Preorder email

[APOLLO]

Supply problems from China perhaps ?

 

Lots of supply problems for many things (non model railway) recently. Microchips being a big issue, and not just China either.

 

Brit15

 

 

[Bernard Lamb]

Just had my 78 cancelled by Hattons.

The first time this has happened to me.

I use them as and have done so for many years. In fact since my local shop closed and found then very reliable.

Bernard

 

[ThaneofFife]

Ive gone to Kernow now.....bit of a pain that they take the cash now though.

[Graham_Muz]

Just now, ThaneofFife said:

Ive gone to Kernow now.....bit of a pain that they take the cash now though.

 

If it is a pre-order and the item is not due with 28 days the payment is then refunded and only taken again at item dispatch.

[CUCKOO LINE]

30 minutes ago, Hilux5972 said:

I personally do it because it is a good price and also fairly cheap shipping to New Zealand. Now I have ordered the W1 direct from Hornby because I don’t want to miss out on it. Looks I may well have to do that with 2007 and 92220 as well. 

I have usually used Hatons because they were reliable, good price and you could place in the trunk to send at leisure or when enough for free postage., but now have no preorders with them but some elsewhere.

[spamcan61]

12 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

Supply problems from China perhaps ?

 

Lots of supply problems for many things (non model railway) recently. Microchips being a big issue, and not just China either.

 

Brit15

 

 

Not supply problem as such, the items in question are orderable from the Hornby website

 

[AY Mod]

18 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

Supply problems from China perhaps ?

 

I am not aware of any items being in short supply from the factories.

[Monkey28]

Just had my preorder for the Hornby 2021 wagon cancelled .that was the last one I had with Hatton's. I'm not going to order directly with Hornby I will just wait and see in any become available 

 

I have previously had some of my preorders cancelled earlier this year .Also, I had a wish list with Hattons and now none of the items I wanted are no longer available.

 

I in no way blame Hatton's for this situation and feel very sorry for them and the other retailers affected. In my opinion, the blame lies firmly with Hornby. 
 

This situation is seriously damaging the hobby and is not good for anyone Hornby ‘ the retailer or us the end customers 
 

I have no confidence in Hornby and I doubt that I will be ordering anything Hornby next year unless they sort this mess 

 

 

 

[Monkey28]

29 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

Supply problems from China perhaps ?

 

Lots of supply problems for many things (non model railway) recently. Microchips being a big issue, and not just China either.

 

Brit15

 

 

 

If that is the case then why do they not just say it's supply problems and that the models will come when they're ready 

 

Lots of big companies have said they could have supply problems this year.apple being one saying that supply of ipads could be affected 

Edited May 19, 2021 by Monkey28

[ruggedpeak]

34 minutes ago, Graham_Muz said:

I certainly know of at least one that will be honouring it’s pre-orders… 

Might be a tad helpful if Hornby or someone shared which retailers will actually/allegedly get pre-order stock to help customers (aka the people who buy stuff)? Is the PR dept MIA or CBA?

 

This is a screen grab just now from the Hornby website.......maybe they could put a little star or asterisk against stockists who will actually get stock. And remove the ones who definitely won't be getting stock....? I'm going with cock up over conspiracy on the website side of things. As for actual supply issues......

 

 

[amwells]

Had an email today - only for a couple of generic coaches. 
 

interestingly, I’ve also been following up on my order for all of the Coronation coaches from another supplier - Jadlam. Despite selling out in lots of places, Jadlam still haven’t had any (and have not received an answer from Hornby as to why not). 
 

Fortunately (for me) I’ve cobbled a set from a couple of other retailers who still have them in stock. 

[Mallard60022]

Sadly just heard from Hattons that both my Maunsell, BR/SR Dining Coach (S7841 and S7843) pre-orders have been cancelled.

Retried with Kernow.

Phil

[60800]

This tier system is now doing the rounds on Facebook and is pretty much summed up as follows; 

 

Tier 1 gets the pick of the crop 

 

Tier 2 slightly restricted but most things are delivered 

 

Tier 3 cannot pre-order stock and instead gets what is left over from Hornby's online sales.

 

Examples given are Kernow etc are tier 1, most smaller shops are tier 2 and a very small handful, including Hattons are dumped down in tier 3.

 

Take it as you will, but if this is really the case it is not good. 

 

Ordering direct from Hornby is my last resort - I'd rather join in the bun fight when stock arrives but I have certainly completely lost my faith in pre-ordering. 

 

Edit: Oh and yes, I did have one pre-order left with Hattons that I forgot about aaaand it's gone 

Edited May 19, 2021 by 60800

[Markwj]

Just checked my hattons account as I thought they had cancelled everything Hornby but the order for the tts class 08 decoder was still there.

 

So I saved them the trouble and cancelled it myself!

[andyman7]

5 minutes ago, 60800 said:

This tier system is now doing the rounds on Facebook and is pretty much summed up as follows; 

 

Tier 1 gets the pick of the crop 

 

Tier 2 slightly restricted but most things are delivered 

 

Tier 3 cannot pre-order stock and instead gets what is left over from Hornby's online sales.

 

Examples given are Kernow etc are tier 1, most smaller shops are tier 2 and a very small handful, including Hattons are dumped down in tier 3.

 

Take it as you will, but if this is really the case it is not good. 

 

Ordering direct from Hornby is my last resort - I'd rather join in the bun fight when stock arrives but I have certainly completely lost my faith in pre-ordering. 

 

Edit: Oh and yes, I did have one pre-order left with Hattons that I forgot about aaaand it's gone 

Obviously this can only be treated as hearsay in the absence of any confirmation, but if we assume it is true, the real question is why a retailer might be placed in tier 3? 
I am old enough to remember the discounting bloodbath of the early 1980s. Pages of adverts in the Railway Modeller advertising Hornby etc at (in many cases) half or less of RRP; but behind the scenes, much of this was fed by stock dumping from model shop closures and high street retailers like WHSmith no longer stocking 'traditional' toys and hobbies. The problem in this case is that the box shifters become king and dictate terms to the manufacturers - it ultimately doesn't end well.
The various travails of Rails and Hattons (both far and away the megaliths of the model railway retailing supply chain in recent years with multi-million pound turnovers) suggest that the willingness to cede massive retailing capacity to a third party is now being challenged. If you are a regional or local trader - fine. If you want to order product in the 000's and sell primarily online, then that is where I think the squeeze is being made. Rails and Hattons have noticeably massively ramped up both secondhand sales and their own direct manufacturing to try and address this.

[Monkey28]

23 minutes ago, 60800 said:

This tier system is now doing the rounds on Facebook and is pretty much summed up as follows; 

 

Tier 1 gets the pick of the crop 

 

Tier 2 slightly restricted but most things are delivered 

 

Tier 3 cannot pre-order stock and instead gets what is left over from Hornby's online sales.

 

Examples given are Kernow etc are tier 1, most smaller shops are tier 2 and a very small handful, including Hattons are dumped down in tier 3.

 

Take it as you will, but if this is really the case it is not good. 

 

Ordering direct from Hornby is my last resort - I'd rather join in the bun fight when stock arrives but I have certainly completely lost my faith in pre-ordering. 

 

Edit: Oh and yes, I did have one pre-order left with Hattons that I forgot about aaaand it's gone 

 

If this is the case then surely that would be illegal? And anti-competitive. To be honest I'm not happy  Hornby’s business practices 

Edited May 19, 2021 by Monkey28

[andyman7]

5 minutes ago, Monkey28 said:

 

If this is the case then surely that would be illegal? And anti-competitive. To be honest I'm not happy  Hornby’s business practices 

You are commenting on hearsay. And somehow I doubt that whatever Hornby is doing is illegal. They aren't market traders.

[60800]

12 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

Obviously this can only be treated as hearsay in the absence of any confirmation

 

100% yes - and I doubt we will get confirmation either way. 

 

I am aware that a significant number of the members on here do not partake in any other form of social media so I thought I would highlight the recent discussions elsewhere. Over the last day or two talk of these tiers has exploded and they all pretty much come to the conclusion I have summarised above 

 

9 minutes ago, Monkey28 said:

 

Surely that would be illegal? And anti-competitive. To be honest I'm not happy  Hornby’s business practices 

 

I wouldn't know - but seemingly if a contract has expired then Hornby has no obligation to fulfill Hatton's pre-orders? 

 

Indeed in the past, Hattons and many others have received huge cuts - the biggest before now probably being the whole Great Gathering / Great Goodbye A4 situation 

Edited May 19, 2021 by 60800
Typo

[AY Mod]

33 minutes ago, 60800 said:

Tier 1 gets the pick of the crop 

 

Tier 2 slightly restricted but most things are delivered 

 

Tier 3 cannot pre-order stock and instead gets what is left over from Hornby's online sales.

 

As ever, with trusting that as a source, it is at best lacking in correct phraseology and misleading at worst.

[PMP]

11 minutes ago, Monkey28 said:

 

If this is the case then surely that would be illegal? And anti-competitive. To be honest I'm not happy  Hornby’s business practices 

Why would it be illegal. There’s no legal requirement for Company A, to supply Company B. 

[60800]

7 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

As ever, with trusting that as a source, it is at best lacking in correct phraseology and misleading at worst.

 

I can't agree more, as I certainly don't trust Facebook as a source for anything like this and it does appear to be hearsay. No-one has been able to back it up, seemingly the only 'evidence' being what has happened with Hattons.

 

As said, this has cropped up literally in the last couple of days and has exploded. I last spoke to one of the shops I have orders with about a month ago and, at the time, they seemed to have no clue what Hornby was doing with anything and if they would get their allocations that they had ordered or not.

 

It's unsettling regardless.

Edited May 19, 2021 by 60800

[Tony Teague]

6 minutes ago, PMP said:

Why would it be illegal. There’s no legal requirement for Company A, to supply Company B. 

 

It probably wouldn't be illegal but it would be immoral and anti-competitive to choose who you allow to have stock and who not.

[PMP]

6 minutes ago, Tony Teague said:

 

It probably wouldn't be illegal but it would be immoral and anti-competitive to choose who you allow to have stock and who not.

Not at all, Company A has no legal obligation to supply company B with stock. In the trade some people are excluded (legally) from being able to stock those companies products. If you were to start a model shop tomorrow, there’s no legal requirement for any supplier to provide you with stock, and it’s not anti competitive to do so.

Edited May 19, 2021 by PMP

[AY Mod]

5 minutes ago, 60800 said:

I certainly don't trust Facebook as a source

 

Don't get me wrong, it's not entirely without substance but, if those were the words used, it's devoid of detail and includes words certainly not used in the actual source so it cannot be considered accurate relaying of information.

[aureol40012]

I’m not bothered about people posting what others are talking about, however poorly informed. However, what really grinds my gears is people who just HAVE to let people know that they know the “real” situation (by dropping unsubtle hints in their posts) but then do not share what the “real” situation actually is. You might tell us that you can’t say, which I totally understand, but my retort would be “well, apart from making you look good, what is the purpose of you telling us you know then......”.