Back in the 70’s, when I was still young and stupid, I ordered a “genuine” Chicago and Northwestern dining car table cloth…after weeks of waiting… and imagining the beautifully embossed bone white goodie…I received a crappy yellow table cloth RUBBER STAMPED : C&NW RWY in black ink…
So, who else has a mail order nightmare??? [?]
I’ll never forget the biggest rip-off of my life. My experience also took place in the 70’s. There was an ad in a Sgt. Rock comic book for a complete battle set. It had tanks, trucks, jeeps, planes, ships, and ton’s of soldiers. I saved my allowance for several weeks and placed my order. I eagerly waited on the postman every day, looking for my package. After about two weeks, it finally came. I ran out to meet the postman, and he handed me a small box about six inches long. I was puzzled. Surely this was something else. When I opened it, there was my army set. Flat plastic military vehicles and men. They looked like those markers they use to track troop movements on battle maps. I was crushed. They made it look so good in the comic book.
Nowadays, I’ll bet you can find that guy on EBay.
Yes, BUT
If enough people complain about bad merchandise, Ebay can pull the sellers license!
So at least there is some way of stopping these peope!
Maybe it’'s my conservative, “deal only with reputable companies” policy, but the past two Christmas seasons I’ve been very pleased with the kind and quality of merchandise and am in love with free shipping! I would estimate that I did about fifteen percent of my Christmas shopping by phone, mail or 'net in 2004 but about forty percent this past Christmas.
As for railroadiana, I ordered two t-shirts from CRANDIC that were sheer bargains (seven dollars each) and with free shipping! Way to go CRANDIC!
My horror stories are in the past. The most recent one was several years ago when I ordered a “bargain” shirt from an outfit called Paul Frederick. After two months they finally caved and returned my money–and those goofballs still send me their catalogs!!
Now, as to what shape parcels arrive thru USPS is another matter–IF they arrive at all . . .
Ok my worse was when I ordered a NS GP9 I open it in excitement then find out it doesn’t work boy was I crushed. My 1st Model RR Locomotive I was not happy, it wasn’t a pretty chritsmas. The Company blamed it on UPS, UPS Blamed it on them. I eventually got a new one.