Black Friday Sale

[PhilJ W]

After waiting a week I e-mailed them and my order arrived within a couple of days, via Yodel. I was wondering if the current woes of Yodel and one or two other delivery companies has an effect? I think that with more similar 'Black Friday' sales this year has caught the delivery companies napping.

[railroadbill]

I had 2 orders from the black friday sale, a Hornby loco (sentinel) and som eAirfix bits, including the ever useful pontoon bridge (the girder sides being good for foot bridges etc). 

 

1. The loco turned up fairly quickly by UK Mail, well packed, good condition.

 

2. The Airfix stuff has been longer in coming, but I had the same e-mail from Hornby as others have about the delay.  I then had an e-mail saying the goods were despatched, and giving a UKmail tracking number, in a link to their web site. This then showed a delivery day as last Friday, and I would get information as to the likely time of delivery.  Didn't turn up then and their web site showed it wasn't in transit from thier depot. 

On Saturday the UKMail web site showed the parcel was on the delivery van and it would be delivered between 9 and 10pm. That's Saturday night so they must be  very overloaded. Didn't turn up perhaps not surprisingly at that time.  Web site hasn't been updated so presumably parcel hasn't been scanned as returned to depot.

 

I'll see what Monday brings (hopefully my parcel!)

 

This package isn't too important so I'm not too bothered about it being delayed in the run up to Christmas. However, in a way providing information about delivery to  a one hour slot is great, but does raise expectations that it will actually happen!

 

I did buy some bits from Oxford Diecast via their web site which took a couple of weeks to arrive but their site does say goods may take some days before they are despatched so that's the deal.

[leavesontheline]

My order is now 2 weeks old and nothing.  Still shown as processing on my Hornby Account.  Emailed them yesterday.  It didn't take long to charge my credit card!!  After having a Class 31 with chassis failure with them for over 18 months I have pretty low expectations.  Hornby seem to be in a shambles at the moment.  This is the first company ever that I feel sorry for the shareholders.

Unfortunately, the information shown on your account when you log in is pretty much meaningless - both orders I placed last month still both show as 'processing' when I log in but both have now been delivered! There is obviously no connection between their stock control system and the despatch system!

 

I also agree that it is a bit of a poor show to charge immediately and then hold orders for a week or more. They should really take a look at some of the best online retailers in the model railway industry to see how it is done properly.

[sub39h]

I also agree that it is a bit of a poor show to charge immediately and then hold orders for a week or more. 

 

Obviously they're using this in order to sort a cash flow problem

[railroadbill]

I had 2 orders from the black friday sale, a Hornby loco (sentinel) and som eAirfix bits, including the ever useful pontoon bridge (the girder sides being good for foot bridges etc). 

 

1. The loco turned up fairly quickly by UK Mail, well packed, good condition.

 

2. The Airfix stuff has been longer in coming, but I had the same e-mail from Hornby as others have about the delay.  I then had an e-mail saying the goods were despatched, and giving a UKmail tracking number, in a link to their web site. This then showed a delivery day as last Friday, and I would get information as to the likely time of delivery.  Didn't turn up then and their web site showed it wasn't in transit from thier depot. 

On Saturday the UKMail web site showed the parcel was on the delivery van and it would be delivered between 9 and 10pm. That's Saturday night so they must be  very overloaded. Didn't turn up perhaps not surprisingly at that time.  Web site hasn't been updated so presumably parcel hasn't been scanned as returned to depot.

 

I'll see what Monday brings (hopefully my parcel!)

 

This package isn't too important so I'm not too bothered about it being delayed in the run up to Christmas. However, in a way providing information about delivery to  a one hour slot is great, but does raise expectations that it will actually happen!

 

I did buy some bits from Oxford Diecast via their web site which took a couple of weeks to arrive but their site does say goods may take some days before they are despatched so that's the deal.

Well, UK mail just turned up and the very pleasant delivery lady told me that despite working for them for 5 years, the amount of post they were delivering at the moment was the biggest she'd ever seen. She had over 170 items on the van that day, and that's on an extra day (Sunday).

 

Also the UKMail web site showed that it had been delivered, and signed for by me, soon afterwards.  So spot on UKMail, actually. Now to undo the parcel...

[Norm81]

This is interesting as my experience was the opposite end of the scale, in that I had good communication from UK Mail and my items arrived quickly for collection at their local depot. Proof that they are able to get it right, but I do feel sorry for those of you having troubles getting your orders sorted out.

[Cleefy]

The first order I placed in this sale was dispatched the next day but there was a few days delay with the second. That, however, was but a trifling and soon-forgotten irritation compared to the utter farce that was UK Mail's attempts to deliver them. I can't be bothered to type up even an abridged version of events; suffice to say they've made Yodel look like the zenith of competence and customer care.

[YK 50A]

Just to vent my spleen, I placed 3 separate orders as I found more and more need for a Sentinel and then Skaledale items to improve my sons layout for Christmas.  The first order arrived after a couple of days.  I chased the other 2 a week ago and was told they would be dispatched there and then for next day deliveries.  One of them arrived but there's still no sign of the 3rd.  I have just spent another 30 minutes on the phone to Hornby going down from 12th position to 2nd in the queue to be cut off and now the line is engaged.  I don't mind mistakes, it's being lied to, and this is on the back of some fairly shocking service from Hornby in the past.

 

I will be finding reasons not to buy Hornby from now on.

 

Alun

[TheSignalEngineer]

I placed my order on 29 November, after the same emails I phoned and they said i would get it by the middle of next week.

 

A whole load more comments starting around page 6 of this thread. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/93322-hornbys-nat-southworth-responds-to-rmweb-members-qa/page-6&do=findComment&comment=1692821

Apparently my order was collected by UK Mail today. Wonder when it will turn up?

[Ian Hargrave]

Apparently my order was collected by UK Mail today. Wonder when it will turn up?

Find the number of your nearest UKMail depot & ring.They'll tell you when .

[TheSignalEngineer]

Find the number of your nearest UKMail depot & ring.They'll tell you when .

 

Have had the text with the delivery time. Let's see if it happens.

[YK 50A]

I'm at number 2 in the queue - again! 

[YK 50A]

And after being told this time last week that it would be sent next day, the latest is that I will receive it by the end of the week and definitely in time for Christmas!  To be fair to the chap on the phone, he was apologetic and helpful, not his fault.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Have had the text with the delivery time. Let's see if it happens.

Result!! arrived less than 24 hours after being picked up from Hornby. Pity they took 13 working days to get it in the post.

[Nile]

I've received a reply from Hornby, the missing item is out of stock but they are expecting more in January (it was the Hawksworth full brake). There's no hurry for it so I'll wait. They may be a bit slow but they are getting there.

[JohnMartin90125]

Similar, ordered some (non sale) items 1st Dec, have finally been dispatched but still not arrived. Sent in an email over a week ago, no response at all to that (and no response to a product arrival date either). Their delivery agents UK Mail seem as incompetent as Hornby with 2 (possibly 3 as their text/emails vary in which date the timings they've given me) slots all "attempted" but not actually delivered - no response to an email to them either. 

 

Similarly I feel, their "charge the buyer ASAP, deliver TBC" approach has just added insult to injury.

 

My idea of renewing collector club now firmly binned for ever and won't be checking their website again.

 

So much for a company "on the mend" - they seem intent on wrecking themselves. Utter, utter incompetence.

 

I couldn't agree more with what has been posted here by hedgeaf.  The term adding insult to injury certainly sums up for me what has gone on - although I may call it as adding injury to insult!!!

 

Readers of MREMAG may have seen my post over Hornby's very poor performance over the Black Friday orders.  I was not the only one to have expressed displeasure with Hornby there.

 

 

Previously, I ordered with Hornby and the parcel was opened, a couple of items missing, including a locomotive.  I suspected the delivery driver from UK Mail, he looked like a smack head and was pig ignorant, swearing at me and otherwise abusing me as it took me a while to get to the door, I have a number of disabilities so when a thug who stinks comes at you with an attitude, well, it was a truly awful experience.  Can't prove it of course.  Lots of spam then came from UK Mail demanding I fill in surveys for them - not that I gave Hornby my permission to give this disgusting delivery company my personal information.  Hornby eventually sent a replacement by another carrier.

 

So when I saw something that I actually wanted in the Black Friday sale, I asked Hornby to use another carrier.  Not unreasonable and saves any potential problems later on for all.

 

Order taken on Black Friday itself, 29 November, money taken and nothing heard apart from an e-mail from Hornby's Matt Jordan stating that they would use another carrier but it may add another week to the time (which I thought smellt a bit like BS but I would rather wait a week than be abused by the same smack head from UK Mail.  Enquiries sent to Hornby were routinely ignored and I suspect this is policy as others have mentioned a similiar experience with Hornby.

 

Order still not picked on 16 December, ended up having to register on their forum like others to get any response.  A couple of hours later an e-mail was received from bloody UK Mail stating my parcel would be delivered (today).  The same, stinking, nasty dirty smackhead at the door, I told him to shove the parcel up his arse and take it away.

 

 

As an Asperger's sufferer, things have a much more severe impact than those that don't have the condition.  For those with Autism and Aspergers, the strain of dealing with incompetent and reprehensible people is completely overwhelming and unforgetable.  It is not just an inconvenience, it is more than upsetting, it is more than sickening.  I don't expect anyone who does not have this condition to understand the effects this has.

 

As for Hornby, Club renewal due in January, won't be renewing either.  I've had enough of Hornby's incompetence and recklessness.  For the little bit of pleasure I got from the hobby, the experience of piss-poor customer service from first Great British Locomotives and now Hornby, well, it's killed it off for me.  I feel like throwing it all away.

 

 

 

 

Ducks from yet more abuse from forum trolls...

[jonathan452]

I thought Black Friday was the last Friday before 25th Dec, when a substantial part of the working population stop work at lunchtime and go to the pub. Followed by drunk driving, drunk shopping, going on drunkenly to other pubs/clubs, shouting, fighting, domestics and generally causing the Plod a lot of bother. Perhaps that's just me....

 

I shall see what if anything Hornby have left at this time of the evening.

 

Pete

 

The Press need to make up their minds about the terminology.

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be6ba124-7a55-11e4-8958-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3MGngwodN - Financial Times Business - December 12, 2014 11:32 am

 

London’s police and ambulance services are bracing themselves; Black Friday for them is not a sales bonanza but the nickname they give to the Friday before Christmas, the busiest party night of the year.

PC Matthew Kerby and Inspector Andrew Philp of the City of London Police are on the front line. Driving towards Aldgate on a recent Friday night PC Kerby says: “The ambulance crews are the ones I feel sorry for. If we find people lying drunk on the street we have to call them. Then we move on but the ambulances have to see it through.”

In the course of one evening in the City, almost every incident to which PC Kerby and fellow constable Luke Adams are called is alcohol related. Remarkably, in the first five hours of the night shift they do not make an arrest; the uniform, some words of advice and the occasional smile are enough to defuse every confrontation.

With the Christmas party season getting into full swing, police forces and hospitals across the country are getting ready for the seasonal spike in trouble. The London Ambulance Service says alcohol is involved in 6 per cent of calls; that rises to about 20 per cent on a Friday and Saturday night.

Last month Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, warned that the city’s ambulances could be overwhelmed this winter, with alcohol a big contributing factor. A Christmas campaign entitled “Party people — be careful out there” aims to relieve some of that pressure: last December there were almost 6,200 alcohol-related ambulance call-outs in the capital, or more than 200 a day. In England, alcohol-related hospital admissions have shot up by 41 per cent since 2002–03.

The paradox is that the British drink significantly less now than a decade ago. According to the Office for National Statistics, alcohol consumption has fallen in almost every age bracket since 2005, and particularly among 16 to 24 year-olds.

The problem is that heavy episodic drinking has remained a common habit. While the working week has become increasingly sober, the weekends are still seen as the time for bingeing and excess. At Christmas and new year the supermarkets sell alcohol at even heavier discounts, making “preloading” — drinking before going out — more attractive. At the same time, pubs and clubs extend their special offers and happy hours as they compete for punters.

At the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, an ambulance is disgorging two tearful young women and a third who is so drunk she has to be pushed into A&E in a wheelchair. The sight prompts the constables to mutter about the dangerous mix of drunk females and unlicensed cabs; PC Kerby did a spell in plain clothes looking out for the latter until all the drivers got to know him by sight.

Occasionally the police radio comes to life. The first time it is to request PCs Kerby and Adams to attend a nearby diner – someone has refused to pay their bill and started a food fight instead.

The constables’ sudden presence has an immediately sobering effect. The bill is paid and the party leaves, well-heeled, shamefaced and tearful, the waitresses grinning at their discomfort.

Later, the radio alerts everyone in the vicinity to a fight in a McDonald's on Fleet Street — the words “possible weapon sighted” prompt the night’s only high-speed race through the City’s streets. It turns out there was no weapon and the firearms officer, pistol strapped to his leg, trudges back to his car.

A fat man in his twenties comes down the stairs of the McDonald's with his trousers around his knees, laughing. “I’ve seen people take their jackets off before a fight, and even their shirts,” says PC Adams, shaking his head, “but never their trousers.”

 

[Stuart1983]

Deep breath ......... and off we go!

 

Finally, FINALLY after nearly 3 weeks of waiting my order from the 'Hornby Shoddy ill thought out sale Black Friday Sale' has finally been dispatched and delivered, during the 3 weeks I waited for the order I sent 4 emails to Hornby Customer Services and in return they sent ZERO emails to me, so after carefully unpacking my rather considerable order (5 large boxes) several items were found to be missing, but yet I had still been charged, so again I sent another email to Hornby to inform them that some items were missing and yet I had been charged. The response I got was amazing!

 

'We are sorry to hear some items were not in your parcel, this is due to the items already being sold out when you placed the order, as you have noticed this error we will on this occasion refund you for the items that were not included'

 

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT!!!!!!

 

Why on earth have I got to chase up a company the size of Hornby who have charged me for items, and then included a incorrect invoice knowing full well that some items were missing, if I had not contacted them, they would NEVER have refunded me.

 

What a total and utter shambles, I for one will never EVER purchase anything direct from Hornby again. The way they have operated this whole shambles is beyond me. I run a small business of my own (not a model railway shop!) and if I operated in this way this way I would be out of business in days.

 

Just imagine you email me for info and I can't be bothered responding, and then when you make a purchase I don't include your whole order but still charge you for it and then basically say 'well spotted for your observation skills I will refund you'

 

And breath again ..........

 

Stuart

[sub39h]

My building and TGS was delivered yesterday to my building's caretaker. No problems aside from the lateness and the comedically large box used - thankfully jam packed with packaging material.

[PhilJ W]

It looks as if someone at Hornby didn't think this one through properly. I wonder sometimes how long ago the decision to hold a 'Black Friday' sale was made before the actual event.

[New Haven Neil]

My parcel arrived after 17 days....

 

I really wonder if Hornby are fit to be offering a mail order service.

[YK 50A]

Well, my third and final order arrived yesterday morning (19th); I opened it up today.  I checked the dates for my email of complaint - I ordered it on the 1st December and a week later was told it would be sent next day, 11 days before it actually arrived.  Bear in mind that these are almost all Christmas presents for my 11 year old son and it was by far the smallest of the three orders.

 

The Weighbridge Office was fine, a nice model actually, I don't know if it has a 'prototype', but it is almost believable.  The Pine Shop is a second, I can't believe it got past quality control, glue everywhere and blemishes all over the roof and chimney stack. The monument, it serves a purpose, but more importantly the one I got was second hand.  The flap at one end of the box was torn and when I got into the polystyrene to check the model, it was outside of it's cellophane.  Because of the tear, not much of a 'new' Christmas present.  The signal box has a badly damaged box, although the model itself is fine, it won't look too great when he unwraps it.  The latter two are the ones that annoy, I can cope with human error, it happens, but someone must have packed them in that state.  As the order is so late, there isn't time to rectify the problem.

 

Merry fxxxxxx Christmas Hornby!

 

*** EDIT - a typo ***

[PhilJ W]

I take it that you will be taking the matter up with Hornby as the goods are 'not as described'. Don't forget to mention Trading Standards if you do so.

[Ian Hargrave]

And after Christmas,bombard Hornby's new CEO with e mails detailing your manifold issues .Thus far no one is mentioning him as the target for complaints.About time he was put in the frame,I think.His workforce and their subcontracted minions are getting away with shoddiness reminiscent of Britain in the seventies. High time it was made fit for purpose.

[Ian Hargrave]

My parcel arrived after 17 days....

 

I really wonder if Hornby are fit to be offering a mail order service.

Black Friday=Black Hole. They should sub contract to The Track Shack.