My NH Boxcab was waiting for me on the front porch when I got home today, that I preordered form Charles Ro over a year ago. Upon opening the box my year + of anticipation turned to disappointment. The K-Line box that the loco come in was smashed on one end with an end flap ripped off, the loco looks OK however. What pisses me off is that it was packed this way by Charles Ro and shipped to me, with a note written on the Invoice “LAST ONE”. They had the nerve to charge me full price to boot! If you guys at Charles Ro read this never count on me buying anymore product from you.
I’ve been there. Nice BIG place but not my favorite. Suggestion, try North East Trains the next time [been there]. Good friendly folks. I’m NOT from MA so don’t get up there often. As for me, I am a “box throw away” person [except for engine boxes] so it would NOT bother me as long as the contents were OK. I run all my engines and rolling stock so a collector would not want my trains.
How about getting your “repaired” train back, still broken and missing parts?[:(!]
Sadly, every hobby shop isn’t the best, but surely the good ones outweigh the bad.
Make sure to call them.
I’ve ordered from them in the past, bought from them at York, and visited the store. All I will say is they aren’t the friendliest bunch. As Chief says, North East was very friendly and actually seemed disappointed that I had to leave the store, had a nice time speaking with the workers and the other customers.
My favorites are:
Grysboskis
Grand Central
JusTrains
Trainworld
My LTS is by far the most friendly and he is starting to match the large mail order site prices, so that saves me on shipping.
A while back(12+ years ago), when I was far too young to order my own trains, most of my train-related Christmas and Birthday presents came from Charles Ro. As best as I remember, they always did a great job.
Fast forward to this past February, when I ordered a Hogwarts Express set from them. The first thing I couldn’t help but notice how abrupt and seemingly short on time the person I was talking too was. I didn’t even call the 800 number-we have more roll-over cell phone minutes than we will ever use, so when ordering I generally call the “general inquiries” number which stores provide to save them a few bucks.
In any case, the person I was talking to would hardly let me finish a sentence, which I find to be very frustrating and iritating. I did manage to get it ordered(I thought), though, and assumed everything would be okay.
A week later, no set had arrived. I gave them a call, and was told by a somewhat more polite lady that my credit card had been denied. She read off the number on file to me, and it seems as though the previous person had been in such a dag gone hurry that he had punched in one of my card numbers incorrectly. The lady took down my correct card number, and all was well, I thought.
Let me go ahead and state at this point that I was already rather frustrated, as I had never received a phone call telling me of the problem. It seemed obvious to me at this point that they didn’t really care whether or not they had my business.
Anyway, somehow or another I managed to get a FED-EX tracking number. The package was scheduled to be delivered on a Saturday morning. I checked the tracking report that Saturday, and discovered the package had been reported as being delivered, despite the fact that it was not by the front door.
After a trip around the neighborhood to see if it had mistakenly been delivered to another nearby house, I finally managed to pull up the delivery slip. It seems as though Charles Ro h
I purchase a few items a year from Charles Ro and have not had a problem with receiving items in poor condition. However, they are not the friendliest people at the other end of the phone. Island Trains has taken some pre-orders from me and have not delivered anything long after other dealers are sold out. They keep saying they’re receiving their shipment next week! JusTrains was working OK until they called me out of now where to tell me they’re shipping a bunch of MTH I pre-ordered, which I didn’t. Funny thing is all legitimate pre-orders came with no call. I’m liking Nicholas Smith at this point. Decent prices and friendly people!!!
Whenever possible my LTS, Whistle Stop Trains here in Portland, OR is my preferred source, but some times because of availability, or occasionally even price, I will mail order items. Recently I ordered a Lionel 3 truck shay in the Weyerhaeuser road-name from Grzyboski’s, they had one NIB, and this was a 1999 release, They were GREAT to deal with. I found my Lionel Southern Pacific AC-9 at Sidetrack Hobbies, this was not my first purchase from them, and was as Pleasant as the previous orders, But I can’t imagine them NOT being Pleasant when selling a $1200.00 Locomotive [swg]. I have also bought from North East Trains and Trainworld, both were positive experiences as well. I bought 2 UP Steam Fast Freight sets from Charles Ro in February, I don’t remember anyone being less than Friendly. Just today I talked to Sean(Shawn?) at Just Trains and he was very Friendly, gave me even more info than I was asking for, may be placing an order with them soon. So Far the only BAD experiences that I have had were on ebay, got shafted for $425.00 for an HO Trix Big Boy that I never received. But for the most part people in this business tend to be very Friendly, at least in MY experiences.
Doug
Fast forward to this past February, when I ordered a Hogwarts Express set from them. The first thing I couldn’t help but notice how abrupt and seemingly short on time the person I was talking too was.
Welcome to mail order trains… A total numbers game… I’ve never been to Ro but in Train World there were 3 girls at the phones… All they want to hear is catalog and credit card numbers… They don’t know what color, if it’ll run on O-42, rubber tires or Magnetraction…
Sad part is these guys prosper while your local mom & pop, who actually will talk to you, are struggling to keep the lights on.
The real blame goes to a shrinking market, over production, close-outs and low margins… You have to push a lot of trains to make money. Talking to the customer is out.
Currently I’m having a problem with them. I received an item which was shipped damanged. The item’s box was bashed in, which cracked the car body and had a end step bearly attached. The shipping box was perfect. It took a phone call, than a email to get something started. They received the item last Friday and as of yet no info on a replacement sent or not. I just emailed(3rd contact by me) for info. If it wouldn’t be a 800 mile round trip for me, I would get some satisfaction one way or another. They would be on the losing end. Number one Lionel dealer my a**. Not recommended.
This suggests to me a need to share our experiences with the major vendors. I’ll start it with a separate post. Been planning on doing this for a while but kept postponing. It now seems appropriate.
Bill
Charles Ro was a Mom & Pop store that grew. I remember when it was a small store on a corner in downtown Malden.
Both Ro, Charles who handles the Lionel and Charles jr who handles there U.S.A. “G” gauge brand, are good people, ardent toy train promoters, and TCA Members. I have talked to them in the Store, at Eastcoast Train Shows, and TCA-York. Never a problem.
May I suggest, if you have a problem, go to the top, ask to speak to one of them, one is usually there.
I have to wonder - shouldn’t part of the blame go to forums like this one? Most of us, if we want to know if it will run on O-42 or has Magnetraction, will ask here (or look it up on the manufacturer’s website). For better or for worse, the retailer’s function of providing information has been superceded by the internet.
Back a few years ago, when I was just entering the field, I asked someone at the LHS what the difference between MTH Protosound 1.0 and 2.0 was.
“Uhhh… 2.0 has better sounds…”
I did have a problem with an order some years back but after a phone call I did manage to finally get the item. Agree, Charles Ro not the most friendly.
I’d stick to the smaller mom and pop shops, just a better buying experience in my opinion. Those big guys are short on patience and big on just taking your money and don’t wish to answer any questions you may have about trains.
I must say that I have purchased many items from Charles Ro over the years and had good service. They are very quick with delivery after ordering, I know that.
A pleasant demeanor is nice but not really necessary to a transaction, after all. As for friendliness, as someone famous once said, “if you want a friend, get a dog.”
They are certainly polite and businesslike over the telephone, and I guess that’s enough for me in this day and age.
Well I nevered ordered from Charles Ro and after reading this post don’t plan to. I ordered form Grzyboski’s without a problem and found out no matter how old something is give them a call they might have one , even might be NIB. I buy most of my new trains from Nicolis Smith, not only are they only 20 mins away they always are pleasent and helpful. As far as old and used trains most of mine come from a show or auctions.
Yep. Charles Ro folks are not very sociable. I ordered an item my local dealer did not have. The gal at RO wanted my Name, Address, Item#, Quantity, and CC#…Not even a goodbye. She just hung up. However, the item arrived Fed Ex a few days later. No problems. I’ve ordered from Nicholas Smith too. Very pleasant to deal with, and I will use them again.
Bobby
Have never ordered from Charles Ro, but, from what I am hearing, they are more the exception. One experience I would like to share is that when I was looking for an Atlas Savannah and Atlanta engine, I called Memory Station in Georgia, Just Trains, and several others who did a lot of Atlas dealings. Each one, though they did not have the particular engine I was looking for, suggested several places to try. Thanks to Doug on this site, I was directed to one on the OGR buy/sell. This experience became just one of the things that assure me that this is a great hobby with mostly great people.
dennis
They accepted an order from me, saying it was in stock. It wasn’t. That was my last attempt to do business with them. I have had similar problems with other suppliers. Some are just too lazy to check stock, others are too greedy, want to get your money, and maybe deliver later on. It is the dishonesty that bothers me the most. Maybe this forum will nudge tham to straighten out.