Squadron-dot-com's unofficial motto: "Whenever you want something, you can't have it".

T_Terrific wrote:

BlackOps wrote: Tom, I'm sorry to hear you've had problems with Squadron, I've had nothing but good dealings with them (hope I didn't just jinx myself). On the other hand I have had dealings with a company everybody swears by and had nothing but problems. I just don't use them, I think sometimes things happen that are just beyond our control.  I have had similar experiences from the other side of the fence too. I pride myself on doing the best possible work and giving the best possible service to my customers but sometimes things happen. We had a customer give us a try only to have a piece of exuipment go down, the customer was in a hurry and had to go somewhere else. Fast forward a couple of months and the customer returns and danged if the same thing didn't happen (different piece of equipment) but he said he gave us a chance and we failed. This really bothered me and no matter how hard we tried to make it up to him he wasn't going to have anything else to do with us. The worst part is I think those were the only two times the equipment had gone down in several years. Sometimes things are not meant to be.   Thanks Blackie, but the main purpose of my complaint was and is the hope that maybe someone form their organization would read my post and seek to take steps to correct the situation. You see, the local war games shop manager here told me that their company is/was going through some sort of buy-out transition, and many of his customers, who were long-term customer of Squadron were having the same complaint. In fact he told me that they were messing up on a lot of his shop's orders as well. The outfits that I specifically have not had these types of problems with are:  http://www.militaryhobbies.com/  http://testors.com/ Interestingly enough neither of these advertise directly with FSM. Tom

Tom,

I couldn't help to see that military hobbies were one of the the suppliers that haven't made any errors on your orders. I know them as Northstar Hobbies. The guys there are a great bunch in person, if you ever make it up to Toronto, check them out. They are only 10 min. away from the airport.

Northstar does have ads in FSM in the classified section. With the Mississauga address.

Just to give you a quick geography lesson Mississauga and Toronto are so close that you can't really tell that you have crossed city lines.

i am the greatest modeler wrote:

didn't they lock someone's posting here for complaining about a vendor ????

Not if it is legitimate complaint regarding substandard service or misrepresentation of a product.

FSM does not want bad business advertisers any more then anyone alse. They're not begging for ad money you know.

In fact, I would think FSM might contact a vendor if they get enough complaints to find out what is going on, since it can make them look bad as well.

No auto manufacturer or retailer ever got better by ignoring valid customer complaints.

Tom

BlackOps wrote:

Tom, I'm sorry to hear you've had problems with Squadron, I've had nothing but good dealings with them (hope I didn't just jinx myself). On the other hand I have had dealings with a company everybody swears by and had nothing but problems. I just don't use them, I think sometimes things happen that are just beyond our control.  I have had similar experiences from the other side of the fence too. I pride myself on doing the best possible work and giving the best possible service to my customers but sometimes things happen. We had a customer give us a try only to have a piece of exuipment go down, the customer was in a hurry and had to go somewhere else. Fast forward a couple of months and the customer returns and danged if the same thing didn't happen (different piece of equipment) but he said he gave us a chance and we failed. This really bothered me and no matter how hard we tried to make it up to him he wasn't going to have anything else to do with us. The worst part is I think those were the only two times the equipment had gone down in several years. Sometimes things are not meant to be.

Thanks Blackie, but the main purpose of my complaint was and is the hope that maybe someone form their organization would read my post and seek to take steps to correct the situation.

You see, the local war games shop manager here told me that their company is/was going through some sort of buy-out transition, and many of his customers, who were long-term customer of Squadron were having the same complaint.

In fact he told me that they were messing up on a lot of his shop's orders as well.

The outfits that I specifically have not had these types of problems with are:

 http://www.militaryhobbies.com/

 http://testors.com/

Interestingly enough neither of these advertise directly with FSM.

Tom

Been a couple months since I ordered (money's a little tight), but I ordered several times since last Aug. when I recieved my first sale flyer, always sale items from the flyer or the Comsale, and have only had one back order (1/72 Italeri Prussian Curaseirs) and I think they arrived in under a week. (I have it set "home", ie the family farm and not my sister's where I stay when I'm at for school. The main order came while I was home for the weekend and the figures before I came home the next weekend.)

Straight line about 2 hours, but that's just to the border. I live above Washington State, about halfway across. To get to a decent size town is about 4 hours, with Seattle or Spokane being about 6 hours away (12 hour round trip). I would still need to get across the border without declaring the package, or stay long enough to meet the criteria for the minimum duty free amount which is (I think) 4 days. The last time I was in Seattle I looked at airbrushes, and they were retailing for not much less than in Canada (given the exchange at the time). Online is still the best deal.

It would probably benefit me to find a buddy in the States and have him forward the packages to me via the USPS. It would take longer, but typically it avoids the duty issue. All in all I saved money, so I'm still ahead of the game. It just irks me that my government benefits so much from a simple online purchase. Especially since I know how well they are at spending it!

mfsob wrote:

Bgrigg - I hear you about those lovely men and women in Canadian customs who keep you safe from all that is not good! I've had to pretty much give up shipping "stuff" to several friends up north because Canadian customs has, more than once, removed things from a box because they didn't deem it suitable to be seen by the Canadian public. Dunno why a plastic snake would be considered "bad," but that's just one example. *goes off shaking his head at the lunacy of an entrenched bureaucracy*   P.S. - I've always had good luck ordering from Squadron.

It probably was a endangered specie plastic snake!

Here's a fine example of why I rarely buy online:

Recently bought a new airbrush (Badger 200-20) for $39.95 US. Now this brush sells at the LHS for $129.95 Canadian + PST & GST taxes (total of 13%) for a real total of $146.84 CDN. Current exchange rate was 8% so the $39.95 became $43.15CDN. Shipping was $24.59 US ($26.56CDN), and I paid "duty" at the door of $37.11CDN. This raised the price to just under $105CDN, so I still saved a whack of money, but why they would value the duty so high (86%!!!) is beyond my comprehension. Especially since we have TWO "Free" Trade agreements between our companies. 

I need to look up what free means in my dictionary. I'm pretty sure it means free to do whatever they want to! 

Bgrigg - I hear you about those lovely men and women in Canadian customs who keep you safe from all that is not good!

I've had to pretty much give up shipping "stuff" to several friends up north because Canadian customs has, more than once, removed things from a box because they didn't deem it suitable to be seen by the Canadian public. Dunno why a plastic snake would be considered "bad," but that's just one example.

*goes off shaking his head at the lunacy of an entrenched bureaucracy*

P.S. - I've always had good luck ordering from Squadron.

Tom, I'm sorry to hear you've had problems with Squadron, I've had nothing but good dealings with them (hope I didn't just jinx myself). On the other hand I have had dealings with a company everybody swears by and had nothing but problems. I just don't use them, I think sometimes things happen that are just beyond our control.

 I have had similar experiences from the other side of the fence too. I pride myself on doing the best possible work and giving the best possible service to my customers but sometimes things happen. We had a customer give us a try only to have a piece of exuipment go down, the customer was in a hurry and had to go somewhere else. Fast forward a couple of months and the customer returns and danged if the same thing didn't happen (different piece of equipment) but he said he gave us a chance and we failed. This really bothered me and no matter how hard we tried to make it up to him he wasn't going to have anything else to do with us. The worst part is I think those were the only two times the equipment had gone down in several years.

Sometimes things are not meant to be.

The three digit number is a validation number only. It is required on all online and telephone orders. It is NOT required for in-person purchases for the simple reason is it's in person. Some places are now requesting photo id of the card holder before processing in order to cut down on the billions of credit card frauds that are out there.

I tend not to order online as it's a real pain in the nether regions to ship to Canada without my own government screwing me over in duty charges, not to mention horrific delays. The few times I've dealt with Squadron has been a pleasure.

Zokissima

On the CC issue, I would say that YES here in LA things ARE differing that other places. Since I moved here from California I have had exactly ONE person check my ID when I handed them my card. In all other cases where someone took the card from me they just swiped and handed, swiped and handed....When I left CA a few years ago it was to the point that you had to give your CC and at LEAST one form of ID (Including ANOTHER credit card, if you can call that ID!)  to use it.

But then again here people in my neighborhood never seem to close thier garage doors or lock thier cars and complain when thier stuff gets stolen (seems to be pretty much Post Katrina that that is happening).

Anyway yes Louisiana seems to be in the dark ages on CC practices.

David

Like Scotty, I have been ordering from Squadron for 19 years from Germany, Texas, Alabama, New Jersey, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia, New York. Any problem I've had was quickly rectified, normally a missing item from a larger order or being sent the wrong item (usually a transposed stock number). They've always sent me the right item and often tell me to keep the wrong item.

I haven't ordered from them in about 4-6 months, but when I order from them, I get the items within a week or so.

I am in the middle of an annoying Squadron order now...

I ordered some supplies last month and was very happy. So this month I ordered a hasegawa 15,000 Curtiss Fighter P-40N...

Last week a box with a Hase. FW-190 showed up. So I immediatly called them and explained the situation, the operator seemed to understand the mix up and told me to send it back with a promise to refund the shipping...

Today I get a voicemail (my phone is off at work) explaining they received my P-40 I returned to them, they dont know why...

 I have to call them after work today and explain... If they just read the box perhaps they would see what the trouble was...

I will give them a call today and if they cannot figure this one out I am going to give up on them.

Update: So I called them and the operator was nothing but helpful and pleasant to deal with. I explained the situation and she said she would take care of it *knock on wood*. Hopefully I'll be seeing my P-40 soon...

Update #2...I received a full refund for the return shipping, and received the correct kit, with an apology on the receipt.

While this was aggrevating I will likely order from Squadron in the future because they took the time to correct their mistake in a timely and courteous fashion.

Maybe the problem is not with Squadron like T_terrific claims.  He stated that he went to a hobby shop and had them order it.  Then the hobby shop kept saying it was on back order, hmm, sounds like the hobby shop dropped the ball, never placed the order, and were trying to save face by blaming Squadron.  And as for calling Squadron directly about the back ordered items, if it wasn't even ordered in the first place, they wouldn't know anthing about it.  Also, I seriously doubt that Squadron will give out any information about an order to just anyone who call asking about it.  You have to give them a customer number to get any information about an order. 

Henry

A foot note here....On Tuesday I ordered from Squadon a Grand Phoenix FJ-4B Fury which they listed as 60% off on their sale flyer, along with a couple of Eduard 1/32 detail sets for my FA-18D Hornet. The order came in this afternoon (Saturday) so needless to say I have never had a problem with Squadron.

Scott

Nope...I must say I have never had a problem with Squadron in all the years I dealt with them.

Now Great Models on the other hand have always been a headache, seems most of thier stock is on back-order and delivery is extremely slow. I have cancelled orders with them after having waited 8 weeks or more, than turn around and order the same item from Squadron and receive it within a week.

Holy geez, you're kind of a long-winded complainer. DOn't take that too seriously, its just a joke

Whenever I go on the Squadron site, and look for some of the particular things I want, its always 'out of stock'. Granted most of the kits I'm currently looking for are from European manufacturers, and no one seems to have too many of them.

That, coupled with the fact that Squadron's prices are usually a little higher has led me to not order anything from them in a while.

As for your credit card woes, well, I guess you folks down in Louisiana are pretty lucky, or pretty paranoid, with your credit card practices. Most places in all of North America that I've ever used CCs for payment, TAKE the card FROM YOU, and process it. The three digit number in the back is another form of validation, and has something to do with the actual card number attached to the account. Its just a way for them to check that the card is in fact valid. Were you on the phone with them when you gave them this, or did they require it from their online order page? There are some online vendors that WILL require this number. The number is actually a safety precaution for vendors, those dealing with sales where the customer isn't actually at the counter with a card, and they use this number for verification.

http://www.mymerchantaccountblog.com/2007/02/visa-credit-card-security-features

Anyways, best of luck. Don't like Squadron? Use the manufacturer ID numbers for the items you want from their catalogue, and go to http://www.greatmodels.com/

Anywa

As far as online ordering goes squadron is my go to place. I have been ordering stuff from them for at least the last 4 to 5 years. My wife orders stuff for me every christmas. Neither one of us have had a single problem with them. Even with back orders and such there service has been excellent in my experience. The other thing I like about them is shipping. There in Texas I'm in Ohio. I have had order get to me in 3 days, 5 days topps. That's better than any other online store I have delt with so far. You also have to take into account my local post office put's the snail in snail mail. I'm supprised you are having problems.

I've dealt with Squadron for several years now and the only problem I had with them I caused.  I ordered a couple of kit out of the last flyer and when I hadn't received them, decided I would give them a call when I got home.  When I got home that night, there was a message on the answering machine from Squadron, asking me to call them back as they had a problem with my ATM card.  We discovered that when I had made my phone order, I had transposed some numbers which made it appear as if the card was expired.  Got that straightned out and 3 days later got my order (still only a week from the date of order)

One thing I wonder about is are the folks who have problems with their order are mailing the orders in or are they phoning the orders in.  Reason I ask is that I only phone my orders in and other than the above mentioned problem, haven't really had any problems with them.  (and I can say pretty much the same about Roll Models) 

Sorry to hear about your squadron problems, I've ordered from them about 1/2 dozen times and one time did have a problem where they lost my order. But all in all, they seem to be okay. The 'back order' issue really seems to be a problem plagued by many online retailers.

As for the security code for Credit card, its fairly standard pratice for many online retailers, internet or phone only. Its their way to help insure someone hasn't stolen your credit card # from somewhere. As merchants are required NOT to store those numbers anywhere except for the brief period they need to process the transaction. That's why the code is there in the first place - to help verify who you are and its not stored electronically in the strip. Now, whether you trust any merchant with that information is a personal call - as you may recall last year, there was a big deal when a big retailer did not proballly dispose of those #'s and retained them by mistake.

As for only using credit cards at places where you can swipe it yourself or have a clerk swipe it infront of you, its not always practical. For example most restaurants I go to take your card and then swipe it for you. They don't have a cashier like a diner where you can watch the card being swiped. Also, clerks in dept stores have been caught 'skimming', they have a second swiper underneath the counter where they swipe your card again to copy all the information to be used illegally later. Just a bit of a warning when you do let someone swipe the card, even if its for a short time. But it goes to show, if someone really wants to steal your CC info, their unfortunately many 'easy' ways to do it.

I have always had good service from Squadron. you also have to consider the monthly catalogs are not made over night so some items will not be in stock by the time you get yours. As for a order being held hostage I dont think so, beside if it dose come in later they ship it for free.

Thad

The best bet in all cases is to deal in cash and with a local shop.

And here in BR......well.....we know how that road ends, don't we Tom! :)

David

ajlafleche wrote:

I don't regularly order from Squadron since they don't carry a lot of the figures I want at any given time, but I did recently order (on-line) the current Historical Figures Magazine. It was delivered Fed Ex in just about a week, Texas to Massachusetts. If so, sale items, as in any sale can be limited. If your update flyer was delayed,. the lucky folks who got theirs early may have scoffed up the specials. Same with new items, especially long awaited items where demand may be high.

My goal is not to belabor Squadron's shortcomings, nor to get into petty disagreements over minutae, but to see if I can point something out to someone "over there" who should "give a d___" and see about correcting the situation.

So far, in all the responses, I do not see anyone who represents them, who also is a major advitisor in FSM's mag, come forth and offer any sort of apology or explanation

Why am I not surprised?

Since your questions seem objective and sioncere, here is my response to them Mr. ajlafleche:

1.

ajlafleche wrote:

T, quite a lot of on-line/phone ordering require the three digit code. And if someone has your card, they're going to see that anyway.

I don't know how it is in Mass, but here in Louisiana, whenever I use my card, never hand it to a clerk for anything. I either swipe it myself at the gas pump, or wherever I shop, they have card readers on the counter that the customer swipes for themselves. A clerk would have to be pretty fast to get all of my 16 didgets, and the card expiration ,as well as the correct name on my card, as well as the code off the back of my card under these circumstances.

I did have one instance of someone, by playing dumb and taking a while with my card, getting my info and wrongly charging somethng to my account, so I just called up the card company and told them, and they fixed it. So I have had this happen to me before and I feel justified in being concerned.

The fact is nobody else I have ever bought from past or present requires this info, and, oh by the way, I do not shop websites that require that either, and I get by just fine.