TrainCat - anyone have any contact with Bob lately

Has anyone ordered anything from Bob Knight at TrainCat lately

I placed an order in June, got an order confirmation, and have heard nothing since then.

I have send a couple of emails to Bob, but no reply to any of them.

I see that Bob has posted on THeRailwire within the past week or so. Tried to join, but it says my email address is SPAM

I am waiting on this stuff to finish is project.

I see that Bob was at the NMRA show earlier this month.

Does anyone know how to get ahold of Bob?

Thanks

Tom

 

I'm in the same boat:
Ordered & paid in July, sent check-in email mid-August, haven't heard back.
Very strange as Bob is usually very on-top of things and usually ships orders same-day (or faster!)
I've ordered a lot of stuff from him & he's always been very quick and complete, so I hope everything's alright with him.

 

Yeah. Me too. Ordered, paid via PayPal, acknowledged, and then nothing. Emailed him Saturday, no reply...also hoping there's no problem.

 

I know he was talking about another batch being etched, but I don;t know what he was etching. He has been on RailWire, but his post count has been very low the past few months.

 

Hasn't answered e-mails for months.

 

Ordered and Paid via Paypal back June 22nd sent several emails. He did answer the original order fulfilled email with an email explaining that he was 'busy' so not clear.
Guess customer support is lower in the pecking order. Too bad because he has a nice catalogue of items that would be nice on any layout.

 

A long while back I ordered something form him and recieved it in about 4 weeks. I sort of remember hearing that this was basically a one man show and a part time business. So I went hunting to confirm that and maybe this answers some questions. Not my correspondence but another individuals that I found and copied to hopefully shed light for the folks here.

After posting my previous email, I decided to email Traincat again.
I mentioned that a number of Trainorders posters had commented that responses had been slow or not at all.
Here is his response, received pretty quickly to be fair.

"I work for the USAF as a subcontractor and I am gone for 4-6 weeks at a time in some really bad places where C-17's have problems. Matter of fact, I just returned Friday night from being out of the country since May 29th. BTW, that was also my 30th anniv and I had to miss that too. Since I am not on Trainorders, I do not know what is being said. When I reply from strange locations, I never know if my replies get out. But I do reply. You are free to post that if you should have a heart and want to show that I do indeed reply to emails.
Regards
Bob"

So i guess that explains why he sometimes appears slow to respond - he's away for periods of time.
Can't blame him for that.

Anyway that was the gist of the conversation someone else had with him. I believe the business is located down in Weston, Florida right next to the Everglades at or near the tip of Florida. No idea how the big fella called Isaac has affected him if he is even in the US at this point.

 

Guys..........Chill out!!! A lot of folks really do have a LIFE beyond trains, and real jobs!!

 

I have no dog in this fight, but have been on both sides of this issue.

As for the customers I understand where they are coming from. They have paid for items, and the seller is not responding to their requests/emails. I too have been there. It is very frustrating wondering if or when you are going to get your stuff. Heck I'm still waiting for stuff I ordered and paid for in 1988. Gave up on that order and money. No it was not on the Bay

On the other side of the coin, I have been in the sellers spot.

Working a full time job and making MR items on the side.

Trust me it is hard after an 8 - 12 hour day at work trying to get motivated to start building and fulfilling orders. The one thing I did do was try to keep my customers informed of the status of their orders, but there were times when I dropped that ball.

Because of not having all the time that I wanted to dedicate to the MR business I closed down and sold off the remaining inventory and then I got rid of the full time job.

 

Whoa.
Before this thread goes places beyond the initial direction, let me clarify my postion:

Traincat / Bob Knight provides great products.
Bob has always been spot-on about confirmations and mailing products: much faster than most businesses.
Which is why it's been such a mystery why there's been no communication for the past month or so.
At first I thought it was because he was at the NMRA convention, but then time went on.

When I saw others were worried, I added my experience.
The main concern is for Bob himself, and hoping that all's well for him.
Beyond that, it'd be nice to get the items to finish my projects and be able to show off his great work on mine.

This thread has nothing to do with slighting anyone, working multiple jobs or not.

[P.S. Nscalerone always uses that kind of script, so no offense intended to anyone]

 

I ABSOLUTELY meant no offense to anyone!! I apologize it it was construed that way. Yes, "BoxCab", I agree - "folks do have the right to be curious as to what is happening with their orders".

I wrote that when I was tired, and although I don't know "TrainCat" at all, it sounds to me like he is a military contractor, or something similar. It was my perception that people were getting all wound up about toys, and forgetting the fact that this man has a MUCH more important job to do. I'm a bit protective of "my boys".......forgive me if I get a little short-sighted, as I obviously did.

I too hope all is well with him, and everyone gets their orders eventually..........good news is, if he is doing that kind of work, it's a real good bet he's responsible.

 

No, people are not, "getting all wound up about toys" they are "getting all wound up" about paying money for a product and not getting the product nor getting any explanation. This hobby is replete with instances of such shenanigans occurrig in the past and if I recall correctly there was at least one case where criminal charges were filed. Seems to me that Bob has bitten off more than he can currently chew given the demands of his "other job". But that is my opinion and yours may differ.

 

Bob is a great guy who is running a side business by himself. He travels to a lot of shows and may be on the road- was he at Bedford? That is most likely what it is. While he may be delayed, he always takes care of his customers well. Which reminds me that I have to call him BACK from several attempts he made to meet with me to deliver a product so I could save on shipping!! He'll get to you, do not be worried!
Jan

 

I believe he was either at Bedford, the National Train show or both . . . .

 

I don't recall Traincat being at Bedford. Here is the list of venders at Bedford as posted on Railwire:

Vendors
DENNIS MCILNAY
DWIGHT HUTCHENS
SKIP HAYES
NEALS N-GAUGING
N-CELLAR
HOPKINS, CHARLIE
STRINGFELLOW, CHARLIE
TEXNRAILS
BOSTON & ALBANY HOBBIES
A&L LINES
MIKE BENCE
ROBERT HUDDLESTO
PARK LANE HOBBIES
KENRAY MODELS
WINGARD TRAINS
HB PETERSON
N-SCALE CARTEL
NZT PRODUCTS
CONRAIL THOMAS 519
RANDGUST

 

I ran into Bob at Shorty's BBQ in Davie a few months ago, and he seemed fine. He mentioned he was venturing into some injection molded products with his TrainCat line as a supplement to the etched products. He is definitely a one man operation, working out of his home in Weston, FL, and I'm sure his day job keeps him busy as well. I'm not sure how Weston made out during tropical storm Isaac, but if the area is susceptible to flooding, that may have been a problem, as it was in other areas of Broward and Palm Beach counties. I'm in Ft. Lauderdale, and my power was out for about 27-1/2 hours, while the phone was out until Wednesday afternoon. The phone problem was actually caused by the tree trimmers working for the power company, they cut the phone wires while pruning vines that had grown on the utility pole! Without power though, my phones hadn't worked since 7:45 AM Sunday morning.

Bill in FtL

 

Things do occur in life and there sure is life after model trains, but you should communicate with people when you have there money and they are waiting on you/your business for paid for products. Nothing would be wrong with leaving a message on his site that he would be gone for a period of time. Ebay Sellers do that all the time. And none of this would have come to a Thread on this or any other website.

 

If you are going to quote me ( & judge me, apparently ), please have the courtesy to do so accurately. Don't "cut & paste" to suit your own agenda. "Toys" may have bothered you as a word choice, but that's EXACTLY what they are, and therefore, not as important in the total scheme of things as what the man may be doing in his day to day life.
It's obviously not his "full time" business....................