I have purchased 2 locomotives through Yankeedabbler. I was impressed with the first one, and this encouraged me to make the second purchase. Unfortunately the second locomotive had tracking issues, and one can visibly observe significant side play in the second one when compared side by side to the first one. I contacted Yankeedabbler through their website, I emailed them, I called and left a voicemail and finally sent a letter via USPS. I was hoping to find some resolution to this problem, be it corrective actions I could take or replacing the defective locomotive. I have yet to receive any response from them. I would likely have purchased more items from them in the future, but their lack of communication has cost them a customer. read more

Will not order from them again, just purchased a Atlas Gold Series Locomotive and when it arrived does not work properly. Was told I have to send back to Atlas. So now I have to wait 4 to 6 weeks for Atlas to rebuild the Locomotive and now I no longer have a new locomotive but a rebuild $165.00 locomotive. Should have paid attention to their reviews which are very good. Save yourself the trouble and do not buy from them. read more

I ordered 2 runner packs from website. Within a day or 2 I received an order confirmation email. Within a couple days I received my order from ups. Well packed in new condition as advertised. My experience was good. I thought I should post this to balance out some of the negative reviews on here . read more

Absolute worst place to do business with. I ordered a locomotive from their website that they claimed was "in stock" and it wasn't. In fact they ordered it from Walthers to their shop, then apparently they planned to send it to my home after. When I asked for a refund, the owner Bob told me he'd give me a partial refund. I filed a dispute with my credit card company with all the correspondence between Bob, and I. Buyer beware! This shop is sketchy. read more

Beware! They list items on their website at a discounted price, but may not actually have it. This would be ok, if it was listed as "back order", but instead they show it as "Pickup available -Usually ready in 24 hours". Once you order there is no communication when the item will be delivered. I called two weeks after receiving no updates and was told one of the three items "probably" wasn't available and he'd print the order. Was given no additional information. No communication after that. After 30 days I ended up requesting a refund from my credit card company. I never dealt with a store that charged your card for items they didn't have in stock and then not communicate at all on expected shipping/delivery. If you really want something from here, I'd suggest calling first and confirming if they have it before placing an order online. read more

Yankeedabbler Hobbies - Deceiving website. List items they don't have at a discounted price. - Hobby Shops Near Me - Bellmawr, New Jersey

I ordered track from Yankeedabbler. It arrived damaged and they have done nothing to assist in resolving. I returned the track to them on my nickel. And still have not received credit to my account. The manager I spoke to at Yankeedabbler was not helpful, rather condescending and let me know they did not intend to refund my money. I will not shop with this business again. Horrible customer service. read more

Got ahold of customer service. Was told there is nothing they could do to overnight it. It did ship out the next day though. With the weather the United States has had, it has still not shown and is delayed even further. 17 days since I placed my order. No overnight shipping offered, no promotion, nothing. Do better. read more

I live locally to YankeeDabbler, so I don't use the mail order service. Every time I have had questions, the staff are more than willing to help me. They are knowledgeable and friendly even though they are swamped with mail orders. Recently I purchased a DCC Diesel Locomotive that I saw on their website. As listed it was in stock, and I had no issue with the item once I got it home. As a bonus they offer a military discount which is not necessary for my business, but it is nice when I can receive it. read more

I have purchased from Yankee Dabbler many times over the years with good outcomes. Two months ago I placed an order with them and received a package with weathering powder spilled all inside the package and on/in about half of the items. I contacted Yankee Dabbler on 3 occasions thru their contact page, sending photos of the damage and not one of the emails received a response back from them. I filed a claim with their shipper, UPS and UPS approved the claim, but they have a policy of contacting the shipping party before sending a check. UPS is also still waiting on a response back from Yankee Dabbler :( it's like they don't even care about their customers. At this point I am out a couple hundred dollars with damaged goods. If it does not get straightened out, I and all the members of several model railroad clubs that I am affiliated with will never order from Yankee Dabbler again. read more

good prices, really fast delivery and now they give you choices on which delivery service to use. This is a huge and significant upgrade from their previous practice. prompt courteous and great prices. read more

Order an available $111 item on 11/10/24. Weeks have passed and it's still awaiting fulfillment. Over the past few weeks I've called several times, texted, and sent email. I keep getting the same answer "Text me the order number and I'll call you back before the end of the day." He never calls back. I've called my credit card company and opened a dispute. read more

Cancelled my order after the status of Awaiting Fulfillment went on-and-on. I know, I know... supply chain, BUT the items I ordered at the time of order and up until cancellation showed "y" for availability. Furthermore, cancellation happened after no return communication from both my phone call and a text request status. I've ordered lots of things from them, and recommended them to many fellow modelers, and considered them my go-to source up until now. Be Straight-Up with your Customers YD, and avoid all this... read more

Ordered a few items. Here it is 9 days later and still not shipped. No email address listed on website.

Ordered from this company on recommendation of others in the model railroad hobby. Never again. They lost my order, tell me they cannot locate it, and ask me to be patient because it is December. No other vendor in this hobby uses this as an excuse. At the same time they charged my credit card in full back on 11/29/21 - they didn't seem too concerned about that. I will never order anything from these scam artists again. I also see that their average review for the last couple of years has been about 1.5 stars. I'm proud that I went lower than that. read more

I was out if the hobby of model railroading fit 40 years before my return, and I was looking for a certain Athearn locomotive. When I called YD, the first Fe tie man I spoke to was quite angry at me because I did **NOT ** know Athearn's part number for this locomotive. In fact, he made that very clear, over and over again. As I mentioned that I didn't work for Athearn, his attitude got worse, and he hung up on me. My second call there wasn't much better, when I asked for a manager, the man that answered the phone demanded to know why. I explained my experience with the first call, the guy began to tell me that in the space of time that it took to register my complaint, he used Google to locate the Athearn part number and found the webpage on Athearn. I wasn't provided the cost of the locomotive. He simply gave me the part number and told me to Google it and order it via their website. We then talked about DCC controllers, again, I was told to Google them and then choose a date go their website. I was further told that their warehouse is so massive (their words) that it is impossible for them to find what I was looking for without Athearn's part number or SKU number. I thank e him for his time, to which he seemed relieved I was hanging up. I went to the model railroading swap meet and found that exact locomotive being sold there new for about a hundred dollars less and not being sold by a jerk. I also bought 10 new items if athearn rolling stock as well as a NCE DCC controller. My return to model railroading was a success even though my initial encounter with a model railroad hobby store was totally dismal, my persistence paid off elsewhere by buying from the competition. I would advise all to avoid this place until their attitude improves... For now, I go elsewhere. Thumbs down.... read more

I recently bought a new Digitrax DCC system from the Yankee Dabbler. The service was great! Bob helped me put my order in over the phone. I live in Kansas and have to drive over 100 miles to find a good Hobbie shop. Nobody beats the prices on DCC systems. They had excellent shipping too. I paid on a Friday and it was here early Tuesday morning. I will be a life long customer. I hope they see this review. Thanks Russell J. Kansas read more

This is probably the worst online service I have ever encountered in my over 20 years of purchasing via online stores. First problem - they do a LOT of pre-order business. This means the products are backordered and usually no Idea as to when the products will ship. Unlike other dealers who do this this dealer charges your credit card or pay pal upon placing the "preorder" so it is hard to cancel the order. Both of my trial orders were complete messed up. One was for a Digitrax system - the item was shipped without any tracking # or even shipping notice. The order info on my account list continued to say fulfillment in process until I called the store (Bob) to tell them I had received it and that it also had a problem. This company never answers email - they will only communicate via phone (Bob) so it is almost impossible to get coherent information - only "Hmm - we will call. you back". Then instead of receiving the first order I "preordered" - a $14 set of wheels - I received a second Digitrax system. The store did not charge me for the second Digitrax system so I guess I could have kept this (a $500 value) but out of the goodness of my heart I sent back the first one so they would not be out on the $500 mistake. I have yet to be reimbursed for the shipping charge and the only reply so far is "we'll get back to you (phone only off course). That was a week ago. This dealer has a very aggressive online marketing program with lots of google adds and usually show up with the lowest profile - especially on dcc stuff. Don't be fooled - they probably don't really have it in stock and the customer service is MIA and incompetent. Better to go with Model Train Stuff or Midwest - these dealers don't play the preorder game - ship fast and have REAL customer service - and answer email.. read more

dAt first glance of the web site and pricing, I was impressed. I like to see and touch thing, but the store being a distance from my house and in no real hurry for Ho track and things. I places and order on line on a Saturday, and checked the status of my order on the next Monday, it wasn't fulfilled yet, so I called the number and was told ,on Tuesday, it was not ever touched or looked at yet. I call Thursday and was told it was shipped. Here it is Monday and still no product, what made it worse I ordered something else from another place on line , on that Thursday and it arrived Saturday. Customer service and shipping is very poor. read more

My experience was consistent with the earlier reviews. This has to be one of the most unethical business operating in the model railroading hobby. The item I ordered was shown as in stock. I was charged upon placing the order. Since then, it stayed in "Awaiting Fulfillment" status for 10 days. In the meantime, I tried inquiring about the order via their website, email and phone. They did not respond to my inquiries. On the phone, all they said as "it's with shipping". Eventually. I opened a PayPal dispute - and then I immediately got a phone call from them. They asked me to close my dispute before they shipped. I insisted that they provide me proof of shipment before I closed the dispute, which I think was fair and reasonable given my experience thus far. At this point, the person who I speaking to (Michael) got very belligerent and rude. Well, I decided right there they do not deserve my business and asked him to cancel the order. He did cancel the order and issue the refund immediately. I wish they had shown this level of enthusiasm and energy in fulfilling my order timely as they did in disrespecting me and cancelling my order. read more