K. Holt It seems very strange that they keep "losing" my order.
It seems very strange that they keep "losing" my order.
Have you seen that new skit they do on one of the ESPN football shows...........
"C'MON MAN!"
Seriously man...do you really believe a small business could "lose" an order. Me, I would have moved on weeks ago. Yikes!
The St. Francis Consolidated Railroad of the Colorado Rockies
Denver, Colorado
I have never actually ordered from them. I sent them an inquiry a couple of years ago about a special need. They never answered it, so I moved on.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Another saying
Liuve and learn
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
Well I went ahead and called them again this morning. This time they definitely remembered me. They promised once again that they would get the order out this week and they didn't ask me to repeat the items I ordered. It sounds like an employee quit there and he is short handed - not sure exactly.
Meanwhile Sievers returned my phone call (how refreshing to get return calls from a vendor!). They said they typically ship in 3 days give or take 1 or 2 days.
So my plan is to give Mianne until the end of the week and then order from Sievers on Monday if I don't get a shipping notice. I hope I don't regret this. I only ordered about half of what I will eventually need, so if I can't go back for repeat business I will have made a huge mistake. My problem at the moment is I already cut all the Baltic Birch plywood to the dimensions of the Mianne benchwork. So I'm already invested a couple hundred dollars into the Mianne solution. However that is a minor issue compared to getting my layout half built and then finding I'm unable to get the follow-on order fullfilled.
I learned a long time ago to trust my first instincts. Usually when something doesn't seem right from 3000 miles away its probably because it isn't. Unfortunately I seem to have forgotten this lesson this time. I'm really relying on the positive comments that Mianne has received from several members of this board in the past. It seems that at least at one time this was a good company that people liked doing business with. I hope whatever is going on right now is just a temporary thing. I really wouldn't mind it if he had just told me up front that he had a 8-12 week backlog. I would have just patiently waited. Telling me over and over that he will get the order out in a matter of days though is not how a responsible business treats their customers.
I'll let everyone know how it turns out.
K. Holt I'm afraid to call again because I don't want to be pushy and frankly I'd probably end up getting mad and canceling the order.
At this point, you're not being "pushy." If you still want to give them the benefit of the doubt, ask if they can ship in the next two days. If they say no, then cancel. If they say yes, wait two days and ask for a tracking number. If it hasn't shipped, cancel the order. You have been very patient with them already, and they have only themselves to blame.
Check your credit card bill (online if possible) and see if they have charged your card. If they charged it immediately when you placed the order, that's a red flag right there. Contact your credit card company and ask how long you have after a charge is made to dispute the charge. You may be running close to a 60-day limit, and you want to make sure you can get this off your card without having to hassle with the supplier.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Cancel and call Sievers, e-mails can be lost or misdirected, everyone assumes e-mails are infallable but they are not. Sievers has been arround a long time and if I was in your situation, I would be buying theirs!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The old saying goes
Fool me once shame on you
Fool me twice shame on me
Check your credit card for sure. Regardless of what is going on with-in a business this sounds bad. My advise is, get out, get out, get out! I have had two problems such as this in my 60 yr plus life and never messed with unreliable businesses again. It's called piece of mind. DR
I would call today or tomorrow and if it hasn't shipped, cancel the order. If it has shipped, ask who and get a tracking number. That way you can monitor it yourself.
Good luck
Paul
I agree with Rich. How big an operation are they? If it's one person making the product, there may be health or family issues that are delaying the production and shipment of your order. In any case, they owe you some explanation for the loss of your order and the lack of product. If they can't give you an explanation that seems reasonable, I'd cancel the order and go to another vendor. I'd be really concerned about their reliability, especially if you plan to use their product in the future for the expansion of your layout.
Benchwork is not that difficult to build. I'd suggest you get a copy of Jeff Wilson's book, "Basic Model Railroad Benchwork - The Complete Photo Guide" or the latest edition of Linn Westcott's book, "How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork". Depending on the size of your layout, I think you'll find it doesn't take that long to build good quality benchwork without the aggravation of dealing with a non-responsive vendor. In addition, you'll have the satisfaction of having done it yourself and probably save money in the process.
Good luck,
Based on everything you wrote in your initial post, I would cancel the order if I were you.
At a minimum, they are unreliable.
At worst, given their inattention to detail, I would be afraid to see their final product.
Rich
Alton Junction
Has anyone had any recent experience dealing with Mianne benchwork?
I placed an order about 6 weeks ago. After a month I sent an email just asking politely if they had an estimated ship date. No response. So I called. It seems they remembered talking to me, but had lost my order. I asked what usual shipping time was, and all they said was I should have received it by then. So I gave them the list of items again. They indicated they should be able to get the order out by the next day. I called back again after two weeks to see if they had an estimated ship date. This time they seemed apologetic, remembered talking to me, but couldn't find my order. So I gave it to them a third time. This time they said they could get it shipped that week. Well now its the following week and no word from them yet. I'm afraid to call again because I don't want to be pushy and frankly I'd probably end up getting mad and canceling the order.
I originally placed the order with Mianne for three reasons:
First, I really like their product. It is very nice quality and unlike anything else out there. Since it has to go in my house and not in the garage, it is important to me (and the wife) that it looks nice. This stuff does.
Second, everything I read in previous posts indicated that Tim at Mianne was a pleasure to do business with. That was important to me.
Third, the whole concept of the Mianne benchwork is that it is expandable. However, that "feature" also requires a degree of trust. If I order something from them and then want to expand in six months, I would like to know that I can go back to them and order additional benchwork. The expandability is lost if they are flaky and unreliable to do business with and I can't get the additional items.
So my question: Is there something going on over there? It seems very strange that they keep "losing" my order. I am concerned now that they are going under or have changed priorities in their business and are no longer serving model railroad users. Normally I would have already taken my business elsewhere. However, there aren't any other comparable products that I have seen.
I should emphasize that I'm not here to publicly berate anyone. LIke I said, I really like their product. The quality is excellent and I still really want to buy it. I would think that with the holidays and all that perhaps I am being too impatient. However, that doesn't excuse not being up front with me and giving me an estimated delivery date or losing my order twice..
BTW, I sent a very short email to Sievers a week ago to inquire about their delivery times. They never responded to that. I am going to try calling them next. I would hope that they can be an alternative supplier of quality benchwork. I am capable to do the carpentry myself, but with my busy schedule I don't have much time for this hobby so I was looking to take a few short cuts here and there.
Any suggestions or advice on what to do?