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R3819 Duchess Of Atholl


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4 minutes ago, Dazza 50 015 said:

Just had an email from Rails of Sheffield saying my pre order is now cancelled.......... Happy is not the word!!!!!!!!

Ouch! Was there any explanation given? 
 

i have one on order with Rails. I’ve just checked my account and nothing has changed as yet - still shows as ‘pending’. 

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Just had the dreaded email: 

 

“The purpose for the email is in regards to your pre-order for the Hornby R3819 Centenary Edition Duchess of Atholl Locomotive.

 

At the beginning of the year Hornby allocated a set amount of all Centenary products to all retailer including the R3819 Duchess of Atholl. The purpose for them allocating was so products were not oversold and retailers knew from the beginning how much stock they had to sell. Subsequently we opened up our order books and pre-sold to within our allocation of stock. 

 

Hornby however this week have contacted us and informed us that our allocation of the Duchess of Atholl will now be significantly reduced. This is totally out of our control and after many attempts to secure the original volume it appears this will not happen. 

 

This unfortunately means that we are unable to fulfil your pre-order and the order will be cancelled.

 

We are extremely disappointed that we have do this. Rails this year will celebrate the 50th year of its family run business. It is down to loyal customers such as yourself placing their trust and orders with us that has placed us where we are today, so it really pains us when we let just one of our customers down. We honestly would love to supply and fulfil your order, however we cannot force Hornby to sell us the stock. 

 

We have tried to give you as much notice as possible in the hope you will be able to secure stock elsewhere, including Hornby’s direct website. We will continue to try and secure additional units and should this be successful you will be one of the first to know about it.

 

Once again please accept our apologies for the disappointment and we hope it doesn’t affect ordering in the future with us. ”

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Oh dear . After I said Hornby were delivering the goods .  No blame on Rails of Sheffield here  this is firmly in Hornbys court . Not satisfying allocations , not good enough Hornby .

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17 minutes ago, Legend said:

Oh dear . After I said Hornby were delivering the goods .  No blame on Rails of Sheffield here  this is firmly in Hornbys court . Not satisfying allocations , not good enough Hornby .

 

I agree Legend, not Rails fault in anyway.  I had my order in several hours after it was first advertised and was showing pending for about a week before showing confirmed........   I understand this loco was very popular so would of thought Hornby could of increased the production run and not decreased it.

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Possibly of slight embarrassment to Hornby is that I appear in a number of their videos citing the Atholl as the 2020 announcement I’m most looking forward to. And my pre order has been cancelled. 
 

I have contacted Hornby for clarification as to the reason, whether they made less than originally announced, or some other reason. 

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9 minutes ago, Jenny Emily said:

Possibly of slight embarrassment to Hornby is that I appear in a number of their videos citing the Atholl as the 2020 announcement I’m most looking forward to. And my pre order has been cancelled. 
 

I have contacted Hornby for clarification as to the reason, whether they made less than originally announced, or some other reason. 


A good way then it appears of shooting yourselves through the PR foot.

Maybe production numbers fell short for whatever reason,as it did several years ago prior to the Christmas period with 34001 Exeter. Hornby were caught.....literally....embarrassingly short. There were humble apologies all round.There are other examples of this particular failing.

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I got the email too, gutted considering I ordered when the announcements were made and it was the highlight of the centenary models for me! I too have asked Hornby why they cannot fulfill retailers allocations. I wonder if Hattons, Kernow etc have also had to cancel orders! 

Edited by CathcartCircle
Thought of something else to add
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1 hour ago, Ian Hargrave said:


A good way then it appears of shooting yourselves through the PR foot.

Maybe production numbers fell short for whatever reason,as it did several years ago prior to the Christmas period with 34001 Exeter. Hornby were caught.....literally....embarrassingly short. There were humble apologies all round.There are other examples of this particular failing.

Maybe Hornby will now consider a second run of this loco as was the case of the Duchess Sir William Stanier and the WC Pacific Exeter ?

 

Edited by Black 5 Bear
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It is now showing as out of stock on the Hornby website,whereas the order book was open a few days ago for direct sell. I believe a forum member posted that more had become available quite recently.Odd but may give some indication of what has been happening. The Rails email is quite clear that they as retailers played by the rules. Not good.

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6 minutes ago, Black 5 Bear said:

Maybe Hornby will now consider a second run of this loco as was the case of the Duchess Sir William Stanier and the WC Pacific Exeter ?

 

 
They said 500 I believe and this one is very special.We can only speculate as I have done that numbers may have fallen short on delivery. There may be another reason for redistribution of what is an unique and much sought after model.Why on earth muddy the waters like this ? Spoiling a good year. 

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16 minutes ago, Black 5 Bear said:

Maybe Hornby will now consider a second run of this loco as was the case of the Duchess Sir William Stanier and the WC Pacific Exeter ?

 

It would be a crying shame if they didn't. there'd be a number of disappointed people out there, I'm not qualified to know but wouldn't the number of early pre-orders give some indication of the demand. I hope they do act to remedy this situation...........unless of course it has something to do with the current World dilemna which is out of everyone's control.

 

Mike

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Who said the amount has been reduced? Could be the simple fact of Hornby seeing how quickly it sold on preorder, deciding that they want to get as much as they can, and then deciding that they can get much more from direct sales than from people buying from shops at 10% off. Makes perfect commercial sense for them, but does not make them popular at all. 

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48 minutes ago, Black 5 Bear said:

Maybe Hornby will now consider a second run of this loco as was the case of the Duchess Sir William Stanier and the WC Pacific Exeter ?

 

 
There is another precedent for a repeat production run....the Great Gathering morphed into the Great Goodbye. Nice if they could make up for a collective disappointment but these are now very different circumstances. Now sit back and watch eBay prices take off.

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18 minutes ago, Hilux5972 said:

Could be the simple fact of Hornby seeing how quickly it sold on preorder, deciding that they want to get as much as they can, and then deciding that they can get much more from direct sales than from people buying from shops at 10% off. Makes perfect commercial sense for them, but does not make them popular at all. 

 

Now that, I think, hits the proverbial nail on the proverbial head !!

 

Let's hope that it comes back to bite them!!

 

John Isherwood.

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12 minutes ago, Hilux5972 said:

Who said the amount has been reduced? Could be the simple fact of Hornby seeing how quickly it sold on preorder, deciding that they want to get as much as they can, and then deciding that they can get much more from direct sales than from people buying from shops at 10% off. Makes perfect commercial sense for them, but does not make them popular at all. 


No one “said “ the amount had been reduced but remember there is ample precedent for just that isn’t there? You have leapfrogged ahead to what is quite obviously a very hard nosed scenario .You of course may well be correct and the thought had actually crossed my mind too but then would Hornby at this moment in time return to the days when it was policy to circumvent and undercut the retail trade ? Maybe I ‘m just old fashioned but I don’t think they would. Then perhaps I’m being naive.

Commercial common sense maybe . Bad taste,definitely....IF that really is the case.We don’t know.

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No reply as yet to my queries. 
 

it is puzzling as to why now? Surely they knew weeks ago that they would be delivering short? They left the factory at least four weeks ago; why has nothing been said until now? 
 

yes I am very disappointed, especially if the Ebay gougers still get theirs. 

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5 minutes ago, Jenny Emily said:

No reply as yet to my queries. 
 

it is puzzling as to why now? Surely they knew weeks ago that they would be delivering short? They left the factory at least four weeks ago; why has nothing been said until now? 
 

yes I am very disappointed, especially if the Ebay gougers still get theirs. 

 
Delivering short.....or distributing differently ? Sorry to read of your disappointment. Maybe what comes off the container is serendipity? 
 

It’s the weekend to hide behind so no response for a bit. Next week should be interesting.

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2 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

It is now showing as out of stock on the Hornby website,whereas the order book was open a few days ago for direct sell. I believe a forum member posted that more had become available quite recently.Odd but may give some indication of what has been happening. The Rails email is quite clear that they as retailers played by the rules. Not good.

 

I went to the Hornby website 2 days ago and there was 1 left available to order. No retailers 15% new model discount available buying direct of course.

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