Hornby Tier System- An Update.

[Robin Brasher]

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

 

No, it was the customers what did it.

 

 

I wonder why?

I have only heard of one person who has been offered a chat and a cup of tea from a shop owner.  

[AY Mod]

1 minute ago, Robin Brasher said:

I have only heard of one person who has been offered a chat and a cup of tea from a shop owner.  

 

It must have only happened once then.

[Robin Brasher]

1 hour ago, Phil Parker said:

 

If you mean Beatties, it was an ill-advised move into video games and high rents that did for them. Based on reading the interweb, I firmly believe that the only consideration for most people is cost. They want service, but aren't willing to pay even a tiny amount for it. I've even seen people boasting on Facebook about asking DCC questions at one shop and then buying from another because the second one was cheaper - because they didn't spend time dealing with free-loading time wasters presumably!

I don't think that cost is the only consideration. If it was everyone would buy Hornby products directly from Hornby because I understand that  Hornby honour the price at the date of the order and free postage over a certain amount.  Other considerations are which courier they are using, how easy it is to return items and whether Hornby is going to treat their customers in the same way as they treat retailers.

 

[woodenhead]

10 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

I have only heard of one person who has been offered a chat and a cup of tea from a shop owner.  

You must frequent the wrong model shops then, try Arcadia, he's like Mrs Doyle from Father Ted.

[Robin Brasher]

7 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

It must have only happened once then.

I recall you mentioning that a shop owner had chatted with you over a cup of tea.

[Widnes Model Centre]

Interesting comments. As a confirmed Tier 2 despite our best efforts l continue to be amazed.

 

@Robin Brasher, can confirm that we had preorders for the LWSR lit coaches. We had all ours delivered in 2021 and satisfied customers. Then a few weeks ago we had the same coaches delivered again and invoiced again. I queried this and the result was Hornby arranged collection and applied a credit to our account. Still not sure how they sent my order twice 12 months apart.

 

A bit of consternation last night, one of my Tier 1 friends received an email from a named email address at Hornby. It was an announcement of an announcement. Hornby’s bank details were changing further details to follow. I hadn’t received an email. Was it a scam l thought? No, Hornby were contacting every Hornby account y either email or telephone to tell us all individually. Hopefully they will just send us all the bank details in a generic email. Just in case they don’t, l have a pen and paper ready.

 

Regarding the customer who asks if we can get a certain item and what’s our best price. I despair.  Had a customer enquiring about an expensive plastic kit. He waited while l telephoned our supplier. Suppliers had one left. Delivered the following day and confirmed with the customer that it was in the shop. He would be in to collect that day.

Needless to say he didn’t turn up as promised. My son telephoned him and customer said he had found it on EBay cheaper. My son quickly did an eBay search and asked if was about £10 cheaper? Yes, came the reply. You do realise that kit is coming from Europe and postage was £38. Then VAT and customs fees on top? No, he said, didn’t look past the £10. Not to worry sir, says our Tom. You obviously hadn’t realised that what you have ordered is the older version of the kit? No. We have the older version of that kit in stock but it’s £30 cheaper than the one you have just bought off eBay.   All that glitters?

 

 

 

[Robin Brasher]

3 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

You must frequent the wrong model shops then, try Arcadia, he's like Mrs Doyle from Father Ted.

It is a long way to go for a cup of tea from Swanage.  The staff at the Swanage Railway shop and the Swanage Emporium are friendly but they have never offered me a cup of tea.

 

[RedgateModels]

Not wishing to wade too deeply into Monty Python territory for the second topic of the day ...

 

The Cup of Tea is probably metaphorical, being a phrase to represent a general air of personal treatment to customers over and above the givemeyourmoneyandshoveoff approach 😉

[Widnes Model Centre]

6 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

You must frequent the wrong model shops then, try Arcadia, he's like Mrs Doyle from Father Ted.

 

We have a board in the kitchen with innumerable amounts of mugs. Sadly one element of the pandemic was stopping the teas and coffees. Don’t know how she always seem to know how many sugars individual customers had in their drink.

[woodenhead]

1 minute ago, RedgateModels said:

Not wishing to wade too deeply into Monty Python territory for the second topic of the day ...

 

The Cup of Tea is probably metaphorical, being a phrase to represent a general air of personal treatment to customers over and above the givemeyourmoneyandshoveoff approach 😉

For example Digitrains - ask a question about DCC over email, get a detailed response in return from which a proper decision can be made and a couple of hours later they have a couple of hundred quid extra in their bank account.

[Phil Parker]

14 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

I don't think that cost is the only consideration. If it was everyone would buy Hornby products directly from Hornby because I understand that  Hornby honour the price at the date of the order and free postage over a certain amount. 

 

But everyone else "knows" that Hornby charge full RRP and they "know" that if they trawl the web, they can pick up a cheaper one. I know this, because I read it all the time on RMweb.

 

11 minutes ago, Widnes Model Centre said:

Regarding the customer who asks if we can get a certain item and what’s our best price. I despair.  Had a customer enquiring about an expensive plastic kit. He waited while l telephoned our supplier. Suppliers had one left. Delivered the following day and confirmed with the customer that it was in the shop. He would be in to collect that day.

Needless to say he didn’t turn up as promised. My son telephoned him and customer said he had found it on EBay cheaper. My son quickly did an eBay search and asked if was about £10 cheaper? Yes, came the reply. You do realise that kit is coming from Europe and postage was £38. Then VAT and customs fees on top? No, he said, didn’t look past the £10. Not to worry sir, says our Tom. You obviously hadn’t realised that what you have ordered is the older version of the kit? No. We have the older version of that kit in stock but it’s £30 cheaper than the one you have just bought off eBay.   All that glitters?

 

That made me chuckle as much as it must have made you fume. For some people cost is the only consideration. Even when they are too dim to work out the final bill.

[AY Mod]

8 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

The Cup of Tea is probably metaphorical

 

Absolutely not! If any shop tries to palm me off with a virtual cuppa (note - two sugars) I'm out. Look at Dragons Den, the better the quality of the tasters the more likely an investment will follow.

[RedgateModels]

Just now, AY Mod said:

 

Absolutely not! If any shop tries to palm me off with a virtual cuppa (note - two sugars) I'm out. Look at Dragons Den, the better the quality of the tasters the more likely an investment will follow.

 

You should cut down on that sugar you know 😉

[AY Mod]

Just now, RedgateModels said:

You should cut down on that sugar you know 😉

 

Look, I'm not daft; these days it's cheaper to drive to the shop and get warm rather than using my gas. ; )

 

[woodenhead]

1 minute ago, AY Mod said:

 

Look, I'm not daft; these days it's cheaper to drive to the shop and get warm rather than using my gas. ; )

 

Do they have free wifi too?

[RedgateModels]

6 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

Look, I'm not daft; these days it's cheaper to drive to the shop and get warm rather than using my gas. ; )

 

 

We have families at the Mansfield Show who do this I think, still it's always warm, food, tea and wifi if you ask nicely 😉

[Robin Brasher]

6 minutes ago, Phil Parker said:

 

But everyone else "knows" that Hornby charge full RRP and they "know" that if they trawl the web, they can pick up a cheaper one. I know this, because I read it all the time on RMweb.

 

 

That made me chuckle as much as it must have made you fume. For some people cost is the only consideration. Even when they are too dim to work out the final bill.

If you pre-order from Hornby, Hornby will honour the price at the date of the pre-order.  Hornby have said that they may put the price up again later this year so it is probably cheaper to pre-order from Hornby. Also if Hornby regard themselves as tier one retailers so you will probably get the item as soon as it is available. Whether you will get it or get it in one piece depends on the courier. Over the past two days there have been 62 posts on the Swanage Facebook about a well known courier delivering parcels to wrong addresses or throwing them over walls into back gardens. The regular deliverer is on holiday and the courier firm has hired some temporary staff who are not too brilliant.

[Phatbob]

20 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

The Cup of Tea is probably metaphorical, being a phrase to represent a general air of personal treatment to customers over and above the givemeyourmoneyandshoveoff approach 😉

 

Agreed, it's all about atitude.  Having said that, there are establishments I have frequented where the cup of tea is very much real.  TIm at Arcadia does provide a most excellent brew and he's not the only one. :-')

 

[AY Mod]

Just now, Robin Brasher said:

Hornby will honour the price at the date of the pre-order.  Hornby have said that they may put the price up again later this year so it is probably cheaper to pre-order from Hornby. Also if Hornby regard themselves as tier one retailers so you will probably get the item as soon as it is available

 

We're never going to change you and I doubt we'd even get as far as making you fe even slightly guilty.

[boxbrownie]

18 hours ago, andyman7 said:

 

*Sigh* the Accurascale Class 31, wonderful as it is likely to be (and yes, I have one on order) will simply not reach the same markets that Hornby can. The enthusiast will pre-order their specific version(s), based on their knowledgeable modelling requirements, and wait 18 months to 2 years for delivery. By the time it is out most if not all versions will be sold out. The 'ordinary' person with a model railway will likely never see or hear of the Accurascale one, and if they did, would struggle to work out which one of 25 or whatever versions they were supposed to buy. However, they might see a Hornby DCR Class 31 on the shelf of a retailer (maybe even Hamleys in London) and buy it there and then.

As regards the HST, the price may be a shock but look online or at any stockist - every one of the older runs of HSTs at sub-£260 prices has been cleared from the shelves. So if you want a brand new non-Railroad one it is pretty much a case of paying £280+ or going without. And even if Accurascale (or whoever) do one, the Hornby version will still reach parts that their one won't.

 

For a marketing shambles, Hornby manage to make and sell shedloads of sheds, at a very attractive price point. You or I can point out all we like that it is a Railroad model in all but name but I wouldn't call it a marketing failure by any score.

The Class 31 example was to illustrate the price/quality anomaly between the two not the delivery times and market segment.

 

As for the HST exactly that, which is why I have not bought one it doesn’t justify the cost to me.

[Robin Brasher]

10 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

We're never going to change you and I doubt we'd even get as far as making you fe even slightly guilty.

All the Hornby items I have pre-ordered are from the Swanage Station shop which is in tier 2 although I know that Hornby may ever deliver them and it may be cheaper to order them from Hornby. I don't know why I should feel guilty about supporting my local shop and a preserved railway even if I don't get a chat with them over a cup of tea. 

 

With any luck Hornby may abandon their tier system and just produce as many models as people want.  I hope Hornby lets us know when they do abandon the tier system.

[RedgateModels]

3 minutes ago, Robin Brasher said:

and just produce as many models as people want.  

 

The only way they can do this is to over order from China (providing the factories can produce a batch of that size) or set up their own factory back in blighty. Either option will lead to bankruptcy 

 

[Widnes Model Centre]

35 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Do they have free wifi too?

 

We do, but absolutely no idea how it works, so we don’t mention it.

Tim at Arcadia has a reputation for his tea. But does he serve Yorkshire tea? Not according to our mutual reps. But as   this is a Hornby thread we can now reallocate the Airfix mug, no longer have a Hornby rep, no need to keep it for him. 

[Robin Brasher]

10 minutes ago, RedgateModels said:

 

The only way they can do this is to over order from China (providing the factories can produce a batch of that size) or set up their own factory back in blighty. Either option will lead to bankruptcy 

 

Bachmann, Dapol, Peco and OO Works seem to be able to satisfy demand without introducing a tier system of going bankrupt and Peco and 00 Works have their own factories in England.

 

[woodenhead]

11 minutes ago, Widnes Model Centre said:

 

We do, but absolutely no idea how it works, so we don’t mention it.

Tim at Arcadia has a reputation for his tea. But does he serve Yorkshire tea? Not according to our mutual reps. But as   this is a Hornby thread we can now reallocate the Airfix mug, no longer have a Hornby rep, no need to keep it for him. 

Erm Shaw is in Lancashire, no foreign tea allowed.