I checked out the website after receiving an email last night from the company. Personally, I liked the new design, and found it very easy to navigate from field to field, and the speed was excellent. I did place an order, and will use the $10 coupon for some other items that I need. However, my LHS gets the lion’s share of my business because I don’t have to pay $7.50 shipping costs !
Will not use offer, by time shipping and exchange rate plus duty to Canada, not worth it at this time
I have purchased from IT before, and if they insist on giving me $10. for shopping with them, so be it! Savings on the items, and no sales tax off set the shipping, plus I ususlly place a large enough order to minimize the shipping cost as a percentage o the total.
Will
I tried to order two, not-uncommon, items from them. It didn’t even ship in a month and a half of waiting. I was pretty patient, but I had my limits. First, I don’t like how the web site does not tell if the item is in stock or available. Second, they didn’t even e-mail me to let me know that there was a delay and why. I’ve ordered 3 times from nscalesupply.com with nothing but top notch service. They don’t even charge me shipping! (granted my orders were all over $300). As long as they have the item or can get it (and I believe them), I will not order from anyone else.
I’m not taking advantage of it. I’ve ordered from them in the past and they take a long time to ship, don’t notify you of delays, and their prices aren’t that low.
So, I take it from this that all that talk about buying on the internet is mostly “talk”, that everyone “mostly” buys from LHS ??
I cancelled a large order, over $400.00 with Internet Trains a few weeks ago because they kept giving me the run around on items that they couldn’t supply.
They contacted me on three occasions to say that items I ordered were unavailable then asked if I wanted to substitute for other items. Each time I did and got the same response so I finally cancelled the order and placed it with Discount Model Trains. I did’t get as good of a price on some items but I got the complete order within 7 business days.
IT changed the looks of their website and went up on pirces. I don’t care for the way the navagation works, and right now it is taking a long time going from one screen to another. Don’t know if it’s because they are having a lot of traffic or that’s the way it will be from now on with the new site.
I may give them another try if they are the only place that has the item I’m looking for but if they pull the same stunt as before I’ll never purchase from them.
Bill
I support my LHS. His prices are good, his stock is good, and he will look me in they eye and tell me he appreciates my business.
I have never ordered from IT and from the postings here it looks like I will avoid them in the future too.
This isn’t the first time I have seen similar complaints about them. I have made it a point to stay away from them based on this feedback. My LTS gives me a great discount and they don’t charge me shipping for special orders. Also it is nice to have the personalized service that is getting lost in the internet age. One of the owners invited me to his house so he could re-tap the threads for one of the trucks on a brass business car of mine. Even if I am paying a little more, it is well worth it for that kind of service!!
A ten dollar off coupon might seem like a nice offer, if you have wait three weeks for them to ship it isn’t worth the aggrevation, I have ordered from them several times and they seem to be getting worse instead of better. I feel that its worth the few extra dollar to get it from someone else and get it quick than try to save and never get it or get it weeks late. Maybe some one ought to tell them to get a look at this forum and the complaints about thier service, [V].
Radioman2
As noted elsewhere, their prices aren’t all that great (I generally compare with a quick search on froogle.google.com before I order anything). Plus, since their shipping is somewhat high (was something like $7.50 base), we would be talking $15+ (for two orders) to save $10.00. Doesn’t seem to make good economic sense.
I’ve also had the problems with back-orders/can’t-get items, and slow shipping. Basically, I only shop with them a) when I receive one of their %-off offers, and b) I can find something where they already had a relatively low price.
In other words, I don’t shop with them all that often…
Brian Pickering
I’m not bashing them - just telling my experience. They had a $10 for first time buyers some time ago. I ttried to get it with the first order and got nowhere. Had my brother try on an order for me and also got absolutely zilch. This was supposed to be $10 off on the second order. Did not happen either time.
At one time another company had a similar deal. Turns out it was only the first five orders each day, but they did not tell you that. Maybe this is the case here also.
I have ordered 3 times in the last couple of years from IT. Two of the three times I had trouble getting the items within a reasonable time. I think they are one of the places that, you place the order, then they place your order with the wholesaler or company, then the company ships the stuff out to them if and when they have it in stock and the order is big enough to save on shipping, then they unpack, sort and ship it out to you. I went through the “buy on line” phase and got burnt too many times. I now do almost all my business with a couple LHS’s near by. They are both trusted stores with good people running them (one is an internet dealer that I get all my DCC stuff from - he also has a storefront) and the other gives a nice discount to regular customers and is there to help if something goes wrong. Cheaper isn’t always!
I’m a member of the Tennessee Central Rail Road Museum. We have a hobby shop there and TCRR members get a 25% discount and no shipping charge. The only time I can beat that is to get lucky at a yard sale. The TCRR is in Nashville.
I go through http://www.firsthobby.com I personaly don’t have any local Hobby stores near me. Allan.
WOW, IT is not receiving too much good “press”. I wonder if their Marketing /Sales people look at this forum?? Hmmmmm, very interesting comments.
The layout is nice and workable. However, they didn’t have any of the decals I need. So that’s that.
I as well have tried to order with Internet Trains back in November.
I purchased some CNW Bilevels from my trainshow for around $40. Well I felt I needed one more to complete the train, so I looked around at the online stores. My LHS had one but wanted $50 for it. So I found Internet Trains to be around $35 for it. So I went to purchase it, and another car, and a G scale sound unit for my dad. After about two weeks I was getting worried. Checked the status of my order online and it said that the Bilevel was shipped and the other two items were waiting to be shipped. So I waited.
Three weeks gone by Im calling them up to see what the deal was. I was told that everything was out of stock and it should be arriving soon, and they ll ship it out, and as for the Bilevel car it should be on its way.
Week 4 (Were talkin around Christmas time). My order status says the Bilevel car is out of stock and discontinued. I called up and canceled the entire order, and after Christmas marched down to my LHS and bought the car for $50 and felt relieved.
As for the rest of the stuff I was able to get them at Walthers for around the same price it would have costed me from Internet Trains after shipping.
I felt like Internet Trains really needs to step up their customer service to inform people sooner/quicker in regards of out of stock merchandise, so we can plan accordingly. For now Walthers (Thanks to their customer appreciation card), and the LHS nearest to my house get all my business.
DON.
P.S. I did like the customer service I received with Internet Hobbies and fast shipping on my BLI Milwaukee Road Mikado. I even called back and complimented them on everything.
sounds good to me.