Trainz just un-vailed their new website this week.
Naturally, its been causing all sorts of headaches for their customers and staff.
Despite all of that, I was able to complete my order today that included some ebay and in-store items. I had to call them to complete my order because their on-line checkout was giving me problems. I spoke to a nice lady who was very paitient and helpfull even while her computer had crashed.

Trainz ROCKS!

Sorry but I don't agree with the 5 stars. They have a rather annoying habit of sending emails immediately after an auction and repeatedly. They have a combined shipping option to save for items purchased within 7 day period. The same day and every day, sometimes seems like twice a day, they remind to pay when the bids are in there awaiting just a few hours to complete. The emails to customer service go ignored. It apparently is their Channel Advisor software that they use for checkout.

Anywa;y, I just got another one of their annoying reminders with for a sale of two days ago with 47 minutes to go on the next item i was after. Other big sellers deal with these situations much better.

Ralph

Their search engine is much faster than before. I like the changes and I use trainz.com all the time without complaint.

I'm looking forward to receiving my first purchase from Trainz when it's due (the MTH Aerotrain).

I just had a great buying experience with Justrains of Delaware (the AEC Nuclear Reactor Accessory) but, since they don't have any ecommerce presence I pretty much had to just monitor my credit card account to see when my pre-order transaction went through to know when a package was going to be heading my way and plan for it. With Trainz, I'm assuming I'll get the usual "Your package has shipped and here's your tracking number..." email and will be able to more closely follow the shipment.

Yes, I know I could have called Justrains and had them dig me up a tracking number. How's everyone else here deal with that with them? I didn't want to be just another one of the masses blowing up their phones asking about my order.

I love both companies, but Trainz has certainly done a lot to stay up-to-the-times with the internet buying experience.

2¢

They finally added a button link to Standard Gauge!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Ralph:
They have a rather annoying habit of sending emails immediately after an auction and repeatedly... The emails to customer service go ignored.

Ralph

I'm sure those reminders are all automated and in my experience they only come every few days. I don't think they have any way to monitor what you are bidding on. I've never found them to be all that annoying as I ignore them if I am watching other items to bid on. I have always gotten a good response from their customer service.

Jeff Davis

I just bought some stuff from Trainz today, I find them efficient.

If you pre-order items they ship for free when they come in. You can't beat that.

Neal Jeter

I buy alot of Industrial Rail cars from TRAINZ.com I have them on a search list and I get an email when something new comes in. They are always friendly and ship fast!

The 4-5 times I have bought from Tranz it has been a very good trans. One ebay auction I won the description of a 5 car Williams HW passenger car set that there were a number of broken parts and issues. I won them and found that they were a easy fix. After an hours work I had a very nice set....and for about $25!

quote:

Originally posted by Lionlman:
If you pre-order items they ship for free when they come in. You can't beat that.

Neal Jeter

I very seldom pre-order but when I do I always use Trainz. I find them efficient and very easy to deal with. The free shipping is good customer service.

I like the fact that they have anything and everything but being in Canada, I do not like their shipping policy at all. They will not ship USPS and their shipping rates are about 3x's higher then they should be.

As a result, I look elsewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by Demo:
I like the fact that they have anything and everything but being in Canada, I do not like their shipping policy at all. They will not ship USPS and their shipping rates are about 3x's higher then they should be.

As a result, I look elsewhere.

Cant say I blame them. My daughter lives in Canada and is a Canadian citizen. Mailing things there is a crap shoot and they have all kinds of regulations and customs to clear. Anything heavy or remotely valuable is a problem. They open things up and do not correctly repack them and a lot of things get sent back and get lost. We have spent over a year trying collect insurance on a registered package that cost $38 to ship. Lots of things she buys she ships to the states as they refuse to deal with people in Canada. Nothing against the people there but the government there is pretty good at restraining commerce. Cars from the US have to be retrofitted and some appliances can not be serviced due to different standards.

Dale H

^ I don't understand or agree with that at all!

I buy many things from good eBay sellers in the USA that ship USPS with no hassle what-so-ever and for much less. Some businesses just choose to ship a certain service and will not budge on that.

Trainz has great items and hard-to-find items. Kudos for that. I have bought several items from them.

quote:

Sorry but I don't agree with the 5 stars. They have a rather annoying habit of sending emails immediately after an auction and repeatedly. They have a combined shipping option to save for items purchased within 7 day period. The same day and every day, sometimes seems like twice a day, they remind to pay when the bids are in there awaiting just a few hours to complete. The emails to customer service go ignored. It apparently is their Channel Advisor software that they use for checkout.

Anywa;y, I just got another one of their annoying reminders with for a sale of two days ago with 47 minutes to go on the next item i was after. Other big sellers deal with these situations much better.

I believe that the Trainz automated payment reminders also clearly say that you have seven days to shop and check out. I have shopped with Trainz numerous times and used the full 7 day time period (to the end of the seventh day). Their range of available product is impressive and their customer service is as good as I have seen anywhere. Shipping is always prompt, even this week. Trainz is definitely my preferred ebay vendor. Pat B.

Ordering items - great!

Pre-orders- they make you fill out pages of information, like I have nothing else to do. When I pre-order from Charlie I just get a confirming email and sometime in the future, sometimes way in the future, the items arrive.

Packaging - fine, except once they tightly wrapped three beautiful prewar Madison's in bubble wrap which expanded during shipping (high altitude) and broke off most of the steps. They said they would make good, but never did.