"I have encountered a lot of Online companies that have less than stellar customer service. However, Wholesale Trains takes 'customer beware' to a whole new level. They absolutely refuse to tell you what your shipping charges are in advance of/or while placing an order. When you recieve a confirmation of shipping - the costs are totally in the ozone. I called customer service within an hour of getting a shipping notice. There response attitude was than terrible. The box was still in their building and they were VERY adamant about my paying their exhorbant shipping charge or an equally exhorbant 're-stocking' fee. I cancelled the order and will have my credit card company dispute their charges. After reading dozens of scathing reviews on this company across many sites, I must conclude that this is their normal way of doing business. Buyer Beware !!"

"Do not do business with this online store. They do not reply to emails and their customer service person was not a nice person to deal with. I ordered a product because it said it was in stock and would ship next day. It did not and when I called to inquire I was told that when I ordered it the site said 'ships next day' but that it actually belonged to another customer so they had to order me one and that it was still not in stock as of 4 days after ordering it. They weren't able to guarantee it nor would they compensate me for their errors and poor business by paying for express shipping. When I asked the person to just cancel the order, they were curt and rude and hung up on me."

"Swindlers. My order was backordered for 9 months. After 7.5 months, I emailed twice to cancel the order. No response. I called several times, no answer. After 9 months they shipped out the B unit of the A/B train combo of the order. I rejected the package from FedEx when it arrived and it was returned to sender. I then chargedback the transaction on my credit card. They claimed that the package was damaged/opened when they got it back and the chargeback was reversed. I went back to the credit card company with email evidence and the shipping info from FedEx. The credit card co. called Lantz and confirmed that they would refund me. Lantz shorted me 23.95 on the refund, claiming that I was charged for the shipping. Read their policies before you dare do business with these maggots. I was a repeat customer with them, having spent several huindred dollars there. They could care less about that and stiffed me anyways. Contact the BBB in Upstate NY. Blog them out of existence. Chargeback against them. Their business practices are not acceptable in the real world of commerce."

"I made an order through Wholesale Trains and then read the reviews but the train that I was ordering for my grandson was almost half the price with them that everyone else had it for. I didn't care for the way that they didn't tell me the shipping costs till after I had placed the order but I did receive it between 3-5 days with the cheapest shipping which was $35. Total cost though was still much cheaper than the competition. Everything arrived in great shape and I will definitely be ordering from them again. Hopefully they will change the thing about the shipping charges not showing up till you order."

"Boy, if I had any idea how many bad reviews there are for these people, I would have gone elsewhere. I ordered a bunch of detail parts and a locomotive. 5 days later, still no shipping confirmation e-mail. I received the package yesterday with no locomotive and no explanation. So I call them and it turns out they were out of it but showed It in stock on the website. Why wasn't I advised of this in an e-mail before shipment? Oh, that is too much hassle for them to have decent customer service. So I pay $9.95 in shipping for $22 worth of detail parts. I'm going to dispute with my credit card and I may lose, but I am going to make them work for it. Never buy from WHOLRSALE TRAINS or LANTZ HOBBY SHOP. From now on I will stick to reputable retailers like Caboose Hobbies. By the way they spent only $1.95 on shipping my measly envelope of detail parts. I will celebrate the day this company goes out of business. By the way, they have an F with the Better Business Bureau."

"Horrible experience. Ordered ten trains that they said was available, only got one. When I called the woman on the phone blamed her distributor. I told her that her distributor should not be responsible because I am dealing with their company, wholesaletrains.com and their company website advertised they had all the trains in stock. These trains were gifts and I had to scramble to get replacements. The one that did come, came in a box that was all banged up. I strongly encourage any one not to use this company."

"Have only had good service with all my orders so far. I've probably placed about 5 orders with wholesaletrains and it's always been great service and prices.
There were a couple times I had pre-ordered items and had later decided to cancel. Just sent an email and had them cancelled, no problem.
ETA's for Preorders has been right on schedule, at least with whatever Horizon Hobby gives them. (I usually buy HH micros)"

"I have been purchasing items from wholesaletrains.com aka Lantz's Hobby Shop for several years. I have never had an issue. Staff have always been helpful with anything that I have needed and answered most of my questions. The questions they could not answer quickly, they got answers for me. Any time they have not had something in stock, they have always ordered it in for me quickly. Other reviews complain about the word "available" but if you click on that link, it will tell you what that means as well as "next day", "pre-order", "advanced reservation", etc. Those individuals need to read the information given to them. All of the company's terms and conditions are also stated in black and white, which if you order anything on anysite...you should read them prior to purchasing anything."

"I ordered many items from them prior to this fiasco and everything went fine but, I placed an order in excess of $400, and I used the wrong credit card so it was denied, (my fault). Turned out they had already shipped it, and when they found out it was denied, THEY USED MY DEBIT CARD THEY HAD ON FILE FOR PREVIOUS ORDERS WITHOUT ASKING ME!!!!! When they said they had credited my account, my bank checked all possible places it could be and it wasn't there. Horrible customer service on the phone and arrogant. Stay away!"

"Absolutely horrible service. When I ordered the items said "available". I upgraded to 3 day express so I would get my items before the end of the week. First problem...there is no way to know how much they charge for shipping. I called them and they said there is no way to calculate a shipping cost until after the box is packed and weighed. REALLY??? So all the other 10 million merchants out there can figure it out but you can't? WOW. Second problem....After 3 days I checked my order and find that it has not even shipped. Well, there goes the "3 day express". I called customer service to inquire about why it hasn't shipped. She said all the items were not in and they were ordering them in and wouldn't be here until the end of the week. So available means "someone, somewhere, has these items and hopefully we can get them before our customer figures this out".
Sure, their prices were good on the items but I would have rather paid extra somewhere else and actually received my items.
First and last order with BS merchant."

"I placed an order with this so-called business only because as stated in their website, they had my item "available". Turns out that they didn't have it in stock and they wait to place orders for items that they are out of stock on until someone orders that item. I waited 2 days after placing the order and checked the status of my order. It still said "in process". So I sent them an email to inquire about the status of the order and to double check their stock status. NO REPLY.... EVER...
So I called on the 3rd day and that's when I discovered their policy of taking orders online for products that they didn't have "available" even when their website said "available". So now I wanted to cancel the order, since the item wasn't going to get to me by Christmas. I called to cancel the order on a Friday. I was told by the customer service rep that I'd have to call back on Sat. to speak with their online order manager. So I called back on Sat. Guess what? That person was not there and I was told by a different rep that the manager is not there on weekends. He said that he'd take a message and pass it to the manager to call me. Now, I'm a bit fumed. What legitimate business can't cancel an order when you call in? Well, I never got a call. So I called them back after a few days. Same deal, "we'll have our online manager call you". No call. So I called back again after a couple of days, only to find out that they had cancelled my order but were going to charge me a "processing fee". I have never paid a processing fee for cancelling an order, especially when the order got filled. So now I'm dealing will trying to get the processing fee removed by stating my case. I'm being told that I agreed to their terms of sale and that they'd refer my case to their online ordering manager and call me back. Guess what? NO CALL BACK... EVER...
I called 2 other times and was told the same thing. I finally spoke to a guy today. He was being short with me and restated their policy of charging customers for placing and cancelling orders. Then he stated if I wanted to dispute the charge I had every right to and then he HUNG UP ON ME!!! What the H@!!? So guess what? I called my CC company up and disputed the charge.
Turns out there are numerous complaints about this company, going back several years at least. From what I've read of the reviews, they have shady business practices across the board.

DO NOT ORDER FROM WHOLESALE TRAINS.COM or LANTZ's HOBBY SHOP IN NEW YORK."

"I have ordered from Wholesaletrains in the past and have been very satisfied. Ordered again on 12/24/11 but had to cancel. (Should have checked with Santa first!) Customer Service was most obliging and courteous. I cannot complain about a 7% restocking fee when the problem was on my end and not theirs. I will continue to trust them with my orders in the future and would recommend that other responsible folk, looking for great prices and customer service do likewise. "

"Positive review: Fantastic experience with my order from Wholesaletrains.com and very satisfied. I recommend highly! Placed order. Couldn't see shipping so called; got shipping cost so completed order online. Got confirmations, tracking emails, etc. Small glitch with happy ending: Item shipped to another customer with same name; wholesale trains.com customer service fantastic: I emailed them after seeing FedEx delivery email. Wholesaletrains.com called me back immediately and shipped the item to me OVERNIGHT at their expense. Very satisfied with company, item price (Lionel G Scale Polar Express: $39.50-incredibly low price), shipping costs ($17), customer service. I can't speak for those who have written negative reviews, but I certainly had a positive experience."

"Place a small order for about $100. I did not receive an order confirmation or a confirmation on the shipping cost. After a couple of days I tried to call the 800 number several times to get an update and always got a fast busy. I tried the local number and also got a fast busy. I called my CC company and warned them of possible fraudulent charges. I then sent an email to Wholesale saying I wanted to cancel the order. They did respond to me email the next day and said per their policy I could not cancel an order through email. I responded that I could not reach them by phone. Then an hour later I miraculously got through on the phone and canceled the order. They charged me a 7% fee to cancel the order even though it did not appear that they had done anything at all with the order.

Read the "term and conditions" and return policy if you want to order from them. Here are a few excerpts.



"Exchanges must be within 10 days from invoice date, replacement at Wholesaletrains.com/Wholesaleplanes.com's sole discretion. Please be aware that specific manufacturers have more restrictive return policies. All non-defective merchandise exchanges are subject to a 15% re-handling fee wich will be charged against the exchange . Other restrictions may apply.

Returned merchandise must be in unused condition and in its original packaging.

Merchandise that Can Not be Returned:
Train Track, Locomotives or Rolling Stock for any reason.

Order Cancellation
If we receive a cancellation request after your order has been accepted into our order processing system and we are able to physically accommodate your request, we will charge you additional paperwork processing fees of 7% (seven percent) or $5 minimum, which ever is more.

Orders will not not be cancelled via E-mail correspondence.
Cancellations will not be processed within 72 hours prior to the scheduled shipment day.

Refusing a Shipment
If we receive a shipment back that has been refused you will be charged shipping in both directions (to and from you) as well as a processing fees of 15%

RISK OF LOSS
All items purchased from Wholesaletrains.com are made pursuant to a shipment contract. This means that the risk of loss and title for such items pass to you upon our delivery to the carrier.


























































"

"Meh. I made a minimal order (about $100) to test the waters before making a larger order. I should have believed the bad online reviews.

Their "excellent" prices are fully counterbalanced by their excessive shipping charges. They won't quote you shipping charges until after your order... Looking at my records, the first quote on shipping was when they sent me the shipping notification 9 days after I ordered (shipping actually occurred several days after that). The shipping charges fully cancelled out any savings I made on the order, and I ended up paying the same or slightly more then comparable internet venders.

Shipping was slow too compared to top-notch sellers. 9 days shipping notification, shipment actually occurred in about two weeks.

I am shopping elsewhere in the future."