problem getting it out" I wouldn't have had a problem at all. Things happen, I know this as well as anyone running my own business. Sometimes things out of your control occur. They could have said "We got slammed with orders and we're trying our best to get things out the door" I'd have taken that and happily waited till it got here, again things happen. The way they handled it, and I should have kept a log of the communications just leaves me with a bitter taste.
So maybe a F is a little harsh but at this point they have failed in my opinion, more so on customer service than actually maybe shipping a product. I might still receive the batteries but honestly I'm not holding my breath. I suspect about the time I've entered a dispute and been refunded that they will show up since that's how these things tend to play out. If so I'll call my local post office and refuse receipt and send it back return to sender. Hopefully they will manage to take the trip to the post office before it comes to that but I just don't have a very good feeling of the whole situation.
So whole point of this beware buying from Hobby King, I might just be unlucky but you may end up jerked around and may or may not receive what you ordered.
Luke
Well I ordered some lipos from HobbyKing.com per recommendations from somewhere either here or Facebook etc. I ordered on the 21st. and since then they have supposedly printed a label on the 24th. though it hasn't hit their local post office. So I contact them, yeah 10 days to delivery from the date of shipment. Well that is the 6th which is this Friday. Now I'll be happy to post if it comes in on that date. But this is more of a story of customer service or how not to do customer service.
So I placed the order, since I paid via paypal I didn't get an order number via email nor tracking. So I contact their customer service via Live Chat. Request shipping information along with the order number that I haven't received. Got both, checked the USPS link, and the label is printed but hasn't hit USPS anywhere. I should note I ordered from their "East Coast US Warehouse" which I hoped wasn't the east coast of China but I'm starting to wonder. At this point I wasn't upset or anything stuff takes time, and I don't mind waiting a reasonable amount of time. However that said I ordered from a US warehouse and paid for 3 day USPS Priority shipping because I expected it might take a day or two to ship, and 3 days to receive depending on how things went.
So today is day 9, but the previous person I spoke to had said that the package would be here by the 2nd. So this morning I checked the tracking same status message same spot it's been sitting since the 24th. So best case scenario it hits USPS today, and gets here in 48 hours. Worst case it's somewhere else and I never see it. But I mentioned this to the person I talked to today and was told 10 days from the "ship" date and I use quotes there since they haven't actually shipped anything yet since it hasn't left their location. They say if it hasn't arrived in 10 days, go check with my local customs location, and my local post office. Well there isn't a customs location, other than the post office anywhere remotely near here. Post office I deal with daily for my business I know them well, I ship around 500+ packages a year through the post office I've known them for years perks of a small town. When I get signature required packages they call my cell phone and meet me down at the mail box to sign for it and get it, we've got a good working relationship. If something hits my post office and for any reason it's weird I'll get a call, hell they could just put Adams or Luke without a full name and I'd get it, or no address just Channing MI I've gotten stuff both ways over the years. I mentioned that A customs shouldn't be involved since this was a purely interstate shipment, it shouldn't be leaving or entering the country. To which they replied again with the same canned message about checking with the post office and customs.
Now she also mentioned that they wouldn't be able to do anything about the order until it was lost for 4 months. Seriously? In what world is that acceptable anymore. This is the very reason I paid via paypal rather than using a credit card for this initial order. I have 45 days from purchase to dispute the sale, and be refunded. I told the person that in no way will I wait 4 months for the shipment to be found. If it's not received by the 6th as promised I'll be filing a dispute with Paypal and getting a refund.
This isn't an expensive order, it honestly isn't that big of a deal. It's a $20 order with 2 batteries and a cheap lipo charger(yep I'm planning on getting a better one very soon but it wasn't in the cards right now). This was my first order, I planned on ordering a much larger order today with 5-6 batteries for my other guns and a few other people's batteries here locally. But in light of the way the customer service was handled I'll be sourcing my batteries elsewhere. Had they said "Hey the order didn't leave our warehouse, we're having a problem getting it out" I wouldn't have had a problem at all. Things happen, I know this as well as anyone running my own business. Sometimes things out of your control occur. They could have said "We got slammed with orders and we're trying our best to get things out the door" I'd have taken that and happily waited till it got here, again things happen. The way they handled it, and I should have kept a log of the communications just leaves me with a bitter taste.
So maybe a F is a little harsh but at this point they have failed in my opinion, more so on customer service than actually maybe shipping a product. I might still receive the batteries but honestly I'm not holding my breath. I suspect about the time I've entered a dispute and been refunded that they will show up since that's how these things tend to play out. If so I'll call my local post office and refuse receipt and send it back return to sender. Hopefully they will manage to take the trip to the post office before it comes to that but I just don't have a very good feeling of the whole situation.
So whole point of this beware buying from Hobby King, I might just be unlucky but you may end up jerked around and may or may not receive what you ordered.
Luke
