Brick Train Shop - bricktrainshop.com Operates Deceptive Web Site: Shows Pictures of Products it Does Not Sell San Jacinto California

The original website has been taken down so we can't dispute his advertising, but the REAL problem is that the company is not giving customers the money back AFTER they have sent the manuals back.  (Manuals we returned in Feb.; in pristine condition; in a sturdy box; to the address listed on the invoice, web site and business cards AND with a USPS proof of delivery.) Now they won't answer emails, and have never contacted us by post or phone. That is the problem I am having with this company.  

There are 22 complaints on Rip-Off Reports and 55 complaints on the BBB site (73) since May 2010. Which is @6 per month. Those are just the ones that I've seen on  these two sites, which could mean that there are more unhappy customers out there.  Why does the owner say that there are only 4 customer complaints put of 122,000?  If he overcharges all the customers on shipping like he did to us he'd be a millionaire! (charged $24.00 and put $2.75 media post on the package he sent to us. That is a $20.00 profit right there! Multiply that by 100,000...)

Any unhappy customers need to file reports with BBB, USPS and LEGO.com.  That's the best thing to do.

Quick update aimed at "PorpoSuave" who says "To the person who asked why anyone would ever buy instructions to a Lego set: have you ever tried assembling one of these things without the INSTRUCTIONS?"

Lego instructions are free, online, in PDF format.  Simply go to Google, type in "Lego (model number) instructions" and odds are you'll get a free printable manual.  I wasn't questioning the value of instruction manuals; I was asking why anyone would be expected to pay money for them in this day and age.

I ordered an item was told to send it back still have the email they sent me saying to send it back for full refund well it has been over a month now and no refund. Now there web page is no longer available. I contacted bbb on them and the bbb is still even waiting to hear back from them. Next I guess I need to contact my layer if this is not fixed soon!!!

It's very simple folks.......this "company" is very well aware of the confusion they are creating regarding their item descriptions. If they were legitimate business people who cared about consumer opinion they would make the necessary changes to make sure this mistake NEVER happens again. I used to own and operate an online store and I know the value of customer service. Customer service is not only about making sure the product is delivered in tact and on time. Nor is it about processing refunds fast and efficiently. It's about listening to your customers cares and concerns and making changes accordingly. Why on earth would any business owner want to hear the same complaint over and over again and not do anything about it??? Because he is INTENTIONALY deceiving his customers, plain and simple. So, although you could say "buyer beware" this is not a legal issue, it's a moral issue and after listening to my son cry for an hour because he was not getting the toy we promised him, I, for one, hope these people rot in hell.

I once read a complaint about a car that read something like "too much rain comes through the windows when they're open." I would not have thought that a consumer complaint could be even more petty than that one, but this one comes close.

The picture you posted says "INSTRUCTIONS" in big capital letters at the top center of the page. This is not in small print, or in a disclaimer hidden away elsewhere. It's right in front of you. Yes, they use a picture of the set to which the INSTRUCTIONS belong, presumably to communicate to the customer exactly which set of INSTRUCTIONS he or she is getting.

To the person who asked why anyone would every buy instructions to a Lego set: have you ever tried assembling one of these things without the INSTRUCTIONS? It's not practical, at least not for the larger sets. Of course there is value to selling INSTRUCTIONS by themselves.

I have a feeling that the owner of this business probably would add some kind of big, black box warning for all instructions, boxes, and other partial sets, except that he's probably furious at being called a rip-off artist and his understandable reaction is to cling to his own position. That's fine with me. He's right.

The consumer is right about this being extremely fraudulent. Thanks to this report I will not be scammed by this company, but I almost was. I merely searched for a lego set and it brought one up for only 20 dollars! One that is normally 110 at cheap places and 140 at expensive places! I thought it was a great deal because it was such a discount. But it is a fraud!!!! It says  "xxxx set inspected and sealed like new original instruction manuals" This is an EXTREMELY unclear. I have talked to a english teacher because I wanted their opinion on this. They agreed with me. This is not just UNCLEAR. It is down right purposely misleading. The  quotation I put above is exactly off of their website. It says set inspected and sealed like new. THEN it says original instructions. Grammatically, this could mean "new original instructions" or " new set with original instructions." Technically, that quote could have either of these meanings because IT    IS     UNCLEAR. And it is purposely misleading too because I have read this quote to many people and they all thought it meant a set. BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THE OWNER IS TRYING TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK. TO PURPOSELY TRICK THEM AND SCREW THEM OUT OF MONEY. The purchase I nearly made was only 22 dollars, but still that 22 dollars is better kept in my pocket than going to a scam. And whoever thought of putting a product category in tiny letters in orange on a  green background. You can barely even see it! That is done on purpose! So that the consumer does not see it and thinks the product is an actual lego set! I sure as heck did not see that product category title when I first looked up a set! I would have made a huge mistake had I bought this product! And after reading the owner's supposed comments, they are very rude and s****.>

Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to google your company's website before I used it. I didn't lose a lot of money but had to watch my son's reaction when he realized we were fooled. Your description and wording is very clever and I'm sure you've fooled many of us. How smart of you. The amount of money lost may not be enough of an incentive for many consumers to fight back but your obnoxious, cocky attitude is. It's clear that your deceit is intentional and I'm confidant that enough people will figure it out. I'll use this a lesson for my son on how to tell if a website is legit. So thank you for that. And since you're a California dude, you'll appreciate this. Kharma is a b***h.

I was just looking for a few SW Lego sets and came across bricktrainshop.com. Started browsing through their selection and was blown away by the absurdly low prices. I thought to myself "this is too good to be true, $28.50 for the Tantive IV?!" This set generally retails for $150, so that's what, like an 80 something % discount -- this should set off some alarms.

That was the only red flag I needed before I decided to google bricktrainshop.com. And what do you know, it WAS too good to be true. The ripoffreport.com link to this complaint was number 2 or 3 on the search results page -- it should be at the top of the list.

I, myself, didn't notice that there was any mention of instruction manuals until I came here and read this. Going back to the store's site now, sure, I can see it there, but there are many, many things wrong with how these products are listed and it's deceptiveness is almost CERTAINLY intentional on the store-owner's part. Sure, I'll explain why...

First of all, the category listing "Lego set instructions" is not in any way prominently displayed on the page. In fact, it's in a very small font in a color and a value that's too similar to the background of the web page. I would say it is intentionally set up this way so you pay no attention to it, but it is there so the store owner can cover his a*s and point you to it once you've been duped and decide to call him out on it, as he's demonstrated in this very thread already.

In the main title of the listing there is ZERO MENTION of the fact that you're looking at merely an instruction manual. It simply state's the name of the set along with it's number and year of release. Not a thing about "Instruction Manual" -- Horribly misleading.

Then there's the picture - it just shows the box, no instruction manual. Hey guy, why not show what you're selling? And the listing goes on to give a description which ambiguously mentions the instruction manual on like the 3rd line of the description, again, not mentioning that this is all you will get if you order this. Then there's a youtube video of the set itself, another misleading point in the ad since it's SHOWCASING THE ACTUAL SET. Then there's a pros/cons section that talks about THE SET and NOT THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL. All of this is misleading to the consumer.

Alright, so in the defense of the store owner (gotta be fair), anyone that has bought a set of Legos should know that you'll never find whatever set you're looking for at the prices he has the instruction manuals listed at. It's just unheard of. It'd be one thing if this was a question of 5 to 10% lower than retail costs, but it's not, the prices aren't even ballpark. Too good to be true.

Also, the owner of bricktrainshop.com DOES have things broken up into different categories on the left menu bar - as unattractive as it may be - there are clear distinctions between "Lego Sets" and "Lego Set Instructions" and clicking on those links takes you to the proper areas of the site, BUT (and this is a big "but"), here's where "store owner's" defense falls flat on it's face.

If you come into the site via the home page (as I did), the STOREFRONT if you will, you're greeted with a nice picture menu of all Lego has to offer, just as if you were on the Lego.com shop main page. Neatly placed little iconic images of your favorite Lego themes arranged in a grid format ready for you to click. But, unlike Lego.com's website, when you click on one of those little icons, bricktrainshop.com's link takes you to, that's right, the "LEGO SET INSTRUCTIONS" category of the website. Who in their right mind would ever think that's where that link would take them? Any sane consumer would click on their favorite theme icon and 100% expect to be taken to a list of Lego sets within that theme's category, NOT instruction manuals.

This misleading way in which things are set up is most likely a FLAT OUT CON being perpetrated by the owner of the store. As it sounds, he's been made aware of this and has done nothing but ignore suggestions to change the site and to top it off, he's berated his customers, like a true gentleman. It'd be one thing if this happened once or twice, but it's clearly happened more than that. I'm always in favor of supporting independent businesses, but when business owners pull crap like this, it's truly disgusting and sad.

It's pretty simple, if you really intended to not mislead their customers they would:
- Say what you are getting in the product titles "box only" or "instructions only", the amount of negative reviews and feedback should be a hint to this fact...
- Repeat "box only" or "instructions only" in the product description, and used a bright/highlight color
- Say "toy not included"
- Remove videos of the toy from product pages, since you are not getting the toy. Those belong elsewhere

To claim ignorance of this deception is ludicrous... just look at your reviews. 16 out of the first 30 reviewers complain of being mislead. And I have yet to add mine. I wonder how many of those 14 are self reviews...
http://www.google.com/products/seller?cmi=36027884833472512&q=bricktrainshop&hl=en&start=20

Wouldn't it be nice to be clear and honest? I guess suckering strangers on the internet provides too much $$$ to bother with petty things like morality and decency.

The only reason you see that the item is in a specific category is because you're looking for it. If you were in the middle of an order like all of the other victims of this scam, you wouldn't have noticed the category at the top..  In my case, I just searched the site for a specific product, it came up without mentioning any category above it, and I clicked on the item. I never went to a specific category... 

After looking at the page you copied here, I'm afraid I have to agree witht the owner.

You clearly were purchasing a manual.  It's in the manual section and it even describes the condition of the manual. Why would someone want to buy one?  I don't know but that's not the point.

Everyone makes mistakes, just admit you screwed up and ordered the wrong thing, accept the refund and move on.

Actually you owe the owner an apology.

And before you even try it, I have nothing whatsover to do with this company and have never heard of them before this report. 

I also filed a report here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/toy-stores/bricktrainshop-com/bricktrainshop-com-fraud-mis-3fca7.htm for the same problem. Let's face it, a lousy partial refund is not going to make me feel any better - he wants $5.00 plus he won't pay for the shipping, so obviously, it's not worth the trouble to return the item. Anyway, it's not the money, it's the honor. This kind of fraud needs to be stopped. Another victim just contacted me this morning with a great idea.  We think everyone that has ever had the same complaint needs to take the next step and file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, like I did, and with the proper government agencies to put a stop to deceptive selling practices.

First you said none of these things existed, then when we point them out to you, you then say well they exists but their no good or they are not acceptable to you.  Just a click here and a click there and all will be fixed for you.  Well it doesnt work that way.  Developing a website, store and system is very complicated and has to work with multiple formats on thousands of sites and servers.
The fact remains that even on the tiny screenshot you have posted here I can clearly see the category at the top of the page, more so then anything else.

Bottom Line we have over 122,000 customers and have added over 1600 more since your report was filed.  You have to realize that we cant please everybody which is why we offer a FULL REFUND if you return the product.

Most businesses make you wait 4-6weeks for a refund we process our refunds in 24 hours of receipt of the product, sometimes we refund the order before it has even arrived to us.  Try to be a little more understanding.

1. You say "there is a photo of the instructions" but that is not true.  If you showed a photo of an instruction manual instead of a photo of a set of Legos, there would be no problem for me, the others on this site, and the dozens of Brick Train Shop customers who have posted extremely negative reviews on Google Checkout:

http://www.google.com/products/seller?cmi=36027884833472512&q=BrickTrainShop&hl=en

2. You say "(instruction manual) is also listed in the description".  Contrary to the title of your rebuttal, I *did* read the description and it clearly describes the LEGO SET, not the instruction manual.  The only mention of "instruction manual" makes it sound as though the manual is included with the set (which is a reasonable assumption).

3. You say "the item is listed in the LEGO INSTRUCTIONS Category right at the top of the page".  That text is teeny and uses a color so close to the background color, no human can easily read it.  If you made that an easy-to-read color, perhaps white on dark green, your site would be easier to understand and you wouldn't be on ripoffreport.com.

4. You say "it tells you it (is) for the instructions during checkout".  Sort of true, sort of not.  The word "instruction" appears in light gray text on a white background.  The bold text that appears above the light gray text is the name of a set of Legos, not the words "instruction manual".

5. You say "you are complaint number 4".  That is a lie.  There are dozens of Brick Train Shop customers who have posted extremely negative reviews on Google (see link above), all with the same concern I have.  Not a good trend.

6. Your site does not say "instruction manual" anywhere in the product title that appears in large type above the product photo.  If you titled the product "Instruction Manual for Lego Star Wars Episode III Set 6205 V-Wing Fighter" instead of "Lego Star Wars Episode III Set 6205 V-Wing Fighter" and display a matching photo, you would stop deceiving families like mine.

Why not design your site from a customer's perspective?  That's what all successful stores do.  They develop a shopping experience that is easy, friendly, and attracts repeat customers.  It's not hard to do, but you have to open your closed mind a bit, Brickmaster.

Your own photo of the website page you are referring to shows that the item is listed in the LEGO INSTRUCTIONS Category right at the top of the page.  It is also listed in the description, there is a photo of the instructions, and it tells you it for the instructions during checkout. 

Out of 122,000 customers you are complaint number 4 right after the illiterate teacher.