I’ve got a problem with an order I recently received from one of MRs big mail-order advertisers.
I ordered what I thought was a box of Atlas code 100 black-tie flextrack. Turns out that what I ordered was N-scale track. When ordering, I looked up HO track on their website, and it returned a total of over 400 items. I did a “quick find” for “flex track,” which I thought would cull the returned list of HO track items (that’s how the parts list software I use at work functions). I got a short list of flex track Now this is important - none of the product descriptions had the scale listed. So I’m thinking I’m looking at all HO flextrack, and order a box of Atlas black-tie flextrack - there was no to way to know I wasn’t.
So the box arrives about a week ago, and on Saturday I opened it. N scale! Yikes!!
I go look at the web site and figure out what happened. Also posted on the site is the comment “While our store is highly functional, more detailed product descriptions & images will be included as we continue with the final phases of construction.” I sent them an e-mail Saturday through their “Contact Us” link on their web site, explaining how the error occurred, and asking that I be allowed to return the N-scale track without a restocking fee or paying additional shipping and handling, and that they send me the HO track I thought I was ordering, and only charge me the difference in price.
I have yet to receive an answer - I’ll be calling them this afternoon.
These folks have been around awhile, and at least give the appearance of being a large, robust operation. You’d think they would answer an e-mail in a timely manner (a day or two).
There’s another discrepancy in the order I received, and after I talk to someone at the other end I’ll add that to the story.
Yes, ordering over the phone or the internet can easily get screwed up. Fortunately when it happened to me a phone call cleared it up, but I was out the shipping charges to send back the wrong stuff. That’s why I like to do most of my buying at train shows - I can see what I am getting. I’d buy more at my LHS but he doesn’t carry S scale. When I mail order I try to be very careful in ordering.
Enjoy
Paul
Since it was clearly your mistake- you are the one who has to fix it. The way to avoid this is look the product up on the website or Walthers so you know what you think you are ordering.
Mark,The best of luck to you getting this mistake resolved…I am sure it will amount to you having to ship the N scale track back to the dealer.
Guys:
I only deal with 3 on line shops.I can happily report as of my last order all three is batting 500 as far as correct and complete orders.[:D]
It is my thoughts this is do to the on line ordering system these shops use.All HO products is filed under HO,N scale under N sacle etc.Alll I do is click on buy and it shows up in my cart and when I am finish shopping and double checking my order I then click on “Go To Checkout” and process the order.[:D]
“Clearly my mistake?” Perhaps you should re-read my post. Or maybe I was supposed to know, by some sort of clarivoyant powers no doubt, that this was N-scale track? The part number is one assigned by the seller. It is not a Walthers number (not everyone uses Walthers part numbers, shocking as that revelation might be), and it also is not the Atlas part number. There was no scale listed in the part description, so how was I clearly at fault? I’ll grant that they may be some shared responsibility here, but I don’t think this was simply my mistake.
I’ll list the vendor when I have this resolved one way or another. I want to give a chance for an equitable conclusion before I say who it is. I only posted at this point because they are slow in getting back to me.
I have not seen the webpage you are talking about so I can’t say much about it but… It seems after your description that they must correct the webshop so you and other costumers knows what they are buying. That’s the least they can do. Hope it works out for you in the end.
I just talked to Mike at the shop - It’s Standard Hobby Supply, by the way, with whom I have dealt before - and they will be happy to excange the track for what I intended to order, without any sort of restocking fee for the N-Scale track. I will wind up paying shipping and handling again, but since there is some responsibility on both sides, here, that’s not unreasonable.
The other discrepancy was that, through a shipping error they sent me a full case of N-scale track, which is three boxes, or 300 pieces, all for the cost of 100 pieces. Mike said they will be very happy to get that back. (I could probably have kept the entire batch and sold it on e-bay for tidy profit, but that wouldn’t have been right).
Although there was no e-mail reply, a phone call has apparently resolved the problem to both parties’ satisfaction.
I also suggested they update their track descriptions with the scale.
Email is a horrible way to conduct business–you should call them.
I have an Internet business and I post my contact information. The problem is that web spiders cruise the web and pull email address from websites and sell them to email marketers.
This requires people doing business to have spam filters. Spam filter are very inefficient, and quite frequently, customer’s emails are flagged. Even if they are not flagged, the email gets mixed in with email from suppliers, contacts, etc. and this can be overwhelming for a small business.
Yes, they should get back to you right away–I try my darnedest to do so–but sometimes you have well intentions to get back and stuff comes up, then you forget.
I don’t think your advise is short at all. With the increase of spam and other things, keeping up with email can be very difficult. There are times that I am unable to email myself from home to work! I will usually email first and then if in a couple of days I don’t have a response I’ll call. email is not the cure-all we all thought it would be when it first came out.
I’ve ordered several times from 1st Place Hobbies and never had a single problem, and I’m in Canada. I haven’t ordered from SHS because they either don’t ship to Canada or the fees were outrageous, I can’t remember which, now. Anyway, when I shop online, I open one window with Walthers and find what I want, then open another window of the company I’m ordering from (the above is my general choice, they have all walthers part #'s that you can just enter and get right to the product, plus lots of search capability). I find this way is the easiest to get what I want, because Walthers has the best descriptions of any site and lots of photos.
Apparently you feel that no matter what the problem, it is the customer’s fault. I get the impression that you must be, or have been, involved in the retail business in some way (I’m glad I never did business with you).
Standard Hobby apparently agrees that the confusion regarding which product was which was understandable, as they readily waived the restocking fee. They don’t have a problem; why do you?
I’m curious - how do you know those track P/Ns are the same as Atlas’ P/Ns? I looked at Atlas’ website and found no part numbers. Perhaps they’re there - I wasn’t going to spend more than a few minutes based on YOUR comments. Or am I now at fault because I didn’t buy an Atlas catalog before having the audacity to order one of their products? Besides which, when ordering something as pedestrian as track, I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time investigating part number relationships between the retailer, the manufacturer, distributors, raw materials suppliers, miners, refineries (for the petroleum in the plastic),etc. That’s the vendor’s job (at least the non-sarcastic parts),and that’s why HE gets my money. A decent retailer will step up and make things right when an error occurrs that may be in part due to their ordering system. SHS did that.
Sorry if this comes across as a little brusque, jsoderq, but I haven’t much patience when confronted with such a haughty, sanctimonious attitude.
But here’s an idea - why don’t you post some sort of a clinic here on buying model railroad products on-line? That way you’ll be helping out all us shopping-impaired modelers, and doing your fellow hobbiests a great service.
When things like this happens it’s importent to share the information so other users can avoid all the trouble. But there is a few people on this forum that seems to be enjoying when bad things happens. I really feel that Brunton deserves a ‘thank you’ for taking the time to share his experiences with us all. So please don’t complain and post things like ‘do your homework’. We are all in the same hobby and bad things can happen to us all. I have worked a lot as a webdesigner and webdesign teacher. There is a lot of bad web sites out there. Look at http://www.ablehobby.com/ for example, try to find something. I think it’s the worst so far. But that does not mean that the hobby shop, or the people that works there is bad people. It often just means that they think that design is easy and they build there own web page. I don’t know about the site you are talking about Brunton because I have not seen it. But the point is, some sites are difficult to use. So let us all be friends. [2c]