Made an order on 22 of Jan - all parts reserved before the 14th of Feb and yet I'm still stuck on processing - now 8th Mar 2010.

Have wasted countless hours on phone and online support only to get nowhere. None of my emails have been addressed either.

While some customers report getting their orders tended to, I'm not one of them (and there are many others like me)...

If you are a customer of HK and would like to send a message, please cast a vote on this poll. Would be great to provide HK with feedback!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/f...s.asp?TID=6755

I used to love HK and I'm ok with delays but within reason...

Perhaps this rant shared with fellow hobbiests may help set realistic expectations when placing orders with HK.

Cheers from Seattle.

The reasons for the slowdowns were/are posted in the News & Alerts forum and have been for weeks now so it should come as no surprise. Was also posted in news on the home page about CNY. Do you not read about news & alerts on forums you visit?

You must have lost track of the many threads you are trying to support - and kudos to you since you seem very responsive compared to HK.

Yes I do read - the order was placed in Jan and the notices were not avail until well after my order. Many others have complained that the notices were "too little too late" - many of which you have exchanged posts with...

I'm not having any issues. Placed a order on 3-2 Shipped 3-6 and cleared customs here 3-8.
Mike

...
Two more days have gone by - still no customer support - email, online and phone all useless...

What a frustrating ordeal this has been so far in dealing with HK. In fact this is my worse ever online purchase experience.
...

It's been very frustrating at HK as well Martin. Last I heard (yesterday, Wed,) they still had to clear up the remaining email pile which is currently around 2,000 with the majority sending 2 to 4 emails each demanding to know why their order wasn't shipped the day after ordering and why they hadn't had a response to their emails yet, which of course just built up the backlog so it took longer to reply.
HK has added 2 more staff to help with the email and they expect to be caught up & back to normal late next week.
They are working 2 shifts + Saturdays in packing dept, and small orders are being shipped in 3 or 4 days and large pkgs such as airplanes, helis, boats, etc. are shipping in 6 or 7 days. They had many more orders (totally unexpected) than normal last month which coupled with CNY led to the shipping backlog. That's expected to be caught up by the end of next week also.
Chat & phone will be concentrated on when the email backlog is cleared up, so that should be sometime late next week or the following week.

Ron - Thank you for the update and thanks for the help (on HK forums)

I really wish HK would post this information on their front page. That alone would eliminate much of the excess email/online support traffic they are getting...

As is stands the only real notice is:
"HobbyKing.com warehouse & office back in action! 17/02/2010 11:38:23 PM
..." Which is clearly not the case.

Making the assumption that customers will create an account on their forums to find out more or that the problems continue is not a good one either.

Perhaps HK is a victim of their own success...

I hope they can learn from this fiasco and have a good plan in place to rebuild customer loyalty.

Cheers
M

I've suggested to the powers that be that info on the home page could be a little better so we'll see. I believe overall, HK has nearly doubled in size over the past year but they weren't expecting what transpired in Feb. Currently they have well over 25,000 visitors to the site each month vs about 15,000 last year IIRC.
There are improvements/changes going to take place in the very near future just can't talk about them. Maybe in another month or two if all goes well.

Just a quick update for those in a similar situation.

Vivian from HK got back to me last night.

HK needed a photo of my CC with only the last four #s showing. Weird since they took the funds in Jan, sent a confirmation and are only now asking for a photo. In the future I guess I'll only use Paypal - never had issues when doing so.

Well folks, I'll stop my ranting and will give you a final update once my stuff arrives.

Cheers
M

I can understand the 3 day CNY break setting them back a few days, but I have to agree I have never seen this kind of delays with them. I ordered a single item (yes it is in stock) almost 2 weeks ago and it still hasn't shipped. I can understand it being a massive effort addressing a huge hairball of emails, but I'd think shipping out orders would be more important since that is the best way to avoid getting so many more emails in the first place. It almost sounds like the backlog and email pile is snowballing and overwhelming them.

No big deal, since it'll be too muddy to fly for the next few weeks around here anyway, but I could see some folks getting upset over this kind of thing.

I've always considered ordering from them an order and forget it experience. Don't sit by the door waiting for the mailman or watch your e-mail box for any updates. Place the order, put a reminder on your calendar 1.5 months out and put it out of your mind.

It is not the place to order from if you are in impatient or in a hurry.

Originally Posted by Laggard

I've always considered ordering from them an order and forget it experience. Don't sit by the door waiting for the mailman or watch your e-mail box for any updates. Place the order, put a reminder on your calendar 1.5 months out and put it out of your mind.

It is not the place to order from if you are in impatient or in a hurry.

Hehe! I'm the same way. It is not like they ship life saving equipment.
I can wait an extra week or two or 3... I might have to go visit a friend or something to kill the time (man that feels strange talking to real people )
and I just don't order stuff out of stock as at time stuff just never gets restocked.

Originally Posted by Ron W3FJW

They weren't expecting what transpired in Feb. Currently they have well over 25,000 visitors to the site each month vs about 15,000 last year IIRC.

What did transpire?
They said that 2 people quit. After that all seemed like went to hell with support. Kinda hard to believe that 2 support people leaving can cause so much trouble and for so long.
Would be cool if they hired more guys like you, maybe 5-6 from other countries that would provide some tech and order support as most stuff is accessible on-line. There should be no reason to speak Chinese, but would be better if they had German, Italian, French speaking staff. Hard to believe that in that internet age it is not possible for HK when others do it.
You seem to do a good job putting out some fire here and on HK, just need a few more Ron clones

Not ranting but still no news - for all I know this could just be a way of making us wait a bunch more days.

This is a complete rigmarole!!!!

Just a few minutes after my post I get an email from HK... Could it be a notice that they shipped my stuff....finally...

NOPE...

Well I don't have the words to describe my frustration. Would you believe I just got SPAM from HK? Not a note to deal with my outstanding order from Jan but rather this...

"Hi Martin. We're giving away 100 Lipoly Chargers over 100 days!‏"

Hey HK - how about instead of a contest, you handle the #$#@%@%#$@% backlog!!!!

I guess I'm back to ranting