Stephenson's Rocket Second Class Blue Coach •Exclusive•

[cmtrain]

46 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Again supposition, although likely correct, but not my main point. They should have been working their way through orders to let people know and they really shouldn’t have put them on open sale until they had reserved enough or informed those that had pre ordered their one. 
I posted to make them think, they’ve not communicated anything direct about the delays on pre orders with the latest Terrier delays either. I think they need to rethink their communications on delays and cancellations as there are no doubt people who only check their emails once or twice a week, like my parents, may still be unaware and find they are sold out by the time they realise assuming Rails do eventually email out the orders are cancelled? 

 

I have a few friends that work in a few different sectors of online retail, cancelling potentially hundreds of orders is a massive pain... to then manually allocate stock of another product would be even more so. They are not going to make big money on the low price and limited run of the Hornby coaches, I imagine they have already lost money on designing their coach!

 

Still its sad people have missed out :( Doesn't seem like Rails want to compete with Hornby or any manufacturer, just produce the more niche products or fill gaps in the market that would not otherwise get produced. 

[PaulRhB]

37 minutes ago, cmtrain said:

 

I have a few friends that work in a few different sectors of online retail, cancelling potentially hundreds of orders is a massive pain... to then manually allocate stock of another product would be even more so.

True but to put your Hornby allocation on sale before even contacting people who’d supported your pioneering effort? It may be a pain but not bothering to even tell people first has cancelled out my sympathy for being beaten to it in this case. 

 

37 minutes ago, cmtrain said:

 

They are not going to make big money on the low price and limited run of the Hornby coaches, I imagine they have already lost money on designing their coach!

Yes and I felt sorry for them with the Terrier and have continued with my pre order to support them and haven’t moaned about the delay but that too now has been put on their site, which I only heard about on here, but nothing to those with orders. A general mailshot is possible, Derails and Hattons manage and they cover both ends of the retailer scale. 
I’m just suggesting Rails need to consider this in future as it causes bad feeling and I now won’t bother moving another order to them to compensate out of support. Their loss not mine on that too. 
 

I’m not suggesting a boycott or anything daft but I do feel it’s bad form much like another retailer on here putting a Rocket set on eBay at the inflated price before offering it in their shop to customers who’d supported them before. 
I appreciate these businesses need to make money but there’s a decent way of doing things and I feel they failed particularly on the coaches by selling off the Hornby allocation on general sale. 

[Colin_McLeod]

The last time an item I ordered was cancelled without the supplier telling me it was an APT. 

 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

Well I wouldn’t suggest those kind of problems are in any way connected. This is just poor customer communication, we’ve not been hit in anything but goodwill. That said I hope they do now contact people so they get a chance to look for other outlets or they’re really going to p some off once they discover their order is cancelled if the Hornby version is sold out everywhere too. 
With people mentioning they’ve bought 3-7 in the other threads if there are only 1000 they might be gone in a week or two. 

[JSpencer]

4 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

With people mentioning they’ve bought 3-7 in the other threads if there are only 1000 they might be gone in a week or two. 

 

I do wonder why some people are buying 3-7. The Rocket model won't really handle such trains.  I doubt that there will be just 1000 units because tooling will be a lot more than the 10K Hornby could hope to make. Of course 1000 units this year and more next is highly probable. I'm fairly convinced that some other loco with these coaches will follow next year (Lion seems a good choice for starters). 

[Roddy Angus]

12 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

This is just poor customer communication, .... That said I hope they do now contact people

 

I don't know about what happened with others but yesterday I received an email from Hornby at 10:02 telling me that they were going to produce the third class carriage.  My immediate reaction was that I had ordered the Rails one and I would continue with that order and see what the Hornby one looked like when available, I did briefly think about cancelling my Rails order but thought that unfair on Rails as I had already made a commitment.

 

At 10:49 (47 minutes after the Hornby announcement) I got an email from Rails telling me that they were not proceeding with their model and that all pre-orders would be automatically cancelled.  The same email informed me that the Hornby version was available to order on their website.

 

After briefly considering whether I would buy from my local shop, I decided that I would stick with Rails as they had made the effort around their own model.  I therefore went on line and ordered the Hornby wagon from Rails, I did have to wait until it was properly added to the site as initially the order did not go through.  The confirmation email was timed at 11:30.

 

Now, unless Rails made me a special case, I do not call that poor customer communication.  Within 50 minutes of the Hornby announcement, assuming the formal announcement was at 10:00, Rails (who may have had advanced notice I admit) had made a decision to cancel their model and informed me of the decision.  This allowed me to make a decision on ordering the Hornby model, which I did from Rails as they had told me that they were accepting pre-orders.

 

I think that Rails' communication on this issue was very quick and clear and the prompt decision on cancellation allowed me the option of either ordering from my local shop or Rails.  I would have been more annoyed if Rails had failed to make a quick decision which might have meant that I missed the opportunity to pre-order the coach (or is it a luxury wagon).

 

As someone else has already said, Rails' allowance for the Hornby model is probably less than they had pre-orders for their own version, so unfair though it may sound, first come first served.  Hopeefully Hornby may increase the run if there is enough demand.

 

Regards

 

Roddy

 

 

 

 

[Edge]

Ive picked up 2 because I think they would look better behind my planned Rocket ‘back and forth’ ride for my fictional preserved railway than the full yellow covered coaches.

 

incidentally, if anyone wants to sell me  one of the new ‘Rocket’ locos by itself with no coaches then please PM

[PaulRhB]

24 minutes ago, Roddy Angus said:

10:49 (47 minutes after the Hornby announcement) I got an email from Rails telling me that they were not proceeding with their model and that all pre-orders would be automatically cancelled.  The same email informed me that the Hornby version was available to order on their website.

Nothing in my inbox or junk folder still 

Somethings wrong there, I don’t subscribe to the newsletters as you are bombarded with them by so many if you do so was it a newsletter or an email in relation to your actual pre-order?
 

25 minutes ago, Roddy Angus said:

Now, unless Rails made me a special case, I do not call that poor customer communication. 

Well you were still required to sort it out before it sold out. I went to my account to see if they had anything on their page and I thought no I’ll keep the faith then later saw it cancelled here and went to my account to see it gone and all sold out! 

Like I said above if that’s the case they still probably have people who don’t know yet their order is cancelled.
 

Regardless still poor to put them on general sale before giving those with pre orders a chance when it’s a direct replacement that caused the cancellation. If I’d been at work the first I’d have known was mid afternoon if I’d looked here. 
 

I really hope they do tell others if this is a glitch in their system they need to look at it. 

[Mel_H]

7 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

True but to put your Hornby allocation on sale before even contacting people who’d supported your pioneering effort? It may be a pain but not bothering to even tell people first has cancelled out my sympathy for being beaten to it in this case. 

 

Yes and I felt sorry for them with the Terrier and have continued with my pre order to support them and haven’t moaned about the delay but that too now has been put on their site, which I only heard about on here, but nothing to those with orders. A general mailshot is possible, Derails and Hattons manage and they cover both ends of the retailer scale. 
I’m just suggesting Rails need to consider this in future as it causes bad feeling and I now won’t bother moving another order to them to compensate out of support. Their loss not mine on that too. 
 

I’m not suggesting a boycott or anything daft but I do feel it’s bad form much like another retailer on here putting a Rocket set on eBay at the inflated price before offering it in their shop to customers who’d supported them before. 
I appreciate these businesses need to make money but there’s a decent way of doing things and I feel they failed particularly on the coaches by selling off the Hornby allocation on general sale. 

Details emailed all its customers who had bought the Rocket set, offering them ‘first dibs’ before they go on general sale, which was very thoughtful and excellent customer service IMHO

[Pre Grouping fan]

And Derails also put off making them available to preorder until they knew exactly how many they would receive to prevent overselling their allocation. Which is also excellent customer service. 

[aaron3820]

I’ve ordered 7 for myself and a few mates purely to save on postage ex UK. In reality it’s 2 each for three of us plus a third for myself. It’s looking very unlikely that any Australian suppliers will have a chance to hold stock of these coaches so ya gotta do what ya gotta do I suppose. Ordering direct from Hornby they wanted £45 postage so off to Hattons I went. 

[Colin_McLeod]

 

On 02/07/2020 at 15:00, Roddy Angus said:

My immediate reaction was that I had ordered the Rails one and I would continue with that order and see what the Hornby one looked like when available, I did briefly think about cancelling my Rails order but thought that unfair on Rails as I had already made a commitment.

 

According to Rails announcement today they are cancelling all Hornby pre orders, presumably including this one. 

[Roddy Angus]

1 hour ago, Colin_McLeod said:

 

 

According to Rails announcement today they are cancelling all Hornby pre orders, presumably including this one. 

 

Och well, easy come easy go!

 

Thanks for the reminder that I had ordered them from Rails.

 

Best wishes

Roddy

[SRman]

Most retailers have pre-sold all of their Hornby coach allocations already. I had one pre-ordered with Rails, and hastily scouted around other retailers to see if I could order from somewhere else. I got onto Hampshire Models and pre-ordered a couple, but I can't be sure they will be able to supply - they have accepted the order. Fingers crossed.