I have to ask a question about hobby stores and catalogs

Maybe this guy just sits in his store and thinks he is the only place you can by trains!!

  I would have said yes, I am on the list, make him look up my name and when he says I am not, I would say why not it should be.

Art

I have to disagree. So, you walk out never to return, but how's the shop supposed to know you didn't just move away or get out of the hobby, as opposed to making a statement about how crummy the shop is for doing that?

I'm pretty sure leaving the merchandise on the counter and walking out spoke volumes.

Dave Ripp.

I must agree that the logic of all that posted is correct, I just wouldn't take such a hard line.

Every business should be acutely aware of the consequences of customer satisfaction, to the point of trying to achieve customer delight. There are very positive consequences for a great experience and there are dire negative consequences for a bad experience. The supplier must focus on that reality to hope to flourish in business.

I don't like to burn bridges and don't like to react to disappointments. I would take the tact of attempting to salvage the experience. I might have replied, "I was sure looking forward to getting that catalog. Is there any way I can talk you into parting with one today? I'd really like to get on your catalog list going forward."

If that failed, I'd take it in stride. Now, I may, after I calmed a little, decide to never return. Of course if they're the only LHS reasonably close, I might have the occasion to make a return visit... for maybe only very small purchases, and make a dig about the shortage of catalogs (in a light comment).

Roman, That is a deja vu moment for me because it happened to me including the paint! I went to a "Hobbyland USA' about 30 minutes from where I live. This is well over 10 years ago. I too picked out some bottles of paint, looked at the "O" gauge train items, saw the new Lionel catalog , picked one up and went to the counter to pay. The store manager made a fuss that I didn't purchase any Lionel product therefore no Lionel catalog! They did have a sign by the Lionel trains that said "Free Catalog with $5.00 purchase of Lionel products. I figured that the $10 worth of paint I was going to buy would more than equal $5.00 worth of Lionel product but not in the manager's eyes. Long story short, I left without paint and catalog and the store lost a customer.

I don't know how many hundreds of dollars that $5.00 catalog cost that store!

I love giving catalogs away. Part of the great LIONEL tradition I thought. It is always great seeing a parents eyes light up just as much as the kids eyes when we hand them a nice full color catalog at no charge, whether they bought something or not.

Sorry, I don't beg a store for anything.

Best response yet!  Then when he does not find your name, get mildly irate and leave.

I agree....that would be the best response to the situation.......knock the ball back into his court then leave!

Pete

When I was younger I loved to look for a reason to argue.  Seems now I look for getting through life with the least amount of friction.

In this case, if I went into a store looking for paint and I found what I was looking for, then that trumps hassles with people at the store.  I'm too lazy to look for the paint somewhere else over someone who could give two craps what I think.  I went there for paint.

Last words... I had a beagle that hunted rabbits.  At least until he got on a deer.  Then I was hunting beagle.  It's easy to to get distracted.

Roman, you did exactly what I would do, no wonder some train stores are going out of business when customers are treated as you were.   

Years ago depending on circumstances, an argument, for the most part, was not a big deal!

NOW!  One has to be politically correct and mind his 'P's' and 'Q's!'

Ralph

I think that I had so much going through my head at that moment and just didn't know what say right then. My last thought was I'm too tired, already been on the road for quite a while and I'm just done.

I though about calling them as I was driving away just to say that they had probably lost a customer. I haven't spent hundreds of dollars but it was a fair amount and also I have referred them to others folks. I probably won't now. I may just go back again at some point down the road, browse around the store and see if they remember me.

I have a nearly 6 hour drive tomorrow and the Train Shack in Burbank is an easy off easy on spot along the freeway I take so I should have a catalog to thumb through tomorrow night.

I had a German-Shorthaired=Pointer that hunted deer.  Then he met a Volvo, and he hunted no more.

Another reason to buy from Henning's Trains!

What Bill just said is what Model Railroading is all about.

If more stores did like Bill does with those catalogs, maybe more young people would be joining the hobby.

Instead of being scared away by mean store owners.

One hobby shop near me is just like this.  Another, once they realize I'm looking at train items, hands catalogs out while I'm looking around the store.

I think Roman handled this reasonably and commend him for walking away from an argument with a brain-dead clerk.  The attendant really didn't care a hill a beans about what the customer wanted.  I would have still bought the paint, as losing that sale wouldn't make much of a statement, and why bite your nose to spite your face?  Unfortunately, just as the malls closed many "downtown" retailers, e-trade is increasingly becoming the final coffin nail for many brick & mortars.  I make it a point to support my LHS businesses for 50% of my purchases even if the item is near MSRP.  Its very beneficial for me to see the engine in person, as photographs rarely depict the actual color.  I can also understand the frustration store owners have with people coming to their shops to see and feel and item, then make the purchase over the web.  One of my locals has a full time kid working in the store that knows nothing about train product and is only interested in selling R/C cars and helicopters (and now spy drones that take pictures).  His favorite reply, repeated on so many occaisions is "I didn't understand a word you said".  Very frustrating!  So they just lost a customer, but lucky there are still many fine shops in the greater Pittsburgh area.  

I've never had to be on a list but there have been a couple of occasions at various hobby shops where I had spent several hundred dollars on an item/items and while paying for it I would toss a catalog into the pile at the register and then the person manning the cash register would add the 2 or 3 dollars cost of the catalog to the total. I can see paying for a catalog if that's all you're picking up or if you're only spending a few dollars but it seems a bit odd to charge me for a 2 dollar catalog while I'm buying a $400 locomotive.

Jerry

Well, got my catalog from the great folks at the Train Shack plus something else special.

Happy ending, Roman.

Well Roman, I hope you find something you want to buy in this catalog.  Much has been written about it.  Good hunting.

I believe Roman's response was great.  Getting irate or arguing would have "proven " to the dealer that Roman doesn't deserve to be treated as a valuable customer.  Keep your money in your pocket and the merchandise on the counter.  That puts the ball in his court. 

My LHS also has a sign saying free catalog with $5.00 purchase, but if they know you they just hand you a free catalog. I am wondering if Lionel charges the dealer for the catalogs or catalogs are free depending on the amount of the dealers purchases from Lionel ?.

I need to apologize for a serious misunderstanding that resulted from my original reply to Roman's post.

I did not provide any context to my attributed comment by Bernie Marcus and my ineptitude led a respected and good guy forumite member, "P51", to draw an incorrect but reasonable assumption in a subsequent reply of his. Again, all my fault, and a deep apology from me to the forum.

Here are the facts: As some of you may know,Bernie Marcus was  the co-founder and CEO of The Home Depot. I had the once in a lifetime priveledge to work for Depot during it's formative and expansion phase, a career of some 16 years.

Mr. Marcus would personally give training classes to supervisory and management employees which I was priveledged to attend.

Bottom line...when Bernie would say that a customer wanted to  spend money in our store... he wanted us to understand what an honor that was. A customer could have chosen anywhere to shop but they chose your store!

He wanted us and all employees to treat the customers like royalty,to do what ever it took to make a customer happy,nothing less would satisfy the Home Depot culture.He called it "Bleeding Orange".No one ever got in trouble for honestly trying to help a customer.

I hope this makes the intent of my original reply to Roman more understandable,and again I regret any misunderstanding which I may have caused.

Clearly the shop owner should have given Roman a catalog without any hassle,I feel sure that Mr. Marcus would have insisted on it.

Regards, John