This past Christmas my wife had given me some rolling stock, She explained to me that wherever she had contacted she was told that they OUT OF STOCK. The last dealer she had contacted was kind enough to substitute cars for her but they were not what I had on my list. My wife then went on to explain to me that when she questioned the very many dealers regarding the availabilty of items and explained that they were being listed in there advertisements in the current Garden Railways Magazine, most got VERY RUDE and some even HUNG UP. In the past two weeks I myself have viewed and contacted every website listed in the Garden Railways Magazine and many have the rolling stock I desire listed in their advertisements but when I contacted them they would state OUT OF STOCK, I further emailed EVERY email address and out of a very large number of address only a very few dealers responded to my request. At the very end of my search a VERY SMALL DEALER explained to me that the rolling stock I desire is NO LONGER AVAILABLE and hasn’t been for a year or two. I question why dealers knowingly list these items in their advertisements. As a retired professional both in the public and private sectors I am starting to wonder what ever happened to proper buisness ETHICS.
Oh by the way, that VERY SMALL DEALER that provided the HONEST INFORMATION did have what I was looking for so now it is in shipment.
Sorry for the RANT but I just had to VENT my feelings,
Ron
[:)]
Whew…
Glad you found what you wanted. It’s a little hard to keep track of what is available and what isn’t.
Hey Ron,
In the past I have spoken with Rene regarding such issues with the advertisers. GR is very interested in knowing what kind of service is being provided by their advertisers. After all poor service affects the Mag. too. If you would care to provide Rene with the who / what / where info on your bad experience, it will be followed up on. Hope this helps you out. Later eh…Brian.
I agree Ron, many dealers have not developed any sales skills, people skills at all. When I was a kid some 25-35 years ago, I went into a train store and they wouldn’t even acknowledge I was there. I went back there as its the only train store left in my part of town, I swear it was the same #$%$#%$ guy sitting there. This time he answer some questions, but it was like pulling teeth. If I wasn’t interested in a new engine, he was too busy.
Makes you want to open your own people friendly store, and drive them out of business.
Glad you found a better dealer, keep giving him good pub, and lets help him grow.
Tim
When I run up against that kind of thing I simply let them know that I have the $, and if they want my $ they WILL DO BUSINESS MY WAY AND ON MY TERMS, otherwise I’m walking and I’ll find someone who will! That usually straightens them out in a hurry, and in 99% of the time it is permanant! The few times I have had to walk, I’ve never darkened thier door again! As the old saying goes, Money talks, BS walks!
Well, from a dealer AND GR advertiser, let me wade in.
First, you are right, and should be highly whizzed.
These “discounters” have multi-page ads, depend on volume for profit. If they don’t have it, they send you something they do have (but what you didn’t ask for).
Several are HIGHLY guilty of advertising stuff, photos, part numbers, and prices on stuff that hasn’t even been designed.
I recall a “warehouse overstock sale” that went on for 16 issues of GR on an Aristo C-16, and it hadn’t even been released.
I talk to Horovitz all the time about it.
I even called one manufacturer, and he said “what can we do?”. Simple. Tell the dealer to get it right or they don’t get anymore stock AT ALL. One outfit straightened right out…for a couple of issues.
They always claim “lead time”.
Heck, I advertise, and the stuff they do has nothing to do with lead time.
Sometimes, the prices have nothing to do with what it will actually be when it is designed, produced and shipped.
I have called an order in, all in stock, met the minimum for free shipping, had them “backorder” ONE item, so I paid shipping on the whole order, then a week later the last item showed up and they charged me shipping on that, too.
There is no customer service. There is no-one who gives a rip. Slam-bam, thank-you ma’am. Get 'em inthe door and out as fast as you can.
Heck, they’re DISCOUNTERS, the name of the game is every last penny counts, and they cannot afford to have service.
You folks demand it.
I see it all the time.
“Where can I buy “X” for the cheapest?” or, “Who has the lowest prices on “X”?”
They see that. They design their business model on that exact attitude.
They put the local hobby shops out of business, now they got you by the short hairs.
I know of 2 or 3 outfits that now have “minimum advertised pricing” to counter this “discounter disease”.
We had a GR Convention several years ago loca
AMEN! I do believe the man has said it all! You can’t have your cake and eat it too! While I generally prefer to buy locally simply for the service angle, a 2 hour drive to the G scale train shop is a bit much. On the other hand, I;ll go to the local hardware store rather than the one with the Lowest prices or the one that sounds like it ought to be a train station, simply because I find more selection and far better service along with a lot less dragging my fat tail around some golf course sized place just to get some screws or something!
You have to treat every discounter that advertises in GR with the same amount of skepticism. 9 times out of 10, they WILL NOT HAVE in stock what you want.
Period!
I have learned this with about 20 years of experience in “G” scale.
I do not even mail order anymore. I have given up, with all the (“false advertising–IMHO”)
I now shop “brick and morter” hoppy shops, where I can touch, see, and, if necessary, test out the item. Or, occasionally, E-vil Bay.
jb
Funny how threads cross.If you look on the ‘Thought’ thread we are tackling the same thing.
Curmudgeon ,can you supply Aristocraft ART 29356 to the United Kingdom.If so ,we need to talk
[:)]
Troy
No, don’t do any AC.
In fact, the last part I got took 3 years to get from them.
But, after transposing numbers twice, they did finally get me one I could re-paint to work.
TOC
These blokes in Germany will leave all your complaints for dead, they won’t even answer me. Finally one did, “Lokshop” and I had to do a bit of detective work to find out that he was in Karlsruhe, I was overjoyed but it didn’t last long I gave them an enquiry worth about US$ 5000 (including two locos with MTS and sound) covering many items, even said i would come to Karlsruhe, give him several months notice as to the date of my visit and offered to pay a depsit but no answer. I even got a friend to translate a lot of it into German.
So try that for bad service.
Rgds Ian
[angel][:)][:)][:)][:)][:)][:)][:)][:)][:)][bow]
Hi Curmudgeon, you make some good points. I’ve edited the parts of your comments that apply for me.
Glad at part one you rooted for the customer, that shows me service and a caring for a fellow man, irregardless of profit. And yes, to me that means God has a place for you in heaven. Good Job.
Hav
TurboOne
Give me an e-mail I’ll give you the skinny on a couple of great LS stores up here in LaLa Land you can mail order from. Good service and great prices…
Yer nieghbor , Vic in LA, and I don’t mean Louisiana!
Tim- I’m a “niche” shop, near Seattle. I get what is needed for the locals and customers all over the country.
We have a small layout that is run in “operations” once a week in summer, every other in winter.
It’s only about 1400’, something over 70 switches.
Aluminum rail, hand-throws, all elevated somewhat.
I do product testing for a couple of places (some more that don’t ask) and we generate modifications, which the manufacturer does and we re-evaluate.
I am a firm believer in solid testing in the real world not only before but during production.
I don’t handle or sell anything we haven’t proved to ourselves works in our environment.
I also write reviews, and get all sorts of folks mad at me (goes with the territory).
What part of SoCal?
BTW, how do you enjoy Seattle weather?
All that rain you’re getting is what usually happens here…the pressure zones have shifted it down to you and we’re pretty dry (but cold) right now.
TOC
“Turns and points to 140,00 SF of store and says it’s over there…”
[^]
Had quite enough, will do some anti rain dances and send it back to you. Last year I believe we had 7 inches all year. At least our lakes are filling back up. Oh and I don’t have to pay to water my grass. We had a 4 foot wide waterfall of the patio roof last night. That was cool. Glad we finished roofing it about a week ago. Whew.
I am in San Diego, almost as far south as you can go.
I have never been to the Great Northwest, well idaho as a kid, but always wanted to see green country. We are normally brown or tan down here. But not this winter. [:)]
Send me your website if you have one, would love to chat with a real train guy that enjoys people and trains. Sometimes its a hard combo to find. [:)]
Have a great day, and can’t wait to see you hit 100. Woo Hoo a two star guy.
Tim
In the UK I deal with a guy from Scotland, Sandy at Scottish garden Railways. The guy is an absolute gent and a pleasure to deal with, nothing is too much trouble and he answers all enquieries promptly. Ordered an Aristo (Delton) C16 from him last Wednesday and it’s on its way, delivered to my door for £162-00. Bargain. I know I could get it cheaper by ordering through the mag with an American dealer but then Sandy would go out of business and everyone loses. A case of small is beautiful methinks.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]
Hi Kim
Always have a look at Scottish Garden Railways website. Never dealt with them but your recommendation counts for a lot. It is nice to be able to walk into a shop and gaze at the goodies but they are always too far to travel to.
And Kim,Troy. GRS? I know where you are coming from.
All the best
Ian P
Hi Ian,
You won’t beat Sandy’s service. He has great track prices but it’s a visit to Scotland because of the weight/postage. I usually find that I have to go to the sorting office to pick up the parcel, but I would have to go into town to visit the local shop anyway.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]
Well, I almost had to move down to Sandy Eigo.
Had a little scare that my boat was going to be moved to the Maritime Museum there, but looks like that got sorted out.
Still working on it and preparing to re-open in Spring.
I think just the cost of MOVING it was a problem.
Website: (not much, but it’s there)
http://dnkgoods.home.mindspring.com/index.html
or…
http://www.russiansubseattle.com/album.html
but that one has nothing to do with trains…other than maybve the diesel engines…
ET(SS)
Chief of the Boat (COB)
SS(B) 39 Cobra
Pier 48, Seattle.
TOC