Britannia - a tale of woe and a warning

[oreamnos]

Hi Everyone,

 

My parcels have arrived intact, no damage from Hattons every time via RM and their overseas partners and from everyone else I've used in the UK icluding Antics, Osborns etc. Seems it's more likely to be damaged in the UK than anywhere else.

 

 

Peter

 

From what I've read here, I tend to agree. I've placed dozens of orders with Hattons, Rails of Sheffield, Signal Box, and Kernow MRC over the years for delivery to my home in California, not to mention hundreds of purchases via eBay.co.uk to be shipped to me here in the US, and I have only once had a parcel lost in transit (a Farish Class 50 ordered from Hattons and shipped via Royal Mail simply disappeared; Hattons sent another after 25 days had passed since posting so they could file a claim with RM). Touch wood. I have had delivery delays with couriers, once when I accidentally chose City Link for an order from Hattons (took about 2 months to arrive) and then a couple orders from Kernow MRC each took about 3 weeks to arrive - which on much later enquiry with Kernow it explained to me that it had ceased using that courier (I forget which) and were now using RM. I've never had a parcel damaged in transit that was sent via RM.

 

Matt

[The Stationmaster]

To be slightly less fair (!), I've never had anything delivered directly by Amazon - in my experience they use royal mail, city link, fed ex........probably whoever offers the best deal.

 

'Amazon' can be just about anyone and just about anywhere with the only common theme that you order through the Amazon site - any surplus books we sell through Amazon are always sent by RM (not that there are many!). Other people might use other means but in the Uk the Amazon fee structure for private sellers is based on using RM rates.

[MichaelB]

I would like to know if anyone else has managed to get a direct response to an email to Dapol.

 

I have only had one response this year and that is when I had stated that I didn't know why I was bothering with contacting them as they never respond to emails (I hate sarcasm but it seemed to hit home that time). Over the last year I have emailed 5 times, three times over future stock queries (to the effect had they plans to produce an item again in future, to decide whether it was worth waiting or should I re-mortgage the house to buy it on Ebay): no responses. Once to point out that the shop website shop wasn't functioning; this got the one response. Most recently over the trouble I have had with a couple of B17's and a B1; no response.

I'm afraid I've moaned on about this in another thread, briefly, I've bought four new Dapol steam loco's this year. Three of these haven't worked, the only one that has, ironically, is the 'Oliver Cromwell' 'Britannia', though it is bit noisy. Of the others, first; a 'Barnsley B17', which slowly ground slower and slower, bought on Ebay the vendor instantly refunded purchase cost on complaint (even before I had returned the model, fantastic service from vendor), second; another 'Barnsley B17' which jumped of track breaking on floor, ultimately fixed by BR Lines (no response at all from Dapol, vendor, Anticsonline, stated it was outside the warranty). Last; an early crest B1 which just died after travelling 2 feet, bought from Hattons, they 'phoned me asking whether I wanted a replacement or refund (good service, I thought, although they've been a bit funny about refunding the postage), I plumped for the refund but was left with the postage cost as I had failed to claim it in my initial letter of complaint (a bit cheap I thought).

 

In the other thread there I was advised finally to contact 'Dapol Dave' in this forum but, in the meantime, as the good folks at BR Lines have taken a lot of trouble and fixed the B17 (without any help from Dapol) I'd decided to let it go. I don't particularly like whining on like this and the B17 was fixed but damn it, it's just not right that there is no response to a genuine query or complaint. It's made me feel like a right berk.

 

The fact is I (like many others) want to buy Dapol loco's because (in spite of all this) they a producing model types that fit my layout but I've lost the confidence to do so because of the quality control issues and lack of customer care illustrated in this thread. Also, frankly feel affronted that my complaint doesn't even merit a response.

[Elvinley]

No response to emails.

[Padishar Creel]

If a mail is written to praise, a reply is sent.

 

If a mail of criticism is written (even if the criticism is objective and just), no reply,

 

Also some questions have been conveniently ignored, a reminder that there are outstanding answers will be ignored

[melpchar]

I sent an email back in March regarding a couple of issues I was having with my 9F to see if they could help but I've had no response.

 

It's a shame they don't seem to be taking as much interest in helping customers with their products as they should be.

[oreamnos]

I see a bit of ire about the failure of Dapol to reply to email. Quick question: Is Bachmann any better? Does anyone know how the folks in Poole responded to correspondence before Bachmann bought them out? How about Hornby?

 

I'm genuinely curious. I've never tried to email any of these companies.

 

-Matt

[DavidH]

I've had emails ignored by many companies - never tried emailing Dapol I should point out so this post isn't about them, it's a general observation.

 

I'm surprised that anyone who receives more than a moderate amount of emails ever manages to reply to more than a small fraction. I spent 20 minutes honing an email to a work contact on Friday, trying to make sure I was to the point but not rude. I only get about 10 work emails a day and I work on my own - I can only try to imagine what it would be like to be a company with several hundred emails coming in (and answering this wouldn't be your only job I suppose). You can easily spend all day just on the computer. And I find that any emails that require a "difficult" answer get put to the back of the queue so the easy ones can be responded to. But they can easily get forgotten that way, as they disappear up the screen and out of view. And sometimes they do get lost - I come across emails from months back and realise with a flash of guilt that I've ignored that person.

 

And email isn't your only contact medium remember, you've still got a few letters coming in, phone calls, a web forum or two, PMs, texts? Facebook? Twitter? ...

 

I'm not trying to excuse anyone in any business for rudeness or ignoring their customers, but I find that these days there are far too many communication channels to monitor - AND still do the rest of your job. Everyone thinks their problem is the most important, drop what you're doing and attend to ME. But the sad fact is many people appear no longer to have the time to interact properly with their customers.

[Andy Y]

That's an honest assessment David and something that's very true from my perspective here. It can be difficult to juggle the priorities to everyone's satisfaction, mine included. Most people are absolutely fine but there is sometimes an unreasonable expectation that a reply is as near instant as their original communication was. I'm sure manufacturers also get some absolute pearlers that they have to bite their tongue in their response and probably a little time to compose themselves. I had a recent belter complaining that I was misleading people with the fact that the marketplace actually charged fees, add in a liberal smattering of people who register on the new site and then try to login on the old one and it's a bit testing at times.

[Super D]

Returning to the theme of the original post. My wife has received three parcels delivered whilst we were away from home with a note posted through the letter box stating that a parcel has been left in a secure place - BY THE FRONT DOOR!!!

 

Again YODEL were the ones.Each time company contacted eventually and driver to be 'reprimanded'.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Just a general point about answering emails.

 

Surely any self-respecting concern would have a policy on how long it takes to respond to these. Generally this would be along the lines of that we reply (or acknowledge) emails/letters etc within x working days.

 

Customer care isn't rocket science.....

[Grovenor]

If a company does not have the resources to answer emails, then they should not publish an email address, customers might be annoying but you don't have much of a business without them. but if the 'contact us' page on the website just gives a postal address people will think before going to the trouble of writing a letter and putting a stamp on it, so the volume will be much reduced. It does require an explanation, however, tell them that you would have to employ more staff and increase your prices in order to answer emails and people will understand. Publishing an email address then ignoring the incoming mail is not understood.

Keith

[spamcan61]

Just a general point about answering emails.

 

Surely any self-respecting concern would have a policy on how long it takes to respond to these. Generally this would be along the lines of that we reply (or acknowledge) emails/letters etc within x working days.

 

Customer care isn't rocket science.....

 

Indeed; I'd stick the 'we endeavour to answer emails within x working days' statement right next to the email address on the 'contact us' page.

[Elvinley]

I see a bit of ire about the failure of Dapol to reply to email. Quick question: Is Bachmann any better? Does anyone know how the folks in Poole responded to correspondence before Bachmann bought them out? How about Hornby?

 

I'm genuinely curious. I've never tried to email any of these companies.

 

-Matt

 

I have found Hornby do indeed answer emails. Have never emailed Bachmann.

[Pennine MC]

Just a general point about answering emails.

 

Surely any self-respecting concern would have a policy on how long it takes to respond to these. Generally this would be along the lines of that we reply (or acknowledge) emails/letters etc within x working days.

 

Customer care isn't rocket science.....

 

Where I work, they'd be treated like any other correspondence (i.e. no more nor less important), and responded to within 3 days unless there were complications. We're also supposed to answer the phone within 3 rings (yes 3, that's about 10 seconds). I'm not going into where it is, but it's not somewhere you'd normally class as a commercial activity; our customers pretty much have to come to us for what we provide, yet in this respect our service levels are far higher than the typical bank or utility company 'helpline'.

 

If a company does not have the resources to answer emails, then they should not publish an email address, customers might be annoying but you don't have much of a business without them. but if the 'contact us' page on the website just gives a postal address people will think before going to the trouble of writing a letter and putting a stamp on it, so the volume will be much reduced. It does require an explanation, however, tell them that you would have to employ more staff and increase your prices in order to answer emails and people will understand. Publishing an email address then ignoring the incoming mail is not understood.

Keith

 

Whilst recognising the difficulties involved, especially for small businesses and 'cottage industries', it is unfortunately the case that e-mail is seen as an 'easy' way of communicating. I tend to agree with Keith here, if the reality for a particular trader is that it *isn't* that easy, then it should be qualified as such rather than raising unrealistic expectations.

[DapolDave]

Hi everyone,

 

Just back from a weekend at the excellent Perth Model Railway show to read comments about e-mails etc and the lack of response to them from Dapol.

 

I think it's very fair to say that we are all becoming very reliant on e-mails as our number one form of communications, leaving the phone and the poor old letter as a last (if at all) resort. This is unfortunately not the best thing to do as e-mails are surprisingly unreliable.

 

For instance firewalls and spam killers work both ways. When i reply to mails that come across my desk sometimes the customer doesn't get them and complains (i reply to the complaint and sometimes that doesnt get Through either ). Basically the mail sent to us might have words that can be construed by our spam filters to contain words that are undesirable, or attachments that might contain viruses etc so they get blacklisted and put in our spam boxes.

 

Now this is where the problems begin. I get on average 50+ spams every hour (last 2 hours were 413 spam mails). Some of these may contain genuine e-mails form customers, but i just dont have the time to go through them all individually to check and so some get missed. We are sorry as a copmpany that happens, but there is nothign we can do, unless the core business is to suffer due to us taking time to sort the wheat from the chaff.

 

We will and do reply to all mail sent to Dapol that reaches our computers, that i can reassure you, but if you dont get a reply, its not because we havent sent one or are trying to be rude. its that we either didnt get it, or it got put in the spam folder and wasnt found, or that it never reached us in the first place.

I would always say that if you havnt had a reply from us by e-mail, then please either check your spam/junk mail box, or simply give us a ring and chat to a human being (no laughing at the back ).

 

Oh, and i just thought of another reason........simply that i just may not be here. For example this week i'm here 2 days with business meetings and shows, taking all my working my time, and i hope no one comes back and says 'why dont you answer your mails in the evening then?'

 

 

Anyway, just a small insight, and hopefully accepted posting, to explain why we dont sometimes answer e-mails.

 

See you all at RMweb this weekend.

 

 

Cheers

Dave

Dapol Ltd

[woodenhead]

If email is so unreliable as it would take too long to sort the wheat from the chaff, perhaps the answer lies in not having an email address and changing it for a comments/feedback/questions page on the Dapol site - that way you can control what comes in whilst giving customers a clear line of communication.

[Guest dilbert]

We will and do reply to all mail sent to Dapol that reaches our computers, that i can reassure you, but if you dont get a reply, its not because we havent sent one or are trying to be rude. its that we either didnt get it, or it got put in the spam folder and wasnt found, or that it never reached us in the first place.

 

I assume that implies that emails that you do receive do not consist of utter gibberish as well? You must have some corkers - may be a thread in its own right to highlight how not to write an email and expect a reply with 7 minutes ... dilbert

[DapolDave]

Hi Woodenhead,

 

Yup, a new website is currently being designed and will have that feature.

 

Indeed it will (as far as i know) allow you to choose where your comments go within Dapol and not just to a third party who currently sends them on via our sales@ addy and send you an automated reply to inform you we have sucessfully received your mail.

 

oh, and dont get me started on what spam filters filter out......that would make an interesting topic.

 

Now i'm off to reply to Angelina Jolie and Beyonce who both seem to want me to buy something from them, although my Nigerian friend who wants to give me £10,000,000 seems to have gone quiet of late! wonder if it was something i said?

 

cheers

Dave

Dapol ltd

[grahame]

I see a bit of ire about the failure of Dapol to reply to email. Quick question: Is Bachmann any better? Does anyone know how the folks in Poole responded to correspondence before Bachmann bought them out? How about Hornby?

 

I'm genuinely curious. I've never tried to email any of these companies.

 

My experience of contacting Graham Farish/Bachmann by email (a total of three times including using their official 'contact' form on their website) has been met with nil responses. I haven't bothered for a while thought - things could have improved.

 

G.

[grahame]

And I hadn't realised that Dapol hadn't got some kind of repair facilities. They have previously made great claims in their adverts about the "Britishness"of their product.

 

Can we have a breakdown of what does go on over here (i'm guessing at planning, CAD, some assembly work ) but that the chassis/body is made over in China ?

 

I guess that the answer to how much 'Britishness' is not very straightforward. I'm under the impression that it varies significantly by product type and can again vary once a product is developed for second batches. When I visited the Chirk 'factory' (several years ago) they certainly had facilities for CAD, plastic injection moulding, painting, livery application, assembly and packaging.

 

G.

[60006]

I can't comment on responses from Dapol as I seem to have been lucky with all my Dapol purchases but I did have to contact BachFar recently about a split gear in my new Class 60. I used their online form and got a reply within 2 days. I sent off the loco to be repaired and so should be ready and waiting for me when I get home later this week. I think Dapol is doing the right thing in going for an online contact form and hopefully then avoiding the infamous spam filters. Hopefully I'll never have to use it though.

 

Tom N.

[Butler Henderson]

I have had no problems getting a response from Bachmann using their on-line contact form and usually they send out the parts free of charge.

[Roy L S]

I have had no problems getting a response from Bachmann using their on-line contact form and usually they send out the parts free of charge.

 

That is my experience of Bachmann too, each time I have used this medium I have had a very speedy response.

 

Roy

[Tim Hale]

Gentlemen,

 

I doubt if this is appropriate but having read this thread with growing concern and disbelief at the responses received to date, my confidence as a potential purchaser of Dapol products is diminishing, albeit their OO product line.

 

The manufacturers who supply the majority of the items that I purchase, Hornby, Bachmann and Peco, have always provided excellent service when 'things go wrong' but conversely their products have always proved to reliable hence my continued purchase of their products.

 

However of the few Dapol-produced models that I do own, I have yet to be totally satisfied with both Dapol's service or reliability.

 

Tim