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Matt Bole/Hobbyworld USA update


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Many of you saw, read or commented on my post last Tuesday, May 24th regarding Matt Bole and Hobbyworld USA.  I’m not interested in re-hashing that whole thing.  But I am going to provide an update.  First of all, there were some who doubted the veracity of my story…attached is a scan of the original invoice that came in the box with my order.  For those not familiar, Matt highlights the items on the invoice that are on backorder.  I didn’t do that.  I did however write Matt’s phone number on the bottom of the invoice so that it was easier when I tried to contact him later to inquire about the status of those items.  Those of you who are paying attention will note that in my post last week I said that I was owed $31.50…but if you add up the cost of the items highlighted you will learn that my math skills are poor and the amount actually is $31.75.  I’d be happy with the $31.50…so I’m not worrying about the extra quarter.  That brings us to the primary reason for this follow up post.

 

A few hours after my initial post…Matt Bole joined the conversation.  Posting at 12:35pm, “Refund on its way!”  Clearly Matt wanted to move on about as much as I did.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see the post, and I waited expectantly for an email from Paypal indicating I had $31.50 sent back to me.  I figured it might be a couple of days while Matt pulled up the order and credited back the refund.  If nothing else, he could email me, or message me or pick up the phone.  He’s got my number.  But it has now been a bit over a week…and I have to tell all of you that as of this post…I have not received any "refund" that Matt indicated very publicly that he was sending.  I’m disappointed…and a bit sad about it to be honest.  I don’t need to drop any additional adjectives to describe what I think of this situation.  I did that last week and I don’t know that there is much that I can add now.  Draw your own conclusions.

Hobbyworld USA 6-27-21.pdf

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I need to update this.  Matt Bole did in fact send a refund last week when he said that he had.  Unfortunately he sent it to an incorrect email address.  So some other guy on gmail has spent the last week wondering why in the hell he just got $31.50 from Hobbyworld USA.  After trading a couple of messages last night...Matt sent me a full refund for the balance of my order this morning via Paypal.  So we're good at this point.

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On 6/2/2022 at 8:55 AM, Cameron Lynch said:

I need to update this.  Matt Bole did in fact send a refund last week when he said that he had.  Unfortunately he sent it to an incorrect email address.  So some other guy on gmail has spent the last week wondering why in the hell he just got $31.50 from Hobbyworld USA.  After trading a couple of messages last night...Matt sent me a full refund for the balance of my order this morning via Paypal.  So we're good at this point.


Are you really good? You only got a refund because you went public.

 

I don’t get why he highlights the missing paint if he doesn’t follow through with the product in a later shipment.

 

He is the only guy to steal my money in this hobby, his name is mud. Clearly he has no conscience.

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7 hours ago, markiii said:

I have ordered from his shop many times and never had an issue. The key thing is to not order items that say "back ordered".


The items I ordered were not on back order at any time of my order, I was charged in full and nothing was ever communicated to me by Matt that they were back ordered for me. You can’t even order out of stock items. The only indication that they were not shipped is they were highlighted on the invoice. 
 

You’d think he’d refund the difference and send some sort of message, any communication at all. There have been other threads at Hyperscale,  Large Scale Planes, and ARC all stating the same. He charges for product not shipped, he offers no communication, he doesn’t reply to emails and phone messages, he doesn’t offer a refund until he is shamed on the internet (for some of us, not me). And this isn’t one or two threads, there are multiple threads with multiple people replying that he has done the same to them.

 

Dont defend him, don’t blame the buyer. He runs a shoddy business.

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On 6/5/2022 at 7:44 AM, Scooby said:


The items I ordered were not on back order at any time of my order, I was charged in full and nothing was ever communicated to me by Matt that they were back ordered for me. You can’t even order out of stock items. The only indication that they were not shipped is they were highlighted on the invoice. 
 

You’d think he’d refund the difference and send some sort of message, any communication at all. There have been other threads at Hyperscale,  Large Scale Planes, and ARC all stating the same. He charges for product not shipped, he offers no communication, he doesn’t reply to emails and phone messages, he doesn’t offer a refund until he is shamed on the internet (for some of us, not me). And this isn’t one or two threads, there are multiple threads with multiple people replying that he has done the same to them.

 

Dont defend him, don’t blame the buyer. He runs a shoddy business.

I wasn't defending him, just stating my experience with his store.

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  • 1 month later...

Initially I had nothing but great dealings with Hobbyworld USA, then the wheels fell off! I have been waiting on items that I ordered last August 2021 to come in, along with some additional items that I ordered in December 2021. I received some items, and others like mentioned in previous posts above were highlighted in yellow, denoting they were backordered. I waited for 4 months before inquiring about the August 2021 order. And got no reply. Sent another message in January 2022, and got a response about there being an issue with him getting items in.  I have been very patient regarding this matter, but when you don't reply to your customers in a timely fashion with an update, then you no longer are a reputable merchant in my opinion. It has been 6 months since the last time I heard from him, in my follow up message to him in May 2022, I asked for an update on these items, and if they were still on backorder, then I requested a refund for them. I have yet to hear from him. I am now demanding a refund from him, as this is definitely abysmal customer service and once this issue is resolved, I will definitely take my business elsewhere and warn other to be leery of doing business with him, as based on my recent experience over the past year, he is not a very reliable merchant to purchase from.

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5 minutes ago, marvin20 said:

Initially I had nothing but great dealings with Hobbyworld USA, then the wheels fell off! I have been waiting on items that I ordered last August 2021 to come in, along with some additional items that I ordered in December 2021. I received some items, and others like mentioned in previous posts above were highlighted in yellow, denoting they were backordered. I waited for 4 months before inquiring about the August 2021 order. And got no reply. Sent another message in January 2022, and got a response about there being an issue with him getting items in.  I have been very patient regarding this matter, but when you don't reply to your customers in a timely fashion with an update, then you no longer are a reputable merchant in my opinion. It has been 6 months since the last time I heard from him, in my follow up message to him in May 2022, I asked for an update on these items, and if they were still on backorder, then I requested a refund for them. I have yet to hear from him. I am now demanding a refund from him, as this is definitely abysmal customer service and once this issue is resolved, I will definitely take my business elsewhere and warn other to be leery of doing business with him, as based on my recent experience over the past year, he is not a very reliable merchant to purchase from.


The posts with this info have been deleted, but a Google search shows he has been in trouble with the law. All public knowledge.

 

A few years ago there was a lot of talk about a person in England who was ripping off modelers. That person was arrested and put out of business. Not sure why this guy is still in business, despite all the negative posts at most the modeling sites on the internet.

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I thought this was an isolated case for me.  I also was charged for items in back order he never sent me.  I send few emails about it and although he answered a couple of them at the beginning telling me that he was having trouble restocking those items, he never followed up or issued any refund.

 

My last experience with that store was this year.  I placed an order for some paints and then tried to cancel it within an hour or less by sending several email before it was processed (my PayPal account hadn't been charged yet) but he never answered and then I received the order few days later, this time complete. I understand sometimes you cannot cancel an order after certain time, but I don't think this was the case.

 

I totally believe what he is doing is a bad practice and he needs to fix that if he doesn't want more people to take their business somewhere else.

 

J

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  • 4 weeks later...
21 minutes ago, JohnnyC said:

Placed an order Feb 2021 for $150. Lots of excuses and ignored messages.

 

Went to sign in on Hobbyworld to find he deleted my account.

 

Stay away from this thief.


Call your credit card company and do a charge back on your order. They will side with the consumer until the seller proves he shipped and you received.

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On 7/20/2022 at 9:18 AM, solher1 said:

I thought this was an isolated case for me.  I also was charged for items in back order he never sent me.  I send few emails about it and although he answered a couple of them at the beginning telling me that he was having trouble restocking those items, he never followed up or issued any refund.

 

My last experience with that store was this year.  I placed an order for some paints and then tried to cancel it within an hour or less by sending several email before it was processed (my PayPal account hadn't been charged yet) but he never answered and then I received the order few days later, this time complete. I understand sometimes you cannot cancel an order after certain time, but I don't think this was the case.

 

I totally believe what he is doing is a bad practice and he needs to fix that if he doesn't want more people to take their business somewhere else.

 

J


He doesn’t need to fix this, it so beyond that. He should be held accountable and put out of business.

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  • 4 weeks later...
1 hour ago, CreepyGuy said:

I placed an order for model paint that was in stock almost nine weeks ago, and not even an email from the company.  I had great luck with them in the past.


I did too initially, now he appears to take peoples money and run. With all the discussions on various modeling sites I’m surprised he is still in business.

 

He was in trouble with the law for another matter and could be in jail. An internet search of his name will bring up what he was arrested for. Someone did post the police info here although it was deleted.

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