Hattons Model Railways of Widnes (formerly Liverpool).

[johnd]

so a classic case of “The computer says no...”.

 

Makes you wonder how many of the problems people are having are still computer reconciliation issues rather than down to physical stock availability.

 

Computers are merely a slave and are only as good as those who input/operate them !

[LC&DR]

Strange happenings, I have placed pre-orders with Hattons over the last three years (or so) and because Bachmann & others have been a trifle slow in coming up with the goods these have been outstanding all this time. Imagine therefore my shock and horror to discover purely by accident that almost all of these had been marked as Cancelled on my account without authority or advice!  However after emailing Hattons they have quickly re-instated my orders and a number of these are now being prepared for delivery. Whew! Thank you Hattons,

[metmangraham]

Poor old Hatton's seems to be attracting some criticism these days. I write to reverse this trend. My small order was placed on Tuesday, despatched on Wednesday, and received today. All is well, well packed, exactly what I ordered (why ever not?). I approached them for advice on compatibility of one item, was assured it would be OK, and it is. I remember my dad swearing by them way back in the '50s... My order was signed off my Christine Hatton... No, surely not a member of the founding family....?

 

I have no doubt that I shall carry on using them for many of model railway needs. Well done, Hatton's.

[County of Yorkshire]

I ordered a stack of odds and ends - some Bachmann Scenecraft buildings and some Oxford Diecast 1940's vehicles, about 2 weeks ago, and paid for 48 hour delivery. Imagine my surprise therefore when I received a parcel from Hattons containing Oxford Diecast airplanes from WW2! A Stuka is not a GWR Pagoda Waiting Shelter!

 

I returned the parcel last Friday and Hattons received this on Tuesday, yet I did not receive communication of this until I contacted them on Wednesday. The delay? They are waiting for the parcel with my ordered goods within to be returned from the gentleman who was expecting some WW2 die cast aircraft! I wouldn't mind but my parcel even contained my invoice with the correct list of items! 

 

The customer service response has been somewhat slovenly and I cannot believe Hattons employs warehouse staff that can put the wrong products in the right box- the late Barry Chuckle and his brother would have done a better job then this! Just a shade over 80 sheets worth of product and I have had to do all the chasing, and the email apology was blatantly auto-generated boilerplate stuff. I'm not particularly impressed with Hattons right now. 

 

CoY

[Gwiwer]

Whilst I still occasionally order from Hattons they have lost much of my business through being wasteful and sloppy with their "standard size" automated packaging and are no longer routinely the cheapest either for shelf price or shipping.

 

While I choose to support a Camborne-based business when ever possible the modelling vouchers once spent via Smithdown Road are now usually diverted to Sheffield.

[sandwich station]

I ordered a stack of odds and ends - some Bachmann Scenecraft buildings and some Oxford Diecast 1940's vehicles, about 2 weeks ago, and paid for 48 hour delivery. Imagine my surprise therefore when I received a parcel from Hattons containing Oxford Diecast airplanes from WW2! A Stuka is not a GWR Pagoda Waiting Shelter!

 

I returned the parcel last Friday and Hattons received this on Tuesday, yet I did not receive communication of this until I contacted them on Wednesday. The delay? They are waiting for the parcel with my ordered goods within to be returned from the gentleman who was expecting some WW2 die cast aircraft! I wouldn't mind but my parcel even contained my invoice with the correct list of items! 

 

The customer service response has been somewhat slovenly and I cannot believe Hattons employs warehouse staff that can put the wrong products in the right box- the late Barry Chuckle and his brother would have done a better job then this! Just a shade over 80 sheets worth of product and I have had to do all the chasing, and the email apology was blatantly auto-generated boilerplate stuff. I'm not particularly impressed with Hattons right now. 

 

CoY

This can happen to any business. When I lived in the UK, on 2 separate occasions Rails sent me the wrong loco ordered.

 

Whilst I still occasionally order from Hattons they have lost much of my business through being wasteful and sloppy with their "standard size" automated packaging and are no longer routinely the cheapest either for shelf price or shipping.

 

While I choose to support a Camborne-based business when ever possible the modelling vouchers once spent via Smithdown Road are now usually diverted to Sheffield.

They are still the cheapest post wise to AUS.

[Stevelewis]

I have  been  a  Hattons  customer   since  the  mid  60s when  I was  a personal shopper  at  the   Original  Aladdins  Cave  of  Smithdown  Road,

 

I Have to say though  that in the  last  12  months  although my  level of ordering Model railway items  has   stayed  at  the  same  level,   much less   now  goes  Hattons  Way!

 

They are simply  not as competitive as they  used to be,  I find  that  some of  the  smaller models  shops  charge less than  Hattons  and  their postal  rates  are less. I regularly  order  from Arcadia in Shaw, the  order  always  arrives  next  day, also Track Shack  on the IOM, order by 4-00pm  and  order arrives  next  day  mostly post  free

 

I did though receive   a delivery of  some N gauge items  today from Hattons,  1 loco & 4 coaches  and a  magazine,,  the  box  the order was delivered in  was  around  4X larger than it  needed to be,  however  the   mass of bubble wrap  &  Airbags  was a  welcome addition  to my  stock of packing  materials  for my eBay activities!!

Edited August 10, 2018 by Stevelewis

[girlinb]

I agree i use Colletts Models of Exmouth as Leigh price matches other shops. Hattons is now more expensive in a lot of cases than the other big boys and in my opinion their service has got worse over he last few years hence i only buy from them when i can only get it from them

[Free At Last]

I used to be a regular customer at Smithdown Road, visiting several times a month to pick up orders or just to get out of the house and using my travel pass on the train and bus the journeys were free. I almost always came out with something and with passing through the city centre other shops/places of interest could be visited.

Since it has been on an out of town industrial estate with no public transport access I have only visited a couple of times by car to pick up pre-relocation pre-orders with only two more to be collected due maybe next year. My last purchase was last November and I paid the £2 p&p as it was cheaper than the 30 mile round trip by car, also with the journey being motorway/expressway all the way it is just a there and back trip.

I have purchased the majority of my model railway items from Hattons since the early '70s spending many thousands of pounds with them. This year I have spent nothing and anything I may need I will now wait till the Wigan show.

I have found I've now been spending my money on other things I don't really need. I don't suppose it is affecting Hattons finances though.

Edited August 10, 2018 by Free At Last

[LU_fan]

Placed an order with them last week, which arrived today: the new Hornby 50033 'Glorious.' Very helpful staff, good price, and fast shipping.

 

The papers included claim that there's cab lighting installed, but I can't find it. Doesn't bother me though as I never use it anyway. However, all the other functions listed work, so it's all good.

Edited September 17, 2018 by LU_fan

[Hattons Dave]

Morning all,

 

Today I’m pleased to be able to show you our new site that we have been working on.

 

We’re now at a stage where we’d love to get your feedback into how things look and feel in terms of browsing the site and placing orders.

 

You can find the new site at: www.hattonshobbies.com

 

We’ve made an array of improvements when building the new site, including:

 

• Enhanced search features - faster and smarter, our all new search is intuitive and easy to use.

• Active filters - When searching through products you can now easily apply filters to more accurately find exactly what you’re looking for. Filters include: scale, brand, type, livery, era and many more.

• Improved mobile experience - Our new site is designed with a responsive layout which means it will have much improved performance and visuals when browsing on your tablet or smartphone.

 

There’s still much more to come but I hope this gives you a good idea of where we’re currently up to.

 

Feel free to have a look around and let us know what you think so far. As always, we really value your feedback and want to ensure that we continue offering the best possible service to you all. Rest assured that whilst we’re testing and gathering feedback then the regular Hattons website at www.hattons.co.uk will remaining unaffected and can still be used as normal.

 

Cheers,

Dave

[johnd]

It would be interesting to look at but the link appears not work at least not on my phone

[Jonboy]

If it only went live today it can take 24/48 hours for the underlying address to get updated to various internet providers/search engines to work for all users (as recently impacted the Dj models go live).

 

My iPad got straight onto the new site.

[Jonboy]

First comment is it seems to have hit this modern craze for hiding buttons in plain sight. I get it is to optimise for mobile, but I browse on a larger device and dislike this across all modern sites...

 

Once you choose a gauge and all products the filters button isn’t obvious being a white button on a white background...

[woodenhead]

My usual morning look is on pre-owned, some observations:

 

 

The added date section isn't as clear as it used to be, some of it you cannot read

 

Don't show us sold out items in Pre-owned - it's either in stock and showing or not there, the last thing you want to view is a load of items you cannot buy.  I know you have an archive of sold out items and it is useful but not when browsing for possible purchases.

 

I used to store my usual view of OO in past 7 days - does the last search stick as a cookie or do we have to select the search parameters now every time?  Same will apply here on New Stock that I look at every afternoon.

 

I know shops (and Ebay) like to show eras/liveries in their search selections, are you absolutely sure you've got everything in the right place - the number of times I've applied such filters and not got the expected outcome - this isn't a gripe limited to Hattons but as your changing the site and making such searches very prominent i thought I'd bring it up.

 

Edit - did the products section, too many options on condition - New, Pre-owned I think is enough and you can't read all the text

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2018 by woodenhead

[dpgibbons]

I agree. The pre-set filtering options are excessive. Reduce them aggressively and provide a key word search filter instead.

[richscylla]

The search functionality is loads better. Before it was a nightmare! Good job!

[APOLLO]

I like the new site - easy to find things.

 

Well done Hattons

 

Brit15

[Johnfromoz]

Now waiting seven full days for an order to be dispatched.

 

Three emails inquiring about the order have been met with the stock platitudes "we're sorry, will be sent soon" etc etc. Very insincere patter with no information or suggestion that they are actually following it up.

 

Buying from then for 30 yrs, 28 of which have been excellent, reliable and consistent service. The last two years has steadily nosedived to this point.

 

what would Norman Hatton make of this?

[Hattons Dave]

Now waiting seven full days for an order to be dispatched.

 

Three emails inquiring about the order have been met with the stock platitudes "we're sorry, will be sent soon" etc etc. Very insincere patter with no information or suggestion that they are actually following it up.

 

Buying from then for 30 yrs, 28 of which have been excellent, reliable and consistent service. The last two years has steadily nosedived to this point.

 

what would Norman Hatton make of this?

 

Hi John,

 

I'm incredibly sorry to hear of the issue you experienced with this particular order.

 

I have spoken to the Helpdesk manager who has looked into this and assures me that steps have been taken to ensure that delays like this do not happen again without you being informed of what is happening.

 

I can see that you have placed an order recently and this has been despatched. If you have any further issues then please do not hesitate to get back in touch and I will look into it for you.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[woodenhead]

Ordered a secondhand N Class last week, it arrived on time 2 days later in a nice big box.

[dpgibbons]

On the same topic anyone know what's going on with the pre-owned section? For the last few weeks it's been updated only fitfully. 

[woodenhead]

I think some of the daily updates are rehashes of existing items so you see them again, they can't possibly be buying that many locos every day.

[Steamport Southport]

I think some of the daily updates are rehashes of existing items so you see them again, they can't possibly be buying that many locos every day.

 

They probably are. The vast majority seem to be collections bought as job lots.

 

For example there was a load of LMS RTR locomotives (mainly Mainline/Airfix) added a few weeks ago, obviously from the same source. The other day there was a load of European HO. That can't be random.

 

 

 

Jason

[woodenhead]

They probably are. The vast majority seem to be collections bought as job lots.

 

For example there was a load of LMS RTR locomotives (mainly Mainline/Airfix) added a few weeks ago, obviously from the same source. The other day there was a load of European HO. That can't be random.

 

 

 

Jason

I think they theme and group the items listed - more chance of multiple items being bought if you see say a Midland 4F and 3F together or a couple of LNER pacifics.