31 replies to this topic

[Lisa D.]

Has anybody ordered from an online company called Indoor Motorsports?

I placed a order on April 13, and still have not received it (Parma Super 16D motors). These motors are in stock at all others distributors. I have emailed this company at least six times, complaining about what is going on. It takes them over a week to respond to any email, they never answer my questions, just basic responses. They never give their name when responding, their website has no phone number or address. It is now over eight weeks and I've been given no explanation of why this order has not shipped.

I finally had to call my credit card company to dispute the charge, and it was taken off. I emailed this company to let them know that I disputed the charge and my order was canceled, than around a week later they responded to say they are going to re-charge my credit card and will not cancel the order (and still no explanation of why my order has not shipped). This is total BS. I finally had to cancel my credit card to stop this company from trying to recharge it again.

I am writing this to make any other people to watch out for this company. They do not seem to be legitimate.

[Cheater]

Lisa,

A Whois lookup gives this info:

Registrant Contact:
Indoor Motorsports
Andrew O'Bier

Fax:
5722 Linda Rd
Sandston, Va 23150-1310
US

Administrative Contact:
Indoor Motorsports
Andrew O'Bier (IMSLOT@AOL.COM)
+1.8042362938
Fax: +1.8042362938
5722 Linda Rd
Sandston, Va 23150-1310
US

Creation date: 01 Mar 2005 17:44:56
Expiration date: 01 Mar 2010 17:44:00

[Jairus]

Yup!

I have and this subject comes up about once a year regarding this eBay seller. The person in charge does not have a "shop" or a huge warehouse. He simply waits until enough orders are made that they/he can then order in bulk from the various manufacturers. Some buyers get in on the end of the "wait" and some have to sit for weeks until enough people make enough buys to make it cost effective to purchase in bulk. The seller is not breaking any rules but has so many pissed off buyers to make reading his feedback entertaining enough for popcorn and a beer.

You will get your order eventually, complaints non-withstanding, but be forwarned not to deal with this seller in the future.

[NY Nick]

I will never buy from them again. I waited a long time and I used a money order.

[Cheater]

Thanks for the info, Jairus!

The situation with Lisa's order seems at variance with info posted on Indoor Motorsports website:

We stay very busy so please always allow AT LEAST 4 weeks for processing your order & shipping as most products we carry are made to order for us, although most orders ship within 7-10 business days from our large inventory. Some products are made just for us so please be patient. The manufacturers cannot keep up with our orders now so patience is best as we offer unique products.

Fair amount of bovine fecal matter in this, if you ask me.

Another one that's rather humorous is:

Again, You can even just send us a Money Order or Personal check payment in the mail by creating your own invoice, unlike eBay who now will not allow paper payments, after you make up an Offline Order in the store - just print it and mail it to our offices.

Kinda hard to mail it when no mailing address is given on the website, not even a PO Box as far as I can see.

I will say that if they did accept mailed-in orders, the situation Lisa described would be in violation of the postal regs, which the last time I looked required shipping an order within 30 days of its being placed or the customer must be contacted to see if they wished to cancel it.

Lisa, I dunno why you decided to mail-order from this company but I would like to encourage you to order slot car parts from bonafide commercial raceways... almost all of them really need the business.

[Cheater]

Nick,

Where did you get the address for sending the money order, if you remember?

[idare2bdul]

I don't know if Indoor Motorsports has a track but normal policy from Parma would normally be not to sell motors to sellers that don't have a track. Most distributors hold to that.

The people that say it will take four weeks are ordering from someone else and hoping they have it to eventually ship to you.

[RomanK]

This guy used to have a raceway in Richmond, VA, some years ago. At this point he does not and the only "tracks" he has, as stated by his website, are in storage somewhere.

Not sure how he continues to purchase inventory from manufacturers or distributors.

Andrew was then, and it seems is now, a wheeler dealer so buyer beware.

[Don Weaver]

I agree with Cheater... please go out of your way to buy from your local raceway first and always. I even get Don at 'Slots of Fun' to order from Chicagoland for some items that only they have so he can make a little money. Order from another raceway if you have no other choice and from eBay for NOS, collectibles, etc.

I doubt any eBay seller has a track for you to race on and even if they do, odds are it's a pretty stout drive to get there.

Don Weaver

[Ramcatlarry]

The Uniform Commercial Code requires shipment or cancelation of an order within 30 days. Extension is not at the seller's descretion, but it can happen...

[Les]

Lisa D,

Why are you buying from an online store? Parma 16D motors are available in every shop that I have been in for the past 35 years.

The raceway owners should put some pressure on the distributors not to be selling to the guy!

[Lisa D.]

Thanks for all the info. I do purchase 95% of my parts from the local raceway I go to. But the ones I ordered were the Ultimate Racing Blueprinted Super 16s and my local raceway does not carry them. I have learned my lesson and will never purchase anything from that website again. I am new to this hobby and didn't realize these issues would arise. I understand that the raceways need the support of their racers and my intention was not to go against that, I just needed a motor my raceway doesn't carry. The area I live in only has two raceways close to me, which are still about an hour away, so I was left with no option.

Indoor Motorsports, in my opinion, is misrepresentimg themselves and are taking advantage of online purchasers. It is OK for them to take my money, but ship when they want to. If they were like most companies, they would charge the credit card, used for the purchase, when the item ships, not as soon as they get the order. I do understand that custom parts must be paid for in advance, but the motor I ordered is NOT CUSTOM and was in stock at the manufacturer.

They also have poor customer service, when they finally emailed me back after I told them to cancel my order, they told me it would not be able to be cancelled, re-stated their policy, which if they read what they emailed back to me, they would have realized that they don't follow their own policy of a four week processing time. They kept insisting that they were on schedule and my item would ship, but of course eight weeks later I still hadn't receive the part. I finally had to cancel my credit card because they wanted to re-charge it right away and I still would not have gotten the part.

Just beware about this seller and they way they choose to do business!! Thanks for your support.

Lisa

[Ron Hershman]

Lisa D,
The raceway owners should put some pressure on the distributers not to be selling to the guy!

One problem is... that this guy purchases more then some legitimate raceways on a monthly basis.

[Ron Hershman]

Thanks for all the info. I do purchase 95% of my parts from the local raceway I go to. But, the one's I ordered was the Ultimate Racing Blueprinted Super 16's & my local raceway does not carry them. I have learned my lesson & will never purchase anything from that website again.

That's because "Ultimate Racing" products are only available through Crawley Distributing. Maybe your raceway could order these from Crawley in the future?

And this is another reason why racers buy online versus their raceway. Some raceways will not take the effort required to fulfill their customers needs and the customers wind up going elsewhere.

[Michael Rigsby]

Better yet, Lisa, do the blueprinting yourself. All they do to the Ultimate motors is adjust the can bushing and solder it in, and then zap the magnets. That's it. Maybe put a set of Gold Dust brushes in. You can do that yourself and have the raceway zap the motor for about $2, and save yourself a ton of money. They are not hand-selected motors or anything special. They blow up just like the regular motors do.

Michael Rigsby

[Foamy]

I have seen parts we made sold online as Ultimate Racing and thought it WAS Crawley. Now I see it's somebody else??? WTF is going on here...

[Ron Hershman]

Ultimate is Crawley.

[Jerry Ward]

OK guys been there done that!!! It takes them four weeks before they ship your stuff. If you read there shipping process you will see it. They take a long time and it don't do no good to call or email

Jerry

[Nick D]

bovine fecal matter

Nice!

[Cheater]

It takes them four weeks before they ship your stuff. If you read there shipping process you will see it. They take a long time and it don't do no good to call or email

Hi Jerry,

Their shipping time I quoted above says "AT LEAST 4 weeks" and Lisa reported no product after eight weeks, which really is unacceptable by anyone's standards for stuff in stock at the distributors.

[Jerry Ward]

Yeah, you're right, Greg, eight weeks is unacceptable. I haven't got anything from them in years. Then it was three weeks, now four weeks.

Get all my stuff from my three local raceways to try to support them and keep 'em open. Hope Lisa gets the parts or the money back...

Jerry

[JimR]

I worked for a mail-order house for nearly 15 years but it's been a while.
IIRC (from five years ago):
- A company has 30 days from receipt of the order to send you the goods; if they can't they either must get your permission to back-order, or cancel the order (and refund your dough if you sent cash/check/ money order).
- If you accept the back-order then they have an addtional 30 days to complete the order, etc., etc.
- Violation of these rules could result in a $10,000 fine per order.

Most companies nowadays won't charge your card until shipment. When did you send the order and when was your account charged?

Anyway, for this clown to say that he won't even get to your order for four weeks puts him in violation almost immediately.

Wasn't there a past post about this guy?

[Cheater]

Wasn't there a past post about this guy?

Jim,

Jairus indicated there was, but that it was on another board. I also recall one but I agree with Jairus that it wasn't here at Slotblog.

[Darkron9]

Lisa,

If you want to buy an OTC blueprinted Parma Super 16D motor, just visit our own Ron Hershman's Fast Ones eBay store.

[Jairus]

Jairus indicated there was, but that it was on another board. I also recall one but I agree with Jairus that it wasn't here at Slotblog.

Greg,

I am pretty sure there is a post buried here somewhere in the last two years. My response to Lisa is almost word for word what I said then.

The post made on the other forum software, the first forum... is where I got burned and posted a "Anyone deal with this guy?" type of post.

I also posted a warning on this forum when he changed his name to "Indoor Motorsports". His previous name was Fiberglass-something or other back then. I only wanted two Mura magnet shims and it took five to six weeks to get them... in an envelope... one was bent.

Did a quick name search but I don't have the patience to sift through all the crap.