Helihobby Rips People Off!

[newtoit]

do biz with these people at your own risk. they take money and dont ship items. they will not issue refunds. had to file a complaint with paypal. nikki is the their customer service person and her skills reak. plan for her and her staff to place you on hold for 15-30 min while they cook up stories. its like pulling teeth with these low lifes.
rcheli should take them off their links section.
you have been warned.

[redlegtu]

I had recently purchased an item (Reflex simulator w/ TX) from them...unfortunately there was a mix up and I was going have to pay for the difference (charger for the TX) until I walked them thru their own website to identify the exact items that I ordered and what was shipped....since then Helihobby.com had sent out the complete order at no charge to me. Give them a chance as with all businesses and read the fine print and hold them to that standard, otheriwse you have no one to blame but yourself.

Sorry to hear of your experience with them, but as a former California resident, consumers have a lot of rights....so do your homeowork and I am sure helihobby.com will resolve the issue with you.

[the_avocet]

Check the other RC Forums. You'll find a few more people with your particular problem, but you'll also find a large number of people that can recommend very good RC on-line sellers.

There are a bunch, and several have just sterling reputations. Look around for these kinds before sending off your money in the future.

Try (among others):
www.runryder.com
www.rcgroups.com
www.rcuniverse.com

[Helifino]

Wow, sorry to hear that you had a problem with Heli-Hobby. I've been dealing with them off and on since 2002-2003. I have yet to have any problems with them. I have been reading alot of negative stuff on these forums about them though.

[cruzzinchop]

Ahhh.... I am sure they will make it right. You know this is the sad part of a forum when companys get bashed. We all make mistakes and orders can be easy to jack up when they come in in mass amounts. Helihobby is well known and they did not get that way by jacking to many people. I have never bought from them but I have friends that have and they even go into there store and they say the place is top notch and so is the service. Folks are fast to flame a place on forums. Maybe they jacked your order up, maybe the lady behind the counter was having a terrible day that answered the phone for customer service cause she backed into the companys owners truck that morning, hard to say what the whole thing came to but you never know tons of reasons could have led up to your whole thing being messed up. My advice is to call again but with a super nice attitude and ask for whoever is "THE MAN" that runs the show. Be polite, explain the situation and see what happens. The guy that owns the place cares, I garrantee it and if he dont and blows you off then spread us this news and I will be the first to never buy from them.

Dude..... I have been to places and bought stuff that was junk that I returned. The women that are usually at the service desk are #^%@%$@@ if you know what I meen! But I stay calm and ask for a manager if thats a women %$%@^%@%^@ then I ask for another manager or I will wander the store till I find one willing to help. I dont base the store/company position on the situiation on one lame brain employe that can $#@%@# my %$%$@$#@!!!!! Keep pluggin man they will hook you up if you talk to the right person.


Best wishes for your success!!!

[newtoit]

Ahhh.... I am sure they will make it right. You know this is the sad part of a forum when companys get bashed. We all make mistakes and orders can be easy to jack up when they come in in mass amounts. Helihobby is well known and they did not get that way by jacking to many people. I have never bought from them but I have friends that have and they even go into there store and they say the place is top notch and so is the service. Folks are fast to flame a place on forums. Maybe they jacked your order up, maybe the lady behind the counter was having a terrible day that answered the phone for customer service cause she backed into the companys owners truck that morning, hard to say what the whole thing came to but you never know tons of reasons could have led up to your whole thing being messed up. My advice is to call again but with a super nice attitude and ask for whoever is "THE MAN" that runs the show. Be polite, explain the situation and see what happens. The guy that owns the place cares, I garrantee it and if he dont and blows you off then spread us this news and I will be the first to never buy from them.

Dude..... I have been to places and bought stuff that was junk that I returned. The women that are usually at the service desk are #^%@%$@@ if you know what I meen! But I stay calm and ask for a manager if thats a women %$%@^%@%^@ then I ask for another manager or I will wander the store till I find one willing to help. I dont base the store/company position on the situiation on one lame brain employe that can $#@%@# my %$%$@$#@!!!!! Keep pluggin man they will hook you up if you talk to the right person.


Best wishes for your success!!!

what happed was, i ordered on their site. one of those align cases that actually hold the heli. the shipping quoted on their own checkout wasaround $15.00 i thought that was high but figured it was a bigger awkward item so i paid it. keep in mind that since i have only been in the hobby for a couple of months now, that they were the first place i came across on the web and i had been purchasing tons of parts over the 2 month period and was very happy with them and the fast shipping. things were different this time.
they sent me an email the next day wanting an additional $12.00 for shipping making the total on shipping $27 bucks and change. i thought that was rediculous and called them.
first i get some young dumb new guy who had only been working there a few day and gave me the classic "well i dont know" then proceeded to know it all. (dont you just hate those types?)
he transferred me to "nikki". i held on the phone for 15 min and just hung up and called back. he answered again. "uh um oh sorry about that. nikki is at lunch if she did not pick up" this jerk i am thinking any moment is going to say "knarly dude!" this being california and all.
i got nikki later finally and asked why so much for postage? the case weighs 15lbs, she says. i find that hard to believe.
i said to cancel the order and refund the money. she said it would be done 24-48 hours. 4 days went by and no refund through paypal. i went ahead and paid the extra postage cause i could see they were not going to refund the money. the order stayed on hold after 2 days i called and was told that since i cancelled the order, it was going to stay that way. we will give you a refund. by end of day. didnt happen.
i called back and this time i got a different girl and asked to speak to someone in charge of the company. would not let me. nikki would be the only one i would be able to speak with. well let me speak to her again. "she is off for 2 days, can i help you?" at this point i am thinking about a plane trip to C A L I F O R N I A to hang ten and get knarly with some sun dried freaks, if you know what i mean?
i told this child the situation and wanted to know when i was getting my refund through paypal. she says " whenever we get around to it"
i have had it. i filed a dispute with paypal and called back 2 days later to speak with nikki again. of course she was not there and i the brain dead guy answered. he knew who i was and went on to say that no one there had anything else to say to me and when i tried to respond, he said he was transferring me to someone else. the other girl got on the phone and said that since i did a "chargeback" they could not issue a refund. unless i removed the "chargeback" i would never be able to buy from them again. WHOA! didnt know they had been doing me so many damn favors and that it was such a privoledge for me to have been part of their world. speaking of "world" what in the hell is going on in the world? what happened to customer service and being appreciated when you were a patron at an establishment? i have lost all faith in people.
any way, i did not do a chargeback. i should have but i could see that i was dealing with lower forms of life and a bunch of children who were just going to come up with anything to not give me my money.
i guess i will have to just wait till paypal can work the magic. theres no way i am dropping my dispute when i gave them plenty of time to take care of it and then to have to deal with sarcastic yunguns who cant even spell the word "respect" well you get the picture.
i dont know exactly where their store is in california but i find my self thinking " let it rain"

[cruzzinchop]

Man that does suck. I hope paypal does help you out. I wonder what the owners name is of helihobby. You could just call and ask for him without telling them your name. Who knows. Thats is crazy though.


Good luck!

[Helifino]

Sounds to me like you have a legitimate gripe! I may have to seriously reconsider doing business with them. I know they won't miss the meezly few hundered I've spent with them anyway.
I don't think they had a right to ask for more shipping costs after you paid them. That's their problem. Maybe they should look at how they calculate postage before ripping people off!
It's kind of a shame, they were like Walmart for RCs. Customer service is everything!!
That's my opinion anyway.
Maybe Mike could add a new catagory on the forum for The Good,The Bad and The Ugly for us consumers to watch out for. We could share our experiences good or bad with others in one location for easy reference. It might help some of the newbies from having the same experience.

[newtoit]

Sounds to me like you have a legitimate gripe! I may have to seriously reconsider doing business with them. I know they won't miss the meezly few hundered I've spent with them anyway.
I don't think they had a right to ask for more shipping costs after you paid them. That's their problem. Maybe they should look at how they calculate postage before ripping people off!
It's kind of a shame, they were like Walmart for RCs. Customer service is everything!!
That's my opinion anyway.
Maybe Mike could add a new catagory on the forum for The Good,The Bad and The Ugly for us consumers to watch out for. We could share our experiences good or bad with others in one location for easy reference. It might help some of the newbies from having the same experience.

yeah, i probably did not post this in the best of places. should have put it in the lounge.
it is a shame cause they had everything. when i could not find it someplace else, they had it. i bet i had spent a couple of grand with them. its not worth the hassle for me to go through that again though. they wont miss my money either. if they keep that kind of crap up with customers , they will wish otherwise.

[newtoit]

Man that does suck. I hope paypal does help you out. I wonder what the owners name is of helihobby. You could just call and ask for him without telling them your name. Who knows. Thats is crazy though.


Good luck!
they refused to give me the owners name, managers, supervisor or even let me speak to one of them. i am not sure why they took that position. i am assuming they got angry that i initially questioned them wanting more shipping and took offense to it when i said no and cancel the order.

[Helifino]

I don't know f this helps newtoit.
http://www.allerc.com/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=1735&osCsid=8488fa218d27af5a457d30a9556f123f
I'm not sure if this is the same case you were looking for. It's 65$, but on backorder right now. They spell out in bold red up front that shipping may be higher depending on were it's being shipped.
I bought my Trex from them...no problems or complaints!
Also shipping is FREE over $100 , can Helihobby say that!