MODELMASTER UK - Order delays

[Ian Abel]

Just posting this as requested by Jim, haven't seen another post of the details, moderators please move/delete if there is a better/more appropriate place;

 

"Road Accident over weekend

.

Elspeth and I had to drive to Aviemore last weekend, planning to be back in Ayr by Monday night, so that we could get the last of the orders sent out before the end of this week.

 On Monday, in deep snow and almost zero visibility, we were sitting at traffic lights in Newtonmore, almost 200 miles from home, when an out of control car

'tailgated us at speed, seiously damaging my car, and not doing us any good either!

 

I've got a replacement car courtesy of our insurance company, and should be fit to drive down over the weekend and get these remaining orders out., as well as any new orders this week.

 

Sorry for inconvenience, but we'll get orders out as soon as possible.

I'm sorry to have let you down.

 

Jim Grindlay

 

p.s. Please pass this message on to other groups, as not everybody awaiting orders will be able to read it ,and I'm not on Social Media "

 

Edited December 19, 2019 by Ian Abel

[30368]

Have replied directly to Jim wishing them a Merry Christmas - my order can wait until they sort themselves out, it's just not that important.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[Neal Ball]

7 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Just posting this as requested by Jim, haven't seen another post of the details, moderators please move/delete if there is a better/more appropriate place;

 

"Road Accident over weekend

.

Elspeth and I had to drive to Aviemore last weekend, planning to be back in Ayr by Monday night, so that we could get the last of the orders sent out before the end of this week.

 On Monday, in deep snow and almost zero visibility, we were sitting at traffic lights in Newtonmore, almost 200 miles from home, when an out of control car

'tailgated us at speed, seiously damaging my car, and not doing us any good either!

 

I've got a replacement car courtesy of our insurance company, and should be fit to drive down over the weekend and get these remaining orders out., as well as any new orders this week.

 

Sorry for inconvenience, but we'll get orders out as soon as possible.

I'm sorry to have let you down.

 

Jim Grindlay

 

p.s. Please pass this message on to other groups, as not everybody awaiting orders will be able to read it ,and I'm not on Social Media "

 

Thanks for posting this Ian., hope Jim and Elspeth are ok.

 

They might want to get an answerphone message on their phone. I’ve been trying to call this week chasing my order, not knowing about the accident. The phone rings out and says that the mailbox is full. It might be better if there was a message.

 

Regards, Neal

[John M Upton]

Latest twist in the Modelmaster story, email just received:

 

It's a hard decision, but I've got to make it..

 

I've dithered for two or three years about whether to keep making Waterslide Decals, and have kept going, bringing out the occasional new ones and reprinting many earlier ones.  Now I really am cutting them out and concentrating on etchings and loco kits only, so the 4mm Scale transfers are being sold at 50% off to clear a lot of them out, and the remaining stocks will be re-assessed in a week or two as to how I dispose of them,  as I soon won't have enough room (when I move) to store them all.   (By the way, the small discount on nameplates ends tonight.)

 

Almost slicing my thumb off in November caused a backlog with getting orders sent out to customers new and old, but being 'rear ended' at speed by an out of control car earlier this month put the tin lid on any hope i had of fulfilling all of my customer orders in time for Christmas,  which despite all of the nice messages from an overwhelming number of customers, I still feel very, very, bad about.   

 

I'm working on it now right through this week.  (Including New Year's Day, which Elspeth and I don't bother about.  Might as well be here than watching a laod of rubbish on television!}

 

2019 has not been a good year for many people - lets hope for a better, more stable 2020!

 

 

 

Jim Grindlay

 

 

[MJI]

Just stocked up on white lining.

 

Would be sad to see them go

[FoolInjection]

Just seeing this post now explains why the decals I ordered at the beginning of December haven't arrived yet.  Really sorry to hear about the accident, wish everyone a speedy recovery.  I did send an e-mail after trying to phone them a bunch and the message inbox was full (as someone mentioned above).  Came looking online to see if anyone had posted anything about the site recently.

[Neal Ball]

Thanks @John M Upton, I haven't had any communication from them at all, despite chase emails sent.

 

My order was placed at the end of October 2019.

 

I hope they are both ok and that they are having a better start to 2020.

[philsandy]

3 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Thanks @John M Upton, I haven't had any communication from them at all, despite chase emails sent.

 

My order was placed at the end of October 2019.

 

I hope they are both ok and that they are having a better start to 2020.

 

If you placed your order in October I would suspect it has gone astray. I placed mine beginning of December and it took 6 weeks before I received it. I know about the problems re. his car accident, but my order was 2 weeks before that. After phoning a few times to chase it, he said he had sent it a week ago, but would send it again, and if the original ordered turned up to return it. The "2nd" order arrived 2 days later, the original never did.

The website has had a message for a week or so asking not to phone so he can deal with orders.

[AJCT]

My order (placed 28 November) arrived this morning.  When I heard about the accident I'd sent a message saying that my order was for a couple of long-term projects so there was no rush, and wished them well.

 

Alasdair

Edited January 18, 2020 by AJCT
Correct date

[Neal Ball]

20 hours ago, philsandy said:

 

If you placed your order in October I would suspect it has gone astray. I placed mine beginning of December and it took 6 weeks before I received it. I know about the problems re. his car accident, but my order was 2 weeks before that. After phoning a few times to chase it, he said he had sent it a week ago, but would send it again, and if the original ordered turned up to return it. The "2nd" order arrived 2 days later, the original never did.

The website has had a message for a week or so asking not to phone so he can deal with orders.

I’ve tried emailing and phoning (before and after the accident) and can’t get a response. Will try again on Monday.

[Neal Ball]

Ive just had a lovely chat with Jim who is struggling to get on top of orders at the moment.

 

Apparently one of my plates was in for re-etching which should be complete later this week.

 

Problem solved. Obviously when I last tried calling they must have been getting over the accident.

[Neal Ball]

On 20/01/2020 at 12:06, Neal Ball said:

Ive just had a lovely chat with Jim who is struggling to get on top of orders at the moment.

 

Apparently one of my plates was in for re-etching which should be complete later this week.

 

Problem solved. Obviously when I last tried calling they must have been getting over the accident.

 

A month later and the order has still not arrived :-(

[John M Upton]

I had a order of transfers that admittedly I had completely forgotten I had ordered arrive last week which were ordered on 31st November if that helps give you some indication of where the backlog has likely reached. 

[Bucoops]

I put an order in during the sale of the ones they were no longer to produce. Fully expected a long delay, but they turned up last week so happy with that. The strange bit is their webpage charged me 70p postage, but the note with it said they had upgraded it to special delivery - even though the order was only £50 so signed for would have been enough insurance, but they removed one item from the order to "pay for" the extra postage. How bizarre.

 

I'm not going to do anything as it was still a good price, but I am one set of transfers down which I wanted so will have to order again (the item is still listed but at full price now). Surely you would ask for a contribution towards the postage cost instead of removing an item from the order to pay for the extra postage?! I would have been happy to pay the additional postage and get the full order.

[Staffordshire]

   I placed an order in December and after understanding their misfortune, I did not overly worry.  Now after a promise which has not been kept,

I phoned on Thursday to find they are out of the office until Monday.   So after respecting their request not to phone, I now am no further forward.

 

  As you can imagine, the phone call on Monday may be a little heated, after all I am the paying Customer.

[Ben Alder]

Modelmaster are a two person operation, past "normal" retiring age, who have had a good degree of personal misfortune recently. Give them a bit of slack, please - they are model railway transfers, not insulin.....they will come. This weekend is the Glasgow show - a big event in this part of the world, and he is probably there in one form or another. I placed two orders with him some time ago, seperately, and one has arrived while the other is still in the pipeline, but I'll just get on with other things till they appear. They are trying their d******t to catch up on things, I can assure you.

 

[Neal Ball]

My end of October order has still not arrived..... despite my chat with them on Feb 18th.

 

No it’s not life threatening, just frustrating.

[Colin_McLeod]

On 18/02/2020 at 17:55, John M Upton said:

I had a order of transfers that admittedly I had completely forgotten I had ordered arrive last week which were ordered on 31st November if that helps give you some indication of where the backlog has likely reached. 

 

31st November ?????

[Staffordshire]

  Plates which were ordered in December turned up this morning,   as was promised in the phone call last week.

[Daddyman]

Got my order from October 2019 (sic.) a couple of days ago! 

 

I notice that MM are now selling on ebay and the feedback is positive, including for fast delivery. And I stumbled across a post on here from two weeks ago saying that transfers had arrived in two days. Are things back to normal?   

Edited July 26, 2020 by Daddyman

[black and decker boy]

I placed an order on 13th July, no sign of it yet.

[gwrrob]

On 26/07/2020 at 10:21, black and decker boy said:

I placed an order on 13th July, no sign of it yet.

 

Any  joy yet ?

[black and decker boy]

11 hours ago, gwrrob said:

 

Any  joy yet ?

Not yet.

[jwealleans]

I ordered through Ebay on July 21st, transfers arrived last Friday.  

[gwrrob]

1 hour ago, black and decker boy said:

Not yet.

 

1 hour ago, jwealleans said:

I ordered through Ebay on July 21st, transfers arrived last Friday.  

 

I ordered three sets of GWR cabsides on July 20th.Phone is going to voicemail when I tried ringing as Jim prefers this way to emails.