Eilleen's Emporium

[bordercollie]

Hi

A month or so ago I placed an order with Eilleen's Emporium after they announced that they were restoring International orders. However, after sending the order and two follow up e-mails I haven't received any communications from them. I did notice that there had been some medical issues. Can anyone give me any information about the present operations?

 

Best wishes

[Barry Ten]

They had a stand at last week's Great British Model Railway Show.

[Steven B]

Recently I've had emails replied to within 24hours (or at least messages sent via "contact us" on their website. A order placed via their website arrived within a couple of days.

 

Steven B.

[watfordtmc]

Can I ask if you're emailing:

 

https://www.eileensemporium.com/

 

I note the spelling used in your post doesn't match that we use in Blighty...

 

Regards

TMc

08/11/2021

[bordercollie]

Hi

The address I sent my e-mails to was the one with the correct spelling. I well attempt to send a test e-mail using the one at the top of your website. Please let me know if you don't receive it shortly.

Regards

Graham

[Hibelroad]

I’ve always had very rapid service from Eileens, though my last order was about 2 months ago. There is a phone number on the website which should help. 

[icn]

Speaking of international orders: I'd rather been hoping to make a large order (I'm a beginner, no real model railway tooling yet - so I need a lot of bits and bobs for the workshop - along with some kits). Unfortunately at checkout I got hit with a mysterious "no shipping method available" error.

 

After glancing at their front page I discovered that export orders are limited to 2kg, Royal Mail, with no dangerous items - but courier options are apparently retuning soon. After removing the offending "dangerous" items (Mek-Pak, flux, maybe Zap-A-Gap) I managed to get a slightly more promising error message stating that my weight/size combination couldn't be shipped.

 

So I suppose I should just wait a bit for courier shipping to become available - but does anyone know if couriers can ship those "dangerous" items to me? (I did consider trying to source the offending items locally - which would make it feasible to make multiple small orders from Eileen's each under the 2kg limit, with some potential for pain around customs processing charges if I make any mistakes.)

[AY Mod]

10 minutes ago, icn said:

After glancing at their front page I discovered that export orders are limited to 2kg, Royal Mail, with no dangerous items - but courier options are apparently retuning soon. After removing the offending "dangerous" items (Mek-Pak, flux, maybe Zap-A-Gap) I managed to get a slightly more promising error message stating that my weight/size combination couldn't be shipped.

 

So I suppose I should just wait a bit for courier shipping to become available - but does anyone know if couriers can ship those "dangerous" items to me? (I did consider trying to source the offending items locally - which would make it feasible to make multiple small orders from Eileen's each under the 2kg limit, with some potential for pain around customs processing charges if I make any mistakes.)

 

Shipping overseas has been a nightmare this year. The 2kg limit stems from the Royal Mail, above that there are some eye-watering prices. I was quoted several hundred pounds for a heavy, average-sized box to North America far exceeding the value of the contents. I was lucky to find a broker/freight handling company that could get lower bulk rates from different couriers for different legs of the journey. Their service was excellent and saved me about 75% on quoted rates. However, any small business would struggle to give standard shipping prices on their sites as prices could vary by the day.

[Andy Hayter]

1 hour ago, icn said:

 

 

So I suppose I should just wait a bit for courier shipping to become available - but does anyone know if couriers can ship those "dangerous" items to me? (I did consider trying to source the offending items locally - which would make it feasible to make multiple small orders from Eileen's each under the 2kg limit, with some potential for pain around customs processing charges if I make any mistakes.)

 

 

For a number of years access to so called dangerous items has been essentially impossible.  Those who live abroad and would source authentic coloured paints for UK companies past and present will know what I mean.  That is unlikely to change.

 

If you gave your location it is possible that for other items someone here might be able to help with local alternative supplies of these (largely) flammable or corrosive materials.   Glues, fluxes and the like tend to be fairly widely available.

 

 

And yes at times it is a real PITA.

[icn]

On 14/11/2021 at 20:52, Andy Hayter said:

 

 

For a number of years access to so called dangerous items has been essentially impossible.  Those who live abroad and would source authentic coloured paints for UK companies past and present will know what I mean.  That is unlikely to change.

 

If you gave your location it is possible that for other items someone here might be able to help with local alternative supplies of these (largely) flammable or corrosive materials.   Glues, fluxes and the like tend to be fairly widely available.

 

 

And yes at times it is a real PITA.

I'm somewhere on the continent, and I think it's fairly easy to get all the things I need - it just seemed a little more convenient to get everything at once from Eileen's at the beginning.

- Phosphoric acid flux: there are plenty of local sources offering concentrated phosphoric acid, and I'm happy to dilute it down -  in fact that is my long term plan anyway (cheaper, and probably the only way to get 12% dilution which many recommend - Eileen's sells only 9% at this time) - but I wanted to avoid additional work and orders right now.

- Mek-Pak: I don't think I'll be able to get the original, but it's not too hard to find other plastic solvents - e.g. Deluxe Plastic Magic, or Tamiya Extra Thin, or some other similar product. (I could even get straight Butanone worst case, but I was wanting to avoid it for various reasons for the time being.)

- Zap-a-Gap: easy to find here.

 

However I'm not convinced Eileen's wouldn't be able to send these materials (once they get courier shipping up and running that is): after all couriers are happy to send small amounts of these materials (the whole "LQ" business, with special labels and I think double-boxing), and Eileen's are explicitly highlighting that they can't send the dangerous stuff right now which suggests they can do it during more normal times? Since splitting up the order would be a hassle I might as well wait a bit and see if courier shipping will solve both issues.

 

[I've actually had quite a few other big parcels sent from the UK recently without issues - but they did all go through DHL - and getting parcels from the UK to Europe is obviously quite a bit easier than getting them to anywhere truly overseas.]

Edited February 26, 2022 by icn

[Jonboy]

LQ is a funny old game, even though there are general exceptions in law you often have to have the specific items cleared by each carriers compliance department before starting to ship them to any customer.

This generally involves submitting their application form, the material safety data sheet and photos of the product and intended packaging materials for each item/range before any shipments.

 

This can take 4 weeks for them to process and approve, just for domestic shipments. If you apply and they decline that is it game over, end of story.
 

Even at a wholesale level we don’t normally get involved for overseas as any random decisions by any carrier or customs agents that it’s non compliant and to be disposed of, is at our cost regardless of whether they are correct or not.

[bordercollie]

Hi

I can see there may be many reasons why orders can not be sent quickly. My order may well be over the 2kg. However, this doesn't account for no response to my e-mails. I have sent another e-mail since my first message again with no reply. I used the e-mail address directly from the website. I am at a loss as to why my e-mails aren't getting replies. Maybe a technical problem?

Best wishes

[corneliuslundie]

Just to say that for a UK order just received service has as usual been superb.

But no hazardous items in the order. I shall have to wait for a show to get a new supply of Mekpak (in a large tin rather than a small bottle).

Jonathan

[icn]

On 06/11/2021 at 13:58, bordercollie said:

A month or so ago I placed an order with Eilleen's Emporium after they announced that they were restoring International orders. However, after sending the order and two follow up e-mails I haven't received any communications from them.

 

I was curious whether there has been any progress on your situation - did you either receive your order or some updates from Eileen's?

 

I've ended up in a similar situation to you. This started when I placed an order around 2 months ago. Having not received any kind of communications after the first month (despite their claim that they will "try to keep you advised of the situation" in case of delays), I sent some emails - and I did receive a reply to my second attempt. Their reply suggested the missing items would be ready in a few days... but it's now been another few weeks without any progress, except for the recent email to all customers explaining they'd be shut down while moving premises. (Postal deliveries from the UK to here take at most a week, so I'm reasonably confident they didn't manage to send it before their shutdown.)

 

One thing I did notice is that they've now added stock counts to their website, which makes it easier to figure out if your order will be delayed or not... but that wasn't there when I ordered so I had no way of knowing what would happen.

Edited February 26, 2022 by icn

[Craigw]

I received an order from them last week that was placed in late December. I had a previous order that took a fair while because they were waiting some items and communicating on back orders seems to be the main issue they are having. No doubt they are being overwhelmed in going through emails and then checking back orders. Not sure what the answer is apart from being patient and waiting. 

 

Regards,

 

Craig W

[corneliuslundie]

On a more positive note, I did order Mekpak and other solvents from EE recently (re my earlier post). The usual return of post service (UK of course) and the package came by courier so well wrapped you could have dropped it from the top of the church tower and it would have come out unscathed. But then Wales is not overseas!

Jonathan

[bordercollie]

21 hours ago, icn said:

I was curious whether there has been any progress on your situation - did you either receive your order or some updates from Eileen's?

Hi 

I did receive a reply on 19.11.21. I  have  heard nothing since. I have re-read the e-mail and I how think I have misinterpreted their e-mail. They are currently moving premises. So I can not follow up at the moment.

Regards

Graham

[ruggedpeak]

From their homepage (there is a lot more info as well on there https://www.eileensemporium.com/

 

 

and

 

[Kylestrome]

I'd just like to say how pleased I am that Eileens has resumed business to Europe and say thank you for their excellent service. I made my order two days before the end of their holiday. It was sent very soon after, received four days later, and was very well packed.

 

As an aside, I found it somewhat curious that I could easily buy Vallorbe needle files from them that I had failed to source anywhere in Switzerland or Germany!

 

David