Hello all, about 6 months ago, I found what I thought was going to be a great place to shop for my Model RR items. I bought an Athearn Genesis F7B With sound. It arrived, could not be programed, I called Wholesale Tranis, and was told to contact Athears Tranis and talk to them, which I did, they asked me to talk to the provider of their decoders which I did, the man I needed to talk to was out sick, I called back 3 more days, same response. Next I contacted Wholesale trains back, and was told to to return it for exchange which I did, the next one came, and was obviously used, and wouldn't even run, upon checking it out, the wires coming from the engine wern't connedced up to anything. I connected them up to the same tabs that my Atherarn Genesis 4-6-6-4 were connected to, and Wallah, it programed, but wouldn't hold a program for more than 4 or 5 ft away from the hand held unit. I bought a new battery for it, and the same thing happened. I contacted Wholesale Trains, and the owner got really nasty, and accused me of not knowing what I was doing, I asked if I could send it back at my expense, and he could take a look at it. He said no, he would pick it up using Fedex, and would give me a refund. To date no Refund, and I have written 2 letters, and they refuse to talk to me on the phone, or return my letter. Anyone had a similar experience? Dissapointed announce1
Nightmare Experience With Wholesale Trains
- Thread starter planeshavings42
- Start date
I'll make this comment to you and others who have done the same thing and posted here on The Gauge. Don't try to fix a broken/inoperative piece of equipment when it arrives at your door that way. You paid for a new item. Send it back if it doesn't function like a new item. All you are doing is giving the dealer an opening to claim that you screwed with it and broke it. Sorry to have to say this to you but I see so much of the same comments on here. It does sound like you went the correct route the first time around.
Well thay can call there self Wholesale if thay like but i did not see a price on anything that i could not get cheaper from some of the other online hobbie shops. Thanks for the heads up on them.
Not to minimize whatever Wholesale Trains did or did not do right, but you were not treated properly by Athearn. You bought an Athearn product. You should not have to talk to their supplier to get it running right. That should be Athearn's direct responsibility. They are the manufacturer. It's their product. The decoder is just a subassembly of the loco. If the wheels fall off, are you going to have to call the wheel guy?planeshavings42 said:
Torpedo said:
When Irv died, it just wasn't the same company anymore, the old man really knew how to treat you.
I try not to buy too much Athearn stuff anymore,their customer service stinks!
I had a Maxi-well set and my son destroyed one of the cars so I wrote Athearn for a replacement so I wouldn't have to buy a whole new set.Anyways,they sent me a bare body,no parts at all on it.Apparently I was supposed to take all the parts off the old one and put it on the new body,well I don't know if you have tried that,but it's damn near impossible to do without breaking some parts,besides that's why I needed a new car in the first place.I was angry and sent them an e-mail basically saying that if this is the best they can do for a measly car,how can they expect me to drop alot of money on an high end engine?They did finally send me the parts,way more then I actually needed which hinted of sarcasm to me,but oh well.Oh,and their people need to take a class on curteousness and friendliness,the person I corresponded with had the personality of a tree stump!No thank you's,hello's or glad we could help,Dear sir or anything like that,just as few words as they needed to type to get their point across.Below is an example,it's exactly the way I got it from them,no modifications...
What is the product number off the box? I will check to see if we have one we can sell you.
Chris
I had a Maxi-well set and my son destroyed one of the cars so I wrote Athearn for a replacement so I wouldn't have to buy a whole new set.Anyways,they sent me a bare body,no parts at all on it.Apparently I was supposed to take all the parts off the old one and put it on the new body,well I don't know if you have tried that,but it's damn near impossible to do without breaking some parts,besides that's why I needed a new car in the first place.I was angry and sent them an e-mail basically saying that if this is the best they can do for a measly car,how can they expect me to drop alot of money on an high end engine?They did finally send me the parts,way more then I actually needed which hinted of sarcasm to me,but oh well.Oh,and their people need to take a class on curteousness and friendliness,the person I corresponded with had the personality of a tree stump!No thank you's,hello's or glad we could help,Dear sir or anything like that,just as few words as they needed to type to get their point across.Below is an example,it's exactly the way I got it from them,no modifications...
What is the product number off the box? I will check to see if we have one we can sell you.
Chris
It seems as though, these hobby shops/manufacturers don't realise that the people they are selling trains to talk around to their friends or acquaintences- whether it is good or bad. I don't use Athearn items, or buy from those hobby shops you mensioned (I don't do US and I work at a hobby shop, lol), I suggest going to "Trainworld" or something- you will get the same stuff cheaper, but I hear that you must know what you want otherwise they won't be able to help.
Anyway, to get back to my point, there are a lot of members here on the gauge- from all over the world too- who are probably part of a club or have @least 1 friend in the hobby, reading a post like this is poisen to the shops/manufacturers, etc.
I say, let's boycot them. We should also write to Model Railroader, because Athearn advertises a lot in there and they (MR) say that all they need is a few complaints from people and they won't advertise for them anymore- despite the fact that they
(the manufacturers) pay for advertisements.
Anyway, to get back to my point, there are a lot of members here on the gauge- from all over the world too- who are probably part of a club or have @least 1 friend in the hobby, reading a post like this is poisen to the shops/manufacturers, etc.
I say, let's boycot them. We should also write to Model Railroader, because Athearn advertises a lot in there and they (MR) say that all they need is a few complaints from people and they won't advertise for them anymore- despite the fact that they
(the manufacturers) pay for advertisements.
Hehe, good luck trying to get model railroader to drop Athearn, they usually have 1+ full page adds monthly.
But I will say this much, there are alot of people who see this site, either by searching thru their fav search engines, or by just knowing its here, and word of mouth on here is almost as good as emailing the world.:thumb:
But I will say this much, there are alot of people who see this site, either by searching thru their fav search engines, or by just knowing its here, and word of mouth on here is almost as good as emailing the world.:thumb:
hmm, there the cheapest place on the net that i have found, hell there lionel fasttrack is only $2.72 each. the next cheapest place i found is 3.25 each. and there N scale stuff is cheap to.
i have never had any problems with them.
i have never had any problems with them.
trainnut65 said:
Ditto.ozzy said:
They got my sale for $200 worth of track not too long ago just because they wre the cheapest. The only real problem I've had with Wholesale Trains is that they won't tell you if an item is backordered. You have to e-mail or call to get the info out of them.
Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with them planeshavings. I really thought they were a better comapny than that.
Hi Ozz
Me too, until this point, I bought much track from too for the same reason, and 24 turnouts, great prices, but when they beat you out of $146.00, and talk down to you, and then refuse to even take your calls, it leaves a pretty bad taste in your craw. I truly hope you never have a problem with them. sign1
ozzy said:
Me too, until this point, I bought much track from too for the same reason, and 24 turnouts, great prices, but when they beat you out of $146.00, and talk down to you, and then refuse to even take your calls, it leaves a pretty bad taste in your craw. I truly hope you never have a problem with them. sign1
An update with another horror story about this place, also known as Lantz's Hobby Shop.
Coming up on a month ago I ordered On30 turnouts from these folks because they had a great price on them. They billed me for 8 but only sent 2, which is apparently all they had. I called the day I got my order and after some time with them on the phone they admitted they only had 2 and I should not have been charged for the other 6. Well, three phone calls and a month later and I still have not received a credit on my Visa. Every time it's the same tale: we have to get the owner to do it and it may take a day or two. I've been in retail. Any dolt can run a credit. It's not hard. The people I've spoken to have always been pleasant but that means nothing if you don't get results. I just filed a complaint with the BBB against them as I don't know what else to do. It's a shame, as they seem to have a nice store and a lot of product. :curse:
Coming up on a month ago I ordered On30 turnouts from these folks because they had a great price on them. They billed me for 8 but only sent 2, which is apparently all they had. I called the day I got my order and after some time with them on the phone they admitted they only had 2 and I should not have been charged for the other 6. Well, three phone calls and a month later and I still have not received a credit on my Visa. Every time it's the same tale: we have to get the owner to do it and it may take a day or two. I've been in retail. Any dolt can run a credit. It's not hard. The people I've spoken to have always been pleasant but that means nothing if you don't get results. I just filed a complaint with the BBB against them as I don't know what else to do. It's a shame, as they seem to have a nice store and a lot of product. :curse:
ddavidv:
If I am not mistaken, you can call your credit card company and tell them you have been over charged and they will take steps to correct the situation. It is borderline fraud to overcharge I believe. But dont let it go too long without out contacting your credit card company.
If I am not mistaken, you can call your credit card company and tell them you have been over charged and they will take steps to correct the situation. It is borderline fraud to overcharge I believe. But dont let it go too long without out contacting your credit card company.
I thought I'd update in case anyone finds this thread via a search.
It took a complaint filed with the area Better Business Bureau to light a fire under their posterior. 2 days after filing the complaint, I got a copy of a credit on their invoice paperwork for the missing items. However, it took them five more days to actually credit my card. :cry: I had requested the paperwork from my credit union to dispute the charge but did not get it before they finally did their job.
Both employees I spoke with were very pleasant but apparently either unable (first person) or too inept (store manager, second person) to run a credit.
I requested to speak to the owner on my final phone call and were told they were not there. They did not ever follow through on their promises of issuing the credit, calling me back, or following up with an email until the BBB got involved. Ultimately, the fax to the BBB was the only document or contact I ever received from the store. It's just astounding to me that a brick and mortar place (and their web site looks like it's a really nice store) can have such awful service. At least it is finally resolved and I didn't have to make the 4 hour drive up there for an in-person resolution. train97 Resolved, but not without drama and I will NEVER buy there again, regardless of how good the price may be.
It took a complaint filed with the area Better Business Bureau to light a fire under their posterior. 2 days after filing the complaint, I got a copy of a credit on their invoice paperwork for the missing items. However, it took them five more days to actually credit my card. :cry: I had requested the paperwork from my credit union to dispute the charge but did not get it before they finally did their job.
Both employees I spoke with were very pleasant but apparently either unable (first person) or too inept (store manager, second person) to run a credit.
I requested to speak to the owner on my final phone call and were told they were not there. They did not ever follow through on their promises of issuing the credit, calling me back, or following up with an email until the BBB got involved. Ultimately, the fax to the BBB was the only document or contact I ever received from the store. It's just astounding to me that a brick and mortar place (and their web site looks like it's a really nice store) can have such awful service. At least it is finally resolved and I didn't have to make the 4 hour drive up there for an in-person resolution. train97 Resolved, but not without drama and I will NEVER buy there again, regardless of how good the price may be.I work for a software company that produces commerce software. One of the many things that we do is interface with various payment processors.
This is really a fairly simple case. It is not "borderline" fraud, it is outright fraud to overcharge someone, or to charge someone for product before the product has shipped. Both are also Federal crimes:
* If they only shipped you two turnouts, they should only have billed you for two. It would have been acceptable for them to get authorization on the entire order of eight, but they can only bill for two.
* If they did bill for all eight, it's not acceptable for them to keep putting this off.
As someone pointed out, your best bet is really with your credit card company. Visa itself (and yes there is an organization called Visa to whom the bank issuing your card is quite beholden) takes a very dim view of things like this. As a result, your bank will work on your behalf to make things right.
If you're really yanked, you can also file a complaint with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission - Home.)
Hope this works out for you.
This is really a fairly simple case. It is not "borderline" fraud, it is outright fraud to overcharge someone, or to charge someone for product before the product has shipped. Both are also Federal crimes:
* If they only shipped you two turnouts, they should only have billed you for two. It would have been acceptable for them to get authorization on the entire order of eight, but they can only bill for two.
* If they did bill for all eight, it's not acceptable for them to keep putting this off.
As someone pointed out, your best bet is really with your credit card company. Visa itself (and yes there is an organization called Visa to whom the bank issuing your card is quite beholden) takes a very dim view of things like this. As a result, your bank will work on your behalf to make things right.
If you're really yanked, you can also file a complaint with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission - Home.)
Hope this works out for you.