Does anyone have any experiences with Mr.Hobby from Italy?
http://www.mhobby.it

I'm not quite sure what to think of them, but I feel something is very wrong. I ordered two books plus some aftermarket items from them on May 26. I paid with Paypal and they supposedly sent my order by Registered Mail a few days later. On their website they warn that Registered Mail takes at least three weeks to arrive - it already seems to be too long for shipping within Europe, but I was not in a hurry.

After about five weeks from the moment they supposedly shipped my order I emailed them to let them know that I still did not receive anything. On July 4 or 5 they responded with apologees and promised to re-send my order on Monday (that would mean July 7) by UPS or FedEx.
I still did not receive anything today and they didn't respond to a couple of my emails last week...

Should I contact Paypal already to have the transaction withdrawn, or should I give mhobby.it more time?

Pawel

Hi Pawel. I haven't had any experience ordering from that particular place, but my experience with virtually everything I have ever bought from Italy, including items sent by registered mail, have taken at least 30 days to get to me in the central United States. I have not had things from any other country take as long to get to me. Even though you are closer than I am to there, the shipping time may be accurate.

I don't really know the reasoning behind it but I have noticed that some US sellers on eBay will not sell or ship to Italy. It may have to do with the postal service there. Perhaps some members from there can shed some light on things.

Strange thing is that on the same day when I placed the order with mhobby.it, I also placed an order with Royal Models, also in Italy. And the package from Royal Models - not registered - arrived to me after only about a week...

Oh, and it looks like I cannot use Paypal to get my money back as more than 45 days have passed since the transaction...

Pawel

Pawel,

Have you tried phoning them? I also see that you can send an email to the shop owner via the website.

If this doesn't help, report them to their local chamber of business - I believe the chamber they are a member of is listed on their site...

HTH

Rudi

No. My spoken English isn't all that great and my experience from recent trip to Italy is that I had a lot of problems to communicate with most Italians who tried to speak English. Also I don't really want to lose any more money than I already seem to have lost - international phone calls aren't exactly cheap...

Pawel: Your written English is very good. I wouldn't give up and take a loss. Try emailing them and please post back and tell how it fared for you. There may be a simple solution such as something is not in stock and on order.

The problem is that I already sent three emails to them in last five days and didn't get any reply. Maybe they're on vacation but I can't see any information that would suggest it on their website...

Pawel

I finally received my order yesterday. It arrived by UPS.
So it looks like MHobby are difficult to contact by email, slow in their actions, but at least they do deliver orders. Sooner or later...


Pawel