Any experience with Wholesale Trains?

Watch their shipping charges.

Shipping charges can be calculated if this is a source of confusion or worry. You can also call them; nice folks to deal with. I have ordered from several places om-line; I think they are a reputable dealer. They are one source for Atlas products for me. I would endorse them; if you are worried about shipping, call them. Bruce

I agree.  Beware of the shipping charges, especially if you're ordering a large order or heavy loco.  Also, from my personal experience, make certain that you really want the item you're ordering.  I needed to cancel an item once and it turned into such a big deal.  I didn't order from them since and that was about 2 years ago.

I ordered from them many times in the past.  All orders arrived in a timely manner and well packaged.  Shipping charges started getting higher and higher...they charged $27 shipping for a Williams by Bachmann Peter Witt trolley.  Rarely do I ever use them anymore.  Like F-V Trains said, call in your order to be sure what the shipping charge will be.

I bought a lionel car off of them and got it and it was damaged and they told me to send it back. I did and two weeks went by and they kept telling me there lionel guy suppose to look at it. Then i asked for my money back. I will never buy from them again.     

Ordered all my Gargraves track from them. For orders under $60, they have a handling charge. That can hurt on shipping. I will place big orders with them, but avoid the small ones.

 

Gilly

I have had the same problem with there shipping charges,i called them & they still could not give me the price for shipping,i have placed several orders in the past,but i doubt i will order from them in the future.

I agree with all the above......i have ordered from them in the past with positive results for some hard to find items but everytime I ordered I felt their shipping charges wereway above  the norm.

 

-Pete

I've order from them twice and will never do it again.  Their shipping is extremely high and you never know what the shipping cost will be until you receive the order.  IMO the prices are to good to be real because they make up for it on shipping and handling.

I ordered some track from them and I'm still not sure what the cost of the shipping will be. As a rule I buy from Charles Ro, but they did not have the track I wanted listed on their website.

 

 

I like this thread.  It's easy to make an informed decision with all the opinions offered here.  Thanks folks.  The forum rocks!!

Watch them as they'll charge you a restocking fee for a product they don't even stock!

 

When ordering online, if a item is shown as shipping "next day" then it's safe to bet that it's in stock. 

 

If said item is "available" then run very far away.

 

I've called and had an item verified as being "in stock" only to find 2 weeks later that it's not in stock...and the manufacturer was also out of stock so I cancelled my order and got charged for a 12% re-stocking fee?? for an item not in stock and not about to ever be in stock!!

 

I fought that fee thru Visa and won...I'll never order anything from them again!

I ordered from them often at one time. I then ordered a WbB loco at the price on their website with a free shipping offer. They changed the price of the loco and charged me for shipping. I had taken a screen grab of the sale price and free shipping shown on their site.....they said it was all a mistake and I could not return the item with costing me even more. I am pretty sure that was my last order. Just be informed going in.

Google Wholesale Trains. Their website pops up followed by BBB listing, RipOff Report Listing, Various scam reports, terrible consumer reviews, etc. Stay far away. 

I also like this kind of information from members. It's helpful to a lot of us.

"Verrrry interesting"

Good to know. I will not buy from them ever

a friend ordered some stuff yesterday, he thought the shipping charges were too high and he called them. after some wrangling they agreed on a fair shipping price. 

 

That's interesting that they were able to negotiate on the shipping charges.  To me that proves that they inflate their shipping fees above and beyond a normal amount.  Any other reputable dealer (like Pat's Trains, Just Trains, <insert your fav dealer here>, etc.) wouldn't even consider doing that since they normally charge the exact amount for shipping.  It seems that the general consensus on this thread is overwhelming.

I also had the same issue with shipping charges a couple of years ago.  I eventually got a $5 credit back after I was charged $19.99 to ship out a 6x6x6 cube box weighing under 2 lbs.  It took many calls to get them to finally act.  Order total was around $90 to begin with.  I quoted UPS around $11.  I have never been back.  Too many other dealers that you don't have issues like this with.

As pointed out above.

 

Thats because they offset the discount by inflating the shipping charges, its the oldest trick in the book.

 

So many reputable sellers with great prices and "cut and dry" posted shipping charges, I don't understand why folks bother with these folks.

 

"Penny wise, dollar foolish"

 

I pre-ordered an item from them once. They had a very good price. Never heard anything from them and never got the item. Their web site indicated it would be in stock within a few weeks but it never was.

 

Did not give them credit card so was never charged.

 

I think they show a photo of their store on the web site. Has anyone actually gone there?

Wholesale Trains is actually:

 

LANTZ HOBBY SHOP INC.
3312 SOUTH MAIN STREET
HORSEHEADS NY 14845

 

They just do not use their name for the website.

 

I have bought 3 locomotives from them in the last year. Yes their shipping charges are usually double the average charge but sometimes items on sale have such a low price that the high shipping cost is worth it.

Certainly not a good review of Wholesale Trains / Lantz Hobby Shop. Word of mouth is a killer for a small business.

 

Got a very good price from them on a train set to donate to sick kids at Christmas. Shipping was around $25.00, which seemed extreme.  So add another data point to that approach to doing things. 

 

I think I'll stick with more predictable companies with competitive prices such as Charles Ro, Nassau Hobbies, Nicolas Smith, Grzyboski's and the Model Train Store of New Jersey (Henry of Island Trains),  or similar retailers.

The item I want says "available" and not "ships next day", so I will steer clear and try to find the product elsewhere.  Thanks for the help!

 

In my honest opinion, you might be better off trying to locate the item you want from some other supplier.  Overall it appears that no one is truly happy with the service for various reasons.

 

Yes, I have been there since my wife's family lives in the Elmira area.  I would personally consider them a generic hobby store, as their store name (and website contents) suggests, with probably one long aisle of train items, typically rolling stock/buildings/track.  They had a couple dozen engines towards the front of the store but nothing too exciting.  As I was just getting back into the hobby at the time and was looking for something (I don't recall what) I asked the lady behind the counter a couple questions.  She said something to the effect the gentleman responsible for trains was not in that day and they don't stock expensive items but she could show me what they had in the stock room at the front, which (in my opinion) was not much and she would be happy to order anything and ship it to me.

 

I have considered them for purchases a couple times in the past but, as others have mentioned, the shipping was overpriced so I went else where.  I will agree with everyone else here that I generally use Nassua Hobby, Train World, Charles Ro, etc...  (and maybe Little Choo-Choo (Spencer) or Train Loft (Winston-Salem) if I'm in the area)

 

I will say they are on my list of places to visit when we do travel to Elmira and I would purchase something if it was in the store but shipping charges prevent me from using them as an online source.

 

- Jeff

 

 

Just ordered 4 FasTrack to tubular adapters from 'em.  Even with shipping, their price was better than anyone else online or on eBay, and the shipping was prompt!  Recommended!

 

Mitch

Transman

I understand what you are saying. I have dealt with a lot of the sponsors and really feel they wouldn't qualify to be one if they conducted their businesses like this one. I have never had a single issue with any of them.

 

I actually believe the boss here would listen to a legitimate grip with direct contact , not a thread complaining and moaning.

Larry

There are.better choices available. I could not get a definitive answer from them on shipping charges, not even a range,  while in the process of placing an order so I just hung up. 

Bottom line here, sometimes the cheapest price found online turns out to be the most expensive.  Sometimes paying a bit more at your LHS or with one of the OGR sponsors is well worth the peace of mind In obtaining a hassle-free transaction.

 

-Pete

I have no interest here. Nothing to gain from saying this, but my experiences with them have been nothing but positive and good. Granted, I'm not mail ordering, but going to the store in-person. Good prices and some in-store bargains like train set break ups, when they have them.

 

I've ordered items not in the store, ie: "available" and they are in the store within a week. All transactions have been on the up and up. They're nice to me, but I am also nice to them (I figure a smile on my face warrants a smile back) and respect the fact they're in business and there are some things beyond their control, like concerning product availability or price changes.

 

They've even given me some stuff over the years. I'm sorry so many have had other experiences, and hopefully the folks at WT, should they see this, will consider some of the comments and make changes they deem as necessary.

 

As others have said, there are other places selling trains. But that said, the whole train hobby business has lost enough retailers. We don't need to lose any more. On the hand, it goes without saying (like with the things said here about Nassau Hobby), places have to earn your repeat business.

The shipping rates are listed at the bottom of their home page and seem reasonable (Post Office blah), but an "F" from BBB and all the items I want there being listed as "available" and not ships "x day"...means I will take this threads advice and RUN LIKE HECK!

Without going into detail I will say that one of my worst experiences with a purchase from a dealer came from this company.

 

To be fair, I have also had one reasonable interaction with them as well.

 

They seem to run a sort of JIT delivery scheme. They stock very little actual product. When you view their website you are actually seeing the inventory stock of the distributor. If you see something you want, I would suggest you contact them in person to discuss it.

Ditto......

For a good period of time when I came to O 3r and moved to a rural area I used Wholesale Trains with a number of positive transactions. They had a sale on WbB locos and I bought a diesel and it was delivered in 2 days for under $100!!!

 

But it is the same dealer that did not honor a website price after I ordered it. I had a screen grab of the item....but never got a good answer why I could not buy it for the listed price. Seems it depends on what day or person you get.

 

Many good trans....one bad. An OK record.