Hobby Ultra Ltd Reviews 73

No issues with store previously but recent actions have raised an eyebrow...have seen other responses below and can appreciate that times are rough.

Currently I'm waiting on two items that have been paid for via Paypal back in late 2022 (way past 6 month refund period):

* Persona 5 Royal figma Violet (release July 2023)
* Demon's Souls figma Fluted Armor (recent release)

I sent an e-mail back in November 2023 for the former but, to date, received no reply.

Site shows both items as being out of stock so I have no way of knowing what is going on...

Edit: Still nothing, reducing score to 1 as this is just ridiculous.

*update* correct item now received

I received the wrong item, and despite numerous attempts to contact Hobby Ultra I’ve not had a reply. I’m now stuck with an item I did not order and no instructions on returning or refunds.

A* service. I've visited this store many times and have always found the staff to be helpful and friendly. Always taking the time to ask about my day, talk about my interests and make recommendations.

Fantastic experience with a visit to HobbyUltra store in Leicester. It's a well lit and bright store with a carefully curated selection of anime and manga merch and knowledgeable and attentive staff.

Since it's inception myself and my partner have been returning customers. I have used both the website and store on multiple occasions.

They offer legitimate official products so no concerns about cheap imitations offered by the competition.

I'd happily recommend HobbyUltra and there team for all your Anime and Manga merchandise needs.

Despite a rocky couple of months hobby ultra have gone above and beyond to help restore my faith in them.

Genuinely really appreciate the help I've recieved and highly recommend them. Thank you so much !!

EDIT: updating this review following the reply below.

Whilst I’m sorry for your circumstances, as we all hit tough times- and I suffer quite badly with anxiety myself it’s understood- sadly im afraid the review of service is still accurate at this moment in time.

Even a blanket email to all customers explaining a delay to general business and the reasons would have given something to go off, but the radio silence is what led us to here, and evidently other customers too.

I don’t believe there are any personal attacks below, only that I’ve listed the name of the company director, and information from their LinkedIn page (both of which publicly available) and a direct appeal to elicit a response. I’m sorry if you feel that way however.

Finally, I’m concerned the answer to this is sending you another email… Benefit of the doubt, I’ll get a further email sent with a link to this review as requested, and hopefully we can resolve this quickly now we have some communication lines open.

Edit 2: We sent you the email as requested over 8 hours ago, and no response from you yet…

Don’t use this company. Regardless of whether it was good in the past, they are awful now.

My partner preordered a product in July. Product is now out, but not been shipped to me and still says “order placed”. The product is now out of stock on the website, yet they were happy to take the money upfront.

She has sent 5 or more emails over a period of time now, and not a single response. She’s now struggling to know what to do when you’re stonewalled like that.

The fact is, the prevailing theme over the recent reviews all say exactly the same thing.

That there is not a single phone number for the business, or indeed the company director Matthew James Wells- either on LinkedIn, or companies house- or anywhere for that matter after some investigation, leads me to believe it’s all a bit of a scam at this point.

I’ll be doing some further investigation to try and pinpoint some contact details for the company/owner, and you’d better believe I’m going to be reporting him to her bank, paypal- and all of his affiliated payment providers to notify them of so they can pull payment API support from his online shop- and there’s a wealth of trustpilot reviews here to ensure the claims are sufficiently weighted.

Matthew, if you’re not too busy to read these reviews- I suggest you start replying to emails pretty quickly. Assuming you left Forbidden Planet, thinking you could do it better yourself- right now, you most certainly are not.

~~~~Edited Section - Original Review below~~~~

Thanks for your reply on TrustPilot

I think going forward it might be a good idea at least give some general reply to emails, even if doesn't have an exact release date, just something to show the site hasn't been abandoned. Many fans are happy to wait but when its complete silence, there isn't much we can go on

Your August reply to my email was a great example of how you should communicate

Even the reply here; explaining your situation, offering alternatives. This is a great reply you can be emailing to people to let them know whats going on

However, this leads on to why I'm editing this review. I still haven't had any reply to my October 19th, 25th or 5th November emails. I emailed again today at 11:47 (30 mins after your reply) to explain my situation and why I had to make a Paypal request

Just like this review is titled, please respond to emails.

Hope things get better for you with regards to mental health and I hope the best for Hobby Ultra in the future. Running an online store is one thing, but physical store is another story all together. Keep well and check your emails =^.^=

~~~~Original Review below~~~~

Dont really like giving negative reviews but it seems other people have had a reply after leaving a review so lets hope

Contacted them at the end August about a few preorders and got a reply the following day. Figures should be arriving late September

I followed up on the 19th Oct and 25th Oct and havent had a reply.

Understand Matt has been running Hobby Ultra by himself so has a lot of work between running the physical and online shop.

But would like to know if I should be looking at a refund / buying elsewhere or waiting a couple weeks extra

Please reply to emails

Pre-ordered a Nendoroid for a July 2023 release.

It is now October 2023 with no word nor updates on why the order has taken so long.

Sent multiple e-mails and messages to their Instagrams and Facebook page.

Waited days and weeks for a reply, but nothing.

They've just taken my money, and it's been so long I can't claim a refund off Paypal.

edit 18/03/24 Received a unsatisfactory reply, and request for further clarification is met with silence. Sent several e-mails, and still no reply, nothing. Total silence. Unable to claim a refund off Paypal as it's gone beyond 180 days.

Normally I have had a very good experience with this company,the owner has been helpful and and always willing to answer queries but lately (since beginning of September not including the time they were closed due to being at a convention) have not been getting any replies regarding queries for outstanding orders, some of which are a fair bit beyond the expected arrival date.

I hope this is just a misstep but in my experience a lack of communication is usually followed by said business shutting down and nobody getting a refund for what they paid for, I pray that this is not the case and they can get in touch, until then I do not recommend ordering anything

Update 27/10/23: I finally was contacted, I understand there have been extraordinary circumstances that have kept Hobby Ultra from communicating.

I feel very sorry when a business is being run understaffed as they will very likely overpromise and won’t be able to deliver a good service if something unexpected happens.

The lack of support towards the staff and the lack of organisation always ends up reflecting badly on the customer service.

I have a sense that a single person was left with all the responsibility of dealing with all the orders.

I have seen similar businesses like animegami disappear (and they were very good too). I hope Hobby Ultra will recover.

I wish everyone had better support in their businesses and in general.

I have changed the review to a positive rating because I want to support this business while raising awareness on how important it is to have a supportive environment in any aspect/area of life.

I got a refund via my bank and got the figure elsewhere.

Hobby ultra is an absolutely amazing store to purchase anime related items from
Their customer support is very helpful.
When purchasing a product i would recommend going with paid shipping as royal mail is less likely to lose the package

I really am happy with what I got, had to wait a bit longer but was worth it, pricing is pretty fair and the figure is brilliant! Got myself a cute demon slayer Rui figure, so happy with it, package was safely delivered

Ordered a little model online. Good price and good delivery time. Some products are often out of stock, however.

Love this company, I have placed quite a few orders and they always come quick and well packaged. Always has a wide range of items on their website which is great. Also the only hobby site I've found so far that uses klarna which is v.helpful. They are very responsive to emails and my questions are always answered thoroughly. Overall, I really recommend this company :)

Bought a lot of items and preordered a lot, I love the website layout so this is the main place I buy most of my Nendoroids from, my most recent one arrived in 3 days !! It's also a good place to find somewhat rare figures that have sold out everywhere else, missed the preorder for one and looked on here when it came out and it was there for the retail price !!

Excellent experience purchasing figma from them, arrived super fast and when the item itself broke shortly after unboxing, customer service was fantastic getting back in touch with me quickly for a replacement. Will definitely buy from them again!

Fantastic pricing and selection.
I've bought from Hobby Ultra a handful of times and have had a great experience so far.
Fast delivery, Good website layout, simple to use.
All around great place to buy model kits, figurines and more!

Quick and easy to buy. Will purchase from again.

I was looking for some anime merch that is impossible to find in the UK. Came across this shop and wow, so pleased I did. Fast delivery, well packaged, excellent products. Will be using again and will highly recommend. What a find!!

Will purchase here again. Hoping to see more gundam kits.