Edit: After nearly a month of wrangling and customer support emails it's now finally solved. They will ship similar batteries with a different part number at no extra cost. See last post.
Hobbyking customer service is giving me a runaround with an order of 45-90C Nanotech LiPo. I ordered nearly a month ago and they have still not shipped.
Short story: I ordered Oct 4. I made sure everything shows "in stock" at the checkout page. HK's own FAQ says that "in stock" items ship within 48h, then EMS express is 3-5 days to Canada
One week later order has still not shipped. I write and ask for the detailed reason, get a non-informative answer. Write again after two and three weeks. Get similar non-informative BS. See copies below.
After 7 emails of BS I write that I will dispute with Paypal. Only then do they bother to check with the warehouse and notice that while the 5s 5Ah 45-90C "version 4.0" Nano shows in stock on the computer, there aren't actually any on the shelf. I tell them to substitute the "version 5.0" at no extra cost to me, which I suspect is probably the same or similar cells re-labeled and marked up.
Now they got back and want to extract more money for their computer screwup. If I want the batteries now I have to fork out an extra $50 for "5.0" labeled nanos, or else wait (they can't even say how long) until "4.0" labeled nanos come in again.
What do you think? Should I fork out the $50 estra?
Say screw them and ask Paypal to refund?
Any other place to get good LiPo at reasonable prices?
Full correspondence FYI:
Hobbyking customer service is giving me a runaround with an order of 45-90C Nanotech LiPo. I ordered nearly a month ago and they have still not shipped.
Short story: I ordered Oct 4. I made sure everything shows "in stock" at the checkout page. HK's own FAQ says that "in stock" items ship within 48h, then EMS express is 3-5 days to Canada
One week later order has still not shipped. I write and ask for the detailed reason, get a non-informative answer. Write again after two and three weeks. Get similar non-informative BS. See copies below.
After 7 emails of BS I write that I will dispute with Paypal. Only then do they bother to check with the warehouse and notice that while the 5s 5Ah 45-90C "version 4.0" Nano shows in stock on the computer, there aren't actually any on the shelf. I tell them to substitute the "version 5.0" at no extra cost to me, which I suspect is probably the same or similar cells re-labeled and marked up.
Now they got back and want to extract more money for their computer screwup. If I want the batteries now I have to fork out an extra $50 for "5.0" labeled nanos, or else wait (they can't even say how long) until "4.0" labeled nanos come in again.
What do you think? Should I fork out the $50 estra?
Say screw them and ask Paypal to refund?
Any other place to get good LiPo at reasonable prices?
Full correspondence FYI:
Oct-13 00:18
Dear Sirs,
As a first time customer of Hobby King I was pleased with the website.
I placed and paid for order 2003297997 on Oct 5.
I carefully deleted backorder items before placing the order, so all times in my order showed in stock.
Your checkout pages stated that orders of in-stock items ship within 48h.
Please give me the detailed reason why my order still only shows "received".
Now it is over one week since I placed it.
When will it ship?
Thanks for contacting the HobbyKing Support Team.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Due to unusually high order volumes, we are experiencing a slight delay.
We have informed our warehouse to post your order as soon as possible. We will send you an automatic email with a tracking number once the order#2003297997 is dispatched from our warehouse.
Thanks for emailing support.
If you have any other questions, please let me know.
Regards.
Rachel
HobbyKing Support Team
Dear Sir/Madame,
It is now TWO WEEKS since I PLACED and PAYED for my order. According to the account status it has still not shipped. This is NOT A SLIGHT delay as you try to put it above. Your web page says orders are shipped within 48 hours. I have been awaiting these parts to go flying this month, not next month when it will be too cold in Canada!
Please let me know the exact reason why my order has not shipped. If some item has gone missing for you (despite I made sure to order only "in stock" items), please let me know ASAP and propose to substitute the next better part. This should be at no cost to me as I have not caused this problem.
Thanks for contacting the HobbyKing Support Team.
We are sorry for the waiting. We will check with our staff in the warehouse for your order#2003297997. When there is news, we will send you an email.
Thanks for emailing support.
If you have any other questions, please let me know.
Regards.
Rachel
Dear Sirs,
It is now in the THIRD WEEK since I PLACED and PAYED for my order, and it has still not shipped. I have several times kindly asked you to let me know exactly what the reason is, so if one of my order parts had gone out of stock, we could find a replacement. I got back NO USEFUL FACTUAL information from you. Just customer service information-less nonsense! This does not make me happy.
I took a second look at the stock status now. While most of the items I ordered still showed in stock, the iCharger 106b shows out of stock. Is it possibly so that while showed in stock when I ordered, and my order page says one was "reserved" for me, you haven't been able to find one to reserve for me? If so, why couldn't you tell me that right away? Then we could have made adjustments to my order and you could have sent the package 3 weeks ago and I would have had the parts here in Canada 2 weeks ago!
As I mentioned already last week, if a part is not available let me know ASAP. You can for instance ship the next better part (e.g. another iCharger model) at no additional cost, or suggest dropping the part from the order and give me a discount on the rest. The discount will offset the extra cost I would incur having to rush order whatever is missing from other sources.
I'm looking for factual constructive and quick solutions to this order delay now! If I don't hear back by mid week, I will contact my credit card company and supply them with my order bill showing it should have been shipped in 48h and ask them to take the appropriate action to protect my money.
Hi Martin ,
Thanks for contacting the HobbyKing Support Team.
Due to a system error with our stock level, it seems that the item N5000.5S.45 is marked as available when in fact it is out of stock. Sorry for the inconvenience.
We are sorry that we don't have an accurate time for the item; once it becomes available, we will continue to process your order and have it shipped to you at once.
Or if you can not wait for the item, we kindly advise you to remove this item, so we can ship the rest of order#2003297997 to you. If you would like to remove the item, we will offer store credit or refund to paypal to you.
Please kindly advise us.
Thanks for emailing support.
If you have any other questions, please let me know.
Regards.
Rachel
Please substitute the missing batteries using the equivalent product N5000.5S.65.
This you could have checked and done right away, not after 3 weeks. Instead of answering emails with nonsense just insist that the warehouse do their job and go look for the batteries. This would have saved both of our time and avoided the unnecessary exchange a total of 7, that is SEVEN, emails until now.
I'm disappointed I had to wait 3 weeks, but hope you will resolve your problem with no additional wait or cost to me.
I also ask that the full text of the 7 emails are forwarded to a manager so that customers can be served in a timely and factual manner in the future.
Hi Martin,
Thanks for contacting the HobbyKing Support Team.
Changes will be made on your order #2003297997 as follows:
Cancel:
2 x N5000.5S.45 $74.73x2=$149.46
Add:
2 x N5000.5S.65 $95.69x2=$191.38
The total weight will be 2671g
EMS Express to Canada (MAX 3kg) $61.74
extra shipping fee $7.03
extra payment of $48.95
Please log in your paypal account and send the amount of $48.95 USD to accounts@unitedhobbies.com
After your payment has been transferred, you should receive confirmation email from Paypal for Unique transaction or receipt ID. Please provide the ID, so we can verify the payment with Paypal and process your order promptly.
Customers are always kindly advised to contact us by live support chat for urgent matters.
Thanks for emailing support.
If you have any other questions, please let me know.
Regards.
Rachel