I was planning on buying an item from PWRS, but received a word of warning on, uh…another forum. Has anyone dealt with them? If so, is there any warning you’d give me.
Thanks in advance.
Matt
All I know is that thy aren’t the cheapest. Why do you even need to buy from Canadian company and pay for shiping to USA?
hi matt, their service is not the best i have ordered a few of the Intermount5ain mystery cars over the years,their service is not very great and sometimes it can take forever to get i ordered one 2 years ago, and it took 5 1/2 weeks to get after i ordered, and i had preordered. So i have not bought from since,
On the other hand Canadian Model trains is a very good store, i have nothin but kind words for them, they are very friendly, and helpfull, and the shipping is top notch!!
hope this helps matt
Daniel
I have bought from them in the past but not recently. They do tend to be more expensive than other vendors but in many cases they are the only source for there custom run cars. I did have a problem with one order and they did make it right.
Ah, PWRS…
1). Never give them your phone number, unless you want daily phone calls begging you to buy their stuff. And they won’t take “no” for an answer.
2). Never give them your credit card information, as they will charge you for stuff you don’t want, and they will charge you before they actually ship the items.
3). Never argue with them online, because they have never taken any criticism well at all.
Having said all that, they do make a nice product, tho’ pricey. But whenever dealing with them, use long handled tongs to keep them out of your wallet and off your phone.
For example, I was not aware that Canadian Model Trains was PWRS, and I signed up this past Saturday at the Springfield, MA train show as being interested if they were to make a 5-axle F-M C-Liner in New Haven paint. They asked for my phone #, and stupidly I gave it to them. Since then, I have gotted daily (yes, daily) phone calls from an 866 area code (British Columbia). I let my answering machine pick it up, and every time they don’t leave a message. Hmm… I wonder who that could be? I looked it up online, and while the exact number appears to be unlisted, the number is the same area code and exhange of both PWRS and CMT. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put 2 and 2 together and get PWRS being PWRS again.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Hello Paul
Canadian Model Trains is not related to PWRS in any way. Canadian Model Trains is located in Ontario not B.C… Their phone number is a 905 area code. They just moved to a Mississauga location.
I thought I would let you know this because you have been misled somehow.
Mike
Word of Caution:
Pacific Western are straight up crooks, and unethical business man. Poor Service, and charging in advance.
Canadian Model Trains: Is way overpriced, and the owner is a pretty arogant man.
My recommendation try, Otter Valley Railroad, Modellers Choice, or Niagara Central Hobbies, those place have execellent prices and service.
Hi;
The area codes for B.C. are 250 or 604.
Tom
I have ordered from both. PWRS went to some trouble to find me something I was looking for, and accepted a return without problem when they mistakenly shipped me a reservation I had cancelled several months earlier. They did phone me a couple of times, but Dan I think it was was quite polite and seemed well intentioned.
CMT I’ve spoken to once. He was also polite and I had no problems with them.
Perhaps being iin management has given me thick skin, but I really don’t think either of these guys seemed to be crooks or arrogant (or at least not as much as 80% of the jerks posing as corporate management these days).
PS much of the canadian prototypes the previous two handle are also carried by Credit Valley. Bad web site but nice store.
866 is toll free area code , can be anywhere in the US or Canada
Run for the hills and stay away from Pacific Western Rails. I was a “customer” of theirs 2 years ago and I would have to say that I had a nicer experience getting my wisdom teeth extracted than I did dealing with them.
At first they seem to be very helpful in locating items that are not so easy to find. Once they have you on the phone, they never stop calling. They also pump you for your credit card number.
In my experience, the sales man “Mike” was more than happy to charge my credit card on 3 seperate occasions for items that he had found for me from my “wish list”. He never bothered to call first and get approval to charge my credit card and have the items sent. This may not seem like a big deal to some except that each of these items he found were not in his inventory. He had found them thru other dealers an because of this, had to tack on “additional” charge for his efforts. A perfect example of this is my Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 that he found for me in the railroad that I model. He charged me $325 for this item. I’ve since learned that you can find these locomotives all day long for between $80 - $125 on the internet.
Buyer beware…These guys are good at locating those “hard to find items” but they will also charge you an arm and a leg for it.
Geez. I’ve dealt with them a few times. Yes they aren’t cheap. But their web site lists hundred of items. I know they couldn’t possibly stock everything so I know on some items they have a long delivery. Make sure you know what "In stock, just arrived, available, and coming soon "mean before you place an order. I did have to wait a few weeks for a back order, but the fellow who contacted me via e-mail was very courteous. I have never been called by them, other than the first contact. I order from their website. They contact me by e-mail and no problem. Would I deal with them again? Yes, unless they do something to make me change my opinion of them in the future.
I thought PWRS advertised in Model Railroader or Railroad Model Craftsman, but can’t find their advertisements in the latest issues.
I have ordered from them once. They are right on the border somewhere between the U.S. and Canada, and had a Washington State return address when I dealt with them.
They had a set of six InterMountain covered hoppers custom decorated for the Illinois Central. They were more expensive than any other InterMountain product because of the custom order, and it took a couple of months to receive them, but I had no problems.
As a general rule, everything they sell is a custom made model, so prices do tend to be high.
I’ll echo what others have said. Based on my experience, you may expect terrible service, long delays, and unexpected costs added on without explanation.
I waited nearly two years for something that was supposed to take two months … when the item finally arrived, it came complete with a bonehead decorating error (PWRS’s fault entirely) that caused me to have it completely reworked elsewhere.
Meanwhile, they were emailing and calling every few weeks to try to sell me more. Just awful.
Holy cow!
And I thought HobbyCircle was bad…
At least PWRS hasn’t disappeared without notice.
Matt
I’ve dealt with PWRS and found they were good, sure they are a little pricy but that is on their limited run items, not regular run of the mill stuff. Be realistic, your not going to get a limited run Intermountain car for the same price as a regular production car.
I’ve also dealt with Canadian Model Trains, great people that I find take great pride in making sure their customer is happy. They also sell limited run items for more money then regular runs but it does cost more to produce these items.
Its funny that I don’t here anybody that bought the PWRS Life Saver cylindrical hoppers for 40 bucks complaining that they go for over 300 on Ebay now, lol.
About 8 months ago there was a long thread over on the Atlas web site forum about Pacific Western Rail. The Thread eventually got locked up by the Atlas web site moderator because it got pretty nasty. If you can find it, it is a “must read” because the president of PWR came on the forum and pretended to be a “normal customer”and defend his company from some heavy criticism. Somehow people quickly found out who he really was and it just got UGLY read fast.
If you want to know about Pacific Western Rail, you really should check out the Atlas Web site and use the search field. Hopefully it is still there in the archives.
i cant find it darn! i want to read it
Well my dad got a rather large shipment of stuff that he ordered from them in drumroll please 2003! I think that’s enough said…