A PASSION FOR HOBBIES

Internet Hobbies is a fulfillment of the dreams of a team of avid modelers. Now celebrating their 21th year in business on the Internet, the company is happy with their solid position as one of the world’s largest online hobby destinations.

The owner likes to tell a story of his first exposure to modeling. “I was about eight years old when my stepfather came home one day holding a plain brown paper bag and offered me a rather unusual choice.” He asked me, “Which one do you want, a Camel or Newport?” I said Dad, “You know I don’t smoke so why are you offering me cigarettes.” Well to my surprise he pulled out two small Aurora WWI plastic kits from the bag. One was the Sopwith Camel and the other was a little French Nieuport 17. I chose the Nieuport and he got the Camel. We built those planes together that afternoon in what was truly a life altering experience. From that moment on I was hooked on building plastic models. A few years ago my step dad became a customer of ours. He was surprised when I called him to say hello. I told him the above story and how important that little experience has been to me over the last 60 years.

We actually started off only selling model trains as Internet Model Trains in 1995, my other favorite hobby. It wasn’t too long that we decided to expand into a full service online hobby shop. Thus Internet Hobbies was born in 1999.

In July of 2005 we moved Internet Hobbies to Northeastern Pennsylvania. We have a retail outlet store and a large warehouse and state-of-the-art shipping department.

Should I assume that everything is in stock at Internet Hobbies?

Like so many other online stores, we have adopted a “Just In Time” philosophy on inventory management. Many times the merchandise to complete your order is sitting on our shelves but there are times when we need to procure the merchandise to fulfill your order from one of our suppliers. This can usually be completed in the specified shipping times displayed on the product. Keep in mind, those shipping times are only an estimate. Shipping times can be extended due to delays in the supply chain, peak times because of the holidays and sales promotions, etc. In all cases, we will strive to fulfill your order as quickly as we can.

We are a small company and it is unfair to compare us with Amazon, a company with thousands of employees.

Online stores that claim they have everything in stock sitting on a shelf waiting for your order are probably misleading you as there are over 250,000 items in the hobby industry and it would be impossible to carry all of them in stock. We all buy from the same suppliers and get the same wholesale prices. Having a large static inventory gathering dust is a burden to any e-commerce store and asks us to assume a huge cost of doing business that usually gets passed onto the customer in higher prices. Not having to bother with that problem allows us to offer you those great prices and super sales promotions you've come expect.

WHY IS MY CREDIT CARD BEING CHARGED?

Almost all credit card companies have shortened the authorization period to only seven days. Once an authorization has expired, we are unable to charge your card. This means you will have to place your order again to obtain a new authorization or we will have to cancel your order. We think you will agree that this poses a real inconvenience. Unfortunately, there is no solution to this problem other than charging your card when you place your order. We only do so when we know we will be able to complete your order.

BACKORDER POLICY

There are times when an item becomes out of stock and unavailable to complete your order. When this happens, we change its status to back order and add the following text to the product page: Accepting Back Orders - Will Ship When Available

We monitor all backorders and as soon as the item becomes available it will be shipped out to you.

PRE-ORDER POLICY

Pre-orders are an important part of the hobby industry. Manufacturers announce products many weeks or even months in advance. Most new releases are produced in limited supplies based on their pre-orders. Modelers need to place their order well in advance to make sure they will receive the item upon release. When you place a pre-order with Internet Hobbies you are making a commitment to accept the item upon its arrival in stock. This is why all pre-orders are charged up front. Unfortunately, we have no control when a pre-ordered item will arrive in stock. There are always unforeseen delays in the manufacture and distribution of new products. Rest assured, if you have placed a pre-order for an item, we guarantee you will receive it upon its release. Please place all pre-orders on a separate order.

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I FEEL MY ORDER IS OVERDUE

There are always some minor outages in the distribution chain, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic, that can cause your order to be delayed beyond the timeframe shown on the product page.

Your order is important to us and we will do everything we can to take care of any issues that come up that can cause a delay in shipping out your order.

If you feel there is a problem with your order, the most important thing you can do is contact us using the CONTACT US form at the top of every page of the website. We answer every email in 24 to 48 hours. All that we ask is you give us a chance to handle your issue before escalating it. Most problems can be handled to your satisfaction.

PLEASE CONTACT US AT 646-208-8535 BEFORE YOU PLACE A DISPUTE

Many people think that placing a dispute with their bank will accelerate receiving their order. In fact, it will do exactly the opposite. When we receive a dispute notice we only have one course of action. We immediately cancel the order and accept the chargeback. Whatever discount you received is now gone when your order is canceled. This may, based on the circumstances, result in you not being able to purchase from us in the future. We take credit card disputes very seriously. Most of the time, if given a chance, we can resolve these issues without the need to go to your bank. All that we ask is you give us a chance to handle the situation. We find that many disputes result in two things that create false expectations by our customers. The first is not reading our About Us page and the second is not reading and understanding your order confirmation email. Remember, our goal in life is to provide you with excellent service but we need your help in doing this.

When asked what makes Internet Hobbies different from other online merchants, we state, “Our primary goal at Internet Hobbies is to offer our customers an excellent buying experience by proactively managing our customer’s expectations. This philosophy to total dedication to excellent customer service has helped propel Internet Hobbies to become the “leader of the pack” in online hobby sales.

We look forward to even greater growth during our 20th year in business. We have recently upgraded our website by using Shopify’s excellent e-commerce platform which allows us to better serve our customers. This upgrade includes a comprehensive website search engine making it easy to find what you are looking for. We’ve recently added thousands of new items to our website to give our customers more selection to choose from.

A PASSION FOR HOBBIES

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