Hobby king will not refund me :(

jakes-mum

Bought a part for my husband in October for his model quadcopter from hobbyking.com, it was a Christmas present and paid with PayPal (which in hindsight was a bad idea as PayPal protection ran out before it was tested). Husband tried it on his copter, didn't work, went on the site 31 dec and opened a dispute as they gave a warranty on it.

They ask for a video of it not working, we upload, they agree it doesn't work and offer a credit to the account, a replacement or a refund to my original payment method. I ask for a refund, they give me a credit to my account! I ask them to remove the credit and refund, they remove the credit from the account but no refund issued.

After much emailing, they are insistent they have refunded to my PayPal account and I need to ring PayPal to get it authorised. Rang PayPal and they confirm what I already suspected, hobbyking have never issued any payment to my account . PayPal basically say all they can do is keep bombarding hobbyking with requests to refund but if they ignore them there's nowt they can do to force it.

Even though they have uk warehouses and that is where the part came from, I don't think the actual company is uk based so cannot even use DSR's to try and get a refund

If anyone has any ideas on how else I can try and get my money back, I'd be grateful.

transient

Why didnt you contact the company first before doing the chargeback? That would have riled me as a business. Secondly Why didnt you take the credit note?

I suggest you read up on DSR's too as you are way off. They simply wont be able to refund your money on DSR anyway as 25 days minimum had passed since you bought the item

jakes-mum

1) I did contact the company repeatedly as stated in the OP, I only contacted paypal AFTER they told me to. I have never attempted a chargeback as I knew I was already out of time anyway.

2) I did not accept the credit as I have nothing else I want to buy from them, they offered me a refund of my original payment as one of the options, and that is what I asked for, they then issued a credit to the account instead.

3) Maybe I do need more information on DSR's, maybe I actually used the wrong term as I have a neurological issue that causes me to confuse and forget words?

All I know is it was sold with warranty, the company is actually foreign and they keep telling me they have refunded me when they haven't. Not having been in this situation before I came on and asked for anyone with knowledge to help me.

Coopdivi

It's a typical Chinese website: No contact address or phone number, accepts Western Union for payment, secretive about the fact that customers will probably have to pay Customs duty, a worthless warranty. They do actually say they're based in Hong Kong but they're pretty sneaky about it by putting 'Should you wish to collect your parcel from our office in Hong Kong, please contact us prior to arriving to ensure your order is ready for collection.' at the bottom of the Contact page. They don't say where abouts in Hong Kong it is but then why should they? They've got UK warehouses!

The dot co dot uk version of the website boasts about its UK warehouse but doesn't say where it is and the Domain has a Sydney, Australia address on it.

http://whois.domaintools.com/hobbyking.co.uk

You won't get your money back because this is how the vast majority of Chinese websites operate.

For future reference there a few simple steps you can take to check out how genuine a website is. Last year I produced a guide. Here it is:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=63568079&postcount=4

forgotmyname

From what i have been told the UK factory wasnt a great success. Somebody selling stuff that according to their computer had not arrived in the UK.

Selling the stuff out the back door.

Not sure if thats true though.

jakes-mum

Coopdivi wrote: »

It's a typical Chinese website: No contact address or phone number, accepts Western Union for payment, secretive about the fact that customers will probably have to pay Customs duty, a worthless warranty. They do actually say they're based in Hong Kong but they're pretty sneaky about it by putting 'Should you wish to collect your parcel from our office in Hong Kong, please contact us prior to arriving to ensure your order is ready for collection.' at the bottom of the Contact page. They don't say where abouts in Hong Kong it is but then why should they? They've got UK warehouses!

The dot co dot uk version of the website boasts about its UK warehouse but doesn't say where it is and the Domain has a Sydney, Australia address on it.

http://whois.domaintools.com/hobbyking.co.uk

You won't get your money back because this is how the vast majority of Chinese websites operate.

For future reference there a few simple steps you can take to check out how genuine a website is. Last year I produced a guide. Here it is:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=63568079&postcount=4

Thank you Coopdivi, you've confirmed what I was coming to suspect, my money is long gone paypal said they will keep bombarding them with emails to issue the refund but had already said it was a slim chance.

They have quite a large following on their FB page, I have also posted the question on there but they are ignoring that too. There isn't loads of people saying they have issues on there so I really didn't think they were a dodgy company, and DH placed an order with them a couple of weeks after mine and that all arrived fine and worked as it should.

You live and learn, at least it was only £24, could have been so much worse Thank you again

EDIT: oh and thank you for the link to the guide, I will have a good read of it to stop myself falling into the trap again

[Deleted User]

Coopdivi wrote: »

It's a typical Chinese website: No contact address or phone number, accepts Western Union for payment, secretive about the fact that customers will probably have to pay Customs duty, a worthless warranty. They do actually say they're based in Hong Kong but they're pretty sneaky about it by putting 'Should you wish to collect your parcel from our office in Hong Kong, please contact us prior to arriving to ensure your order is ready for collection.' at the bottom of the Contact page. They don't say where abouts in Hong Kong it is but then why should they? They've got UK warehouses!

The dot co dot uk version of the website boasts about its UK warehouse but doesn't say where it is and the Domain has a Sydney, Australia address on it.

http://whois.domaintools.com/hobbyking.co.uk

You won't get your money back because this is how the vast majority of Chinese websites operate.

For future reference there a few simple steps you can take to check out how genuine a website is. Last year I produced a guide. Here it is:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=63568079&postcount=4

Try looking at HobbyKing a bit closer.

95% OF WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN IS INCORRECT.

To the op, go to the Modelsport forum, and get some real advice on HobbyKing.

http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/index

Coopdivi

95% eh? So tell me which parts of my post are incorrect then clever clogs.

Oh and do let me know where abouts in the UK Fotan is.

http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?k=rLNfB+yf4MTVr8rcQk4OH164vR0gmWzcZyCcIYJQnQg9jZLNd1aDXs9XyatOpmMR&domain=hobbyking.com&prog_id=GoDaddy

Coopdivi

jakes-mum wrote: »

Thank you Coopdivi, you've confirmed what I was coming to suspect, my money is long gone paypal said they will keep bombarding them with emails to issue the refund but had already said it was a slim chance.

They have quite a large following on their FB page, I have also posted the question on there but they are ignoring that too. There isn't loads of people saying they have issues on there so I really didn't think they were a dodgy company, and DH placed an order with them a couple of weeks after mine and that all arrived fine and worked as it should.

You live and learn, at least it was only £24, could have been so much worse Thank you again

EDIT: oh and thank you for the link to the guide, I will have a good read of it to stop myself falling into the trap again

It's easy to buy Facebook followers.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/11/behind-the-big-business-of-selling-twitter-followers-and-facebook-likes-4298398/

If Hobbyking were a reputable company they'd refund your money.

[Deleted User]

Coopdivi wrote: »

95% eh? So tell me which parts of my post are incorrect then clever clogs.

Oh and do let me know where abouts in the UK Fotan is.

http://who.godaddy.com/whois.aspx?k=rLNfB+yf4MTVr8rcQk4OH164vR0gmWzcZyCcIYJQnQg9jZLNd1aDXs9XyatOpmMR&domain=hobbyking.com&prog_id=GoDaddy

Name calling, really, how mature of you.

The address is Lucky Stuff Ltd
Poplar Hall, Unit 18, Whatfield Rd, Elmslett, Ipswich, IP7 6LN

jakes-mum

Thank you ilikethesimpsons I will pop over and have a look at the modelsport site.

Even more confused now, when I asked for the refund it was for the cost of the item only, not the postage, so while I was waiting for the refund I argued with the online chat about the postage and they agreed to refund that also as a goodwill gesture. With no payments in sight i'd completely lost hope of ever seeing my money, but just logged into paypal and the refund for postage has cleared. Still no sign of the refund for the part though, but now £21 down instead of £24, so a tiny bit more hopeful that I might actually see the rest at some point.