www.internettrains.com bad experiences!!!

[Scoobie]

same story

I know what you are talking about, same company ( internettrains ). Two of my orders also took 2 to 3 weeks to get to me after I selected two day air service. They gave the same old - the computer system story. Get this - my last order was a Loco, after waiting 1 month for it, I called and complained about the service and Charlie at internettrains said to me " if your not happy with the way we do business I'll just cancel your order or better yet I'll just cancell it right now, have a nice day " he actually cancelled my order because I was unhappy with thier service. I then e-mailed the President and got no response. I e-amiled again and said I will never order from them again and that I was working a new layout about $1500.00. Their response was " oh well ".
Thanks for letting me vent :curse:

 

[Gary S.]

I think the problems arise because there are two different types of online businesses. One type has an actual warehouse with actual inventory, and when you order, they get the inventory off their shelves and get it shipped out. The other type of company has no inventory and no warehouse, and when you order from them, they have to order the stuff from somewhere else and get it shipped. The second method sounds like a recipe for disaster.

I guess there would be nothing stopping any of us from starting an online shop. Really don't need much except a website. No warehouse, no inventory, don't buy anything until the order gets placed, then you order it from somewhere else.

I was thinking... say you are building a large layout... and you want to get your materials and trains at wholesale cost. You could start your own on-line business, and buy all your stuff from the wholesalers. If you get an occasional order from a customer, then just place the order to the wholesaler for them too. Of course, since you wouldn't really be in business for anything other than to get your own stuff for cheap, you really wouldn't be that concerned about customer service. And once you got most of your own stuff purchased, you wouldn't care what the reputation of your business was.

 

[stripes]

I think the problems arise because there are two different types of online businesses. One type has an actual warehouse with actual inventory, and when you order, they get the inventory off their shelves and get it shipped out. The other type of company has no inventory and no warehouse, and when you order from them, they have to order the stuff from somewhere else and get it shipped. The second method sounds like a recipe for disaster.

I guess there would be nothing stopping any of us from starting an online shop. Really don't need much except a website. No warehouse, no inventory, don't buy anything until the order gets placed, then you order it from somewhere else.

I was thinking... say you are building a large layout... and you want to get your materials and trains at wholesale cost. You could start your own on-line business, and buy all your stuff from the wholesalers. If you get an occasional order from a customer, then just place the order to the wholesaler for them too. Of course, since you wouldn't really be in business for anything other than to get your own stuff for cheap, you really wouldn't be that concerned about customer service. And once you got most of your own stuff purchased, you wouldn't care what the reputation of your business was.

NO! That is not true! I order from manufacturers and there are minimum orders for you to be allowed a discount. They range anywhere between $100.00 to $10,000.00
So, if I have a back order for one building from lets say JL Innovative, I need to place a minimum order. Then there are companies that will just not deal with you at all! (Bar Mills & Atlas) I am not big enough! I recieve a 40% discount of which I take off 10% to the consumer. Then figure in cost of doing business as another 10% not including time!
I try to maintain a stock of at least 2 of everything on my site, but that is not always posssible. The problem I see in this thread is that the internet dealer mentioned has poor comunication skills. Quick and honest response to a customer is the most important part of selling! I also seriously doubt that anyone would spend the time and money involved with starting a business, developing a site etc... just to get a break on pricing! I pay taxes, I pay to be a vendor at shows, and I have items on my web site that are totally useless to a person that models the 40`s era.
I do this because I love model railroading! Bottom line!

Just my thoughts! announce1

David

ps. Chessie rules !!!!! LOL

 

[Torpedo]

"I was thinking... say you are building a large layout... and you want to get your materials and trains at wholesale cost. You could start your own on-line business, and buy all your stuff from the wholesalers. If you get an occasional order from a customer, then just place the order to the wholesaler for them too. Of course, since you wouldn't really be in business for anything other than to get your own stuff for cheap, you really wouldn't be that concerned about customer service. And once you got most of your own stuff purchased, you wouldn't care what the reputation of your business was."

Heh, heh. I did that once. Not for model railroading purposes, but to buy a single, very expensive set of electronic equipment. Got myself a business license and all. Worked it did. I got my equipment wholesale and saved a bundle. Then the local municipality sent me a blank tax return. Whoops, hadn't thought of that. ops:

I managed to wriggle out of it unscathed, and I did save a bunch of dough, but I learned you have to be real careful going into business in order to avoid getting burned by the taxman. You could end up paying business personal property taxes on anything used in your "business." :cry:Not to mention the 101 other things that can go wrong.

 

[ezdays]

Each state's sales tax laws are different, but in the end, if you don't pay sales tax because you bought it wholesale, you'll have to report that, since they want someone along the line to pay the taxes. If you claim to be a business entity and get a license, you have to act like a business and report your income and expenses, just like the big guys.

Now Stripes is correct in that many manufactures and wholesale distributors won't do business with just anybody. You get discounts because you buy in volume. Many have minimum orders, others have minimum quantities you can buy. It's not easy to ask a customer to wait until you get nine more orders because the minium quantity for that item is ten. It's either that, or you start stocking stuff on the shelf. Also, even if you have a business license, if you're not in that related business, you may not be able to deal with a wholesaler in the first place, especially when there are other dealers in the area. Yeah, you might be able to get away with buying wholesale like that, but it sometimes isn't worth the hassle.

 

[Gary S.]

there are minimum orders for you to be allowed a discount. They range anywhere between $100.00 to $10,000.00

Maybe that's the reason for the shipping delays with the "no-inventory" businesses. I ordered some fairly common Kadee items from them, perhaps the long delays occur because they are waiting to get enough Kadee orders from other people to meet the minimums.

 

[beezerv]

I just checked the status of my order online and the decoder I ordered is on backorder. They still have not responded to my email and did not call or email to tell me it is on backorder. The site still lists the item as available!!! Listing items as available that are not is just another problem to add to the list.

 

[CNWman]

Hold on, isn't that actualy fraud?

 

[BlackhawkDriver]

BBB Complaint internettrains.com

Nothing drives me to post like poor customer service and outright being lied to. I ordered from internettrains on 25 Dec. Two weeks later I call and am told order will ship in a couple days. 1 more week goes by, call back, told on the phone that the order will ship same day (this was MLK day btw, apparently they don't know about federal holidays). Another week goes by, still no order, send email and receive reply that order will ship that day. Now we're in the 3rd week of Jan. Still nothing in the mail. At the 30 day mark, file complaint with BBB and email the owner direct. He replys within 5 minutes and says order will ship next day. He is gracious and apologetic and states they are preparing a response to my BBB complaint. Finally receive email on 25 Jan that order has shipped and email contains USPS conf# for tracking. As of today, guess what, still no order received. DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM. I'll give 5 bucks to anyone who can call them tomorrow and actually talk to a real person or even get a response to an email. Worst case they are fraudulent, best case they are absolutely incompetent.

 

[CNWman]

While we're on the subject of rating online stores, has anyone used www.towerhobbies.com? They are selling a loco for almost $10 less than walthers (it's made by Bachman) and I really want to save money.

 

[Torpedo]

I spent a small fortune with Tower Hobbies decades ago. They were top notch then. Don't know about today, though.

 

[TexDoc]

Gang,
There is another difficulty with some on-line merchants. My experience is with another forum. There members were relating almost the same issues with Internet Trains, poor response, not filling orders in a timely manner, not replying to inquires, stating items shipped when they were not...
Well, after several negative replies to the original posting the moderator responded that Internet Trains was one of the biggest advertisers on this forum and proceeded to defend them and chide those of us who had related out bad experiences with them. Stating that we all should establish dialog with the owner and not criticize.
This only reinforces a dealer like Internet Trains to continue to operate by attracting new customers who read the "glowing" recommendation from a moderator of a large model train forum .
I believe we should help each other, especially when there are many fine on-line dealers who bend over backward to do more than is required and values each customer regardless of the amount of money they spend.
Doc

 

[Torpedo]

Doc, I for one would like to know the name of that forum. If you aren't happy posting the name in public, could you see your way to PMing me? Tnx

The reason I ask is this: There has been a similar thread on Trains.com, which is owned by Kalmbach. I would really like to know if they are quashing criticism of advertisers. I hope that is not the case, but if it is.........well, it is really bad news.

 

[Gary S.]

Post a link to the thread. It is all public info, no?

 

[Torpedo]

I have been informed that it was not Trains.com, I am happy to say.

 

[TexDoc]

I was going to post the thread link, but it seems that it has conveniently disappeared from the offending forum.
I guess defending a forum sponsor against dis-satisfied customers recounting unhappy experiences needs to be kept from the light of day so the sponsor will keep feeding the kitty? Thankfully the Gauge is not into gagging members,
Doc
Doc

 

[Cannonball]

After two e-mails questioning why my order hadn't been processed after 3 weeks, I finally get this today:

I apologize for the delay. We had a restocking issue with the lighted
lockons. We have straightened this out and expect this to ship next
week.

Yours Truly,
Dennis Mangano
Internet Trains, Inc.

They couldn't have e-mailed me and told me this two weeks ago??????

 

[beezerv]

Well I'm glad they have a new story. The computer system excuse was getting old. Still no response to my email and no engine. It has now been a month since I ordered.

 

[Collyn]

So how exactly do they get this? http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportExtensionPage.aspx?CompanyID=13133848&sm=#ComplaintExperience
If they have as many unanswered emails as it sounds. Better Business whatever says they have zero. Someone might want to email them so people aren't mislead into believing this is an"excellent" company to order from. The unfortunate thing is this seems to be the trend now. It is extreamly inconvenient for me to go to the nearest hobby shop, because it is an hour away. Yet I still almost never order online. I will if they have brick and mortar stores that are close enough, and I am desperate.

 

[Ironhead]

I was going to post the thread link, but it seems that it has conveniently disappeared from the offending forum.
I guess defending a forum sponsor against dis-satisfied customers recounting unhappy experiences needs to be kept from the light of day so the sponsor will keep feeding the kitty? Thankfully the Gauge is not into gagging members,
Doc
Doc

I find this behavior outrageous and completely unacceptable. The purpose of forum is to speak openly about subject matter pertaining to our hobby, and in some cases our professions. When products and service cannot be openly scrutinized to educate the users who ultimately pay for them, the site deserves to be kicked to the curb by every registered member. Management had a choice to drop the sponsor for poor performance, and they chose to line their pockets with money spent by it's online community instead. Not much difference between that and reading the "government owned newspaper" for your daily news.

You don't need to lie down in front of a bus.... just vote with your dollar!

Anyone with knowledge of which forum pulled such a thread is welcome to PM me with that info.