Liability of shops and request to modelrailroader

[?]Main problem : I ordered for 700 usd HO Genesis Atheren HO engines at Manhattan Train stores NY . I was convinced by Mr Ralph Israel that goods where gonna shipped in 1st week of December 2003. So i paid by credit card the amount. After three weeks i asked when goods should arrive. Mr Israel told me t wait for one week more. After 5 weeks i again asked Mr Israel the same question, noreply received, Untill now end of Feb. i reived nothing not even the name of the siping company . I feel very bad about Manhattan trains because they seem not to answer on my questions and not to send my goods. I already made a complaint about this to the editor of Modelrailroader because they say that the will not take adds from companies who are fooling around with their customers , but giess what also Mofdelrailroader does not answer me. They state they will take action within 24 hours afterreceipt of any comlaint but they dont.
Are there still friendly american citizens who can help me?

regards from a disappointed railway fan from Holland Han Zijlstra nlun3828@uni-one.nl[}:)]

han,
I have waited on some occasions for about 8 weeks after placing an order for goods to arrive, that is if USPS is used and they had decided to ship by boat, otherwise did you contact your creditcard company with this problem,
they solved some problems I had very accurate and quick.

Check your credit card statement and see if you were billed for your order. If you were, then I’d contact your credit card issuer and tell them you’ve not received the items for which you were billed and it’s been 3 months since the purchase.

One individual isn’t going to be able to do much to make a dealer move, especially if you’re across the Atlantic. However, a credit card company CAN, because they have the power to pull the dealer’s use of that card. If it happens to be VISA or MasterCard, that’s a lot of money potentially out the front door. I’m sure that Mr. Israel is a nice enough person, but you were billed for items and you have not received them. You held up your end of the deal, the dealer should hold up his end.

Han:

Model Railroader has no liability for their advertisers. You will get no help there.

I’d try the seller once more for a status update on the shipment. If you get no satisfaction there, I’d contact your credit card company and let them take care of it. Effectively it is in their hands.

Randy

PS A private individual ordering 700 used engines strikes me as highly unusual, as does a dealer having 700 in stock.

700 usd=$700

Han,
I’d second the notion about contacting the credit card company. I’ve had a problem with a company that I ordered though the net and was unable to get it resolved until I contacted the credit card company. It was amazing how fast the company wanted to correct the problem (as a bonus, I did not have to pay shipping!).
Good luck on getting your problem resolved to your satisfaction.

K

I thought it was a typo of “used”. I’ve only seen $ abbreviated as “USD”.

Randy

That statement is incorrect. MR will help a reader who is having difficulty getting service or merchandise from an advertiser. If the advertiser does not deliver a product or service that has been paid for, Kalmbach Publishing can and has “blacklisted” companies, and will reject their advertising and even prohibit mentioning their names in print until the matter is cleared.

We used to receive a regular update of companies on the black list.

Paul Schmidt

Paul,

It’s good to know that MR will back their readers. Will they or are they helping Mr Zijlstra?

MR used to print a sort of code of ethics. I have not seen it for years. Maybe it is time to bring it back? I have not ordered from AHC for years but long waits were the norm back in the 1960s. Sometimes it would take so long I would forget what I had ordered.
Dave Nelson