What happened to Railtec?

[fiftyfour fiftyfour]

Railtec, previously very good indeed, have stopped replying to e-mail order requests. Trying to get a custom order as a work-around to the fact that a pack I want has been long term out of stock. He has taken down all "contact" function from his website, e-mailed using the address on the packs and via the one used to confirm orders and no reply after a week. Anyone else with half-done project on the workbench now stuck or probably going to have to complete with inferior solution (Fox or print-at-home)?

 

[railtec-models]

17 minutes ago, fiftyfour fiftyfour said:

Railtec, previously very good indeed, have stopped replying to e-mail order requests. Trying to get a custom order as a work-around to the fact that a pack I want has been long term out of stock. He has taken down all "contact" function from his website, e-mailed using the address on the packs and via the one used to confirm orders and no reply after a week. Anyone else with half-done project on the workbench now stuck or probably going to have to complete with inferior solution (Fox or print-at-home)?

 

 

Hey 54, still very much here? PM me on here and let me know the email address that you've used to email in on as it may not have reached me. The inbound inbox has sporadically got very full over the past few weeks with folks emailing in huge attachments which temporarily puts the account over its limit and consequently unable to send/receive mail. That, in addition to consistently being behind in replying to many inbound emails, IMs across multiple platforms, txt msgs and voicemails anyway, as well as processing more orders than ever on the web site, and trying to continue to develop new product that people ask for regrettably results in delays replying to msgs. What it ultimately comes down to is do I prioritise replying to all the msgs, or get orders out the door and develop new product and get to the msgs as and when I can. I understand your frustration but that's the simple reality of driving such a hugely complex beast. Unfortunately trying to keep on top of all the inbound comms in addition to everything else is simply a physical impossibility. I'm one guy putting out 350-400 new products a year and working flat out to help as many people as humanly possible, and inevitably it's impossible to be everywhere at once. Anyway, hope this provides some explanation.

 

Will look out for your PM,

Steve

 

[Mick Bonwick]

2 hours ago, fiftyfour fiftyfour said:

Railtec, previously very good indeed, have stopped replying to e-mail order requests. Trying to get a custom order as a work-around to the fact that a pack I want has been long term out of stock. He has taken down all "contact" function from his website, e-mailed using the address on the packs and via the one used to confirm orders and no reply after a week. Anyone else with half-done project on the workbench now stuck or probably going to have to complete with inferior solution (Fox or print-at-home)?

 

 

No problems with my order recently. Answered and completed within a week and that's perfecrtly acceptable to me.

[Mick Bonwick]

2 hours ago, fiftyfour fiftyfour said:

Railtec, previously very good indeed, have stopped replying to e-mail order requests. Trying to get a custom order as a work-around to the fact that a pack I want has been long term out of stock. He has taken down all "contact" function from his website, e-mailed using the address on the packs and via the one used to confirm orders and no reply after a week. Anyone else with half-done project on the workbench now stuck or probably going to have to complete with inferior solution (Fox or print-at-home)?

 

 

I used the email address railtecmodels @ gmail.com that cam with my original order confirmation. You may need to check your spam folder just in case it went there.

[Mick Bonwick]

Apologies to all. By the time my messages had been sent (problematic broadband link) Steve had already answered, rendering my responses totally irrelevant.

[w124bob]

When ordering custom items, which need a reply I too found there was a delay. Using a fresh email and quoting the order number has resulted in the usual excellent service. I just assumed hitting reply with my requirements had the reply buried amongst what must be dozens a day. I once got a reply at gone 10pm, I assume Railtec go to bed/home about once a month!

[Metr0Land]

3 recent orders here have all been fine.  They've all been for custom loco numbers so each order meant placing the order, then waiting for Steve to respond asking me for specific details, then me answering with said details.  I think all have been posted with 48hrs of me supplying the detail info.

[NickL2008]

Steve has been brilliant too recently, honestly the service he gives is great despite the huge workload, asked about custom set of transfers for my class 207, Steve pointed in the right direction and duly ordered, and within 2 days my order was with me! so he is here just gets very busy as im sure with the lockdown work has substantially increased with people staying at home.. be patient and he'll get back to you

 

NL

[Chas Levin]

Very pleased to hear all is well, Steve - excellent products and service and I too would have been dismayed had you stopped!

[fiftyfour fiftyfour]

Yes, I should have replied earlier as I fell into the trap of being quick to complain when something goes wrong and slow to say when something has been done well.

Steve has created a very useful new pack C4708 which gives you three "INTERCITY" wordings for swallow livery and you choose your own number, which the pack suggests must start with 47 but he did numbers that started with 43 just as happily when I ordered. This means that we can replicate the best livery ever to grace our rails once again when combined with Shawplan etched swallow birds as the old pack 1540 with its reflective birds hit production snags, and the cast birds are right for all but a couple of Class 43's post 1991 anyway. Along with other items ordered at the same time I've cleared the backlog on the area beyond the workbench, and got a pair of IC Swallow power cars without paying £550 (start price on a Hornby pair listed on eBay yesterday)!!

 

[railtec-models]

1 hour ago, fiftyfour fiftyfour said:

as the old pack 1540 with its reflective birds hit production snags

 

 

Pack 1540 went into production just fine and is still very much a valid offering. It's had numerous successful production runs since it was created; it's simply pending a reprint for which I need to set aside time. It will happen

 

It's true that I get absolutely inundated 365 days a year with requests to create new offerings, queries about when out-of-stock items may reappear as well as a plethora of other things, and if I'm not able to respond in a timely manner caused by sheer lack of resource due to going flat out helping as many of us as humanly possible then I'm not sure if I would necessarily qualify that as something going wrong, but I can appreciate in this day and age where the perception may be that everything is on all the time, that there can be a disconnect of expectation when handling queries for which off-the-shelf items do not already exist (and those do typically get sent same day). Such is the hugely niche nature of many elements which support this great hobby that many of them are run single or joint handedly by enthusiasts just like us, and so inevitably the business models will be different to the Amazons of this world. I agree it's not ideal to be physically unable to respond to every single query in a timely manner with something meaningful, in fact that in itself is probably the biggest stress of the job, but it's simply the way it is - at least if I'm to continue rapidly expanding the 3300+ strong catalog with ~350 new items every year and to the Railtec standard of both physical print and artwork. This came up in conversation with a good customer recently, who simply said they'd prefer to wait to be seated at a bustling restaurant, rather than dine at the deserted establishment next door where the waitors are twiddling their elbows.

 

It's good to hear that the new customisable item I created for you hit the mark and that it saved you a few bob on an eBay punt. In the same ballpark I'll shortly be creating a dedicated pack for 43102 & 274. Usual disclaimer - they'll be on the web site once they're baked, and if they're not, then they're still cooking.

 

[fiftyfour fiftyfour]

and given the hysteria surrounding the real life 43102 (and to a lesser extent 43274) such a pack should do well- and they will need the reflective birdies for 43102 as the real one carried the correct stick-on ones as they were trying to replicate "record breaking" condition! And yes, Railtec is worth the wait when a wait is what it takes- I waited for the stuff I needed and I'm very happy with it.

[Chas Levin]

2 hours ago, railtec-models said:

This came up in conversation with a good customer recently, who simply said they'd prefer to wait to be seated at a bustling restaurant, rather than dine at the deserted establishment next door where the waitors are twiddling their elbows.

Ha - well put, me too!