Anyone ever order from "ActiveHobbyz"?

[durok]

I just spotted a site selling the RTR version of the Element Sendero for a solid 15% off... but I've NEVER heard of it before. I'm not finding any mention on this forum of them, either.

"ActiveHobbyz" is what they call themselves... Anyone heard of them? They seem to have a 30% all products sale and free ship over $70 right now.

And, just to be safe I checked ActivePowersports because of the name similarity - they're selling it at the same price as everyone else.

??

[Sneetches]

One of the hallmarks of scam sites is having a high percentage off sale on literally everything. Looks like it's also a Shopify site which means it was able to be quickly set up by scammers as well.

[DukeMinnix]

Use card for which you have protection against fraud, should be fine. With all the consumer protection out there anymore, its actually pretty difficult to get taken by scammers in the long term. May have to cancel the card and be reissued, but is what it is.

[Robbob]

Once and never again.

They dont have live stock, its a drop ship crap shoot. Bought 2 bodies off them once, got one and the other was back ordered. Forgot about it and by the time I remembered I was past the Paypal time frame.

If you look through their site you can actually find multiple listings with different pricing and even stock quantities.

[Sneetches]

Originally Posted by DukeMinnix

Use card for which you have protection against fraud, should be fine. With all the consumer protection out there anymore, its actually pretty difficult to get taken by scammers in the long term. May have to cancel the card and be reissued, but is what it is.

The question is why put yourself through all this trouble in the first place if we're not talking about some rare item, and even then they're still typically too good to be true (like a site posting XR10s for $250 a while back).

[DukeMinnix]

Originally Posted by Sneetches

The question is why put yourself through all this trouble in the first place if we're not talking about some rare item, and even then they're still typically too good to be true (like a site posting XR10s for $250 a while back).

If its a rare item you doubt the stock on, sure, I get that. But an enduro? Why not save yourself some cash and get it for 289, which is what 340 with 15 percent off gets you. I don't know about you, but i'd take 50 bucks savings I can turn around and throw into a good set of tires for it.

Its kind of like gambling with someone elses money when you have consumer protection, its not actually going to put you out anything if the company is a scam and you CYA.

[Sneetches]

Originally Posted by DukeMinnix

Why not save yourself some cash and get it for 289, which is what 340 with 15 percent off gets you.

I think it's simply following the logic that a random site, that has no google results outside this thread, is selling a brand new model for a discount that beats out literally every reputable site on the internet. I'm not claiming OP should miss out on a deal, I'm saying that by the time you go order with your card and spend 3 months of nothing happening, it won't have been worth trying to save $50.

We seem to have this thread bi-yearly where someone asks "does anyone know XYZ site" which follows the same script.

[durok]

I said screw it and ordered from Horizon Hobby through Amazon, payments on Prime card, will just be paying for a bit longer.

I will say that the PayPal icon was a lie on that site - I went most of the way through setting up an order and it only offered various credit cards as the payment option in the end.

They sent me an email offering me 20% off my "in-cart" item when I left the site without completing the purchase, they didn't have a way for me to empty my cart.

Was kinda laughing to myself - were they really going to give me an additional 20% off an already 30% off item?

Doubtful...

[Hobbimaster]

Just pulled the trigger on a TRX-4 Tactical unit. Yes, prices seem too good to be true, but I do order from RCMart, Tamico, Stellamodels that sell Tamiya kits at incredible prices too. So I figure why not? I used a credit card that offers fraud protection, so if it all goes south, I feel protected. I figure they are drop shipping to have items this cheap, so with this being a current model, should not be a issue to get one. I will let you guys know how this store does for this order, finger crossed.

[SubaruGuruWRC]

I just spent $484.19 last Fri, Aug 2nd on that site. Ordered a Traxxas Slash 2wd VXL Fox edition and a small surplus of upgrades. They sent me an e-mail confirming the order and billed me on Mon, August 5. I just went to the site today and saw it no longer exists through direct web entry or e-mail link. The recipient info on my bank account looked suspicious, so I did some detective work and ended up here. The site said 6-8 business days to ship.

When I ordered it , it said received then updated to procesing a couple days later so everything seemed normal compared to normal shipping affair. I am going to the bank tomorrow to look into this. I don't know if they'll tell me to wait 6-8 days to see if it shipped, if the site comes up as a fraud or what? I just ordered with a normal debit card. I don't know if they have the same consumer protection as a credit card? Curious and hopeful as of now I guess.

Anyone have any updates?

[johnnyluv]

No, I think with a Debit card purchase your only security is whether or not your bank will help you, should the charge be deemed fraudulent. I’ve had my debit card compromised a couple of times, and it was fortunate(creepy, at the same time) that my bank had algorithms to detect irregular shopping traits, so they were able to freeze my account until they could confirm I hadn’t made the transactions, and then reverse the charges. A voluntary debit purchase, however, might be hard to reverse.

[OllyCrisson]

You're not alone Subaru Guru. Just spent $181 last Friday. Hopefully will be able to get my money back, but not likely.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by Sneetches

I think it's simply following the logic that a random site, that has no google results outside this thread, is selling a brand new model for a discount that beats out literally every reputable site on the internet. I'm not claiming OP should miss out on a deal, I'm saying that by the time you go order with your card and spend 3 months of nothing happening, it won't have been worth trying to save $50.

We seem to have this thread bi-yearly where someone asks "does anyone know XYZ site" which follows the same script.

This. Good luck to any who bit on the too good to be true 'deals.'

[durok]

As this site disappeared, another even more outrageous scam-site has appeared... marvelgadgets dot store

I won't even actually post the links to these places.

Deal to good to be true

I hate to think of a kid new to the hobby being suckered into dropping $100 for a $450 rig and getting caught up in this crap...

[Hobbimaster]

Just a quick update, Odered a TRX-4 Tactical on 8/1, order said unfulfilled as of 8/5, so I started sending them messages to the provided email address on their web site. It stated in their FAQ they quickly respond in 1 to 2 days. After no response after a few days, I tried to contact one last time, and then I contacted my bank and filed a fraud claim. The only information I was given was that this store is based out of IL, and is categorized as a mens and womens clothing store, odd indeed. My fraud claim is still being reviewed by my bank, but was assured it will be resolved in a few days. I now see the site was taken down, so I wonder how many more people ordered stuff, and were stiffed.

[SubaruGuruWRC]

Originally Posted by Hobbimaster

Just a quick update, Odered a TRX-4 Tactical on 8/1, order said unfulfilled as of 8/5, so I started sending them messages to the provided email address on their web site. It stated in their FAQ they quickly respond in 1 to 2 days. After no response after a few days, I tried to contact one last time, and then I contacted my bank and filed a fraud claim. The only information I was given was that this store is based out of IL, and is categorized as a mens and womens clothing store, odd indeed. My fraud claim is still being reviewed by my bank, but was assured it will be resolved in a few days. I now see the site was taken down, so I wonder how many more people ordered stuff, and were stiffed.

I filed a dispute with my bank on Thurs, Aug 9th. Overnight the Consumer Protection Agency gave me a "provisional credit" of $484.67, the entire amount of my claim reimbursed via my debit-checking account in under 24 hours. Astonished this morning lol, I called the bank and they told me Mastercard had 10 days to completely resolve this. They did reimburse me, but -- should they find this to be a "valid site" have 10 days to take it back out due the $484.67 being a "provisional credit" as of now.

So yeah, I just wanted to give other people here some hope. Looks to be 100% bogus to me. Idk, I like to live life by the edge. I'm convinced they won't take the $ back out. So, I went to my local hobby shop and bought a Fox Edition Slash 2wd vxl, Venom produo (dual power) charger, and a Traxxas ID 2-cell 7600mah battery

[durok]

Thanks for posting up your experiences - hoping no brand new entrants to the hobby ever get suckered into ordering from these sites, could be enough to turn them away from the hobby as a whole.

[Hobbimaster]

Originally Posted by SubaruGuruWRC

I filed a dispute with my bank on Thurs, Aug 9th. Overnight the Consumer Protection Agency gave me a "provisional credit" of $484.67, the entire amount of my claim reimbursed via my debit-checking account in under 24 hours. Astonished this morning lol, I called the bank and they told me Mastercard had 10 days to completely resolve this. They did reimburse me, but -- should they find this to be a "valid site" have 10 days to take it back out due the $484.67 being a "provisional credit" as of now.

So yeah, I just wanted to give other people here some hope. Looks to be 100% bogus to me. Idk, I like to live life by the edge. I'm convinced they won't take the $ back out. So, I went to my local hobby shop and bought a Fox Edition Slash 2wd vxl, Venom produo (dual power) charger, and a Traxxas ID 2-cell 7600mah battery

I doubt they will be taking back the funds, the site is totally gone now. Whomever it was took the money and ran, leaving MasterCard and Visa to pick up the pieces. At least we are protected. I did the same moved on to a TRX-4 Bronco, that was promptly shipped and will actually be here Monday. This was just another one of those life lessons.

[DukeMinnix]

Originally Posted by Hobbimaster

I doubt they will be taking back the funds, the site is totally gone now. Whomever it was took the money and ran, leaving MasterCard and Visa to pick up the pieces. At least we are protected. I did the same moved on to a TRX-4 Bronco, that was promptly shipped and will actually be here Monday. This was just another one of those life lessons.

visa and mastercard wont hurt from it I assure you, but when these people sign up to be able to take electronic payments, they have to provide banking information to have the funds transferred into. If the big companies wanted to track down these people, and assuming they are stateside, they could. You have to provide identification when opening any sort of financial account, which is verified. Its not easy to spoof bank accounts these days.

[durok]

OK, everything just got weirder...

Check this out now:

https://activehobbyz.onshopbase.com/

Prices are back up to normal levels...layout is totally different?

WTF?

I only found it because I was searching for a lexan body, and there was a hit at this site.



Still looks bogus in a lot of ways...