August 24, 2007

InterMountain Cab Forward Fiasco!

As is becoming all-to common in our industry, once again model railroaders have been blatantly misled on delivery of expected products.

Intermountain has told Tony's for several months now that the first run of SP Cab Forwards with Soundtraxx Tsunamis would be shipping this summer and that all our reservations were covered. Yesterday we were told that we will be shipped only a handful of the number originally promised by Intermountain. It seems their entire 1st run was sold out long before they informed anyone and then announced the second run.

They continued to take orders on the first run part numbers with the knowledge that they were sold out. Like over-booking in the airline industry.

Now delivery of the balance of the first run and the second run are scheduled for 2008.

Although this is just the latest instance of falling short, we do not intend to single out Intermountain. Many companies are guilty of these practices. We believe we speak for all model railroaders when we say we are tired of the unprofessional way we are being treated by some of the model railroad manufacturers. The time for making excuses has passed.

What options do we have to return fire?

Tony's has been in this merry-go-round since 1991. In fact today after 16 years of operation we are still only able to ship about 50% of our orders complete ... creating 50% backorders! Our primary focus has always been customer satisfaction and support thus we have considered for a long time creating a "Manufacturers Rating System".

This undoubtedly would  make us unpopular with the manufactures and require some significant resources to administrate... but maybe the time has come?

As a model railroader, if you agree, tell your friends and send us an email. Include words MANUFACTURERS RATING SYSTEM in the body of the message.

For those of you who have Cab Forward reservations with us we will contact you as soon as possible and let you know your order status.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Tony