RailsNW, Thomas V. Horstmann Beware of RailsNW Internet

RailsNW is operated by Thomas V. Horstmann. It is a railroad tourism company in Portland, Oregon. You can find reviews of RailsNW on the Ripoff Report web site, Tripadvisor, Yelp and some complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau.

Prior to RailsNW, Mr. Horstmann operated a travel agency named Trans World Travel (TWT). I paid TWT $1,865 for a plane ticket. When I dropped by the business to pick up my ticket, I found that Mr. Horstmann had closed the company and skipped town with my money. During the process of trying to serve Mr. Horstmann with court documents in order to recover my money, I was able to have a conversation with his father who stated that Thomas V. Horstmann  had fled the state of Oregon and that the parents wished no contact with him until he cleaned up his past business dealings. I don’t know how many people suffered financial loss due to Mr. Horstmann, but got the impression there were several. The sheriff’s office could never find him to serve the district court papers.

Years passed and I forgot about it. Recently I found the file with the court documents (cancelled check, trip itinerary, etc.) and decided to try and find Mr. Horstman through the internet. I found that he eventually returned to the state of Oregon and started RailsNW, Inc. I contacted him, provided documentation of our past business history and asked for the return of my $1,865 or I would post my story online. Who knows, maybe he would apologize and return some of the money. Instead, he called the amount a small debt, stated that the statute of limitations had expired, accused me of extortion and threatened to call the police and FBI. Then he sent an email to my employer saying I was extorting him.

Some people never change.