I would like to know in advance, which dealers are guilty of the following practices:
Failure to answer Emails
Lying about having a particular item in stock
Non-cancellation policy
Charge your credit card on receipt of order instead of when shipped
Excessive delays in shipping in-stock items
Flat shipping charge for each item in the order
I have my own personal list of such companies, which I obtained by getting burned, one at a time. It would save a lot of grief to know about them in advance. I was recently pleasantly surprised by a new (to me) dealer, and posted a comment to that effect, but it was greeted by a "can't we find someplace to hide it" message.
I agree.
The model toy train hobby perhaps has more qualifiers than most to rating a dealer, or simply a seller on the basis of one or two or even three experiences from as many different perspectives as I care to count, as you listed just a few. The same applies to a specific product as well as a dealer. I just had a GG1 meltdown. Now what? I live in an area that has less than one hands worth of finger to count on in terms of hobby shops that exclusively deal with trains. Some I have visited that are advertised as train shops are full of craft items, airplanes, bird houses, race cars and there..way over in the corner are two or three shelves of dusty cartons of trains. As much as I have a wary ambivalence about Ebay..out of ten purchases, I had one bad experience and thankfully, due to Paypal policy, I got a full refund and as a benefit, all the sellers are rated by customers. I have read two glowing reviews and then read ten others that complained about communication, condition, etc all on the same seller. Hmmm...
I think it's a matter of who decides based on the evidence and CTT is not a small claims court, and the issue I have is strictly the nature of circumstantial opinion..it could be dead on and provide a reason to avoid being burned. However, another way I have seen done on that forum that shall remain nameless as a competitor to CTT..is someone will ask more often than not..what has been your experience with the ----shop? The ones that stand out as reliable and sincere may be a better way to go about this...rather than the inverse. Trainz has been very good..so has Scenic Express for me over multiple orders and with fast problem solving...One ridiculous situation I am aware of as far as reviews of service concerned restaurants where the owners under a fake pseudonym wrote glowing reviews of their own businesses. So much for truth in advertising in that example.But good references are worth a lot of appointment and frustration. Trainz resolved my own errors on double-billing in 24 hours..always were honest and Scenic Express really shipped fast..faster than any others to date. By the way, I don't own them.
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
I think it's important to remember who hosts this forum. While it might seem like a "public service" to expose dealers who have given bad service, allowing such comments to stand could represent a conflict of interest for the host, as it may be one of their advertisers.
Your mother probably told you this (I know mine did): If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. That simple advice will save everyone a lot of trouble.
I'm back!
Follow the progress:
http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/displayForumTopic/content/12129987972340381/page/1
And one important fact, there is at least 2 sides to every complaint.
Bill T.
Seayakbill And one important fact, there is at least 2 sides to every complaint.
Point well taken. Also, if I say something nasty about a dealer in a public forum, I wonder how he would treat my next order?
I think it may be up to the discretion of the mod's to enforce this policy. Or there have been recent policy changes on this matter. I know that in the past on the MR form there have been threads posted complaining about specific vendor's sales or advertising practices. I know because I've had a hand in a few of them. If you had a thread locked, perhaps it was because your comments were a little too over the top?
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
I really hate the "He said/She said" element of dealer complaints. There are plenty of other spots on the internet to vent, I'd be inclined to think these fist fights should be "there" rather than "here."
Bob Keller
There's always the Better Business Bureau. Not that I have any personal experience or even know whether they do or don't do such things when it comes to online hobbyshops, but for regular business issues they list complaints that have been filed. Either way it's the better forum for these kind of issues in my opinion.
As to buying off "the bay", I've been on since 2000 and out of 174 transactions (95% trains) I've only had 2 or 3 problems. Only once did a seller use a stock photo for a DVD that didn't match the actual item being sold and the rest were issues with delivery. The biggest one was a Lionel type B transformer that may or may not have gotten lost in transit. Unfortunately for me Ebay changed their policy from 90 to 60 days to lodge an official complaint on day 62 of my waiting for this transformer to arrive. So I was out of luck. The only other "lost in the mail" issue I remember having was for parts that the seller replaced at his own expense.
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Whatever...
Penny Trains There's always the Better Business Bureau. .. Becky
There's always the Better Business Bureau. ..
They are more interested in promoting the businesses who support them. I did have experience with the BBB many decades ago. They were of absolutely no help. Maybe what I am looking for is an independent rating group like Consumer Reports.
Regarding Ebay, tho I have only had about 10 dealings with the vendors on Ebay, I have had no problems at all. It seems they are eager to please.
Bob M., I have found over the years, the best approach to be "I am going to XXX town/city, etc., and I would like to know if anyone knows of a good train store?" Another thread type that has served some folks well, "What is your favorite train store?" If you do a search of some of the ones from the past, you will find, for the most part, that the same names come up.
As mentioned, Trainz in Buford, Georgia is a good on line source. Also, Memory Station in Watkinsville, Ga is a good one. My favorite is "The Train-Station" in Mountain Lakes, NJ. I have also dealt with Just Trains out of Delaware, Gryzbosky's (sp), Hollash's Trains in Florida, and a few others. In my experience, I have not had any problems with those establishments. You can check either the web sites or the magazine adds to compare prices. Some include the shipping if orders are over a certain amount. While it doesn't help out most folks who just read these threads, another great thing about many of us, is that we can ask some who have purchased from places about their experience. I know folks like Laz have purchased from Barry's Trains and speak well of them. Chief has purchased from Miss Edna's place (Todd's Train Depot) which advertises in CTT.
I tend to stick with places that have been spoken well of by my friends here. I have been very lucky. Only a few times have I spent too much for an item and it usually happens at train shows.
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
I avoid negative comments because if I encounter a bad situation, I do not know if it is just a bad day on there part or not. I can tell you that I have not encountered anything bad with all that I have dealt with. Also like was stated earlier, mother taught me well !!!
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