Does anyone know anything about Tank Rats AFV Depot? I ordered a "Bug" PE bender from them back on Jan 20 of this year. Ever since then my order status has said "Pending". The site says they have 6 in stock, so I don't think it's an availability issue. The thing is I've used their "Contact Us" form three times so far (the third just a few minutes ago) to ask them what the issue might be and the last time to ask to cancel the order. Thus far I haven't received any response. I would like to go ahead and re-order the "Bug" from someone else but hate to get in a situation with Tank Rats where they decide to fulfil the order at some point down the road after I have already gotten one elsewhere.

kevin I am sorry but Tank rat has some issues (mostly very poor customer service and unreliable service) and a search here on these forums will explain the issues better than I. My advice would be get your money back and look elsewhere for the item you desire

cancel order and stay far away from him!
Many people have had the same problem.I was just about to order some figs from him and I seen the post about him having BAD business practices.
Unfortunately there are people out there that do these kind of things.

www.spruebrothers.com can't go wrong with them!

Just type in "tankrat" into the search field at the top of this website and you will learn some things you probably wished you knew on Jan 19th.

Hello, I did use tankrats many times and then was burned to never see my money again. Don't let it get you down. There are many great websites to use that treat you right. I use Spruebrothers and just love them. I get my order in two days on average. Hang in there.

I just wanted to thank you all for your input. I ended up re-ordering from Sprue Brothers. I got my "Bug" in just a few days. Here's hoping that Tank Rats honors my "cancel my order" request.

Kevin,

Contact the credit card company you used for the Tankrat order. Make sure you cancel the transaction or get your money taken back. He is very capable of charging your credit card and never sending you anything.

If Tankrats doesnt honor your cancel request, you could probably put The Bug on consignment at your LHS. I imagine that it would sell pretty quick. Just an idea...

The problem with this particular vendor is he was probably already charged for it and there is a great chance the vendor may never send the item. It's a well documented problem; just google "tankrat theif".

You should have gone directly to the manufacture, or one of his authorized dealers.
I've bought all my PE folding tools directly from the Small Shop with out any problems.
Unfortunately Tank---- RAT is on the list.
I'd suggest contacting the small shop and explain the growing numbers of ripped off customers, so they remove the rat from their list.

The Small shop

Ditto - The Small Shop is superb. Great products and exceptionally good customer service.

Hello All,
I am not here to start any trouble or make any one angry, But I have bought $3,000 of stuff from Tank Rat and received it in a timely matter.I have meet the man and his son and been to his shop and found him to be both honest and forth right in his dealing with me.
Maybe I have been lucky, But I would not think twice about buying from again. Till I get burned that is, But even so I think I would still give him another chance again.
Just my 2 cents,
Cheers,
Bruce

More testimonials:
http://cs.finescale.com/FSMCS/forums/t/135958.aspx

Bruce, consider yourself lucky then. I have had dealings with him in the past...twice even, but won't comment on that. ( I never bought anything) and I have met him in person and lets just say he isn't on my Christmas Card list. There seems to be far more threads on several different sites from people who have been burned by this guy, than those that haven't. That sends a pretty clear message to me. "Q"

I believe this particular vendor was at the last AMPS show i went to in Atlanta. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten hasled at one of the shows by any of his victims.

What's sadder, why is A.M.P.S. allowing vendors with known criminal backgrounds to buy tables? Please, no excuses. They won't do.

I believe he had bought the tables and was at the show before most if not all of this blew up, so no fault of the AMPS crew as they likely didn't know, so no excuses at all.

Tank Rats was NOT in Atlanta @ the last 2011 AMPS show in Febuary hosted by the Atlanta Figures Show & Atlanta AMPS.

However he was there in 2010 & AMPS Nationals in 2010, 2010 Space Coast show in Cocoa Beach,FL.

Regardless where he has been and where he is, I hope that he gets his life turned around and makes restitution. However very unlikely.

A word to the wise ALWAYS DO YOUR HOME WORK, before buying on line.

Well.......the plot thickens.
I may have been screwed as well!!! I found tankratsafvdepot through E-bay where he has 100% positive feedback from over 1900 transactions. I failed to do any further research and I thought his on-line shop would be OK. I made an order last week for over $130. I triead to access his website this morning and got an error message that the website declined to allow me access. I sent an e-mail for help from him. No response YET! While trying to get on to his site I googled his website name tankratsafvdepot and stumbled upon this thread. If I wasn't worried then, I am now. I thank God that I paid with Pay-Pal and not a credit card. Who knowa what damage he could do then. Hopefully if I don't hear from him soon Pay-Pal will get my money back to me.

When I try to access his website I get the message: "The website declined to show this webpage"
Upon further research Internet Explorer connected to the site but has declined me access. I'm not a computer guru, but is it possible for tankratafzdepot to block my access to his website? Does anyone know if the site is still up?

Has anyone else had problems with this guy since the previous posts?

I would like to know if anyone has had thier problems resolved or not.

I've seen several posts that praise this guy as the second coming messiah and then others that say they got stuck by his pitch fork and the two horns in his forehead!
I really hope this guy gets my order to me. He has yet to see the wrath that I will bring down upon him if he does not.

I've been out of pocket the last ten years in Iraq and Afghanistan so I haven't been able to keep up with any news in the modeling world. Therefore, I have just joined this website and this is my first post. What a bummer I have to make this the subject of my first posting. This will not be my last.

If tankratsafvdepot comes through I will post here to let everyone know about it.
If he does not.........well, as I stated.......the plot thickens

Cheers to all

My problem started with him (tankrat) last September. I was out 140.00 for an item that was never sent. After that I could not contact him in any way. I used a debit card and won't see my money again. I now use PayPal and love it.

I have been talking with the BBB in Arizona and they could not get an answer from John Michie, Barry Michie or whatever his name is. The BBB said there was nothing else they could do to help me get my money back. They list his site as very low on the rating scale.

Good luck on resolving your problem. I could not access the site either. Maybe the IRS or someone else finally closed the site down so it won't keep taking money from unsuspecting victims.

If you need to order model kits, supplies or tools try Spruebrothers.com. There are many other sites that are great and will do everything to assist you. Good Luck!

I get the message too. Typically that indicates a configuration issue with the site.

Bruce, that's his MO.

I ordered something from him and it came right away.

Then the second order had "problems" with stuff OOS. I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, it was past the point where PayPal could refund my money.

Long story short: don't.

There are so many fine vendors out there, why would anyone in their right minds take the risk of ordering from someone who has ripped off both ordinary consumers AND manufacturers like Hornet (read this)?

Life is too short, and there are too many kits to build to waste time on $#%9&3s like this.

Someone in another thread said they'd only buy from this guy in person.

I wouldn't buy from him EVER. Why support him? His stuff is neither so good nor so cheap to justify helping him in ANY way.

It should scare everyone away when other mfrs and distributors have ceased doing business with him for nonpayment and having had to turn him over to collection service agencies. His reputation...let's say he's standing in the middle of the bridge between vendors and customers...and he himself has set both ends on fire.

I was a first time buyer looking for a good supplier of P.E and ordered from TankratsaFV. My order never arrived and thankfully i paid thru paypal and put a complaint in and will be getting my money back. this vendor is not worth the trouble . i advise staying away from.
i was able to get the same item from hobbyeasy in 12 days at 1/3 the price before this guy could even take the time to block my address from his site.
stay away from tankratsafv they are bad news..from my experience.