Rails of Sheffield - Bad Experience

[Ochanomizu]

Hello,

 

I chanced a purchase from Rails of Sheffield.  It was a Tomix 313 series advertised as "Excellent Boxed Set".

 

Unfortunately it was supplied with a number of faults.  For example: broken panto, missing skirt, missing end coupler. There were many other faults.

 

I checked with Ebay dispute resolution and Rails of Sheffield offered full refund.  But Ebay and Paypal said I must send the item Registered Post with Online Tracking.  It is expensive, but I complied.

 

Since I have sent the item, I consider advising my collegues that the reputation of Rails of Sheffield is not sound.  I recommend avoid dealing.

[JR 500系]

Hi Ochanomizu:

 

Yes i've stumbled upon Rails of Sheffield for some time now, and sometimes you can get some really good train sets at a good price via bidding... There wasn't really something that truely attracted me to try it so i gave it a miss...

 

Sending the item back? Does that mean you have to bear the shipping cost back, or does Rails of Sheffield bear the shipping back cost? Also, did they do a full refund back to you?

 

Thanks for sharing the experience! Will be striking off from my ebay favourite seller list now..

[brill27mcb]

Rails of Sheffield always claims in their items to sell "worldwide" but they only list shipping costs within Great Britain. If I saw anything I wanted, I always had to ask what the shipping would be to the USA. It got to the point of being a real pain, so I have not nibbled on their items for a long time now.

 

Rich K.

[cteno4]

I did buy one set a few years back from them used on ebay at a very good price. came as described and decent shipping from uk (that can be pricy some methods). I was happy with it, but its always a bit of a crap shoot when doing used international orders like this. Disappointing that they missed all the issues with the set and you got stuck. are they going to foot the return shipping bill? what was their tone in replying to you? that can tell a lot.

 

jeff

[E6系]

I also had bad experience with Rails of Sheffield in past.

 

I purchased E3 shinkansen.  It had broken panto.

 

When I returned they refund shipping also.

 

I have not purchased from them since.

[Ochanomizu]

Hello,

 

Update please.  Rails of Sheffield offer to refund my postage also.  But only if I remove negative feedback.  I am not comfortable.  But it is $40 US$ so I will take the money.

[inobu]

I don't get it. The other Japanese sellers do it to you guys all the time. Broken or products with issues and the send it back clause is at your cost. 

 

The truth/reality is Ebay is a secondary outlet where secondary or hard to get products are sold along with new products. Many peoples quest

on finding a particular product often leads them to subconsciously over look the facts. 

 

"Excellent Boxed Set" is not "(NIB) New in Box - unopened ". Excellent Boxed Set is opened for interpretation. If one is expecting "New " then it would be prudent to buy from a NIB only posting. I always 

question description that are not definitive. "Almost New, except for this and this and this and this" (you get the point) is a true statement and is in acceptance to the buyer if he chooses

so in reality it is USED period.   

 

I have order from them (Rails of Sheffield) beforeand did not have a problem but I went through their store front not e-bay. They answered my question/emails and I got what I ordered no problem.

 

As Jeff stated Ebay is a crap shoot and should not be viewed as a solid store front, as it is still the internet and a secondary outlet for most retailers. 

 

Inobu

 

Replacing "Bad" with "My" would be a fair statement to all. 

Edited January 30, 2013 by inobu

[cteno4]

well if the are willing to refund it all with shipping then i dont see any problem with taking off the bad review as they made you totally whole again when there was a problem. that to me is excellent customer service. they goofed in their description (obviously someone looked at it quickly and did not take it our or did not know what to look for on this kind of train for a good description) and then took all ownership of it including the return shipping. i would say a good review that said something like broken pieces but full refund including return shipping would be fair and a good sign to others if there is an issue they will step up and do the full refund.

 

I know you may feel you are out some of your time for the order and such, but this is a used sale via ebay so its not like buying something new from a dealer. when buying used stuff you will have a bit of risk and expect that you may eat a little on time or even money once and a while a pain when it happens (my experience is its pretty rare after buying maybe 30-40 trains used over the years) take the long view that the great majority of the time it will be cool. I basically look at this as self insurance. I feel that usually i buy used stuff as its a really great deal. the money i save over buying a new one is sort of self insurance fund to cover if i get a turkey once in a great while (same with using sal shipping). on the whole of 10 years of collecting i've saved way way way more money than i have lost to any self insurance, so im way ahead (probably by thousands of dollars). of course this is tough to swallow if you have an issue early into collecting and have to hope that later buys will pay off for you.

 

as inobu said even some dealers on new stuff will require you to pay return shipping if you are not happy with the product or even if its broken on delivery.

 

I think you came out well and i would change the title of the thread to include something like "ok solution" to the end as in the end i dont think you can expect more from them. what else would you want from them in this situation. i agree the description was wrong, but they corrected that the best they could with the full refund. i dont think you can ask for more really.

 

my experience with them was good as the description matched the used product and it was in good shape, so i think this may have just been a goof and they corrected it.

 

jeff

[Ochanomizu]

So sorry Mr cteno4.  Bad experience is about being misled, not about who will pay return postage.

 

For the record.  Postage has been refunded and I thank Rails of Sheffield for that.  But only after I leave negative feedback.  They pay for postage if I change feedback to positive.  So, I make comment that product was faulty and returned for full refund.  I maintain honesty.

 

But it does not change the many faults of the product that were ignored to produce "Excellent Boxed Set" description for product.  So, I will not take off bad review.

[cteno4]

Ochaminizu,

 

I understand your point they did blow it with that description, obviously who ever wrote it did not pull out the cars and carefully inspect and may not have know what to look for on these sets (not good either to write the description). Mine is there will be some mistakes now and then like this when doing remote sales like this (where you cant have it in your hands), so you just have to expect once and a while something will not work out. The seller doing a full refund with shipping is about the best solution you can expect. I just chalk the trouble up to the cost of trying to get a bargain by hunting like this. in the long run it all works out in your favor usually. sorry to hear it took the negative feedback for them to step up though, but sometimes sellers need a stick to get them to do the right thing.

 

I think your feedback was spot on, showed there was an issue but they resolved it with the full refund and you were able to be honest--fair all around. thats what i would want to see to give me warning they made a mistake, but then they didnt stick you with shipping charges to return it. thats useful for future buyers. good end to the issue.

 

lets hope this is your bad deal for a while and you will now have a string of good deals! For me its worked out well in the long run, but hard to see/feel that when you are in the middle of the rotten one... I know ive grumped over the bad ones here on the forum, but have tried to get a bit more lesson learned about them and it does get easier with more and more under the bridge so to speak.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Ochanomizu]

Thank you sir.

 

The 92071 373 Series has been replaced with excellent product purchased on Yahoo. :)

[cteno4]

Cool, glad you got what you were looking for!

 

Jeff