What's your Vendor Horror Story (any hobby)

[Hobby Dreamer]

Do you have any Vendor Horror Stories? (any hobby)

 

I'm cleaning up on another hobby and remember a vendor who contacted me that he was running behind on orders because his wife was pregnant. I told him to put a box with my name on it to make sure the stuff was earmarked for me and then take his time. Instead of the usual week, things took up to 4 months and that was usually OK for me..

 

One day, he contacted me to send something back. I asked if he had made a mistake. He actually stated that another customer was interested in something I bought 4 months earlier and he knew I had it because he had just shipped it. The other guy was a "good" customer and really wanted the item..

 

What could I say... I doubt no other customer would allow delays without ever complaining.. and then be told in a weird way, despite the generosity, that somehow I was not a "good" customer (or that the other was way better, although he never mentioned why)....

 

The good news is that he went under a few months later!!!! 

 

 

Do you have any Horror dealings?

 

Cheers

Rick

[bikkuri bahn]

Not a vendor, but an auction seller.  Won a bid on an old (but somewhat rare) Seiko watch.  The watch came in a beat up thin cardboard candy box, improperly sealed with a gap big enough for the watch to fall through.  The packing material was candy wrappers, old receipts, and odd shreds of who knows what (i.e. garbage).  Thankfully, the watch was OK.

[The_Ghan]

I bought a couple of trains on eBay from a vendor in Canada.  They never arrived.  The shipping number provided wasn't real.  Thankfully I paid by PayPal.  The money was refunded to me.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[angusmclean]

I bought a couple of trains on eBay from a vendor in Canada.  They never arrived.  The shipping number provided wasn't real.  Thankfully I paid by PayPal.  The money was refunded to me.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

Ghan, just won a JR item on Ebay item from Canada. What was your contact's name or ebay name?

Angus

[Hobby Dreamer]

Thankfully I paid by PayPal

 

Crappy that you did not get satisfaction, but at least you were not robbed!!!

 

Rick

[The_Ghan]

Angus,

 

It was g.....1969.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[angusmclean]

Angus,

 

It was g.....1969.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

Ta. My seller has a female name, so that's a pretty sure sign that she will be reliable.

 

Angus

[Lawrence]

Angus,

 

It was g.....1969.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

Ta. My seller has a female name, so that's a pretty sure sign that she will be reliable.

 

Angus

 

If only that were true Angus, only time I had any real hassles and had to take action was buying an American loco from a female vendor.  Sold as mint, it had parts missing and didn't move!  Took me over a month, but I got my money back and, an abusive email from the vendor (quality language) which I forwarded to ebay, her account was cancelled following that!

[spacecadet]

One day, he contacted me to send something back. I asked if he had made a mistake. He actually stated that another customer was interested in something I bought 4 months earlier and he knew I had it because he had just shipped it. The other guy was a "good" customer and really wanted the item..

 

That's just weird... what did you actually tell him?  I would have told him to go jump off a cliff, honestly.

 

Luckily I don't really have anything to add to this thread, I'm just wondering how you resolved this (I'm assuming you contacted him before he went under).

[keitaro]

before final fantasy 8 and 7 came out on ps3 i tried to purchase the ps1 disc of ff8 as my disc 1 was damaged.

 

It sold for $80 to me and the guy said after purchase the disc 1 doesn't work i refused to pay then as i only bought for disc 1. 

 

He was a dumba$$ who complained to ebay about me not paying when he was in wrong for not saying on the ebay advert page that the disc 1 was damaged and not working .....

[ShinCanadaSen]

Back in late 2006, I got caught by the "order Japanese rolling stock surplus direct from the US distributor scam".  

 

I went to several RR focused stores on my area and the one that had every product from said distributor was very helpful and I soon had sone track, a North American locomotive and some freight cars. While at the shop I had asked about Japanese trains and was told that there was almost never any stock in North America as there was no interest. So I was surprised a couple of months later when they told me the supplier had some over stock (or something) that had been shipped to North America by their Japanese parent company.

 

I visited them again and they showed me a small brochure of what was available. It was 2  Loco's 3-4 models of freight cars, the 0 series Shinkansen and some local train (unfortunately I don't remember what it was.) The staff explained that this was a fairly rare occurrence and they would need a deposit to guarantee I would be able to get these items. Not knowing any better I decided that it seemed to be a rare opportunity not to be passed up. So I ordered 2 of each loco, 10 of each freight car set (all were pairs of cars), 2 8-car 0 series and 2 of the mystery train. I coughed up s $500 deposit and got ready for my 2-4 week wait.

 

At 3 weeks I couldn't contain myself any more and called the store. I was told not worry as the stuff was on it's way. Weekly calls soon turned to daily call and for three months I was told that my items had been shipped but were delayed by customs or were otherwise delayed in transit. When I started to ask how they were shipped and what the tracking numbers were, the staff started to get defensive and accused me of being a bad customer. In the end I got some story about how the supplier had lead them along saying the items ordered were available and would be shipped soon and then in the end the supplier had told them there were none available.

 

It took 7 months for me to get my deposit back as the store initially refused to refund the cash I had used to pay the deposit and stated that they could only provide a store credit. It wasn't until I showed up on a busy Saturday and caused a huge scene that I got my deposit back.

 

Kai

 

Edited to fix wall of text and spelling/iphone auto-correct issues... Posting large posts from iPhone doesn't work so well :)

[Hobby Dreamer]

Hi Kai..

 

Sorry to hear about your ordeal...  Too many businesses forget that a loyal customer is worth more than one transaction.. There no need to jerk someone around..

 

Glad this incident did not turn you off the hobby, as it often can...

 

Rick

[Bernard]

Mine is a little different. There is a huge Train store in the area and they have due a lot of internet business.

I went into the store and knew I wanted to purchase a Bower Steam engine kit but didn't know which one I wanted.

I asked the salesman behind the counter if I could look at 3 different kits. Since kits weren't as popular they were on the top shelf and in order to get them you needed to climb a ladder. He turned to me and said, "You know I have to climb that ladder to get those kits, before I do and you going to buy one of them!?"

I was in shock with his response to me and I just stopped and thought for a while before answering him.

Then I said, "first off, I honestly don't know if I'm going to buy one because I have to see it first. Secondly I'm the only customer in the store right now, so is there anything else that's more important or you to do than to wait on a custom. And lastly, is there someone else in the store that can wait on me because even if I decide to buy a kit it won't be from you." There wasn't anyone else to wait on me so I left the store. I eventually bought the kit but from their competitor.

[spacecadet]

Well I guess I do have something to add (not really a "horror story", I guess, but just annoying).  About a year ago I went to my local Gamestop to buy the latest Madden game for PS3.  The guy literally took the game that was being demoed in the store's PS3 out, put it in an opened case and then proceeded to ring me up for $59.99.  I said "you're going to charge me the new price for that?  I actually *saw* you using it.  It's used."  He said "it's never left the store, so it's new."  First of all I know that's probably not true - Gamestop employees are notorious for taking "store copies" home with them at night.  He then took the disc back out to show me there were no scratches or fingerprints on it, and of course it was covered in scratches and fingerprints!  I said "that is a used game.  I will pay you used price for it."  He said it was the last one and he couldn't do it.  So I left without buying it.

 

I actually have a little bit of sympathy for the guy because I own a small store and it's not like we don't take clothes out of the package they come in and display them before selling them, but that's a little different.  It's not like we're walking around wearing stuff all day every day before selling it.  Ditto for train stores - I know they take stuff out and put it in the display case, but they're not generally running stuff on a layout all day every day before selling it as new.  (Although maybe some do; I would probably not pay new price for those things either in that case, if I knew something had been running 12 hours a day on a layout for 6 months before I bought it.)

[KenS]

Here's my story, which involves a LHS which at the time was a Kato gold spike dealer (they seem to have fallen off the list, I wonder why).  About 3-4 years ago I was stocking up on Unitrack, platforms and similar during the construction of my first layout, and bought about $300 worth in separate pieces and one V set.  I was alone in the store with one clerk. As he's ringing up the track, which apparently requires him to type each part number individually into a computer that's doing double-duty as the cash register and inventory system, he's grumbling about all the work he's doing and acting like it's my fault he has to use something that complicated.  I left unimpressed.

 

I came back about six months later.  Another weekend with an empty store.  A different clerk.  Only about $100 worth of track this time, but a similarly drawn-out experience and a similarly annoyed clerk.

 

I can understand their annoyance.  If I had to work with that system, I'd hate it too.  But that's hardly my problem.

 

I never went back.  Fortunately I found another LHS with helpful staff who actually want to work there, and a very good Kato inventory for when I need something quickly (and they use an ordinary cash register). I also started doing mail order for really large quantities of things.

[The_Ghan]

Mine is a little different. There is a huge Train store in the area and they have due a lot of internet business.

I went into the store and knew I wanted to purchase a Bower Steam engine kit but didn't know which one I wanted.

I asked the salesman behind the counter if I could look at 3 different kits. Since kits weren't as popular they were on the top shelf and in order to get them you needed to climb a ladder. He turned to me and said, "You know I have to climb that ladder to get those kits, before I do and you going to buy one of them!?"

I was in shock with his response to me and I just stopped and thought for a while before answering him.

Then I said, "first off, I honestly don't know if I'm going to buy one because I have to see it first. Secondly I'm the only customer in the store right now, so is there anything else that's more important or you to do than to wait on a custom. And lastly, is there someone else in the store that can wait on me because even if I decide to buy a kit it won't be from you." There wasn't anyone else to wait on me so I left the store. I eventually bought the kit but from their competitor.

 

 

When the Mazda RX8 came out 7 or 8 years ago I wanted one.  One Saturday morning I arrived at the Mazda dealership on Parramatta Road, Petersham, Sydney, dressed "down" for the occasion - jeans and a flanel shirt.  I had the finance and a Toyota to trade.  I was determined to buy that day.  I walked in and started nosing around an RX8 in the showroom, waiting for a sales rep to come over.  It was locked so I couldn't have a look inside.  I waited about 10 minutes and noticed a few of the sales reps having a private chat so I decided to approach them.  As I did, a snobby-nosed female sales rep came over to me and asked if I needed help.  I told her I was interested in an RX8 and could I have a test drive.  She said I couldn't because all the cars on the lot were "committed".  I couldn't have a test drive.  I couldn't have a look inside, as she wouldn't unlock a car for me.  She suggested that I head "out west" to one of the other dealerships.

 

I couldn't believe it.  I was fuming and stormed off.  I'd always been a BMW fan so I headed over to Rushcutters Bay, the nearest BMW dealership.  I was greeted by a nice guy in his mid 20's, wearing a fine suit, who didn't seem to care how I was dressed.  Over the following hour or so we test drove 3 BM's together and I eventually bought a silver 323i.  I picked it up Monday week later and I was dressed in my suit.  I decided to take my new car back over to Mazda.  Not surprisingly, when they saw a guy get out of a BM wearing a suit they were quick to attend to me.  I asked about the RX8 in the show room.  It was for sale.  I asked if it was "committed" and was told it was not.  I asked about the two down on the lot ... Both for sale too.  So I asked to see the manager. 

 

When the manager came over I asked about the cars again.  I told him I could buy one today.  He said he'd go and do me a price but I stopped him.  I pointed to the 323i and said I picked it up today.  I suggested he check his video surveilance of 11:00 Saturday week ago, when I REALLY wanted to buy an RX8 and pointed out the female sales rep who suggested I go elsewhere ... and lied to me about the three RX8s being "committed'.  He said his staff would never do such a thing.  So I reminded him again of his own CCTV equipment, promised him I'd never buy a BMW, turned on my heels and left.

 

I probably shouldn't have been so rude but I felt much better at the time.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Martijn Meerts]

I tend to go to more specialized stores where the sales people know exactly what they're selling. Sure, it might be more expensive, but the service you get in return is well worth it.

 

As such, I don't have any personal horror stories. My father, on the other hand, when he turned 65, used most of his life insurance money to buy a brand new car, something he'd never done before (never had the money for it.) It was some Hyundai or the other, however, the car was extremely noisy on the road. Going back to the garage, they said it might be the tires, and they'd get in touch with Hyundai about it. Eventually, it was decided new tires would be fitted. However, the garage refused to do so unless my father paid for them (this was mere weeks after buying the car), which he of course didn't do. He had some more discussions back and forth with the garage, drove around for a couple of months, but eventually got so sick of the noise, he ended up trading in the car for a 2nd hand Opel. In the 2.5 to 3 months my father had the car, it's valued had dropped by 1/3rd, so he lost a LOT of money. Needless to say, he never went to the garage anymore.

 

The worst thing is, I knew 1 of the mechanics at the shop, and he told me the higher ups regularly do that stuff with older people, because they're gullible targets...

[ShinCanadaSen]

I'm also into Photography, I only have a Rebel Xsi (450D), but i have some very nice glass to go with it up to and including a Canon L 100-400mm Lense. Like The_Ghan, on my days of I don't bother getting dressed up and run around In Shorts or Khakis and Dri-fit shirts. In many Camera Shops (Big and Small) I've had the same trouble as The_Ghan. Staff look at me and figure I don't have the cash to buy the item(s) I'm asking about and are not only unhelpful but often Ignore me or in one case, ask me to leave.

 

My wife works in Retail and although she agrees that many if not most retail/sales staff have no customer relation skills she says I'm a horrible customer. I feel that I'm only exercising my right to buy what I want from who I want. It helps to be treated like a person when shopping as apposed to a possible pile of cash.

 

Kai