"if anyone does not already know, avoid Hobby Armor Depot!" Topic

Many here probably already know about this guy, but for newer members, please avoid doing business with Hobby Armor Depot.

I've long been aware of the large number of complaints that this guy has had against him from the wargame community. Accusations of illegal recasts and the general shoddy nature of his models aside, it's well known that the owner, Joe Conejo, is bad about not filling orders. But in the past I placed orders with this guy anyway. The first time was before I became aware of his reputation for stiffing customers and the second was out of desperation as he made the only 28mm model available of a vehicle I needed for a convention game. Like a fool, I concluded that Hobby Armor Depot had cleaned up it's act and placed an order for four more vehicles last month. Well, they do say that if you play with a snake long enough you will eventually get bit!

Needless to say I was told on my initial inquiry that the models were in stock and would be shipped imediately. A little over a week goes by and no models arrived. I sent out another email asking about my order. The reply tells me that my order will go out "on Friday" (this exchange was on a Wen) and that a "free gift" would be included to apoligize for the delay. Needless to say this order never arrived and a week and a half later I sent him a strongly worded email requesting either my models within a week or a refund of payment. This email was ingored and later emails inquiring about the order have all been ignored as well.

Fortunately I paid via Paypal, who has a well deserved reputation or siding with buyers in disputes almost by default. So I was pretty confident of getting my money back. I filed a case with paypal and told my side of the story. Not suprisingly, HAD allowed the claim to go all the way through without bothering to respond to Paypal's request for information. Thus after the week elasped, I won by default and got my money back.

The moral of this little story is not to do business with HAD unless you are face to face at a convention. (I probably would not even do that because I don't like crooks) If you MUST order from them because they produce the only model in your chosen scale then please use Paypal and be familiar with the policy's on filing complaints. Keep an eye on the calender so you can file for a forced refund within the specified time.

Martin

TMP link

Note: reported to be making illegal recasts.

Seems to me there was a post complaining about them a couple of weeks ago.

Old news….

But worth warning the newcomers about.

>>But worth warning the newcomers about.

My thoughts exactly when posting this.

Martin

Definitely…

I know guys like this. One man operation, probably helped by his brother who is also not an organizer. His desk if he has one is over run with orders which have no In or Out box, no means of confirming orders sent, orders received somewhere piled in there, working out of his garage with minimal storage, boxes of stuff everywhere without lables, a kid helping spray paint stuff which gets packaged before it dries, using some sort of old mold program that leads to lots of flash on the models, and running to catch up with orders that are weeks old, responding like a fireman to complaints. I'm not saying any of this is fact, I've never been to a central location. These are my guesses, but you can just picture the situation. You take your risk. But name a company that got the array of models this guy has. I don't think you can. Good luck.

Oh yeah. I have bought a lot of models from this guy.

But name a company that got the array of models this guy has. I don't think you can. Good luck.

So, what you are saying is that it doesnt matter if he sells rips, so long as he sells a LOT of them?

1 death is a crime, 1 million a statistic?

Oh yeah. I have bought a lot of models from this guy.

The phrase "Poprav' plavki, b^%$k vidno" springs to mind.

Still waiting on an order from 2004…

"Still waiting on an order from 2004…"

Hey, same here. Plus the "freebie" promised as way of apology for being late to begin with.

I wonder if he is related to the Zombie Hamster guy.

It's ashamed they have such a great selection of moderns which no one else has. I emailed them and was told he was in the hospital for a few weeks and Bob was running things existing stocks I was tempted but still holding off somebody please make modern vehicles in 28mm!
p.s. adding to the old news which is now new news.

Link hunter- Ahaha- good one!!!

As I mentioned in another thread about 28mm vehicles …

I'm also speaking up as to why to avoid Hobby Armor Depot.

I needed to order some 28mm modern military vehicles for photos to appear in my Aim for the Head game. Good ones, to scale, are pretty hard to find so I thought I hit the jackpot. I paid via Paypal, was told I'd receive a shipping number, etc. on May 23rd and haven't heard anything back. I've received no shipping number, and no replies to any emails asking what's going on.

I made it clear I was a publisher looking to use the models for a professional photo shoot so it was important they arrived on time. I haven't heard anything and am now waiting on Paypal to resolve my claim.

I will be including a note on all the manufacturers who provide minis and scenery well-suited to the game. However, trying to rip me off earns your company a little sidebar in the book along the lines of "Do not use. They steal your cash."

Fortunately I paid via Paypal, who has a well deserved reputation or siding with buyers in disputes almost by default

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Obviously in the circs that worked well though that Paypal reputation also works to the favour of those who buy, claim it was not delivered and then claim the money back (and have the models too as likely as not). My wife has had experience of those who actually deliberately buy from people on ebay type sites etc with recent poor feedback as they then claim that the same poor service also happened for them. I'd add that experience has shows that not even recorded delivery is infallible as had a case where the postie left them on the doorstep and didn't get them signed (the recipient found them eventually as someone else had picked them up to look after them) or where recorded delivery stuff is just delivered en masse along with other stuff in big mail bag(thats been more a problem with business establishments that I have experienced at work)

After upgrading the complaint to a claim, Hobby Armor Depot never bothered responding to Paypal's notice, so this morning Paypal refunded my money.

Hi, just wanted to say I ordered some items in Sept and then saw these comments. I just recieved my parcel with 4 free vehicles in it – in compensation for the length of time it took. There was an apparent illness which took considerable time to recover from. 4 months is certainly not what I had expected but in the end the extra 4 vehicles do make up for the delay.

Just thought I would share my experience.

Great – I just ordered from this place and had no idea……

Oh well that's alright then.

OK, this all I will say aside from the fact that their service was also terrible.

I have two long bed Land Rovers, one from Hobby Armor Depot and one from Corgi. The HAD item is identical to the Corgi down to the hole in the hood (bonnet to you folks overseas :) )to mount the spare tire. Same applies to the short bed Land Rovers I have. Won't say that there is any buccaneering involved but it seems like a mighty big coincidence.

Just a terrible "company" overall. I don't know how he is still in business.

Just a terrible "company" overall. I don't know how he is still in business.

If you're not paying people to sculpt your minis for you, and you aren't delivering on half the orders you receive, what would drive you out of business? You have no costs, aside from metal stock and storage space.

Rec'd my order of 8 AFV's from Hobby Armor Depot last week. While it did take almost 2 months to rec'd the order the MFG kept me up to date with e-mails and the finished products are what I expected…

3 of the AFV's will be on the battlefield at H'con in July

SFC Retired