Hattons pre-owned items

[Ian Hargrave]

On 05/10/2023 at 20:39, Rich_F said:

 

I am aware. However this type of delivery is Hatton's to chase or refund as they set up the contract with Amazon to deliver the items & as original sender they're obligated to get the items to you. If you're ordering from Amazon directly it's easier for them to just refund or instantly replace as it's 100% their fault. 

 

 

Funny you say that. In my area Evri have always been very good & always put an item in my safeplace in the rare time I'm out. Usually Amazon put them inside the building foyer with double doors however recently I've noticed a new distribution centre open up near me & the quality of service plummet.

 

 

Royal Mail at least send you a picture when they've put something outside your door!

RM ?  Depends upon the level of service used. Can’t remember the last time when a delivery by RM included that.The pictorial image evidence tends to vary between carriers and even then individual drivers. “Leave in safe place” ? In my case unlocked porch,has been interpreted as outside porch door and stuffed behind a patio plant container. But Amazon delivery is consistently reliable.

[admiles]

On 05/10/2023 at 20:39, Rich_F said:

 

Royal Mail at least send you a picture when they've put something outside your door!

 

Which is all well and good if it's actually the correct door which all too often with Royal Mail in my experience it isn't. They then refuse to pay out compensation continually stating they've delivered.

 

I've found Royal Mail to be by far the worst of the delivery companies. 

[GWR-fan]

Two pre-owned arrivals this morning,  one a mint, like new Dapol streamlined railcar "W10" in BR lined chocolate and cream.  Came complete with drivers and passengers for the princely sum of GBP61.00 (after VAT removal).  Even the box was like new.  This was more a gamble as another railcar listed at the same time,  identical specs,  was GBP30.00 more expensive and without passengers.  The model ran perfecly.

 

The second arrival was a slightly cosmetically damaged Hornby Grange class in BR black, described as a non-runner for GBP27.00 after VAT removal.  Loco arrived as described with carelessly applied superglue in some areas but readily fixable with some black paint.  The fall plate was even installed upside down.  As described,  the loco did not run, but after applying power to the track and encouragement from the "hand of God",  some wheel rotation was evident.  I persisted and was able to coerce the model to run, but poorly.  It would start off slowly and then build up a little speed in both directions over two metres of track.  This did seem odd for an analogue loco so I removed the body and found that there was a decoder fitted.  I had no interest in the decoder so removed it and installed a blanking plate.  Loco performance was now normal.  No mention of the model being DCC fitted,  so a bonus in a way.  Another gamble purchase but it seemed to have worked out in my favour.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

My most recent gamble was s/h wagons. Not expensive (original boxes lost or very tatty😎) with good quality replacement wheels and bearings which I suspected, and careful detail work and renumbering, which wasn't visible or mentioned. These would have been fine for the money in original condition, which is what I expected.

 

On 15/09/2023 at 20:19, Halvarras said:

OMG! All those Lima DMUs I've chopped up over the years.........what have I done??!! 😲😲😲

You have increased the value of the survivors. In recognition of this valuable voluntary service, we happy bashers of RTR should be able to register for a s/h purchase discount.

 

Now, delivery. Clearly it is a complete lottery, at least in the UK. At present in my location Royal Mail are far and away my preference. Until about three years ago they were the last choice, while Hermes were back then the clear winners. Quite possibly a few years hence it'll be an organisation we've never heard of. My money's on 'Kerplunk!'

[Rowsley17D]

I found RM very reliable but then I do live in a very, very small town so we know our posties. I leave a tidy box out if we are not going to in but if a parcel arrives unexpectedly while we are out they are supposed to take it back to the delivery office in Carnforth but the postie usually leaves it at the local PO which is far easier to collect from.

[tractionman]

I might be missing something here,

the blurb says

 

"Save up to 50% off a variety of pre-owned items."

 

but checking out the items in the sale, the 'reduction' in price of the second hand stuff seems to be in relation to the original new price for the item, and not a reduction of the second hand price? 😕

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail?id=1333

 

 

 

 

[GWR-fan]

2 hours ago, tractionman said:

I might be missing something here,

the blurb says

 

"Save up to 50% off a variety of pre-owned items."

 

............................................................................

 

 

 

 

 

As a daily devotee of the pre-owned listings,  the current 50% off sale is roughly double the price of what the same items were selling for barely three years ago.  Current "discounted" prices on many very old Lima, Tri-ang,  Hornby and Mainline items has me shaking my head in disbelief.  Alas,  memories of previous firesales does make current discounted prices seem more like gouging than actual bargains.

 

Edit:  I did find four Hornby trainpacks reduced considerably from what they were listed for barely two days ago.  I stumbled on the reductions before the new reduced bargain price link was shown on the website.

Edited October 20, 2023 by GWR-fan
Additional information

[GWR-fan]

Once again bitten in the posterior.  Pre-owned Hornby "Pines Express" described as recently tested and fine.  The packaging cover even had a label attached stating the same.  No mention of a hardwired decoder install.  First attempt to run with no movement on analogue,  so I tried on digital.  Only response was the sound of the motor turning.  Of the last five West Country, Merchant Navy and Battle of Britain class pre-owned models,  this is now three with split final drive gears.  This is becoming monotonous.  If I resided in the UK this would be going straight back,  however, I will retain for spares,  or if possible source a set of replacement wheels.

[Michael Hodgson]

5 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

Once again bitten in the posterior.  Pre-owned Hornby "Pines Express" described as recently tested and fine.  The packaging cover even had a label attached stating the same.  No mention of a hardwired decoder install.  First attempt to run with no movement on analogue,  so I tried on digital.  Only response was the sound of the motor turning.  Of the last five West Country, Merchant Navy and Battle of Britain class pre-owned models,  this is now three with split final drive gears.  This is becoming monotonous.  If I resided in the UK this would be going straight back,  however, I will retain for spares,  or if possible source a set of replacement wheels.

If I was hitting anything like that level of problems with a retailer, I'd stop buying stuff from them.

I would expect to encounter fewer issues with second hand from ebay, although I suppose ebay has driven a lot of sellers away from posting overseas since brexit.

[ColinB]

6 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

Once again bitten in the posterior.  Pre-owned Hornby "Pines Express" described as recently tested and fine.  The packaging cover even had a label attached stating the same.  No mention of a hardwired decoder install.  First attempt to run with no movement on analogue,  so I tried on digital.  Only response was the sound of the motor turning.  Of the last five West Country, Merchant Navy and Battle of Britain class pre-owned models,  this is now three with split final drive gears.  This is becoming monotonous.  If I resided in the UK this would be going straight back,  however, I will retain for spares,  or if possible source a set of replacement wheels.

You don't need to buy a new set of wheels there is a guy on EBay that sells the gear as a spare part. I have used them they are ok. Also I did find that one of the intermediate gears was the same one and worked. The only issue is doing the quartering.

I too have bought the odd duff loco, fortunately I can fix them. The last one though took the biscuit, it was advertised as DC ready, which it was when new but the previous owner had hard wired it to DC removing the socket and wiring the motor and pickup connections together in the loco. Eventually I found out probably why. When Hornby made it they didn't do adequate  soldering to the tender pickups so they weren't making contact with the wires, so I suppose the guy took out all the things he thought might cause an issue. Annoying part was I paid top price for the loco but it would have cost me more to send it back than fix it,  I didn't blame the Seller, as who takes a loco apart to check it has a socket in it.

Sadly Brits, Duchesses and West Countrys/BoB frequently split the wheel gear. 

[GWR-fan]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

If I was hitting anything like that level of problems with a retailer, I'd stop buying stuff from them.

I would expect to encounter fewer issues with second hand from ebay, although I suppose ebay has driven a lot of sellers away from posting overseas since brexit.

 

I do buy a lot of the store's pre-owned items and mostly the items are as described or in better condition than described.  Of late though I do seem to have been very unlucky with split final drive gears.  Purchasing from the store does give me a 20% VAT discount,  whereas any eBay purchase from oversea would have no VAT reduction,  plus I would need to pay an additional 10% of both the purchase price plus shipping costs to cover our local goods and services tax.

 

I feel the current issue with items not as described is if the item appears as like new or unused then the store relies on the previous owner's description of the item and so the store may not actually verify the actual running condition of a model.  I continue to be amazed that a non-runner Mainline "Manor" class worth around GBP25.00 will get around ten images and yet a GBP200.00 train pack that looks like new, or maybe unused condition will have but one image listed of the contents still in the packaging.  Of cause any item received that does not match the store's description could be returned for a refund,  however, given that I live half way around the world from the store then any return could take around four weeks plus be very aggravating.  I rely on the honesty of the store's item description and in most cases it is accurate,  however, the odd one seems to slip through. 

Edited November 2, 2023 by GWR-fan
Additional information

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

If I was hitting anything like that level of problems with a retailer, I'd stop buying stuff from them.

It's a trade, pure and simple, involving several factors. Pro with this retailer:

Easy access to a very large selection.

Simple and reliable ordering and fulfillment system.

Absolutely zero trouble returning an item not as advertised, admittedly within the UK, and on the basis of just one experience in 20 years, which was definitely not the retailer's fault!

Con.

Not quite so many excitingly modest prices these days.

 

Otherwise it is mostly s/h from model shops where I can inspect, test and haggle, which is great.

 

[GWR-fan]

Well it looks like I have a winner.  The issue that I believed to be a split final drive gear due the motor heard rotating and being able to manually rotate the drive wheels looks as if it was just the rear motor mount loose.  I found this only after fully disassembling the centre drive wheelset to find the gear securely attached to the axle.  I thought then maybe the worm driven idler gearset might be loose but this was OK.  Then I noticed the rear motor mount bracket not secure.  Reassembly and digital test worked out fine. 

 

Edit:  With the rear mount bracket loose then I must assume that the motor was able to pivot downwards at the rear (brush end) and thus disengage the worm from the top idler gear.

 

I do not usually have a use for decoder fitted models (I always remove the decoder and fit blanking plates) and with this being hardwired and not actually noted in the item description that the model was DCC fitted (did the store actually know that?) I will need to read the Bachmann EZE-command manual to see if I can reactivate analogue running (all my digital control gear is still packed away after a house move last year),  Downside of this is that I have found that Hornby and NCE decoders may not be fully co-operative with analogue running enabled.  I rarely use digital operation so have very limited knowledge of CV changes, although I am aware that CV29 would need changing.

Edited November 2, 2023 by GWR-fan
Additional information

[GWR-fan]

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

.................................................................

Simple and reliable ordering and fulfillment system.

......................................................................................

 

 

Another pro for the store is the ability to add items to the trunk.  I normally add items until the trunk weighs around 6 kg.  If I had to use Royal Mail then the store would receive very little custom from me.  A 6kg package broken down into 2kg lots and sent by Royal Mail would cost me more than double sending the same items with DHL Express.  The trunk alone has saved me many hundreds of pounds in shipping costs,  plus the rare bargain,  which while a threatened species,  does still find its way into the pre-owned listings. 

 

As an example,  for some reason I have become attached to the Corgi 1:50 scale steam traction engines and Foden and Sentinel lorries.  A week ago the store had a steam traction engine crane "Wolverhampton Wanderers" listed for GBP9.00 and another for GBP14.00 in the sale bargain listings.  Oddly,  there were also three more listed (same condition description and model number) for GBP28.00 each.  I purchased the two cheaper items (minus VAT) expecting that perhaps the quality may have been less than the more expensive models.  The GBP9.00 (GBP7.50 after VAT) traction engine arrived this morning and it was as new/unused condition in an excellent box.  I expect the GBP14.00 item to arrive in a few days and anticipate it also will be similar condition.  Why the discrepancy in the pricing for the same items?????????

[Halvarras]

14 minutes ago, GWR-fan said:

Why the discrepancy in the pricing for the same items?????????

 

A question I, and I'm sure many others who monitor Hattons Preowned on a daily basis, frequently ask ourselves 🤔🙂!!

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

28 minutes ago, Halvarras said:

 

A question I, and I'm sure many others who monitor Hattons Preowned on a daily basis, frequently ask ourselves 🤔🙂!!

Don't be asking this question, snap up the inexplicably cheaper item if it's the right stuff. If you hesitate, I'l be in before you...

[Halvarras]

34 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Don't be asking this question, snap up the inexplicably cheaper item if it's the right stuff. If you hesitate, I'l be in before you...

 

Sounds like a challenge.....!

 

I sort of did that a couple of weeks ago - two Bachmann Class 46 D186s in weathered blue came up on consecutive days. One was photographed once in its box, the other got the 360 treatment (probably because the inner blister packaging was missing) so I went for the one I could get a really good look at. Saved myself a whopping..........er, one pound. Still, every little helps, as a certain supermarket likes to say 😁!

 

(I did say 'sort of'.....)

Edited November 2, 2023 by Halvarras

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

My most recent success was a mix of RTR and kit steam era wagons, which I could see had three / screw link couplings but no box! and so were dirt cheap. All I am pretty sure from the same modeller, kits assembled and finished very neatly, RTR refinished very tidily and with Gibson or similar replacement wheelsets.

 

I wonder what the ranking of RTR packaging is, among those who value such things? Tentative list from the bottom up:

Originally sold loose

No brown envelope

No plastic bag

No box

Replacement box

Incorrect box

Box chewed by dog

Box chewed by owner

Manky box

Battered box

Tatty box

Scuffed box

Box

Pristine box

Mint in box

Mint in unopened box

Mint in unopened box and only ever handled by angelic beings

 

[Michael Hodgson]

4 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

Well it looks like I have a winner.  The issue that I believed to be a split final drive gear due the motor heard rotating and being able to manually rotate the drive wheels looks as if it was just the rear motor mount loose.  I found this only after fully disassembling the centre drive wheelset to find the gear securely attached to the axle.  I thought then maybe the worm driven idler gearset might be loose but this was OK.  Then I noticed the rear motor mount bracket not secure.  Reassembly and digital test worked out fine. 

 

Edit:  With the rear mount bracket loose then I must assume that the motor was able to pivot downwards at the rear (brush end) and thus disengage the worm from the top idler gear.

 

I do not usually have a use for decoder fitted models (I always remove the decoder and fit blanking plates) and with this being hardwired and not actually noted in the item description that the model was DCC fitted (did the store actually know that?) I will need to read the Bachmann EZE-command manual to see if I can reactivate analogue running (all my digital control gear is still packed away after a house move last year),  Downside of this is that I have found that Hornby and NCE decoders may not be fully co-operative with analogue running enabled.  I rarely use digital operation so have very limited knowledge of CV changes, although I am aware that CV29 would need changing.

Excellent news, but they still shouldn't have descibed as tested OK nor should they have failed to mentioned it was DCC fitted.

That wouldn't suprise me if it was a private sale by somebody who wasn't a modeller, but a specialist retailer ought to do better.

[Sjcm]

The fact that they seem to send out DCC fitted locos not realising it (and costing them profit) shows they're either snowed under by the  sheer amount of stuff arriving or their inspection process is a case of plonk it on a test track, mark as running/non-running, and then a detailed inspection of the box😂

[Michael Hodgson]

That seems to me to be fair description of what is happening.

[Sjcm]

Yeah I have no idea what they pay their minions per hour but it seems a false economy not to spend 10 minutes to check under the bonnet for a DCC chip or a pick-up not touching a wheel and  turn a non or poor runner into a more profitable item, but I guess if they didn't make good money anyway they wouldn't do it, and the buyers aren't complaining.

[Kaput]

Not overly convinced they even try and test run half the stuff.

The descriptions are literally just the questions they ask the person selling the items.

[GWR-fan]

While I have reported quite a few failures,  in general,  the items received are usually better than described.  In particular are coach descriptions when marked as "paintwork worn", one generally has to look quite hard to find a defect unless obvious from the store's images.  I do purchase a lot of pre-owned items so I am bound to receive more "failures" than most,  but I am more than happy to keep buying from the store and yes,  while failures do occur, the majority of items received are excellent,  with many items seemingly as new or unused.

 

I am definitely not a fan of the current process of displaying images of items still in their packaging as I like to see what I am buying.  In particular,  I like to see if a previous owner has fitted metal wheelsets or changed the standard couplings.  A single image of an item still cocooned in its packaging reveals little more than the actual condition of the box.  Several times glaring defects have been received on items that simply removing from the packaging would have revealed,  however, it seems that retaining the box condition is seemingly more important than the actual contents of the packaging.  That said,  I have no qualms about continuing to buy from the store.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

17 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

...While I have reported quite a few failures,  in general,  the items received are usually better than described... 

My experience is the same. I have a 'running average' scoresheet in my head which is overwhelmingly on the positive side.

 

On the 'do they inspect? ' question, it's probably not affordable in both of employee time and damage incurred in the process.

 

I see it as a worthwhile risk. And on the rare occasions requiring a return, Hattons are excellent. And I have returned 100%more new (2) than s/h (1)...