Has Anyone done business with Hobby Circle!

I ordered something from them last week and have E-mailed them and have never gotten an answer.

Reply to
Mark Picarro
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My main problem with them is that they show items online that they do NOT have in stock! I've ordered from them and then had to contact them weeks later because I never received the order, and they gave some lame excuse about how their inventory doesn't automatically update itself. In your case, I wouldn't be surprised if the item you ordered wasn't even available.

Reply to
Frank Eva

i try not, but I have at the most 3x. Usually call in the order and have them make sure they have it first. I usually do not order train items online. jai

Reply to
JaiJEF

I've always been confused about one thing with Hobby Circle. There's

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and
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. Are they the same person and if not which one is the one that we're talking about?

Thanks

Reply to
tymbomb

Both the same folks.

Reply to
Mark Picarro

"I agree; stay away. Those RMC ads look nice but Hobby Circle is a highly questionable operation. Items charged to my card last September have yet to arrive. I sent several e-mails (unanswered), phoned repeatedly (he was always busy doing something else) and finally got Discover to give me credit and investigate.

Reply to
Robert B. Jackson

They are one and the same - just check the copyright notice at the bottom of the home page.

Reply to
Frank Eva

Why do you say lied to?

  1. was this a common item you were asking about?
  2. was this a limit quantiy item?
  3. did they say "Yes, we have lots of them." or "Did they say yes we have that item."?
  4. how did you place the order?
  5. how long was it between when you asked about inventory and they actually recieved your order?

At a business I used to run, I have answered email/phone calls about my product in the morning and said, "YES, I have 12 in stock.", I then process the orders I recieve throughout the day and after shipment I am out of stock. If your order was recieved that day, you got it, if not, I am now out of stock.

No merchant can predict how many orders of an item he will get during a day.

My customer's complaint was from a fellow who phoned in at 10:00AM one day, but did not email his order, with VISA number, until 6PM that day. When I emailed him the next morning that the item was out of stock, he phoned back and called me a liar, he said I "Tricked him into ordering because I told him there was stock." I let him rant for awhile and after he calmed down I said that I had not charged his credit card and that more would be available in 3 business days and did he still want them, etc.... There was a female voice in the background, telling him to basically grow up and be rational.... He then calmed down and wanted the item shipped. Without the

3rd party involvement, there would have been nothing I could do to get that guy to think rationally.
Reply to
wannand

Yep... back in the day I used to work in retail as well, and one of my jobs was answering the phones for a large electronics store. About half the calls were stock questions, and it was not as simple as just checking the computer and seeing if it said we had stock or not. It was always tricky answering whether or not an item was in stock.

For example, we'd have some items that were blowout sales - these could sell in the hundreds per day. Our stock database, though, was only updated twice a day. Thus, if somebody asked if this item was in stock at 4 PM, and I checked the computer and saw it said 300 in stock, I would generally answer "no". The alternative would be to physically walk to the stock-room (about

10 minutes each way w/ elevators, etc.) to check the stock on hand, but there was no guarantee then either! If we had 10 left, they could all be gone by the time I got back to the phone 20 minutes later.

On slow-selling items, if I saw one or two in stock, I'd often say "yes, we have it in stock, but you'd better hurry". The rule was never say the exact number in stock, because the computer could be wrong, or out of date.

But you can never predict. There can suddenly be a run on a slow-selling item, and I'd get stuck telling people something was in stock that wasn't by the time they got to the store or placed their order online. A store can have ten of something in stock at 12 PM and none by 12:30. It happens.

And yes, customers do get indignant when it happens. I've been called a liar too, accused of bait & switch, etc. (like there was anything in it for me! I just answered the phones). The fact is all any retailer can do is give you the information they have at that particular time, and often that information is itself already obsolete, and is by nature obsolete by the time you actually get to the store or order online.

I really don't understand the anger, though. If something's not in stock when you were told it was, so what? How has that hurt you? People act as if they've been physically injured by this. Go buy it from somewhere else, have a shot of bourbon and calm the hell down. If Hobby Circle had come back and told me my train was out of stock when their site said it was, I'd have just gone and bought it direct from Amtrak. Who the heck really cares? Life's too short to worry about this stuff.

Reply to
Jeff Williams

Jeff, Congrats! I would say you are one of the many success stories Hobby Circle has had. My only concern with them is their followup when a problem crops up. "To err is human" is well and good. My sense is that they do not care about mistakes and do not like going back to correct them once they are found. At least not without a push. I could be wrong, but that was my experience.

Reply to
Art Marsh

It was an e-bay sale and the jerk hadn't shipped it for two weeks. I called and he swore he had the new model locomotive he sold me and would ship it. Two weeks later, I received a very obviously used, broken, older version of the model. It looked not at all like the picture in the ad on e-bay or the picture on his web site, which stated that he had them in stock. It's a violation of e-bay rules to sell what you don't have or falsely represent what you do have. Naturally, I was pissed off and called to find out what was going on. He had the nerve to try to make me pay for return shipping! Long story short, he never had the things and was falsely advertising for months that he had. He never sent one to me and it took the attorney general's office of his state to get my money back. That enough?

If you take some>> I called too. And they lied to me. You were lucky.

-- Jim Sherman xROADKILL snipped-for-privacy@zYAHOOa.COM < remove lower case letters, then use what's left AS lower case

The hurrider I goes the behinder I gets; which makes sense because the older I gets the more behind I gets. And I is gettin an old behind!

Reply to
Jim Sherman

-- Jim Sherman xROADKILL snipped-for-privacy@zYAHOOa.COM < remove lower case letters, then use what's left AS lower case

The hurrider I goes the behinder I gets; which makes sense because the older I gets the more behind I gets. And I is gettin an old behind!

Reply to
Jim Sherman

No, because I seldom use mail order, when I buy, I want to see what I am getting. I either go to my LHS or wait until the train show. Nothing I get for my "hobby" is that urgent, I can wait until I see it.

Reply to
wannand

I've had great luck with them. I've ordered over $500.00 in track, two sets of LifeLike FA2s, and some car kits over the last four years. Great prices, quick delivery. I couldn't believe the price I got from them on ALtas code 893 flex track and Walthers turnouts. Near as I could tell, he sold the turnouts at 5% over his cost. Thats I believe

35% UNDER list price.

The only problem I had was of LifeLike's making when they screwed up the numbering on the GN FA2s. I had to ship them back to Hobby Circle, and they sent the correct numbers as soon as they got them from LifeLike. I did call twice just to ensure that Jim didn't forget about me.

regards, Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Zeman

-- Jim Sherman xROADKILL snipped-for-privacy@zYAHOOa.COM < remove lower case letters, then use what's left AS lower case

The hurrider I goes the behinder I gets; which makes sense because the older I gets the more behind I gets. And I is gettin an old behind!

Reply to
Jim Sherman

-- Jim Sherman xROADKILL snipped-for-privacy@zYAHOOa.COM < remove lower case letters, then use what's left AS lower case

The hurrider I goes the behinder I gets; which makes sense because the older I gets the more behind I gets. And I is gettin an old behind!

Reply to
Jim Sherman

There you go again son, jumping at conclusions. Did I say anywhere in my post that I thought others should do what I do???

NO!

I was merely stating what I do to acquire new items for my layout.

I guess I am fortunate though, the LHS will bring product in if he hears a customer is looking for it. Just before Christmas, I mentioned I was starting an 1880s layout and would need some Overton Style Passengers and some Old Time Freight cars. I went in the week between Christmas and News Years, he showed me a set of 4 Overtons and 5 MDC old time box/stock cars. I told him that the layout would not be ready for rolling stock until May and he said, no problem, I just wanted to show you these as I ordered them for stock.

BTW, I was in last Wednesday and he sold what he had brought in and said he ordered more so they would be there when I wanted them..

I guess that is why he is still in business. He listens to his customers.

Reply to
wannand

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