HobbyKing Payments

Placing an order for some odds and ends this morning I kept getting an error message and told to checkout again.

long story short the order is now received but I have four receipts from Paypal all of which appear in my account as Payment complete. Has anyone had this before? I don't have four orders, I checked! So do I take it that HK basically won't request the money from my Paypal account? It doesn't look like I can cancel the payments on Paypal.

chris

Yes it happened to me a week or so ago. I found that PayPal would no do anything as they felt that I should sort it out with H.K. To avoid repeating the saga please read this thread for guidance.

The answer is to ignore the error message after you have paid and wait for your emailed receipts to appear which may take 5 or 10 minutes from HK.

Edited By Dave Miller on 04/02/2014 10:07:16

Thanks guys

On Friday, I ordered an item from Hobby king . The price was stated in GBP£ however when I came to pay on Paypal the difference I ended up paying was approximately 5% more than the figure quoted by HK . I raised this with HK and this is the response I got "Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and sorry for the confusion. The conversion of the currency is based on the current exchange rate. The fee that you are billed for depends on the time we accepted the payment and the currency is based during that time." I can understand the odd 0.5 %- 1% . This however seems somewhat excessive (I paid on completion of the order). Has anyone else had a similar issue?

HK only trade in $'s. So select this currency when looking/ordering. The £ rates are only an indication and could be wildly out depending on when HK updated their exchange rate and what PayPal charge.

Edited By GONZO on 27/07/2015 11:05:15

The key part being Paypal.

HK use the XE.com exchange rates, these are approximately market value rates - i.e. what business get. When we as individuals buy/sell currency the rate is adjusted by the currency changer and the difference is the profit. Paypal will bill your card in the foreign currency, and your bank will do the exchange at a set rate, set by them, and they will often add a fee as well.

I am off to Germany in October on holiday, and looking at the cheapest/best way to get Euros has been 'interesting' to say the least.

Olly

Having checked with my bank , it would have been cheaper to have paid HK's fee for using my own banking system . I now know for the future.

My experience is that, using Paypal, if it's funded from my bank account then Paypal does the currency conversion at a fairly rubbish conversion rate. If it's funded from my credit card (still via Paypal) then the conversion rate is somewhat better.

As others have said, you're paying HK in US$ and if you've selected any other currency then the figures you see in that currency are only a vague indication. I don't know how often they update the conversion rates they use on the HK site, but at one time it was only about twice a year - and in that time the rate could (and often did) vary considerably.  (I think it's a lot more frequently now though.)

Edited By John Privett on 28/07/2015 10:08:15

The only issue i have had (so far) with Hk is that the prices shown on their website are sometimes well out by the time you get to checkout.

Here is a good example

http://www.hobbyking.co.uk/hobbyking/store/__22575__H_King_FW190_w_Lights_Flaps_Retracts_Gear_Doors_1200mm_PNF_.html

Showing at £55.33 GBP but that is shipped from America with the postage at £75.42 GBP

But shipped from their UK Warehouse its £95.99 with the postage at £6.56

Be careful as their prices are not always what the seam to be at first glance

Another case of ripoff Britain at work I suspect

Paul

Paul - as has been said many times before, IGNORE the price in any currency apart from US$. Any number in another currency is just a guesstimate.

Following on from that, prices will, and DO, vary depending on which warehouse the item is being supplied from. HK's costs vary between the different warehouses around the world, and the prices they charge reflect this. Postage rates too (and the time taken to arrive) plus possible tax/duty liabilities will also vary depending on which warehouse the item is supplied from.

Now how, precisely, is this "ripoff Britain"?