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Lessen

Lessen

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Ok, maybe I'm out of line here but this just doesn't sit well with me. This is the email I sent Tower Hobbies concerning my issue with their apparant backorder policy of select merchandise. I know some might find this petty, but this just annoys me. What do you guys think?

To whom it may concern,

I recently attempted to purchase some items, some of which needed to be backordered which I am fine with. My concern is that for one item (Pactra Inca Gold aerosol) I was prompted to make a minimum order of 2 cans in order to backorder this product. I do not want two cans as I do not need two cans of this product. In my opinion this is unacceptable. Tower Hobbies is in the business of retail, not wholesale, and I don't feel I should be forced to order more product than I need just to get it at all. When I am contacted that this has changed I will continue with my $100 order, otherwise I will shop else ware. Please advise.
 
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Dude...I just tried to order some paint too a couple days ago and they said I needed to order THREE of the one once bottles of the Patra Acryl. I did just go shop somewhere else. I found a place called E-hobbies with a great selection of paint. First order with them so we will wait to see how it goes before I can recommend them.
 
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Thats insane. Companies are forcing people to buy "bulk" supplies because they dont have them in stock? Wow......
 
What a rip off! I guess I'll just buy mine locally. It's great that I have lots of hobby shops and craft stores nearby.
 
If I don't get a response by Wed. or Thurs. I will print out my "shopping cart" and take it to the closest HobbyTownUSA.

What pisses me off most is that I consider this unwarranted. It's not like it's an oddball item from some small company. This is a Testors product. I can imagine how many thousands of Testors products that Tower sells annually. I wouldn't be surprised if Tower was Testors largest buyer in the internet market. This is just rediculous.
 
Lessen, that's total BS, I would simply shop elsewhere personally. I have a good friend that is my nearest hobby shop owner, and he is a Great Planes (Tower's parent company) distributor. Some of the things they do to their dealers is no better. Some of the other things I've dealt with Tower on aren't in the best interests of customer service either, thus, I only shop Tower if I have to. I will say that A Main has some of the best customer service I've encountered, those guys are great.
 
I wish Amain stocked more building supply type stuff that tower usually has.
 
alpinehyperlite said:
Thats insane. Companies are forcing people to buy "bulk" supplies because they dont have them in stock? Wow......
Click to expand...
Insane, is right.
About a month ago I ordered some Spaz stiz paints from Tower. For every $25 order you got 2 free 2 oz. bottles. My order was over $50, so I got 4 bottles.
Sounds great, eh? Not quite. Any color I wanted, as long as it was deep red.
I guess they were overstocked and no one was buying it.
 
frickenjoey said:
Dude...I just tried to order some paint too a couple days ago and they said I needed to order THREE of the one once bottles of the Patra Acryl. I did just go shop somewhere else. I found a place called E-hobbies with a great selection of paint. First order with them so we will wait to see how it goes before I can recommend them.
Click to expand...

eHobbies is good. I've dealt with them, before. I had to find somewhere else to buy my slot car track, after Tower decided they didn't like my PayPal account. Tower kept complaining that the information in my account with them didn't match my PayPal account info. Probably something to do with the fact Tower's system insists upon changing everything to ALL CAPS.

Considering that Tower has screwed up every large order I've ever placed with them, I was fine to be given yet another reason to shop elsewhere.
 
Good point guys, I don't really paint or do scratch built stuff. Apparently according to others in this thread, it's not an isolated incident at all. I would say they better step it up, or else; but, due to the fact they supply many smaller, and I guess larger hobby shops, sadly one guys small order probably doesn't matter much to them. But, that doesn't make it right though. Just one more reason I miss the good ole days. You know, where you looked up the number in a phone book / magazine and actually talked to a human being, and customer service actually counted for something.
 
Lessen and guys, This policy is not just for paint. I needed to order a set of foam liners for savage battery trays and they told me i had to order 3 packs in order to have it back ordered.

When I called Tower CS about it, they CSR told me to just buy the 3 and return the other 2 and they'll credit my card for the difference. To me that is not a solution, just a lazy work around so i declined it and ordered from a different site. in short its BS. Tower has slowly been losing my business to other sites (DDM/Amain) and will continue to lose it unless they change their thought process.
 
Yep. That's BS too. Why should you (or I) have to do the legwork to work around THEIR red tape. Screw them. I'm kind of surprised at how common this is, I'm quickly rethinking whom I do business with. That's just crap customer service. Simple as that.
 
From my experience with Tower, they force you to backorder more than one of any item whenever the cost of the item is less than $10.

Also, they will not automatically make price adjustments on items you backorder or pre-order. If you backorder an item and it costs you $49.99 and the price drops to $39.99 by the time they get it in stock, it is up to you to contact them and get a price adjustment. Horizon does the same thing. This I have a real problem with.

I just wish AMain was not in my state do I wouldn't get dinged sales tax. LOL
 
AMain is a top notch company for sure.

One of these days I will make the 2 hour drive and visit their store.
 
Well, I ended up ordering all my stuff from Ehobbies.com. The cans are actually quite a bit cheaper and everything I wanted was in stock. The downside is that they do not seem to be very fast. My stuff is not scheduled to arrive until around Feb. 4th or something like that. But I did get free shipping and an extra 10% off on my order. It seemed like if you browsed their site long enough a little pop-up comes up in the corner of the screen offering 10% off if you finalize your order within 15 min. That's kind of a cool way to drive sales. Granted the battery I bought was $15 cheaper at AMain, but the 9 cans of paint washed that @ 1.80 cheaper a piece compared to Tower.
 
Yep, shipping was faster than quoted. I was expecting the stuff on a Wed. or Thurs. but I got it that Monday if I recall correctly. Not lightning quick, but fair for free shipping.
 

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