Issues with Cyber Hobby

[inxsone]

My FRUSTRATIONS over events in the last three months have led me to this post... My reason for posting is to warn others to beware, cautious and be vigilant in any dealings with Cyber Hobby...

Normally I don't say anything if I have nothing good to say but this has gotten ridiculous...

First off, I had problems with defective resin wheels on one of my Infantry Carts back in May 2006... When I first noticed the problem, it was a few weeks after receiving the item... I attempted an e-mail at that time but when it went unanswered I figured I would eventually just have to replace them with something else... When I came across a post on the MDFC forum well over a month ago asking for photos of defective resin items, I posted photos of my wheels and asked for help in replacing them as I figured they were acknowledging the problems to fix them... I was PM'd by Oberst Hessler and told to contact Cyber Hobby, shortly thereafter my post with photos of the wheels was deleted and my membership to MDFC was banned... Still I took the advice I had been given and began trying to contact Cyber Hobby... After multiple e-mails, when I asked them for help they insisted upon my having to return the entire item packaged in its "Original" packaging... Being that I "play" with my items I had long since tossed any packaging and parted the cart out placing the "extra" equipment into my drawer of stuff so that I didn't have all the original pieces together and couldn't honestly identify them... I wrote them repeatedly explaining this and asking if I couldn't send at least the cart wheels to show the problem, they refused continuing to insist on everything returned in its original packaging; this left me with no recourse but to decide to just let it go... I sent them an e-mail after this decision where I still offered to send them a wheel so they could review what went wrong with it and after a couple of attempts to contact them, they didn't answer on the subject so I was left to figure they were not interested...

Now I am having issues with them not sending items I had ordered at the DX'06 show and telling me it's my fault that I haven't received them as my Credit Card is being declined... Funny thing is that the card I had used at DX was stolen shortly thereafter so I began sending a series of e-mails to get them to update the orders with the new correct information... After numerous attempts I was finally told by a "Representative" from Cyber Hobby that my order was received and updated... Now, more than two months after the fact I have not received any notice of one item, the FJ w/ 7.5cm Leichtgeschutz 40 that I know others received back in early September... I wrote them inquiring and they told me my card was declined... Now I found this funny as the Flak set I had pre-ordered was on that same order placed at the same time and had been charged just fine, now they are claiming it is a "bad" number... It just isn't making sense... I have spent well over $7000 with Cyber Hobby over the last year (as I order usually multiples of items) and probably a WHOLE lot more over the last 5 years I have been doing business with them and had never had issue, till I complained about a defective item to them...

Another point I found bothersome was the fact that I have received their "Special" invitations for other items before as I spend ALLOT with them but the last two invites have been withheld, supposedly as I didn't meet their criteria... I guess $2000+ in purchases over the last two months from them isn't enough... Personally my opinion is I am being "singled out" as they didn't like my complaint to them of their defective resin wheels which according to their site are impossibility... Funny thing is I still have them and their still like "play dough"...

I would hope that I am wrong in my assumptions as I had been a faithful customer with them for a long time (a quick check on my ordering record with them can prove that point) before these issues began... It would truly be an unforgivable thing for any company to treat their loyal customers as I have been recently... I can only hope things will change but at this point I most certainly will not be holding my breath over it...

Everything I have stated in this post can be verified as I keep copies of everything... Cyber Hobby only needs to look into it's records to see the value of my business with them over the years... I have presented this whole issue to "Legal Counsel" in the event I should need it in light of all these strange circumstances, a hopefully unnecessary precaution...

 

[panzerwerk]

i suddenly too seem to be having problems with my DX orders , although they sent part of the order just fine , now the 2 guns i had on order (charged and paid in full) they sent me a confimation notice that had the incorrect address on it , how can this be ??? im already in the system they sent the first part of the order , but now they get my addy wrong , i cant help but feel due to recent events , that im am also being singled out and misshandled by CH , i truly hope im wrong and this is a misunderstanding , i too have keep all my contacts with Dragon and Cyber hobby .

 

[pomz99]

Hey guys, I'm really sorry and disappointed to read about your shopping experiences.
In all my business dealings in the 1:1 world, whether its private enterprise, publicly traded companies or government organizations, either I'm a customer or a supplier, I've never come across anything that you have experienced.
Mike certainly has spent a great deal of money on their products, it is very strange that a supplier would reward a loyal customer with this type of shoddy treatment. Any Fortune 500 company would give an arm and a leg to retain customer loyalty!
At the end of the day, this is just a hobby, an item to derive some joy, but its not essential, it'll be just as easy to pick up a different hobby - golf, polo, sports cars, yachting etc.....
Thanks for the headsup, I'll be careful with my wallet.

 

[jepy]

I spent my last nickel with those thieving scumbags long ago.
It's standard operating procedure for them to bill you for your order and wait until you can't decline the charges and either send a pile of crap or nothing at all. and then to add insult to injury, they hand over your credit card number to a third party who sneaks in a dozen or so eight and 10 dollar charges over the course of a few weeks.
Those cyber thieves have no honor, no morals, no class and absolutely none of my business.

And remember, Dml has no association with them what so ever.

 

[johnro6659]

I was not a huge fan of CH stuff and this year was the first year I ever sent them an order. Now I got all my stuff fine but they were slow, something I knew to expect but was getting a bit worried. As you all know when I got my Gunther Kiefer & sPzB41 I was very, very dissapointed in it. I emailed CH several times about the problems and after a few weeks I gave up and decided to fix the gun myself and posted pics and tutorials then I get the Email from CH telling me to take pics. I replied back saying I had already started repairing it and posted tutorials about the fix. I was tossed from the MDFC with out notice myself. No big deal really, it's not like it really matters.

I only got a few items directly from CH and all the polystone stuff I have has it's problems and from what I read I am not alone. I guess to put it mildly this whole thing stinks and they keep insisting there is something fishy going on like we are being dishonest.

Now as far as the thing with CC # goes, the card I used to order from CH the number popped up trying to be used in Nebraska for a boat load of electronics. Luckily, I belong to a small Credit Union and it was denied because they have limits on how much can be spent at one time and how many times a day the card can be swiped/used. I explained to my CU what I had been reading about other collectors cards with charges who had ordered from CH and they said it was something that would be investigated so far I haven't heard anything about that either. My CH purchase was the only purchase on that particular card. I emailed them and their CC security provider. The provider said it couldn't be their fault but would look into it. I never heard back from them or CH.

The funny thing is, the problems I had with the product probably would not stop me from ordering again if I saw something I really liked but the CC thing turned me off totally. Then I hear after I got banned they asked for memebers to post pics of their defective stuff and banned them when they did and then removed all traces of the posts. That really POed me.

 

[Hammer's Africaners]

wow

I have never purchased anything directly from them but I do have several figures from them. Some figures I can see the extra cost some I can not, the ones that come with extra items such as Rommel, with overcoat, tripod and some other small goodies, Was happy with Bayerlyn for the figure and uniform, but not much in the way of extra gear for me no justification for the high price.

What I do not like is you see an item advertised on their site and if you do not order it right away, you are just shizzzz out of luck. I guess you lag you lose. They do offer some great items, but I don't feel like paying an arm and a leg for postage, would be nice if they distributed their stuff from here in the states. let some of the dealers here sell there stuff, even if you have to prove that you are registered with them.

One Of these days I'll give them a try, I just hope I do not have any problems with them when I do...........Hammer

 

[ActionMan]

Sadly 'customer service' is something of an alien concept to most Hong Kong companies (I've lived here for 9 years - I know!)

If you feel that your credit card details have been passed on to a 3rd party by any HK company, contact the Hong Kong Police - details are here: http://www.info.gov.hk/police/hkp-home/english/contactus/index.htm

The cops here are by and large good, and on the ball.

 

[jepy]

Oh man, If posting pictures of DML's warped resin gets their undies in a bunch, Just think how pissed Cyber-hobby would get being turned in to the cops for credit card fraud.
Reminds me of a song..........
Bad boys,bad boys, who ya gonna ban when they come for you ? Bad boys.
Bwaaahahahahha

 

[gary1930]

Thanks, Mike, and others letting us in on that. Sorry for your troubles.
I never joined MFDC and I never will. And I have never bought from CH directly and never will. I had to make about 30 business trips to China in the last 10 years and I know very well how they operate. Maybe they'll figure it out eventually.

I had $1200 of erroneous charges on my CC recently. Luckily Citibank took care of it. But I'm not taking any chances.

 

[General Specific]

I too have had some problems with a purchase from CH. After being OVERCHARGED for shipping. Not fun to say the least.

 

[inxsone]

Newest Issue:

I recently discovered 3 strange charges on my Credit Card I use for online purchases... These charges were made on "specially generated" numbers off my main account for specific purchases from a specific vendor with a set time and dollar limit... I began using this system as I've had my CC number stolen a number of times over the last few years and it keeps thieves from accessing the full limit amount on the card... It turns out that the "suspect" charges were made from numbers generated for CH/UML purchases at different times and both had been compromised... Since CH/UML swears up and down about their encryption system protecting transactions, the miss-use of these numbers could only have come from "inside"... All the transactions where for amounts under $20usd and probably would have missed if someone was not specifically looking for unauthorized activity as I do regularly due to my past experiences...

If you do business with CH/UML, WATCH YOUR BANK STATEMENTS FOR UNUSUAL ACTIVITY!!! Check your accounts regularly as well...

 

[pomz99]

Wow, a possible inside job, very bad news indeed for anyone taking a chance to order direct from them.

 

[original paintbrush]

Add me to the mix...

I posted this over at the Sixth, and certainly wanted to share it here as well, especially since Mike (INXSONE) was kind enough to answer my e-mails to him about some of the particulars of his experience.

On Christmas Day I was charged for $12.95 worth of 'merchandise' from an e-tailer. What's funny is that I was out of town for the holidays and certainly did not do ANY online shopping around Christmas (I was able to hit the pavement for all my shopping this year). It's also a web design company, which I have zero use for.

I shared some info with Mike, and the details are too familiar to just be simple coincidence (same $ amount, same time frame, almost identical named web co's).

What's really sad is this: I've never actually ordered from them, due to the years (literally) of problems I've read online about customer service, poor shipping/packing, etc (let alone the recent issues). Sometime before Christmas, I set up an account with Cyber Hobby, briefly (BRIEFLY) entertaining the thought of purchasing something from them, but never did. I only registered, and I appear to have been 'dinged'.

Needless to say, I'll be closing my account with CH and will dispute the charge, and hopefully close the account #. Watch your CC statements, 1/6 ers.

 

[joe brown]

it really dents the faith don't it , but I too had money taken from my card after some 1/6th transactions, in Switzeralnd of all palces ,my card company were great & got full refund of that & interest paid on the ammount, but seems "some" companies do pass info on. They say use pay pal, put this has problems , see my post on them also, As they are not helpful when it goes wrong.

I agree watch yer 12 & 6. Once word gets out , their business will begin to suffer from bad rep. But any card issues are fraud, file it with your PD or as suggested HK. But its diferent HK is no longer under UK as they came under their juristiction then. They need naming & shaming on NEWS TV.

Be carful and put yer dollar elsewhere .

Joe B Battlebox UK.