Atomic Systems

This post is to inform members of this Forum and the TRAIN-SIM.com Forum of a problem I had with a Pay-Ware vendor(CONTACT SALES LTD, Oxfordshire, UK). I am really not pleased with this company and urge readers NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY.

The Situation is as follows:
May 13th, 2003:
I sent an e-mail to CONTACT SALES Ltd. to inquire about the total cost of PRO-TRAIN-1(RhinetalBahn)CD with possible thought of later purchasing PRO-TRAIN-3 (SemmeringBahn). They are the sales agent for this CD since the producer Blue Sky does not sell direct. My address was stated below the signature as being from the Northeast USA.

May 13th:
Later that day a reply was received quoting the total price of PS 19.99 and PS 3.50 shipping with NO FURTHER mention of any limitations.

May 18th, 2003:
Order was mailed to their website listed street address with British currency as payment (since I don't own credit cards) along with copy of above e-mails to identify the order.

June 12th, 2003:
Still NOT in receipt of the PRO-TRAIN-1 program, I have e-mailed the company, and NO REPLY was received in inquiry to my order.

June 13th, 2003:
CONTACT SALES Ltd. once again e-mailed as to status of order. Reply was received later that day from one Yvonne Williams now stating they had NEVER received my order and they DO NOT ACCEPT American addresses.
They also now outlined a surreptitious way of ordering this product which was not told to me in the original inquiry of May 13.

AT PRESENT the company has FAILED to make good on this order.....into whose pocket has my original order/money gone??? since mailing a letter from point A to B will usually get from A tom B. (and the currency inside WAS secured against examination). Why now have they suddenly revealed they don't accept American orders.

MY FEELINGS ARE THIS COMPANY (when compared to all the other excellent pay-ware ones: 3-D Trains, Nels Anderson's Train Sim which DO go out of their way to accommodate errors) HAS FAILED TERRIBLY AND I URGE READERS NOT TO USE THEIR SERVICES. The sad thing being now I am out not only the money but the chance at 2 great programs.

Doug

PS: I will gladly forward any reader who questions this the actual e-mail correspondence

A couple of points - it is just possible that the post has been delayed. I've had stuff take over a month to get to me from the US by mail rather than courier, so it may be they genuinely haven't recieved your mail as it is still in transit - or more likely in a UK sorting office being used as a makeshift mattress. When you consider I've had mail take two weeks to travel twelve miles from the neighbouring city it's embarrassing to have to report that our previously excellent Royal Mail has lost the plot slightly.

Secondly, did you pay by cheque? If so has it been cashed? If it has you should be able to get the bank to identify what account it's been paid into. If they've had your money then it strengthens your case. At the very least you can ask for a refund.

If it was an international money order it may be worth checking with the US Mail to see if they are insured so at least you can get your money back.

I've always found contact sales very helpful TBH.

1. Contact your bank and find out the destination
2. Telephone contact sales again.

Most companies do not accept credit/debit cards direct, using a third party company that provides clearance. Then there's the card companies themselves which are separate from the banks which are a law unto themselves sadly. It looks like there has been an error along the way.

I'll never forget when I was at Ikea in Gateshead with £40,000 pounds in the bank after a house sale. Ikea rejected by card on account of insufficient funds..lol Hey, it was only a flatpack table! Course it leaves you high and dry, which is very annoying. But it proves a point the system isn't perfect.

Hope you get in sorted, but I suspect its an error rather than an attempt to rip you off.

If anyone here buys new PC equipment from vendors on EBay UK I can warn them about a nasty rogue on there. I won't mention their name on here but if you wish to contact me via email I'll gladly tell you who to avoid like the plague.

Digressing slightly, but I had a similar experience when I had a lump sum go in my current account. The Bank actually froze certain outgoing transactions because they thought it might be fraudulent and I actually had to ring the fraud section to get them to unflag the account!

I notice he said that he sent cash,IE UK £ notes,not a sensible thing to do.

Other than a couple of minor issues (their warehouse is sending out a lot of orders with our headed paper on them when the order is nothing to do with us) I've found Contact Sales also to be very good indeed, which is why all commercial software orders from this site go through them.

Unfortunately, one constant in life is that if you send cash through the British Postal service, it's chance of reaching its destination is not high. I'd use an International Money Order in future.

As far as ebay is concerned, i've done two transactions on there and both went horribly wrong. Bought two old relics of games consoles for my wife (she can't handle this modern 3D rubbish, she just wants Mario and Space Invaders ). First one took quite a while to arrive but did eventually, sadly it didn't work - took my dad completely dismantling it and cleaning it thoroughly, plus all cartridges, to make it work though it did work well once cleaned. I had been promised it was tested prior to despatch...

The second one just never arrived, cheque was cashed.

So I'm always very very hesitant to use ebay these days... I think it's just the crowd - my Dad buys a HUGE amount of railway stuff and has never had a problem to my knowledge, but then you're dealing with much more older and wiser folk than the kids that sell games

Matt.

I have to say I've used e-Bay a few times and had excellent dealings each time. However, it is run entirely on trust and like many things in life that trust sometimes gets abused. The flip side is (knowing a couple of major sellers) sometimes buyers try it on with sellers, claiming goods weren't what were described when faults and problems had been clearly posted. E-Bay is the purest form of capitalism around - complete with crooks on both sides.

Like you say it probably has to do with the merchandise sector you are interested in.