Anyone had problems with Hattons?

[Topogarden]

Well it seems I am the bad boy! I am also a troll apparently better not put a picture up then! I also posted in the wrong section! Oh dear.

Thank you Hattons I have now received my order. Despite telling me it could be twenty days things kicked into action on Monday (yesterday) the order was repeated and the parcel was with me today, I did email them and thank them. The courier was Yodel.

 

Never having had a parcel go missing in the years I have used Hattons (and I did wait five days before contacting the company) and others I did not think it unreasonable to ask others experiences. Probably got that one wrong as well!

 

My intention was not to deride Hattons indeed where would we without them now a significant amount of local model shops have gone. I did think the prospect of waiting twenty days was unreasonable but perhaps others think it’s not.

 

Perhaps in their frequently asked questions they could detail procedures in the event of lost parcels so that people know what to expect. Or perhaps it’s just me.

[Ouroborus]

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!)

 

Thanks for this Steve, much appreciated.  Clears up something that had bothered me a little.

[Oldddudders]

DPD operate here in France, too. I have been happy until recently. At the end of Feb I ordered an item from Amazon, fulfilled by an Amazon supplier, despatched within a couple of days. On 21st March Sherry and I travelled back to the UK - and next day Amazon's supplier said they'd heard from DPD that no-one was home - 3 weeks after despatch! They enquired further and on 7th March the courier told his firm he couldn't find the address. It must have sat around in the Le Mans depot for a fortnight before a retry. I advised the supplier when I would be back home, and they arranged with DPD to retry - the parcel having gone back to England. Sure enough on 11th April the supplier told me the parcel had been left at a delivery collection point near me. So I had to check the DPD website and hope I'd identified the right one, which luckily I had, only 8 miles away. Full marks to Stuff UK, the supplier, who were courteous and helpful, but the driver obviously plays with himself. And sacking someone in France is very difficult to do. 

 

By contrast, my new iPhone was collected by DHL yesterday in Manchester at 11.57, and delivered here in the same obscure rural France at 12.22 - or 11.22 BST, less than 24 hrs. Some can do it. 

[Les1952]

I've had DHL drive slowly past my door with an expected parcel, turn round at the cul-de-sac end of the road, drive slowly past once again, and disappear off down the slip road onto the A1 at a rate of knots.

 

This has happened a couple of times.  On the first time I got an email from the supplying shop (NOT Hattons) a couple of days later to say that DHL had contacted them to say nobody was in.

 

On the second occasion I phoned DHL's depot (15 miles away in Grantham) to tell them what had happened.  They rang back 15 mins later to say their driver reported nobody at home, and at about 6pm the same van returned to make the delivery.

On both occasions I watched the van from an upstairs window, clearly visible from the road....

 

When ordering goods by phone I now ask which courier and refuse to order if it is DHL....

Les

[stock_2007]

There was a time just after the postage world went mad and the courier dark age started that the driver would take a photo of your door to prove he'd been...good times

[LBRJ]

Well it seems I am the bad boy! I am also a troll apparently better not put a picture up then! I also posted in the wrong section! Oh dear.

Thank you Hattons I have now received my order. Despite telling me it could be twenty days things kicked into action on Monday (yesterday) the order was repeated and the parcel was with me today, I did email them and thank them. The courier was Yodel.

 

Never having had a parcel go missing in the years I have used Hattons (and I did wait five days before contacting the company) and others I did not think it unreasonable to ask others experiences. Probably got that one wrong as well!

 

My intention was not to deride Hattons indeed where would we without them now a significant amount of local model shops have gone. I did think the prospect of waiting twenty days was unreasonable but perhaps others think it’s not.

 

Perhaps in their frequently asked questions they could detail procedures in the event of lost parcels so that people know what to expect. Or perhaps it’s just me.

 

Maybe you could just chill a bit about such things?

[JSpencer]

In my experience (and all model shops I have dealt with) have always sorted out any issues I had in a reasonable time (less than 1 month and often a lot faster).

I cannot think of an industry with better service.

 

Now I had a parcel go missing (not train related) on a well web site shop named after an ancient worrier race that lived at Themyscira and that took 6 months. I also had issues with a Hotel I booked once and despite providing proof, had pass through a Judiciary after they offered only partial credit for the invoice error. That took 3 months. There are a lot of shops out there in other sectors which offer only credit notes!

[mevaman]

Why is this thread still here? This is nothing to do with a Retailer Commission.

 

Hopefully I haven’t upset the admins too much!

 

Andrew

[Hroth]

There was a time just after the postage world went mad and the courier dark age started that the driver would take a photo of your door to prove he'd been...good times

There was a day when all advertisments for postal service ended with the immortal line "Delivery may take up to 28 days"...

[Les1952]

There was a time just after the postage world went mad and the courier dark age started that the driver would take a photo of your door to prove he'd been...good times

 

The DHL driver who failed to deliver my parcels drove by slowly enough to have done just that- I wish I'd had my camera or phone with me at the time....

 

Les

[rab]

The DHL driver who failed to deliver my parcels drove by slowly enough to have done just that- I wish I'd had my camera or phone with me at the time....

 

Les

You mean you suspect he was using his phone while driving??

[Chamby]

The DHL driver who failed to deliver my parcels drove by slowly enough to have done just that- I wish I'd had my camera or phone with me at the time....

 

Les

It might not have been him... I have been waiting for a delivery on one occasion and it was the third van in the street that actually had my parcel. I don’t know who does their delivery scheduling, it defies logic but usually seems to work. I have even had one order where the two related parcels arrived on separate vans in the same day.

[royaloak]

Why is this thread still here? This is nothing to do with a Retailer Commission.

 

Hopefully I haven’t upset the admins too much!

 

Andrew

It is nothing to do with the retailer either, the (small) problem is with the courier!

[royaloak]

There was a day when all advertisments for postal service ended with the immortal line "Delivery may take up to 28 days"...

That was in our day, oh and being pedantic it was "Delivery within 28 working days", nowadays if it isnt delivered by a vestal virgin (preferably female) 3 minutes after ordering the world will end.

[Lancaster622]

Not really a whinge at Hattons but my only issue I have had with them sounds like this:

 

I purchased some track at the beginning of the month to test my new 64xx & 3200 on the Hornby power track was missing one of the push down buttons and the 2 quad straights were bent at the ends during transit (Yodel), so of course I straight away rang Hattons to explain what I had found and they told me that if I sent it back, they would refund that postage and send me replacements.

 

I did this and the replacements were on their way back to Hattons via Parcel Force due to the length of the box and on a 48 hour service messaging Hattons the tracking number which they acknowledged, so I waited Friday (1st 24hour period) then Monday (2nd 24hour Period) and then Tuesday morning I checked the tracking number myself and it came back with zilch - nothing at all! 

 

So I called Hattons up because I was now concerned that they may not have received the items back, but I needed to be sure before chasing Parcel Force up.

 

1st Person I spoke to after I had explained the story so far: No nothing has come through yet but if you don't hear from us in a couple of days then ring again

 

I left it until Friday 

 

2nd Person I spoke to after I had explained the story so far: Nothing as yet, the guy who deals with returns has just gone on lunch when he gets back I'll ask him and call you back (then confirming my number to ring me back on)

 

I heard nothing so on Saturday Morning now 2 weeks after the original order was made:

 

3rd Person I Spoke to I explained the story so far: Nothing on the system, but all parcels are signed in as they arrive before they are checked so it doesn't look like it has.

 

Thank you I replied that is all I have been trying to find out! So the call finished there with both sides agreeing to ring the other if anything was found out.

 

I rang Parcel Force (which with 20/20 hindsight I could've done on the Tuesday) and they told me that Tracking Number was a load of garbage and so using the postcodes found the correct one and said that it was delivered and signed for on Tuesday! I looked it up and confirmed this.

 

Then Rang Hattons again and was fortunate to get through to the same chap again, I told him my findings: OK he says I will go and see whats happend to it and call you back.

 

I received a call around half an hour later to confirm the package was with them, but at this point I asked for the items to be refunded on the basis that it was 2 weeks after the original order and I had been sent around the houses by 2 of his colleagues while only trying to ensure that they had received the parcel - not to harass for the replacements  or a refund or to have a go at anyone and send toys in all directions, just to try and do Hattons a favour and find out if I needed to chase Parcel Force or not. This was agreed by him and I was refunded the items sent back plus the return postage cost (£12 something crazy for some track) 

 

I am happy with the results and will use Hattons again but if Person 1 or 2 had just said the magic words "all parcels are signed in as they arrive before they are checked" it could have been sorted out far quicker and I would have been able to test my 2 (still untested) models. 

[Roy Langridge]

As others have said - surely time to put this thread to bed? Any operation the size of Hattons will have some things go on, be it their fault or the courier's - a thread like this leads to a disproportional view.

 

Roy