Pioneer Camaro pre-orders

[dreinecke]

While I'd love to see them in the next week, I guess I'd be very surprised. It also sounded to me like Jules is now using 2 factories to build these - 1 for bodies/tampo, 1 for drivetrain and assembly.

They cannot get here soon enough!

[Ember]

Let's face it. Jules would be sweating on getting them out. When I interviewed him in August/September he was expecting them to be released by the end on October. Poor blighter can't seem to take a trick at the moment.

[Burglar]

I have to say I'm really not impressed by any of this.

I still have not received anything from Electric Dreams, and no information as to what is going on regarding the 'investigation' as to where my parts have disappeared to. This is the only shipment from North America that I've had gone missing in the last 13 years except for a CD from some very dodgy guy who was using a Canadian account to ship CDs out of Mexico (ten years ago). In no case was there any reason to believe that the postal service had lost my mail.

Also I think that charging people immediately for items that may never appear (the Pioneer Camaros) is terrible business practice, and it is also the only time that a mail order company has done this with slot car pre-orders so I was not expecting it.

I'm also not expecting to see Pioneer Camaros any time soon, and I am $160+ down at a time when I am out of work ... :evil:

I guess my next step is to call Mastercard about it.

[dreinecke]

While it sucks that these have been delayed forever, and the stores have taken our money over a year ago, there isn't much more to do other than wait.

My hope had been that we'd get more official announcements and more timely ones too, but I figure that Jules is busy. I do wish he'd update the "NEWS" section of his website forum so folks would know more, even if it was a "Hey, we are running parts on production line." or, that there was a problem they've had to fix.

I fear that the lack of information from Pioneer is hurting them more than just simply posting something, and folks that are bent after a year of pre-paying may go away and bad-mouth the company or product - ultimately costing them customers. That's ironic, as the quality and production problems they've attempted to fix by moving factories was to do the same.

My last contact with Jules was right before Christmas, and I'm still hopeful that we get some solid info VERY soon. I know he was on a plane to China right after he emailed me.

I do know that I liked their previous products and the direction they were going well enough that I've been banging their drum loudly for quite some time and hope that things really turn around for them NOW.

[Burglar]

[TsgtRet]

[Burglar]

Turns out that I used Paypal rather than Mastercard, perhaps because Mastercard had been somewhat useless in resolving an issue with Amazon previously (however Amazon resolved that issue on their own account when I wrote to them; I made the mistake of approaching my Mastercard provider first). This explains perhaps why I was charged immediately. In any case I have filed a claim with paypal, but they closed it immediately:

"This dispute closed because it was opened for more than 45 days after the transaction date or did not meet other filing criteria."

I guess this is a case of 'buyer beware' with regard to paypal.

In my initial email to the supplier I stated: "Usually at this point if I were buying from ebay I would place a claim for non-supply of goods."

That was 9 December. At that point paypal would have proceeded to investigate my claim. Following some placatory email from the vendor, however, I delayed and then of course Christmas was upon us.

Total on paypal for that transaction being US$167.43

#1: I should have not put the parts on the same order
#2: I should not have used paypal for a pre-order that might never come (I honestly believed the hype about 'early December')
#3: I probably should have used a different vendor

Live and learn I guess. It is now up to the good graces of the vendor. Let's see if anything ever comes through on that front ...

[Ember]

This is a tough call. Yes, the Pioneers have been delayed yet again. This is getting beyond unfortunate and I do think Jules would do well to put someone on damage control to let everyone know what is going on.

Apart from those problems, the issue here to me is more about being expected to pay for pre-orders. Surely even with Paypal advance payment should not be required.

[Modlerbob]

Last year I pre ordered the Slot.It Gulf Ford GT40 through Electric Dreams and they charged my card when I made the order along with a few other items that were shipped immediately. Finally three or four months later when the Gulf GT40 hit the stores my order came with no additional shipping charges. But I too was a little upset that they held on to my money for so long.

[dreinecke]

Burglar - is it possible just to call the retailer, explain that you'd like to cancel the order and get a refund? Most retailers are pretty good about these things. I'd give that a try.

[Burglar]

Well they claim to have sent half of it (the parts) and are waiting to see if the post office coughs up I guess. I seriously find it difficult to believe that it is the post office's fault. I've never had anything go missing, and certainly nothing take longer than six weeks. Indeed, for the last four years everything has gotten here in under four weeks, even from Poland and Brazil.

[Cincyslots]

This is why we don't make a practice of pre-paying. That said, I paid on 11/12 for my order thinking it was on the way. :x I've email for an explaination but have not received a reply. To be honest, I'm getting a bit worried. I could have put that money towards something useful. :cry:

[Burglar]

[Burglar]

Well I am happy to say that I just received a full refund (via Paypal) of the US$167.43 for the parts and the two Pioneer Camaros.

If there are some Camaros floating around on ebay after they come out I might pick one up, but I'm not interested in any more pre-orders of Pioneer products. I tend to think that they will not sell out on pre-order anyway. The Hurtubise Plymouth by Monogram was supposedly only 504 units but I was able to buy a second one in a local shop months later and he probably still has some.

So in the end it was handled professionally by Electric Dreams. They have said though that in future they will not ship using non-trackable US First Class Mail and all future orders international orders "will need to be shipped via USPS priority OR Express mail international"