Internettrains.com ? Worst decision ever!

I am really losing patience here. I placed an order for 100 pieces of Model Power HO scale flex tracks on 11th of January, last month. They even charged my debit card on that day. The problem now is that i have been waiting for almost 2 months and i am not sure what is the status because they simply do not reply emails. According to the order status, it says:

Order Status Information:

Customer Emailed\Waiting on Response
- Please check your email for more information.
Item(s) Allocated\Processing Order -Your order is in our system. Once all items are allocated your order usually ships within a few business days.
Item(s) Backordered
-Will ship at a later date. Order will be left open until fulfilled.
Item(s) Canceled
-Will not be shipping.
Item(s) Discontinued
-No longer available.
Item(s) Out of Stock
- Please re-order at a later date.
Item(s) Pre Ordered
- Item has not been released or re-released yet. Order will be left open until fulfilled.
Item(s) Returned
- Return received.
Item(s) Sold Out
- No more available.
Item(s) Temporarily Unavailable
- Not discontinued, but no future release date available.
Order Canceled
- Order has been canceled.
Ready to Ship
- Your order has been completed.
Shipped
- Your order has shipped, tracking info updated in the evening.
Updated Payment Info Needed\Please Contact
- We can't ship your order until we get updated payment info. Please contact us.
Waiting on Restock
- More product in route to us shortly.

First the order was cancelled, then it was ready to ship and finally shipped! So i waited for days and when i checked the status back, they ask me to contact them. When i did, they said:

Order 130671- your order is ready to ship- I will get the shipping/handling charges tomorrow and if they are over your deposit I will e-mail you for credit card info. Otherwise we will ship your order.

Please make sure to include your order number in the subject when your are responding to this email.

Thank You

InternetTrains,Inc.


Ok fine, i waited, for weeks and still no reply from them. I emailed them a few times asking what is the status of my order. No replies from them! Atleast a short status of what's happening would be nice of them. If they really are restocking, how long will it take? Why did their website say 100 pieces are available when ordered them? Why didn't they ask me if i am willing to wait for restocking?

What's worse is that the order is for the local railway fan and modelling club's layout. I am constantly being pressured to find out the status of the tracks. According to our timetable, we are suppose to have completed trackworks by end of this month.

Internettrains.com , sigh.........

 

Mountain Man

Active Member
The easiest and fastest way to get things going is to contact your debit card company and tell them you have been falsely charged. When they demand a payment refund from this outfit, wheels will begin to turn.

Then notify the company that you are posting their identity on the internet to protect other would-be customers.

Yet another reason I detest internet purchases.
 

Jim Krause

Active Member
You are not the first person to have negative comments about the above company. I emailed them about their poor service several months ago and received a reply that "they were updating their computer system and would be back on schedule soon". I guess they didn't make the schedule. I don't think I would order from them based on input from people here.
 
N

nachoman

I have heard several complaints about poor service with them lately. Personally, I HATE backorders. I see no reason why internet businesses cannot have live inventories that accurately reflect if a product is in stock or not.

Kevin
 

Mountain Man

Active Member
They can. This one appears to be operating on the margin of other people's money, which is why I suggested getting a little more aggressive.

This kind of shoddy practice is inexcusable.
 
You guys wont believe this! Just after 1 hour of posting this thread, they contacted me. It seems i have to pay an additional USD20. I guess this is how it works with Internettrains.com .

This will be my last order with them!
 

RonP

Member of the WMRC
You guys wont believe this! Just after 1 hour of posting this thread, they contacted me. It seems i have to pay an additional USD20. I guess this is how it works with Internettrains.com .

This will be my last order with them!

Haha thats funny,
They spend too much time on the-gauge, in the future i will just suggest private messaging them here.
 
N

nachoman

They can. This one appears to be operating on the margin of other people's money, which is why I suggested getting a little more aggressive.

This kind of shoddy practice is inexcusable.

I worked for a company that operated like this. They wanted as few overhead costs as possible. The idea was that every task I did or expense i incurred be billed directly to the client. When business dropped for about 3 months because of client project delays, my company couldn't foot the bill for the overhead costs of the employee's salaries. Seems they did not save enough for a rainy day. 3 months later, when all the projects hit at once, we were doing record business and i often worked 10-15 days in a row of 10-12 hour days without a day off. People got burnt out and quit. Just poor management, if you ask me.

I can go into a store to purchase a pair of pants. The reason i go into the store is so that I can purchase them NOW. When they don't have my size, they suggest that they can order them for me. DuH, I could have stayed home and ordered them myself, thank you. The next time I need pants, I curcumvent the store all together and just stay home.

I have had pretty good luck ordering directly from walthers. Their website can be a bit confusing to some, but at least there is a column that says "available?" and another one that says "expected date".

Kevin
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
They can. This one appears to be operating on the margin of other people's money, which is why I suggested getting a little more aggressive.

This kind of shoddy practice is inexcusable.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Isn't that how the saying goes?
 
Order Number: 130671

Dear Mr. Devadason,


We are trying to ship your order out to you. When you placed the order, it included a deposit (a dollar percentage of your order) for the shipping and handling. The amount of your deposit was $57.89. The actual shipping and handling cost of your order (after the order was boxed, weighed, and measured) is $77.14; coming to a difference of $19.25_____. In order for your order to ship and release to you, we are going to have to collect credit card information from you. Please feel free to contact us with the information listed below via phone, fax, and/or email (you can brake up the information into 1 or 2 emails).

If you have a PayPal account we can request payment if you give us your account email address.

As soon as we receive this information from you, we will ship your order out to you and will notify you by email with the tracking information.

If we do not receive contact from you by the end of 3 business days from Tuesday, February 26, 2008, we will have to cancel your order and return the items back into inventory for future use.

Yours truly,



Foreign Account Manager

Internet Trains, Inc.
Phone: 1-800-369-0878 (Northern America)
Phone: 1-714-256-9401 (Outside Northern America)
Fax: 1-978-945-7766
Hours: M-F 10am - 4pm PST, (1pm - 7pm EST)

Above is the email i got from them the other day. If you read till finish, you will notice they said my order will be cancelled in three days if i do not reply. I replied the minute i read this email, asking them request payment at Paypal. So........what happens now? I did my part, where is their reply? It's already been 3 days, my order got cancelled?

I have never dealt with any stores with this kinda service before. :cry: wall1
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
These guys have a toll-free #. I would be on the phone and on them like a rash after waiting just a week. To be sure, I never order on the net, I always use the 800# to place an order and to leave a credit card #. I sometimes call to get a UPS or FedEx track # once they say it's been shipped.

I buy my track from Standard Hobby Supplies. Great people to deal with, they have good pricing on track, turnouts and roadbed and they also have an 800# and a street address.
 

steamhead

Active Member
Internettrains is the worst outfit I ever had the misfortune of ordering from...After several weeks of waiting, emails, calls, etc., I cancelled my order. I ordered the same materials from Walthers, had them in 3 days....
It may cost a little more, but better safe than sorry....
 

TexDoc

New Member
The best time to order from Internet Trains is NEVER! I made the mistake once, like others, canceled after months of promises, lies, excuses and got my order from ScenicExpress in 3 days.
Way too many great dealers on the net to waste time with this outfit.
 
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