Is there anybody, living in Pennsylvania or knowing the above mentioned model shop, who may tell me what happened to it? I’ve contacted them a month ago… They’ve answered very quickly, warning me that, because of a large snowstorm, they should have recontacted me as soon as possible. Since three weeks, they disappeared literally, without consider at all my e-mails. This shop is very interesting for me, because it has in-stock BLI NYC Niagara and N&W Class J, as well as a wide selection of BLI CZ cars.
I just called the phone number listed on their web site. The shop is still open a filling orders. The lady I spoke with would not give me much detail but it seems you put in a rather large order. Her partner lost a lot of money on an over seas order a while back and she is reluctant to fill the order. Apparently it is easy to cancel payment through a credit card or Paypal after the order is shipped and she is wary because of her partner’s experience. Perhaps if you contact them and offer some form of prepayment they will be willing to ship the order.
I’ve been in there, used to live not far from there. It’s a very good shop, lot sof knowledgable people on hand. I can understand about the credit card issue, the credit card companies seem to care very little for the merchant - American Express seems particularly bad, which is why many places own;t accept it. I know a guy who runs an aut shop, he was in a Wall Street Journal article about a year or so ago, he lost a large sum of money because of a dispute filed on a charge after the personr eceived his order. He went through the trouble of obtaining all the information proving the customer received the goods ordered and Amex pretty much told him too bad, consider it a cost of doing business.
Hi Midnight Railroader - I get the impression from what is said here (and what I know of Lin’s) that they only charge when an order is ready to ship, and that in this case there hasn’t yet been any charge made.
That was the impression I got too, Eddie. It sounded like no money has changed hands yet. The order that cost them was for about USD $4000.00. The merchandise was shipped and payment cancelled after shipping. It seems ETR may be a victim of another person’s dishonesty.
I want to tell you my story… Well, more than one month ago, I sent an e-mail to Lin’s Junction, declaring myself willing to purchase BLI steam and diesel locos, as well as BLI CZ cars. Obviously, to amortize overseas shipping costs, I wished to buy a sufficiently large US model selection. I asked them if I could pay using PayPal, or eventually by VISA Electron or international money transfer. I told them I was ready for every advice or request about payment method. They replied to me VERY QUICKLY what follows ( on 02-13-07 ):
"Thank you for your inquiry. We accept PayPal and will ship overseas.
We can supply the following items:
Stock Number Description Our price
(a list of all items I asked them about)
… … …
I hope this helps,
Lin’s Junction.
PS: We are expecting a large snowstorm tonight and tomorrow, so we probably will be out of the store tomorrow and hopefully back on thursday."
As a consequence of the above, I stopped to find another model shop, preparing for waiting the snowstorm end. After 2 days, I sent a new e-mail, communicating my sincere will to purchase, in addition to mentioned BLI models, also a Rapido car. Well, the day after, they replied again to me, in this way ( 02-17-07 ):
"We appreciate your interest. I am waiting for PayPal to get back to me as to how to handle overs
Yes, Eddie_Walters and Attaboy… to this time, there hasn’t been any charge yet… I was expecting to know which payment method they desired… Eventually, having demonstrated to accept PayPal, I was waiting for their PayPal account to utilize it…
I think the issue here is the international thing. Larger businesses can handle losses should they arise. Many of the hobby shops are small businesses. They may offer to ship internationally until they have a problem. They never change the website to not international ship, or, as some companies do, state that international orders require special processing. They may be unaware their website still agrees to ship internationally.
The international special processing may include things such as: currency conversion, international payment or banking requirements, prepaments, method of shipping (carrier), and costs of insuring packages. It may sound easy enough, but in reality…
I’m surprised that wholesaletrains is among your listed. I have never had a problem with them. I have seen many other websites named for problems but not in 9 months here. They are, however, only 50 miles away, so I could go and complain in person. When gas is cheaper or I want to see something in person before I buy it, I go in person. Otherwise, unless I have a back-order item. it can be on my doorstep tomorrow, or within a week. They have always been available by phone, even if just to tell me what hours they have that day before I go.Their phone # is (US COde) (607)-795-5038. I went to their website and found no offering to ship overseas, but I did find this in their policies: Read the last line in bold particularly:
Export Sales
If this transaction involves an export under the Export Administration Regulations, the commodities, technology and/or software sold or distributed under these terms and conditions of sale exported from the United States by Wholesaletrains.com/Wholesaleplanes.com were exported in accordance with the Export Administration Regulations. Diversion, use, export or re-export contrary to United States law is prohibited. The commodities, technology and/or software sold or distributed under these terms and conditions of sale may not be exported or re-exported
This is a pretty far-fetched idea, but is it possible that the subject line in your emails could have gotten whacked by a spam-blocker?
Try calling them (Yes, it will cost a bit across the pond, but in comparison to the trains I think it’s a reasonable expense, and less than a cup o’ joe :-))
I would stay far far away. I had a very bad experience with this guy. And he didn’t return my calls either. You are trying to do business with him from overseas?
I used to deal with Lin`s junction…but after a bad deal or two and with her sticking her nose in my personal business and getting religious on me…I stopped dealing with her and her store.
I’ve gone there on and off for ages - since before it was linns junction. They’re very knowledgeable, and I’ve never ran into an issue there. And I’ve never gotten into a religious discussion I wasn’t trying to get into.
my biggest complaint is that she charges MSRP for everything, and in cases of dcc sets, that’s like $50 more than Mb Klein.