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Problems with internettrains.com

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  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,330 posts
Posted by selector on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 12:49 PM
That is not putting too fine a point on it.  When a dealer pees off a modeller's wife, it is doubly bad.  It is hard enough trying to explain what it is about this hobby that fascinates us so much without having them go through such a hassle when they buy-in and want to please us with a MRR gift.
  • Member since
    January 2003
  • 277 posts
Posted by fievel on Sunday, January 14, 2007 2:29 PM

Well said, Selector !  My wife was hoping I'd have received my much

needed scratch building supplies so I could be happy working on my

structures in the doldrums of January and February. That, and get me

out of her hair for awhile.Wink [;)]

Cascade Green Forever ! GET RICH QUICK !! Count your Blessings.

  • Member since
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Posted by CAZEPHYR on Sunday, January 14, 2007 5:16 PM

 denny99 wrote:
my experience: they are S-L-O-W!

 

There is no excuse for being slow,except to use your money to pay for their bills.  They obviously order the items after you money is received and operate at least in part on the customer's money.  

The problem with this type of operation is many of the items I normally want are limited and if a dealer does not have them, they probably are not available at the distributor either. 

Shops like Caboose Hobbies and First Hobby usually have the item in stock.  Both of these are very trust worthy and offer mild discounts on reserved items.

Trainworld also does a good job on items in stock and they do carry a lot of stock. 

Always ask if it is in stock before the order is placed.  

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • 36 posts
Posted by amsr on Sunday, January 14, 2007 9:15 PM
I ordered something on 12.27 from them and I'll get it EST 1.17.07.  I got ground shipping too.  If I got overnight it would have been here 1.11.  Kind of slow, but not that bad... I mean they aren't Amazon.com or anything. 
  • Member since
    January 2007
  • 2 posts
Posted by Devon on Saturday, January 20, 2007 10:47 AM
 Ordered on 12/02/06, they had all items except a Loco. It's status has gone from backordered to discontinued yet they have not sent the other items or answered my e-mails or the phone calls. At this point I consider myself ripped off by them and I am just waiting till the end of January to file a complaint with paypal.
  • Member since
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Posted by CAZEPHYR on Saturday, January 20, 2007 10:57 AM

 Devon wrote:
 Ordered on 12/02/06, they had all items except a Loco. It's status has gone from backordered to discontinued yet they have not sent the other items or answered my e-mails or the phone calls. At this point I consider myself ripped off by them and I am just waiting till the end of January to file a complaint with paypal.

 

The owner of Internet Trains was on this forum early on.  Did you get to talk to him?? 

I would have thought he would have contacted you directly since he responded to this very post and acted like they fixing the problems. 

I would go for the Paypal complaint.

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • 2 posts
Posted by Devon on Sunday, January 21, 2007 10:13 PM
Yes, I did get an e-mail from the owner asking for the order number so he could look into it. I'll keep you posted. Thanks. Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]
  • Member since
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  • 3,264 posts
Posted by CAZEPHYR on Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:19 PM

 Devon wrote:
Yes, I did get an e-mail from the owner asking for the order number so he could look into it. I'll keep you posted. Thanks. Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

 

Good to hear you got an email.  Keep this up on the front pages until they do something about your problem.  There is no reason not to ship the other items and refund your money. 

 

Good Luck

  • Member since
    September 2006
  • 14 posts
Posted by jkristia on Monday, January 22, 2007 10:19 AM

I just send an email to same company to cancel the remaining part of an order I placed 2 month ago and asking them to credit me back the money they charged at the time I placed the order.

Let's see what they reply. 

This is the first and definitely last time I  order anything from there

 

Jesper 

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Santa Barbara, Ca
  • 195 posts
Posted by SBCA on Monday, January 22, 2007 10:25 AM

Jesper - good to see you on this board.

I've seen pics of your handlaid track by doing general searches on the internet for handlaid track.  Excellent work.

What scale are you in now?  Are you building a layout?

I'm trying to figure out exactly what kind of layout to build - will likely be a shelf layout - more like a module - most likely with handlaid turnouts and flextrack.

I haven't joined the yahoo handlaid group just because you have to submit info and wait to signup, etc.

I'm tempted to try laying turnouts just using pliobond, but it doesn't seem like anyone does it that way. 

www.pmdsb.com
  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: AUSTRALIA
  • 308 posts
Posted by Teditor on Monday, January 22, 2007 5:47 PM

Don't know how this turned to scratchbuilt turnouts, but go to ddmrc.com and have a look.

As far as the orders from the company on this forum, I reckon I still hold the record, order placed July last year and still waiting, supposed to have been shipped in late November.

The initial delay was not able to be explained, I am just waiting patiently now to see if anything does actually show up or is it lost in transit, did it ever actually leave?

Teditor 

Teditor

  • Member since
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  • 277 posts
Posted by fievel on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 1:21 PM

I FINALLY received a credit on my credit card account from

Internettrains.com.  I had to go through the process of a

registered letter from the post office, which cost me $4.64.

But it was worth it. The confirmation email Internettrains

sent to me was all "business" information. No apology or

explanation of why all of my emails to them went unanswered,

or why I couldn't get through on the telephone.

I will never do business with this

company again !!!

Cascade Green Forever ! GET RICH QUICK !! Count your Blessings.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 3,264 posts
Posted by CAZEPHYR on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 3:35 PM
 Teditor wrote:

Don't know how this turned to scratchbuilt turnouts, but go to ddmrc.com and have a look.

As far as the orders from the company on this forum, I reckon I still hold the record, order placed July last year and still waiting, supposed to have been shipped in late November.

The initial delay was not able to be explained, I am just waiting patiently now to see if anything does actually show up or is it lost in transit, did it ever actually leave?

Teditor 

 

If you can get in touch with some of the people at that place, ask for a tracking number.  Most of the shops I buy from send me the tracking number in the email the next day after the order. 

That is to imply they ship in one day or less.  Please don't order from Internet Trains again and we will all do the same. 

 I can't image how disappointed you are and we are all ready to help by not using them at any cost.  

 It is not a bargain if you don't get anything for your money.  

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 7:37 PM

Just for the record.

I can understand your frustrations and the frustrations of others that have orders that have been delayed or handled improper.  You can be assured that we are doing everything we can to remedy these problems so we can get back to the way it should be.  Please understand that not all orders are delayed or have issues.  The last 90 days we have literally shipped out thousands of orders on time and without any problems.  I know that doesn't help those that have had problems, but try to understand that the problem orders have been a small percentage of overall orders.  Does this make it acceptable? Absolutely not.  We are striving for 100% satisfaction and it will come.  The last 12 months we have re worked our complete business model and we did make some mistakes and misjudgments in certain areas.

We thank and appreciate all our customers over the last eight years of business, most of them have been very happy.  For those of you who have had problems, we apologize and we will do everything in our power to remedy these issues.  You can count on it.

Steve Guccione

President

Internet Trains, Inc.

  • Member since
    May 2004
  • From: Ohio
  • 1,615 posts
Posted by Virginian on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 8:00 PM

Steve, I see we are quick to get your attention when you see a downturn in sales due to the dialog.  I guess that was per the "business model", therefore merits the attempted glossover.  Care to put forward a theory on why the original poster's continued emails and phone calls went unanswered all the way up to his registered letter?

You do not need a Harvard Business degree to see thru the BS jargon, and spot a poor way of doing business.  I hate to be harsh, but I HATE that typical business jargon.  When you screwed up, fess up.  You made a VERY big mistake.  Gloss does not stick to a bad taste.  I for one am going to be placing some very significant orders in the near future when my tax refund arrives.  Your company is off my potential order list.

Just for the record.

What could have happened.... did.
  • Member since
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 8:23 PM
 Virginian wrote:

Steve, I see we are quick to get your attention when you see a downturn in sales due to the dialog.  I guess that was per the "business model", therefore merits the attempted glossover.  Care to put forward a theory on why the original poster's continued emails and phone calls went unanswered all the way up to his registered letter?

You do not need a Harvard Business degree to see thru the BS jargon, and spot a poor way of doing business.  I hate to be harsh, but I HATE that typical business jargon.  When you screwed up, fess up.  You made a VERY big mistake.  Gloss does not stick to a bad taste.  I for one am going to be placing some very significant orders in the near future when my tax refund arrives.  Your company is off my potential order list.

Just for the record.

Nobody is trying to gloss over anything.  I have stated before that we have made mistakes.  That is obvious.  We bit off a bit more than we could chew with our latest upgrades.  We know that now and we're doing everything we can to remedy the problems, and we will.  We have had a pretty good track record the last eight years until lately.  As for phones and emails, we were overwhelmed this past holiday season.  Since then we have hired more customer service people and they are working hard to get us caught up.  Emails and phones are already starting to get better.  They should be back to normal shortly.  No theory, this is the truth.  We were just overwhelmed and got behind.  We had a much better holiday season in 2006, which now in the long run has hurt us more than it helped.  Next year we will be much better prepared.

I'll say it again.  We appologize to all of you that had problems with your orders and deeply regret that we weren't better able to serve you.  We're not going to make up excuses, we're going to fix the problems and move forward.

Steve Guccione

President

Internet Trains, Inc. 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 3,264 posts
Posted by CAZEPHYR on Friday, January 26, 2007 2:19 PM
 InternetTrains wrote:
 Virginian wrote:

Steve, I see we are quick to get your attention when you see a downturn in sales due to the dialog.  I guess that was per the "business model", therefore merits the attempted glossover.  Care to put forward a theory on why the original poster's continued emails and phone calls went unanswered all the way up to his registered letter?

You do not need a Harvard Business degree to see thru the BS jargon, and spot a poor way of doing business.  I hate to be harsh, but I HATE that typical business jargon.  When you screwed up, fess up.  You made a VERY big mistake.  Gloss does not stick to a bad taste.  I for one am going to be placing some very significant orders in the near future when my tax refund arrives.  Your company is off my potential order list.

Just for the record.

Nobody is trying to gloss over anything.  I have stated before that we have made mistakes.  That is obvious.  We bit off a bit more than we could chew with our latest upgrades.  We know that now and we're doing everything we can to remedy the problems, and we will.  We have had a pretty good track record the last eight years until lately.  As for phones and emails, we were overwhelmed this past holiday season.  Since then we have hired more customer service people and they are working hard to get us caught up.  Emails and phones are already starting to get better.  They should be back to normal shortly.  No theory, this is the truth.  We were just overwhelmed and got behind.  We had a much better holiday season in 2006, which now in the long run has hurt us more than it helped.  Next year we will be much better prepared.

I'll say it again.  We appologize to all of you that had problems with your orders and deeply regret that we weren't better able to serve you.  We're not going to make up excuses, we're going to fix the problems and move forward.

Steve Guccione

President

Internet Trains, Inc. 

Here is the latest on the ever growing saga of the missing orders.

 They are going to fix the problem and move forward!

Anyone who has contacted Internet Trains and did receive their long lost order should at least post and tell us!  That would be only fair to all for us to know how it came out.

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Reno
  • 11 posts
Posted by Reno N Scaler on Friday, January 26, 2007 3:33 PM
I ordered from them last year and was very satisfied with their service so after the first of the year I placed two orders with them. I was SHOCKED to find out that my order was all mess up so I decided to cancel my orders with them being very displeased with their level of professionalism. So now I'm just wondering how long it will be before I get my money back. I am not a wealthy person, as a matter of fact I had sold All of my KATO Unitrack track AND turnouts on eBay so I could generate the money to place an order with them. I placed a $300.00 order for track and turnouts. So now I have NO Track, NO Order, NO Money AND NO Layout. Thank You Internet Trains !!!!!

I will NEVER spend another penny at this Place of Buisness, also as a foot note I sent two e-mails to them and have yet to here a word from them.
I think they have only one person answering the phone. I spent one whole day trying to reach them on the phone constantly using redial for almost five hours and NEVER got through to them.

What if this is as good as it gets
  • Member since
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Posted by CAZEPHYR on Friday, January 26, 2007 4:03 PM

 Reno N Scaler wrote:
I ordered from them last year and was very satisfied with their service so after the first of the year I placed two orders with them. I was SHOCKED to find out that my order was all mess up so I decided to cancel my orders with them being very displeased with their level of professionalism. So now I'm just wondering how long it will be before I get my money back. I am not a wealthy person, as a matter of fact I had sold All of my KATO Unitrack track AND turnouts on eBay so I could generate the money to place an order with them. I placed a $300.00 order for track and turnouts. So now I have NO Track, NO Order, NO Money AND NO Layout. Thank You Internet Trains !!!!!

I will NEVER spend another penny at this Place of Buisness, also as a foot note I sent two e-mails to them and have yet to here a word from them.
I think they have only one person answering the phone. I spent one whole day trying to reach them on the phone constantly using redial for almost five hours and NEVER got through to them.

 

Have you been able to contact them on the phone???     That is a lot of money to leave if you don't get it back.

Good Luck.

 

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Reno
  • 11 posts
Posted by Reno N Scaler on Friday, January 26, 2007 4:35 PM
Yes,
I have ben trying all week about every half hour or so and keep getting the same responce, "Thank you for calling internet trains" then I hang up and start the process all over again with the same results after about 15 to 20 min. of this same. It kinda gets old after five days. Trust me I'm kicking my self now for selling my Kato stuff. But on a lighter side the gentelman who won the auction received the Track and is VERY Happy.
What if this is as good as it gets
  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Austin, TX
  • 1,752 posts
Posted by Don Z on Friday, January 26, 2007 6:13 PM
 InternetTrains wrote:

Just for the record.

I can understand your frustrations and the frustrations of others that have orders that have been delayed or handled improper.  You can be assured that we are doing everything we can to remedy these problems so we can get back to the way it should be.  Please understand that not all orders are delayed or have issues.  The last 90 days we have literally shipped out thousands of orders on time and without any problems.  I know that doesn't help those that have had problems, but try to understand that the problem orders have been a small percentage of overall orders.  Does this make it acceptable? Absolutely not.  We are striving for 100% satisfaction and it will come.  The last 12 months we have re worked our complete business model and we did make some mistakes and misjudgments in certain areas.

We thank and appreciate all our customers over the last eight years of business, most of them have been very happy.  For those of you who have had problems, we apologize and we will do everything in our power to remedy these issues.  You can count on it.

Steve Guccione

President

Internet Trains, Inc.

I don't even have a dog in this fight but I noticed that the President still hasn't addressed the issue of charging the customers' credit card when the order is placed instead of when the item ships. If I was charged and didn't see my order for another 90 days, the credit card company would have already reversed the charge for me.....I wouldn't stand for it!

Don Z.

  • Member since
    October 2005
  • From: Detroit, Michigan
  • 2,284 posts
Posted by Soo Line fan on Friday, January 26, 2007 6:53 PM

If anyone wants to know the procedure for contesting a credit card purchase, here is the one I have used:

1.      Contact the vendor in writing and ask for a refund. A week is plenty of time to wait.

2.      Contact your credit card company and explain the transaction.

3.      They will take down some information over the phone and issue you a full refund, on the spot. Unless their investigation proves otherwise, you are free and clear.

4.      You will receive a form to fill out from your credit company. Fill it out completely in a timely manner. Send a photocopy of any supporting documentation you have, i.e. UPS tracking # (if returned), receipts, copy of any correspondence, etc, back with the form to your credit card company.

5.      Sit back and let the credit card people do their job.

If you pay with a credit card there is really nothing to get bent out of shape about. I have done this 2 times using 2 different credit companies. One time it was with an online train discounter. In both events the procedure was basically the same and so was the outcome. I was issued a full refund, including shipping charges if incurred.

Hope this helps

Jim

Jim

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 8 posts
Posted by dhayesmo on Friday, January 26, 2007 7:25 PM

When contensting a credit card purchase, please make sure to do the first thing Jim said in his post above, contact the vendor in writing and wait a week after a confirmed delivery of your compaint.  Many companies will try and straighten things out because when there's a charge back, there is often a fee they have to pay in addition to loosing the sale.

 

 

  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: Warren, MI
  • 89 posts
Posted by rfross on Friday, January 26, 2007 7:27 PM

Perhaps Steve is too busy with his other expensive and time consuming venture to spend as much time with internettrains.com as it takes to fix things.

http://www.steveguccione.com/

He is also co-owner of:

http://www.milepost38modeltrains.com/about_us.htm

 

 

Modeling the Ballard Terminal Railroad (a former Northern Pacific line) in Ballard, a district north of downtown Seattle in 1968, on a two-rail O-scale shelf switching layout. The Ballard Terminal didn't exist in 1968 but my version of the BTRR is using NP power. (My avatar photo was taken by Doc Wightman of Seattle)
  • Member since
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 26, 2007 7:42 PM
 InternetTrains wrote:

We thank and appreciate all our customers over the last eight years of business, most of them have been very happy.

 

 I bet you appreciate all the Discount Trains customers who were redirected to your site as well, don't cha?  Tongue [:P]  Sleezy.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: New Joizey
  • 1,983 posts
Posted by SteamFreak on Friday, January 26, 2007 7:48 PM
 rfross wrote:

Perhaps Steve is too busy with his other expensive and time consuming venture to spend as much time with internettrains.com as it takes to fix things.

http://www.steveguccione.com/

He is also co-owner of:

http://www.milepost38modeltrains.com/about_us.htm

Once again this forum proves its worth. I've never ordered from Intenet Trains, and thanks to this thread, never will. I have never come across any company that charged my credit card before the item shipped; that alone is a sign of bad faith, and Steve continues to ignore this issue. I guess if you want to know what became of your refunds, look no further:

  • Member since
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  • From: AUSTRALIA
  • 308 posts
Posted by Teditor on Friday, January 26, 2007 8:16 PM

Guess this is being drawn out to a long witch hunt, maybe with good cause, my big dissapointment is that my name is not on the side of the truck as a sponsor, but I think I did see my order waiting to be shipped in the milepost 38 site.

Six months and still waiting, only took five months to ship the items, maybe another five to get them, only one day to charge, I'm not sure which record I hold now?

By the way, love the truck and the store looks well stocked.

From a long term sponsor - Teditor, Queensland, Australia.

Maybe our boy from downunder - Marcos Ambose will "run into him" on the track!

 

 

Teditor

  • Member since
    May 2004
  • From: Ohio
  • 1,615 posts
Posted by Virginian on Friday, January 26, 2007 8:41 PM
I hate to stir the pot, but IF the credit card company does a charge back, which they will do if you have neen unfairly charged, they charge THEM, not you for it.  I forget who said it first, but payback really is hell.
What could have happened.... did.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 26, 2007 9:45 PM

  You know, I must be one of the luckiest folks around! I've placed many orders with Internet Trains in the last couple of years and have never had a problem with any of them. My credit card has never been charged until product was shipped, never has an order been shorted without a backorder, and I've always received exactly what I ordered. Returns have been made with no problems. I don't get it! How can I be completely satisfied when so many aren't? Am I living in an alternate universe?

Puzzling! 

 Angus Macdonald

Petaluma Valley RR 

  • Member since
    May 2004
  • From: Ohio
  • 1,615 posts
Posted by Virginian on Saturday, January 27, 2007 5:11 AM
Angus, you must have ordered before they put their new business model, that predicted higher profits with quicker credit card charging, went into effect.  If they were once good to deal with, maybe they will recapture some of their latent abilities in that regard.  Hope so.
What could have happened.... did.

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