Hobby king postage charge

[ivess3]

I ordered 1 lipo battery from Hobbyking on Sunday and have been charged £35 postage for an item that is being sent from UK warehouse.  Parcelforce have refused to deliver so another company are having to send will take up to a further 5 days from tomorrow. They say expensive due to a dangerous good. I have ordered batteries in the past from wheelspin etc and have never had a charge that high. Anyone else experienced this. That battery plus postage even at £35 still worked out less than £100 for a 6s 6000mah.

[Lone-wolf]

Wow thats a bad one, i would refuse it and do a paypal claim, you paid a shipping charge at time of order so should not have to pay more

[ivess3]

No I agreed to pay shipping charge to start with as the total cost was still a good price for total

 In hindsight even though total price was good dontbknow where they are getting their postage costs

[babylon]

I just stuck a 5000 6s in my basket and got two postage options, Both were the same Parcel Farce, But one was £35 and the other was 21, Funny thing is that the £21 option had a heavier allowance, Shows how things have changed, Cost about 7 quid the last time I bought 4 X 4s.

 

Not sure how Parcel Farce get away with that, Don't take that, The delivery contract is between Parcel Farce and HobbyKing, Not you and Parcel Farce, This is a simple case of having you over, I would refuse delivery, You let them get away with stuff like that once.

[ivess3]

6 minutes ago, babylon said:

I just stuck a 5000 6s in my basket and got two postage options, Both were the same Parcel Farce, But one was £35 and the other was 21, Funny thing is that the £21 option had a heavier allowance, Shows how things have changed, Cost about 7 quid the last time I bought 4 X 4s.

 

Not sure how Parcel Farce get away with that, Don't take that, The delivery contract is between Parcel Farce and HobbyKing, Not you and Parcel Farce, This is a simple case of having you over, I would refuse delivery, You let them get away with stuff like that once.

I bought the zippy 6s 6000mah price is really good compared to others but yeah seem to be overcharging and say parcel farce will not deliver. The price quoted was for parcel force originally

[Tug]

Had two large capacity 6S bricks in the basket on Saturday, got to checkout and pulled out, ain't paying 35 sheets for postage, no way. 

[stretch]

Move to Suffolk, job done 😎

[ivess3]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

Had two large capacity 6S bricks in the basket on Saturday, got to checkout and pulled out, ain't paying 35 sheets for postage, no way. 

But even with the astronic postage did it work out cheaper than elsewhere. I live about 60 miles from warehouse I could have picked up for free may have worked out cheaper 

[babylon]

There is a principle to be had here, I don't think anyone makes a 6s that's really worth 100 quid, I know that some will say that there's is, But no 22v battery going in a model car can be worth £100, Would I get more fun out of a 4s costing 50 or 60 quid than the Turnigy's I have costing 25 quid, I doubt it, Or I can't see how.

 What I'm saying is if your happy to pay £100, Then so be it, But if your happy to pay £100, Then tell them to stick there lipo's were the sun don't shine, Have a look around and take your choice, Just don't give in to extortion. 

[SamUk]

I was about to order...but there postage prices are stupid!

Any other places I can get batteries from in the UK

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[namastebuzz]

As far as I understand 6S Lipos are deemed hazardous items and have to be delivered as such so the delivery cost is significantly higher than, say, two 3S Lipos which apparently aren't hazardous.

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[ivess3]

15 minutes ago, namastebuzz said:

As far as I understand 6S Lipos are deemed hazardous items and have to be delivered as such so the delivery cost is significantly higher than, say, two 3S Lipos which apparently aren't hazardous.

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Its funny just tried that on website and certainly 2 x 3s about 5 pound postage. Soon as you put a 6s in postage rockets. They are quoting parcel force. They told me that parcel force are refusing to send them and have to use a different courier although price the same. I thought a 6s was just 6 cells stacked on top of one another so why different to 2 x 3s beyond me. I need educating

[Tug]

Interesting, I guess it's down to potential energy contained. 

[bertberr]

On the subject of expensive lipos, I looked at a linked 6S brick from a YT vid yesterday, alright it was a 6500mah high discharge pack, but...it was 300 usd!!!  Have things gone a bit crazy in RC?

[Yrkoon]

i have never used hobby king after the first time, i clearly ticked euro ware house and posty started asking for customs charges.... and to add insult to injury some of the lipos had loose connections and never worked..... never again..... 

 

the onyx lipos my lhs had years ago work good and worked out a lot cheaper than the failed attempt at getting turnigys

 

if i recall i ordered 3 and a load of velcro, only one actually worked....... and do not get me started on their responses, thank god for paypal lol

Edited August 8, 2020 by Yrkoon

[Nitroholic]

All LiPo batteries are classified as dangerous goods. 

 

The difference comes in the relative energy stored, and what the carrier has contracted to cover and what licence they have to cover the carriage of dangerous goods. Carriers have to watch themselves here, as idiots posting dangerous goods and lying about contents result in fines on the carrier as well as liabilities in the event of incidents. You might think it's harmless...but it's absolutely not. Most carriers will allow carriage of smaller batteries, but bigger batteries carry greater potential risks....and a lot of regular carriers will not touch them.

 

This will be written into HobbyKing's contract with the carrier, and clearly stated. If they take an order and quote postage ...and then realise it breaches the conditions of carriage, then they would have to switch carrier. The 6S pack is outside of what Parcelforce will take, so Hobbyking have used a specialist licenced to carry those goods. They charge a lot more. Hence the £35 quote for postage. Wheelspin may have a different contract with a different carrier.....there are no 'fixed' prices when it comes to carriage of dangerous goods, or any other goods sent by any carrier other than Royal Mail carrying items covered under the regulator set Universal Service Obligation. Which doesn't apply here. Supply and demand.

 

Now....here....the buyer of the battery should not have ANY invovlement with the carrier. You order the goods...you are given a postage quote. If you are happy to pay it....carry on. If you are not happy to pay it...don't. The issue here seems to be that Hobbyking allow you to buy dangerous goods and select an option ON THEIR WEBSITE for carriage with a company that will not carry the goods. A stupid state of affairs, and not the carriers fault....entirely the retailer who should flag any and all dangerous goods purchases outside their normal carriers limits. Not hard to do. Clearly not done.

 

Now....if you agreed the postage before despatch, you have zero right to refuse the order and not expect to get charged for postage unless the goods are faulty, and any right to refuse would be down to T&Cs on Hobbyking's website. Distance selling laws are there to cover faulty or incorrectly described items. Not change of mind. So read the terms of sale before refusing anything, so you know where you stand. If you refuse the items, your refund may exclude postage.

 

Lastly...if Hobbyking despatched the goods and then came back to charge more for postage, whatever tale they told, you can refuse to pay additional postage charges. They cannot legally change the contract of sale without giving you an option to back out. At worst, Hobbyking might ask the carrier to return the items... but you should get a full refund including postage paid.

[Nickarla]

This is sad. I bought 4000mah 6s lipos a year ago for a lower price than what these postal charges are now. The end of 6s single lipos as hardly anyone is going to purchase these over 2x 3s lipos now and MS and WS prices are just silly.

[BashingBrian]

Just buy CNHL batteries, free delivery over $80 and being Chinese they don't care about how they post them..🤣🤣

I just recently bought 6s packs from them (Europe Warehouse) and they had 4s labels on them..🤔🤣 they also make some of they best batteries too..!!

 

Bit confused with all the people that complain about Hobbyking too, I have never payed shipping from them it's always free delivery..??

But I never buy one battery at a time so maybe that's why, I always buy in pairs no matter what I get..😉

 

[Nickarla]

Some of their batteries look exactly the same as the Turnigys and Zippys. Wondering if they’re just relabelled. 
Prices are very similar to HK so might be worth a look but then HK offer free delivery over $100 anyway so not much difference again.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Nickarla

[namastebuzz]

Prices are very similar to HK so might be worth a look but then HK offer free delivery over $100 anyway so not much difference again.

Yeah but it's with DHL so you WILL get a customs bill a few weeks after your parcel arrives and they WILL chase you up for the money.



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[Nickarla]

That makes it sound as though you won’t get a customs bill through HobbyKing which is not the case at all.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Nickarla

[Jd101]

I pay about that shipping from US 

[mydoddy69]

How strange I just bought this lot and got free shipping ! 
 

 

guess it pays to buy more 😂😂👍

 

 

 

 

[Kpowell911]

4 hours ago, mydoddy69 said:

How strange I just bought this lot and got free shipping ! 
 

 

guess it pays to buy more 😂😂👍

 

 

 

 

Thats cause its a 4s. Its 6s that gets the £35 charge, even though you’re technically ordering 8s in that order

[Nitroholic]

Restrictions for contract custopmers differ to ther general public.

 

General public cannot legally send LiPo batteries not enclosed in an item through PFWW. If you do...and the box gets damaged, and the content discovered...your stuff gets destroyed. You have no comeback and no compensation. You have sent undisclosed dangerous goods...and can be prosecuted. Not a lot of point for a carrier to actually do this...so they just trash your stuff and leave it at that. There is also no obligation to pick out the naughty bits and send on the good.

 

For contract customers, prices are negotiated...but the limit is 20 Watt/hours. Or basically...the voltage x amp/hours per cell. Max battery power is 100W/hr ....  so a 4S 5500mah pack is14.8v @5.5 amp/hour or 81W/hr ...so perfectly OK.

A 6S 5500 pack is 122 W/hr so absolutely not allwoed under the standard PFWW T&C. Hence the need for a seperate carrier and £35 charge.

 

A small 6S pack would come under the legal limit, so technically...a 4000Mah 6S pack should be OK. But I suspect HobbyKing have simplified the process and just excluded higher voltage packs to give a margin. The penalty for a commercial operation sending illegal dangerous goods in the post is not pleasant. The contract gets ripped up, fines imposed ( big ones) and it's gonna be hard to find a carrier when you get burned for illegal packages and undeclared dangerous goods.

 

Oddly...I don;t think there is a restrictive limit on the number of packs despatched, provided hey are packed as per requirements. So...perhaps buying 2x3S packs and connecting them in series would be the way to go rather than a single 6S block.