You don't have to go to a train show to get similar treatment. My boss and I were doing some work near a large and somewhat famous model train store in the Los Angeles area. As my boss is also into trains, he suggested we stop in and look around. I only had $20 on me so I wasn't expecting to buy anything. I was surprised to find a large collection of used HO scale items displayed on folding tables just inside the store entrance. There were quite a few assembled Blue Box kits, none priced above $3.00. Individual price stickers were placed on every single car. I found half a dozen I liked and headed for the check-out counter. The cashier was about to ring up the sale but then stopped, looked at the price tags again, stated the prices were all wrong and then doubled the price of every single car. I told him to forget it, and as I walked away and out the door, I could hear him cussing up a storm. Not only did he not make a $40 sale, he didn't even make a $20 sale. More importantly, he guaranteed that I would make all of my future train purchases elsewhere!
Hornblower
I had something very similar happen to me when I bought my 8 3/4" gauge ride on train.
A man out near Essex, Connecticut was selling a ride on train that he bought his children a year prior and that they were tired of, so he wanted to be rid of it. There was a 4-4-0 outline dummy engine, a tender with a 3.5 HP gas motor, a 6.5' long gondola, and a caboose, and about 1/4 mile of track, including a right hand turnout, a left hand turnout, and a wye, most of the track was in poor shape, and all three turnouts need a lot of work, as the welds had come apart.
The price that he was asking was $3,000.00. My wife and I came out, and looked the rolling stock over, and we agreed to the price and took out a small loan from the bank that we use for the set. Due to the amount of track, it took us three trips to get everything to our house. Well, on the third and final trip, the guy decided that he wanted an additional $500.00.
He told us that since he works for the Connecticut State Patrol, that it would be unwise for us to refuse to pay, and that he had an offer from someone in NY state for the set for $3500, that we needed to cough up the difference, otherwise he was going to sell the engine and tender (which was still at his place), and make us ship the track at our expense for him.
When he started listing off information to me about me and my wife that he got from the state of Connecticut, my wife and I got real uneasy about it, and my wife ended up giving him a check for $500.
I got the guy's badge # and talked to the Connecticut State Patrol about how one of their men pulled a price hike on us. The response that I got was that even though what happened was wrong, there was nothing that would be done about it, and I should just leave well enough alone.
On the other hand, there used to be a really great model train store in Charleston, SC; called Just Trains.
My wife and I were good friends with the family that ran the store, and we would help him out at train shows and on occasion help him run the store and work on the display layout. (His wife did not like us helping at a train show in Columbia, SC once, because when we gave him a break at running his booth, we ended up spending more money on trains that he wanted than what he made at the show.)
After some sales, he would occasionally miss kits that still had sale stickers on them. If you happened to bring something to the counter that had such a sticker on it, despite the sale being long over, he would still honor it, which with us, always meant more sales.
I would spend most Friday afternoons at his store, and we would chit-chat about trains, or work on his layout, and help with keeping the place clean.(My wife and I were "honorary employees" there, and her cat Chessie would sometimes "work" there to keep mice away, and was the shop mascot.)
If my wife mentioned that she wanted a particular item to me, and he heard her, he would order it, and often discount it, due to our frequent shopper status. It is rather hard to get the local hobby shop to order anything at all. The last time I ordered something, the order was sold to another customer without even giving me or my wife a call.
Long story short: For every dirtball dealer and crooked shop-keep, there are many, many other sellers that are willing to go the extra mile for their customers, and are major players in why model railroading is the World's Greatest Hobby.
So many scales, so many trains, so little time.....
I have followed this post and it seems several people have had similar incidents. In my book it's called 'customer service' which is where I worked for a number of years before I retired. Of course the right thing was done by not dealing with this person. From a customer service standpoint, she was wrong and has created ill feelings by her actions. On top of that, if the original poster had listed her name and location, it would stick with some people and she would lose additional business. It's the same when one of us has a bad experience with an on-line dealer - we tell our stories here for all the world to read and the word spreads. It also works when we have positive experiences. And believe me, there are on-line stores that I will not use and others that I will use simply based on someone's experience.
We can say what we want about this, but she lost a customer and could have lost a whole lot more if it would have been reported.
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
HaroldAI have followed this post and it seems several people have had similar incidents. In my book it's called 'customer service' which is where I worked for a number of years before I retired. Of course the right thing was done by not dealing with this person. From a customer service standpoint, she was wrong and has created ill feelings by her actions. On top of that, if the original poster had listed her name and location, it would stick with some people and she would lose additional business. It's the same when one of us has a bad experience with an on-line dealer - we tell our stories here for all the world to read and the word spreads. It also works when we have positive experiences. And believe me, there are on-line stores that I will not use and others that I will use simply based on someone's experience. We can say what we want about this, but she lost a customer and could have lost a whole lot more if it would have been reported.
I never did get the woman's name,and if her sign had a location on it, it was obscured by all the packing boxes she had sitting out on her table, but I did report the problems with her to the organization that ran that show, and from what I was told by the guy from that group, there were a number of concerns and complaints about that woman, and it is unlikely that she will ever get a booth with that group again.
As I mentioned in one of my posts, the sign on her booth read "Scotsman Trains", but there are a few hobby shops in other states that have the same name, but are not affiliated with the Scotsman Trains here in Connecticut.
One thought that the guy I talked to from the group that ran that show is that it would be nice if dealers could be limited to only NMRA and/or TCA members only, due to the standards that members of both groups (My wife and I belong to both) are held to means that such incidents are less likely ever occur.
I will see that guy at the next NETCA meet in Marlboro, MA next month, and I will ask him if he found anything else out about that woman and what the decision is regarding if she will be allowed to sell at future meets run by Classic Shows, LLC.