Curtis R.

I have requested multiple times and multiple ways for upper management/ director level contact information but I was unable to receive them from Tower Hobbies so I am posting this information here and other places online.

Tower Hobbies was my go to Hobby Shop for decades. It will be no more. I pre-ordered quite a few AFX slot cars (4 GT40 Mk IIb, 2 Corvette LT1,4 GT 40 Mk 4, and a single 70 Chevelle and single 71 Chevelle) way back on May 19 just as soon as they posted them on their site. The initial ship date on their site said July 15. After countless shipping delays, we fast forward to first week of September and they finally receive them. These slot cars immediately began hitting Ebay and other stores around the country. I was excited to finally get my slot cars after waiting for FOUR months and being one of the very first to pre-order from Tower Hobbies. So I waited for shipping confirmation for several days (again after seeing other stores post them as available and seeing them appear on Ebay. One small vendor in NY sold 26 of the MK 2b's) But no word from my very, very pre-order from Tower Hobbies. So I sent a message requesting info through their online "customer service" form. Someone replied saying that I would only be getting one car, the 71 Chevelle! After several rounds of emails, the customer service person "Sam R" said they were only able to ship 12% of the outstanding orders because that was all the product they were shipped. I could understand that IF I had just pre-ordered a few weeks or month or two ago. But I pre-ordered as soon as they listed these available back in May 19, FOUR months prior. There is ZERO chance that all 12% of these fulfilled orders were placed before May 19. Zero chance. So the question is, who at Tower Hobbies placed later orders before legitimate early pre-orders and why?

The why is easy. These slot cars are hot ticket items and were already selling at 2-4X markups on Ebay within hours after their release. So PROFIT is the why. The question is who did this. I believe there needs to be an audit. Again, there is NO WAY orders were shipped in the order received as Tower Hobbies promises. Otherwise, I would have received all the GT40 Mk IIb's and Corvettes I pre-ordered.

Tower Hobbies is no longer my go to Hobby Store. And I will NEVER pre-order from them again as there are games being played somewhere along the line.