EhobbyAsia Review - Received Used and Damaged Rail
 

So I placed an order on Ehobby last month for a number of parts, mags, and accessories for a new build I had in mind.

Normally I'd avoid ordering from sites such as Ehobby due to their high shipping fees, but as I was making a relatively large order (for me), for some somewhat difficult to source parts, it somewhat justified the costs in my mind and I went ahead with the order.

The order was placed on January 13th, and the order shipped out on the 16th. Fast forward to February 3rd, and I had still not received my order, which was somewhat strange as order from Hong Kong usually take a week and a half at most and the tracking number did not indicate the package had arrived in Canada or provide any information at all. I proceeded to Paypal and filed an "Item not received" dispute as previous experience with Asian retailers has often told me they'll pretty much ignore you until a Paypal dispute is filed.

I sent off a Paypal message to Ehobby letting them know I had still not received my order and they asked me to give them a few days to track it down. About a day later, the package popped up over in Winnipeg on Canada Post's tracking page. Seeing as Canada Post had it, I wasn't too surprised...

Fast forward a few days to February 9th, which happened to be a holiday in BC, my package came in at 12:12PM. Strangely, it come in a UPS box but was delivered by Canada Post. I recorded my unboxing pretty much right then, making sure everything was there (after a bad experience with one retailer, I have a habit of recording all my unboxings to verify the contents and condition of the things I've ordered, plus I've got tons of unboxing videos on hand if I ever decide to put them on youtube).

Everything I ordered was there, but the rail I ordered, a Dytac BCM KMR clone, appeared to have quite a bit of damage on the locking cross bolt holes on the rail. There were some nicks and dents on the left side as well but that didn't really bother me. The other thing that had me raising my eyebrows was the fact that the rail wasn't actually in the bubble wrapping but was instead sitting on top of it. The receiver tab which slots onto the rail, intending to align the rail to the receiver was also already installed.

My first thought was that it was a manufacturer defect and I took a bunch of pictures of the damage and issues and went back onto Paypal and changed my reason for dispute, since I already had the "Item not received" thing going on.

Doesn't look too bad on the front...
http://i1037.photobucket.com/albums/...ps08f7c99d.jpg

...but on the back, there's barely any material left there.
http://i1037.photobucket.com/albums/...psa699e53a.jpg

Couple more pics on my photobucket
http://s1037.photobucket.com/user/pe...Y-RAS26-PTW-BK

After looking at the rail a bit more, I started to realize that the damage wasn't actually a manufacturing defect, but that the rail itself wasn't new. Someone at Ehobby had previously attempted to install or test mount the rail at some point or Ehobby sent me a returned rail. The receiver tab should not have been installed out of box, and the rail should have been wrapped up. Also, after checking out the damage some more, it looked as if someone had tried to forcefully screw on the locking cross bolt, only to have it misaligned and damage the holes on the other side. Due to the damage, one of the holes on the left side of the rail is obstructed, meaning the cross bolt can't go through it to screw into the locking bolt.

I sent Ehobby another email about it, with all the pictures of the damage, and the unboxing video to verify that the rail and contents were received as such out of the box.

I requested a replacement be sent and failing that, a refund for the cost of the rail be issued and a prepaid return shipping label sent to me so they can have the rail back if they so desire. I paid for brand new rail undamaged rail, and that's was I can reasonably expect be sent to me.

Fast forward to last night, and I received two emails from Ehobby CS6 confirming they received my pictures and video and will be reviewing them. A few hours later, I received another email from them.

http://i1037.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1c8d2833.png

Well... That was unexpected. I inspected the package very thoroughly and no, the package was at no point open prior to my unboxing by either Customs or any "third party". There's no yellow CBSA tape and there is no indications anything was open at any point in time, unless they opened it before sending it out to me.

Furthermore, I don't know what they're trying to do by stating "Our packaging department always wrap the tape all around four corners of the box, which your video shows only two corners were taped."

That is how I received it from Canada Post... There's no tearing or tape residue on the other side of the box, I don't know how they packaged their boxes, but obviously they have a problem they need to address with their packaging department.

Oh wait, I'm starting to think they're trying to hint that I opened the box prior to my "unboxing" video... Well that's just plain offensive.

What this email clearly showed me is that Ehobby is just trying to push the liability and responsibility of the damaged rail onto someone else, when clearly, the fault and responsibility of sending the damaged rail lies with them.

If you want to see the box itself, here's the "unboxing" video. Apologize for the quality as I wasn't expecting to use it or for it to be anything more than a content verification video. The box as you can see, is only taped on one side, and hasn't been opened at any point or show any signs of tampering etc. The rail is towards the end of the video, so you can pretty much skip most of the middle bit.

Ehobby Order Unboxing

The rail is also non-functional at this point as the damage to the rail obstructs the hole where the locking cross bolt needs to pass through. I am not going to touch the rail either as (A) I paid for a brand new, undamaged rail and that's what I expect, and (B) I don't want to risk damaging the rail and give them an excuse to worm out of the fact that they messed up my order.

As for store credit... since I don't plan on ordering anything from them since the cost of shipping is so high it's of no real value to me. Compound that with my experience dealing with them, I'm not so sure I want to give them any more of my business. I just want a replacement rail, or a refund so I can get the rail from some place else.

Frankly, I'm quite offended by the fact that they're trying to push the blame onto someone else. Based on principle alone, I wouldn't shop at Ehobby after this experience.

I'm still waiting for their reply as I sent them a message after shortly receiving that one above which they sent me. The Paypal claim is still in order, so I might have to see how that's sorted out if Ehobby denies me my refund or replacement rail. I'll update this thread as things progress.

PS. I think I'll copy this over onto the Retailer Resolution Center as well, as EhobbyAsia also seems to have a retailer account on ASC.