Anyone had problems with Hattons?

[aussiebrfan]

In answer to the OP’s question - No never had a problem with Hatton’s!

Multiple orders over many years to Australia and never a drama or worry. Always excellent service, long may it continue.

[Dunsignalling]

In a delivery chain where everything is scanned into a bin, out of the bin, into a truck, out of a truck I find it odd how things get “lost”. Missing, wrong bin/truck and delayed I understand.. but permanently lost ?

It's not unknown for the odd item that should get scanned at every step to be missed/misread/lose part of the label with the code on and end up other than where it's supposed to be. The odd glitch creeps into the best of commercial (non-safety-critical) systems. Such systems should  "spit out" errant items instantly, but sometimes it takes a while. Either way it then requires human intervention and "lean" operations like DPD tend not to have much in the way of those resources hanging around waiting for things to go wrong. 

 

I'm also not sure that anything (other than, perhaps, an aircraft) that goes missing for a week or so can, or should, be defined as "permanently lost"................

 

John

Edited April 23, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[Clearwater]

It isnt that uncommon now for trains to go missing, when I was a guard at SWT, during disruption we used to regularly get pager messages (pre company issue mobile phones) asking us to look out for 450xxx etc because units were turned around onto other services without anyone noting what was being sent where.

So losing a comparatively small parcel amongst thousands of others isn’t that implausible if you can mislay a whole 450xxx

[adb968008]

Perhaps you would like to share your expertise with Sh1tty bowels - sorry Pitney Bowles, Ebay's wonder worldwide lose your package system.

They open and repackage international shipments before onwards shipping them.

I find that a bit bizarre.

 

A few years back I bought an SD40 nose end headlight clusters with lenses. (About 2ft long, 1ft wide).

What arrived was a massive cardboard box with no packaging, the lenses smashed and the headlight frame.

Connected the seller who sent me a picture of a wooden crate with the lenses in foam packaging.

Ebay immediately refunded in full and informed me the PB open / repackage everything and took responsibility for it.

 

5 years later.. I still have the glass less frame.

 

But on the “lost” ones.. nothing actually vaporises... so what happens to them ? DPD etc got their own model railways ?

Edited April 23, 2018 by adb968008

[Mike Bellamy]

Copied below from the Gauge O Guild Forum

 

 

Deliver items from England to West Australia in.........THREE DAYS !!
Ordered 20 April delivered to my door on 23rd April.
I have the invoice and parcel for proof.

[Wickham Green]

Copied below from the Gauge O Guild Forum

 

 

Deliver items from England to West Australia in.........THREE DAYS !!

Ordered 20 April delivered to my door on 23rd April.

I have the invoice and parcel for proof.

Presumably the 'parcel' was a full size aircraft an' it flew door to door ................... difficult to believe otherwise !

[Andy Y]

They wouldn't be able to tell who you are from the post either but I will speak to them tomorrow to see if they can give more info.

 

Hatton's are already well on the case:

 

 

The last contact we had was on Friday 20th April advising us that an investigation was being raised for this parcel and that we should expect a response on Monday (today).

 

The customer was informed that we're due to receive an update today and that we can't process a replacement until the courier has accepted the parcel is missing or until 20 working days have elapsed, whichever comes soonest.

 

Unfortunately the OP did not state that Hatton's had already advised that they should be getting an update from DPD today.

 

 

 

 I will be sure to get in touch with Mr ***** to keep him in the loop and hopefully give him some good news

[Colin_McLeod]

Unfortunately the OP did not state that Hatton's had already advised that they should be getting an update from DPD today.

 

That, in my opinion puts the OP into the troll category. Why spoil a good complaint by telling the full story!

Edited April 23, 2018 by Colin_McLeod

[Cor-onGRT4]

Years ago, i ordered some items from a shop in Glasgow, could not been send in one package due weight so they send it in two packages on the same time at a the same postoffice to me.

One showed up in three days the other one took  three weeks, to the Netherlands, so a perfect example how it went with the mail, they do occasionally left on a shelf in the post depots and showed up much later.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Cor-onGRT4

[PaulCheffus]

I am confident that, given a few hours when DPD start this Monday morning (they do not deliver on Saturdays, I understand, so are probably thin or non-existent in the customer service department then) 

Hi

 

Around where I live we even get DPD deliveries on a Sunday (why I have no idea).

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Mike Bellamy]

Presumably the 'parcel' was a full size aircraft an' it flew door to door ................... difficult to believe otherwise !

 

 

.

It may be difficult to believe but the original posting on the Gauge O Guild Forum included a photo of the label on the parcel with the date 20th April . . . . . . 

 

.

[Colin_McLeod]

He really is impatient then. Posted Friday 20th and publicly throwing toys out of the pram on Sunday 22nd

 

Edit to clarify that I have confused two stories. See Andy York's post below.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Colin_McLeod

[Andy Y]

He really is impatient then. Posted Friday 20th and publicly throwing toys out of the pram on Sunday 22nd

 

No, that's two different stories Colin; our OP who hasn't had his stuff versus a customer the other side of the globe who's had his a lot quicker.

[Alien]

It isnt that uncommon now for trains to go missing, when I was a guard at SWT, during disruption we used to regularly get pager messages (pre company issue mobile phones) asking us to look out for 450xxx etc because units were turned around onto other services without anyone noting what was being sent where.

 

My loco was "missing" once. Booked on duty and given 31xxx but when I walked out to it it wasn't there. I searched the shed but no sign of it. "have you given me the right loco number?" I enquired, "Yes, its on 3 road", "oh no it isn't" I replied "its not on the shed anywhere". Turned out it went off the shed an hour earlier as part of a 5 loco convoy for weekend ballast working! I then had to travel passenger to Doncaster shed to get it! Once it had been split from the other loco's I eventually dropped down to the outlet signal. I was now about 2 hours late. Whilst on the phone to the signaller it went very quiet, my had 31 shut down and was a failure!  I was dragged back on the depot by an 08, my job was cancelled and I travelled back by passenger!

Back OT, its frustrating when communications go wrong. I've just had a [delayed] parcel delivered by Royal Mail but about 10 minutes beforehand the website tracking was still showing no information and simply said "pending"!

[olivegreen]

Having just read this thread I am quite astonished at the impatience/naïvety/stupidity (or insert whichever word you prefer to avoid insult) of the original post regarding something that, according to what is written there, is nothing whatsoever to do with Hattons.

Hattons is a company upon which many of us rely for the excellent overall service it gives: if the delivery service it chooses is not up to standard, it is not Hattons' direct fault, although it does the company no favours, I would agree.

I have never had any problem whatsoever with Hattons - I have no connection with the company other than as a satisfied customer, and hate to see it criticised in the manner of the OP.

I would hope that others might agree. 

[Ouroborus]

Maybe away from the op little, I've often noticed that the postage applied by hattons and others would have insufficient insurance to cover it if it were to go missing. I'm presuming that this be factored in to their business model - more sales with low postage offsets any that go missing. But I was a little uneasy when asked to return an item to them and was told second class recorded was only what they'd refund - if it went missing, presumably I'd take the hit

[stewartingram]

I really think that the title of this thread should be changed. Delete "Hattons" & insert "DPD" as it is misleading and detrimental to Hattons.

As a footnote, an apology to Hattons wouldn't come amiss either.

 

Stewart

[Colin_McLeod]

No, that's two different stories Colin; our OP who hasn't had his stuff versus a customer the other side of the globe who's had his a lot quicker.

Apologies to Andy and the two posters for mixing up their stories. It must be an age thing!

[Stevelewis]

Maybe away from the op little, I've often noticed that the postage applied by hattons and others would have insufficient insurance to cover it if it were to go missing. I'm presuming that this be factored in to their business model - more sales with low postage offsets any that go missing. But I was a little uneasy when asked to return an item to them and was told second class recorded was only what they'd refund - if it went missing, presumably I'd take the hit

 

I  may be  incorrect  here  but  some of  the  retailers  with  whom  I deal ( not  just  Model Railways)  have  mentioned  to me  that  they  have  some type  of  business insurance  which  covers  them  for  problems  with goods in  transit,  which   does not  bear  a  relationship to  the  postage/shipping costs  a  private individual pays.

 

In fact  when  I  have  returned quite  expensive  items  which  were  faulty to Hattons  ( £150+) locos I have  queried their  asking me  to  use only  2nd class  standard  post  , I have been  advised that  providing   I retain the  receipt as  proof of  despatch all will be  well in  the  case  of  loss  or  damage  ( to date  it  has  been!)

[ianmaccormac]

I am very surprised by this topic. I have never had any problems with DPD. I must be lucky! I am also a very satisfied Hattons customer with no issues from them ever.

I did have a problem last year with the Post Office Guaranteed next day delivery system when someone was trying to send me something. 

It was tracked as being in their local sorting office but no further. 

I had to wait the statutory 20 (or 30, can't remember) days before a claim could be made, and as soon as it was, the package was found in the local sorting office! I received it about 13 hours later.

I hope that after the 20 days have elapsed, DPD find your parcel and deliver it.

Cheers

Ian

[Steamport Southport]

I've had numerous problems with DPD. Including drivers actually lying that they have attempted delivery and sending the parcel back to the sender because they couldn't be bothered delivering them. A common occurrence I believe, not just with DPD but other couriers as well.

 

 

The only problem I have ever had with Hattons was the recent problem with the stocktake where I ordered an item to be told a couple of days later that the item wasn't in stock. Nothing remotely significant. A happy Hattons customer since the 1970s with a family that has used them since the 1950s.

 

 

 

Jason

[MartinTrucks]

Hi

 

Around where I live we even get DPD deliveries on a Sunday (why I have no idea).

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

I am no expert on DPD; it's just that my package from Kernow was sent Friday morning by DPD Local, Next Working Day service and the earliest it could arrive was this (Monday) morning, which it duly did at 9.55! If local couriers are a franchise, anything could happen!

​Cheers,

Martin

[Stevelewis]

I've had numerous problems with DPD. Including drivers actually lying that they have attempted delivery and sending the parcel back to the sender because they couldn't be bothered delivering them. A common occurrence I believe, not just with DPD but other couriers as well.

 

 

 

Jason

 

It is  strange  how  some  areas  seem  to  get  problems  with  various  courier deliveries  whilst  others  do not, I believe it  to  be  the  attitude of  the individual courier,  Some couriers tell me  that  they can  do in excess of 100 deliveries in a day,  I would have  thought  that in an  area such as  ours  where locations  are a bit 'spread out' that problems  would  occur  with missed or late deliveries,  but  for  some  time  now  this  has not been  the  case,  Everything  which has been ordered from our  Household  has  arrived  when  it  should have  done.

 

For the  record  I placed a  largish order  from Hattons on line  just  before 2pm Monday  which arrived on time  today Tuesday at 8-15AM

[rembrow]

I've had a few problems in the last 6 months, with tracked deliveries from Hattons, Rails and Gas Cupboard, none of which were the fault of the retailers all being issues with the carriers. The first two were Royal Mail 48hr tracked and I had them stuck at my local RM delivery office for several days. It identified a RM delivery issue as on both occasions my local postie was on rostered leave and the local RM management had not been able to get a replacement, so we found out that RM were cancelling the daily delivery for several days without notice. I contacted the RM customer line who advised that it had to be 5 days without delivery before they would intervene. I now find out from our local postie in advance, when he is going to be away. The third issue was with UK Mail next day delivery, the item was at my local depot next day, however the delivery courier went past without stopping, later in the afternoon the tracked info changed to say that 'delivery was delayed to next day at recipients request' which was clearly a lie. I contacted the retailer who was concerned and said they would raise it with their UK Mail account manager. All items did arrive, but these did show to me how these two couriers were avoiding telling customers of their failings.

[Metr0Land]

I posted this on the other Hattons thread as I couldn't find this one at the time. Can only speak as I find but never had a problem with hattons (only 1 loco returned in N years)

Ordered loco and 2 coaches online 1:31PM yesterday (Sunday) - delivered here in West Wales (by Yodel!) 1:06PM today (Monday). Well done to both.