Internet Virgin

[chuck geiger]

This holiday was a first for me, ordering from three internet model train suppliers. Here's the ranking:

Feather River Train Store - Awesome, everything packed nicely (cept' empty Stoli bottle) and order was there.
Walthers - Imagine that - Everything there and timely.
Internet Trains - OK Ordered Dec 7th and stlll waiting after three emails and two phone calls, the story keeps
changing from the company in Brea, CA. Waiting for this to come in, will be Monday, then two weeks, I said
ship what you have (on Thursday) still waiting.

FRTS was from my son, Walthers from my daughter and my wife Internet Trains. Let's just say nothing for
Christmas from my wife as of yet.

[SquirrelHollow]

Internet Trains - OK Ordered Dec 7th and stlll waiting after three emails and two phone calls, the story keeps
changing from the company in Brea, CA. Waiting for this to come in, will be Monday, then two weeks, I said
ship what you have (on Thursday) still waiting.

 :-[  I know FAR too many people that have been in your situation, including one that never got his $650 order.  His only course of action was a credit card chargeback, after many emails went unanswered or avoided the issue.

Hopefully you'll get your items soon.

[John]

Chuck .. there are only two dealers I do biz with anymore on a regular basis via mailorder .. FRTS and MB Klein .. and with my tax and spend state raising our sales tax to 6% as of tmrw, FRTS becomes even more of a competitor for out of state sales. (Disclaimer: Chuck at FRTS is a friend of mine - I think )

[central.vermont]

(Disclaimer: Chuck at FRTS is a friend of mine - I think )

You have friends....... .........say it ain't so!!  ;D
Jon

[John]

(Disclaimer: Chuck at FRTS is a friend of mine - I think )

You have friends....... .........say it ain't so!!  ;D
Jon

Well .. one or two anyway ..

[chuck geiger]

Thanks for the replies and emails. I'm going to call them again today. I am going to tell them I'm going to charge back the card. I should have known better (Beatles), when they said they had the Walthers ADM Grain Elevator in stock. Nobody has that, not even Walthers! - Chulvis do you know when that will be back in stock?

[Erik W]

Feather River Train Store - Awesome, everything packed nicely (cept' empty Stoli bottle) and order was there.
Walthers - Imagine that - Everything there and timely.

I'd add   http://4nscale.com/   to your list of reliable dealers.  I haven't ordered anything train related in months.  I'm one of the wierd ones that has all the locomotives and rolling stock I need and I buy my scenery supplies locally at Caboose Hobbies down in Denver.  Chuck has gotten a fair amount of my business and he comes out tops on my list.  Aside from not discounting at all, Walthers has always done right by me when I want an item quick rather than cheap (if unavailable from one of the discount etailers).

Erik

[chuck geiger]

Erik - you are so lucky to have Caboose in the hood. I don't like their internet ordering system. I saved my list and when I logged back onto it, several times it wasn't my list.

I called INTERNET TRAINS and they say they are shipping what they have. But they said this on Thursday 12/27.

[bsoplinger]

I've used Wig-Wag in the past and they seem to have the lowest prices of the various etailers out there. But customer communication isn't a big thing with them, they do get around to it usually but often it can be rather slow. I can end up getting a package from them without any warning (along with an accompanying charge to my credit card) for a pre-order done months before.

OTOH anytime I've ordered with Chuck at FRTS I've gotten things exactly when expected. He's great with communication  and customer service. He even tracked down a Summerset (Summerville?) Junction N-scale architect kit for me when seemingly nobody had them. Of course a few months after he tracks one down they're all over the place again but I still appreciate the effort. And he's always let me know when stuff shows up that I've ordered never had any surprises.

MBK is good too, especially when calling in an order for the odd or rare thing. Now that they've moved and have the smaller store I don't know if they'd still have the oddball item or not.

So don't let INTERNET TRAINS scare you off, just try the other guys

[chuck geiger]

I agree, I didn't like WIG WAG. For a customer-service based internet train company, they seem paranoid. The tell you when you email them (the only way you can order) that your email is being reveiwed to make sure it's not a virus or spam. Not a great way to run an internet ordering company.

[wcfn100]

The tell you when you email them (the only way you can order)

Can't you call them?

Talking to someone eliminates a majority of the problems for any of the on-line shops.  Especially when it comes to what they actually have in stock.  If you just order on-line, you're going in blind.

Jason

[POVC]

I should have known better (Beatles), when they said they had the Walthers ADM Grain Elevator in stock. Nobody has that, not even Walthers! - Chulvis do you know when that will be back in stock?

Interesting - Walther's is showing the ADM Elevator as "On-Sale" today, even though it isn't in stock.  They are showing an expected date of 22 January 2008 for this kit.  Didn't they just restock it within the last 6 months after being retired for a while?  I know I got one from Walther's back in August (it was on-sale then too).  Just an FYI, MB Klein is also showing it as out of stock; I could have sworn they had some last time I looked.  They might still have some in the store, those wouldn't show up on the website (stuff in the store is not in the website database).

Tim

[nscalesteve]

Well .. one or two anyway ..

no, I'm not one of them...   

[Virginia Atlantic]

Chuck at FRT is one of the best guys I met in all my time in Model Railroading.  Not just as a dealer of trainly goodness, but as a plain old good guy all round.  He would be the exclusive dealer of train goodness for me.

[John]

Well .. one or two anyway ..

no, I'm not one of them...   

You may be right ..