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InternetTrains.com Warning on Poor Service General discussion
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New member 2 posts harrisg3 New member 2 posts
harrisg3

 Folks,


Just a brief heads up that you should take extreme care when trying to purchase
items from Internet Trains.com. I placed an order on 9/7/09 for some HO bridges
and associated items. All showed as "Available" on the website. I waited a
couple of weeks, and then spoke with Bea at the company. She said they were
still waiting on some of the items and the order would ship the next week. She
apologized for their online catalog showing all of the items I ordered as
"Available"--and that she would call me early the next week (which was last
week). The call never came, so I called them on Thursday. I spoke with a man at
the company. After being placed on hold for a long time, he came back on the
phone and said they were still waiting on additional items. I cancelled my order
and asked them to refund my credit card, explaining that I have lost confidence
with their company. I sent an e-mail asking for confirmation after the call that
my purchase would be refunded by 10/3/09. I have not received a response, nor
has the charge been taken off my Visa. I will now go forward with disputing the
Visa charge with my bank.

I hope this post helps someone else from going through a similar ordeal with
this company.

Update--10/6/09--Still no response from the company. This morning, I had to call my VISA and proceed with disputing the charge. 

Regards,
Gordon
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BlueHillsCPR
BlueHillsCPR

Sorry to hear...

Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience.  You should check the MRH adveritsers page to see if there is a company listed who may be able to supply what you were after.

The advertisers with whom I have had contact were excellent!
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MP631 Active Member 42 posts
MP631

Not Surprising

I ran into that same "Available" problem with them a couple years ago.  Assuming it was an honest mistake I ordered from them again many months later with the same result!  Never again; there are too many great vendors out there to mess with questionable ones.

Steve
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bear creek MRH Editor emeritus 2,327 posts
bear creek

ResellersRatings.com

This is a website, not operated as a shopping network, that takes in ratings of your business experiences with various companies. I find them much more reliable in terms of frankness regarding a companies' deficiencies than the pet 'business ratings' sites that you find when shopping. There are often huge descrepancies between the ratings of the 'featured merchants' on many sites and the resellerratings.com site.

If you've had bad experiences you might consider going over there and adding a comment about them. I;'ve used them extensively for camera gear vendors but there's no reason why we can't do the same for hobby vendors. Just be sure you've cooled off enough to post an objective rating of the merchant before writing one.

Charlie

Superintendent of nearly everything  ayco_hdr.jpg 
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IronBeltKen Super User 659 posts
IronBeltKen

How do these guys manage to stay in business?

I've seen multi-page threads about this company on the Model Railroader forum, and others, over the past few years.  Conventional wisdom is that negative news about a company travels much faster than positive news; I would have expected their business to dry up by now.  I guess there are enough modelers out there who never heard about them, and get excited when they see [for example] a long-retired Walthers structure kit listed as "available" when all the other vendors show "out of stock" for that item. 

IBKen
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harrisg3 New member 2 posts
harrisg3

Update on the Deception I've encountered from InternetTrains.com

Folks,

This is an update on my saga with InternetTrains.com.

I strongly urge all fellow hobbyists to stay completely away from InternetTrains.com. Last week, on 10/21/09, I received a notice that they shipped my order (which I placed on 9/7/09)--this is despite me verbally and by e-mail cancelling my order on 10/6/09. I cancelled my order after waiting almost a month for the items that were supposedly "available" per their website. On 10/6/09, I was assured both verbally and by e-mail ("Bea@InternetTrains.com") that she would refer my cancel request to accounting "which usually comes in on Fridays." I've now spent a couple of hours filling out dispute forms with my bank, calling FedEx last Wed. morning to stop the shipment and have it returned to InternetTrains.com, e-mailing InternetTrains.com again notifying them of their issue and again requesting a refund on my credit card (for which I never received a response). They have not reversed the charge on my credit card. I'm pretty certain the bank will do so, as I've kept them aprised of the developments. The company is based in Brea, CA.

Regards,

Gordon
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Sean Martin Regular poster 239 posts
Sean Martin

Shops I like. . .

Interesting thread.  Unfortunate but it sounds like IT is having a cash flow problem.

On a brighter note, I wanted to give a positive review of http://www.firsthobby.com  They have great prices, only charge your card when the item ships and I find their website easy to navigate.  
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mecovey Regular poster 315 posts
mecovey

Internet Trains

I seem to remember considerable controversy over at the MR forum about http://www.internettrains.com. Some people say there are 2 different companies i.e. Internetrains.com and internettrains.com - (One has two ts in the URL the other has only 1. Just to be clear, which one gave you the trouble?

Mike

20Avatar.jpg 
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BlueHillsCPR
BlueHillsCPR

Seems to be...

This seems to be the same story I keep hearing.  Avoid InternetTrains.com!  I don't think I have ever heard anything positive about the company in the past.

I don't think the "other" Internetrains with only one T is a MRR site...but perhaps I am mistaken.

Try some of the great companies that support MRH with their advertising dollars. I'm sure you will be pleased with your experiences.
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