Kallaroonian Posted November 18, 2011 Author Share Posted November 18, 2011 I have also had no problems with stuff getting shipped here. Except for the Hattons orders. I am not in a crusade against Hattons. I just think that when it's 3 out of 3 orders with a problem (technically given the current registered mail stuck at processing centre) then you have to ask yourself what is going on when all other shipments here since we emigrated 8 yrs ago have been 0 out of X lost. We can all line up behind Hattons and say how great they are. I genuinely accept that feedback and have no issues with their processing other than the current adamant belief that these items will all turn up eventually. The issue this is starting to appear to raise ( :-) ) is that there might be a problem with the Royal Mail element. This is just simple fault localisation. Other items from around the UK and around the world have turned up fine so it doesn't point to RM in general or Australia Post. It suggests RM Liverpool either have hug backlogs or other more sinister issues. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallaroonian Posted November 18, 2011 Author Share Posted November 18, 2011 He he. Possibly also true but what I meant to say was huge backlogs.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Peter Beckett Posted November 18, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 18, 2011 I had an order posted RM non Europe Airmail on 17th Oct and it arrived 28th Oct no problems. I did have have trouble ordering the same items through E-Hattons and after 3 emails to and from Hattons, I gave up and used the "standard" Hattons and the result above. Peter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Vader Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 I The issue this is starting to appear to raise ( :-) ) is that there might be a problem with the Royal Mail element. This is just simple fault localisation. Other items from around the UK and around the world have turned up fine so it doesn't point to RM in general or Australia Post. It suggests RM Liverpool either have hug backlogs or other more sinister issues. I have probably had over 50 orders from Hattons in the last 10 years. Everything has turned up so far. I ordered a locomotive in August and it turned up in November - clearly marked 'Air Mail'. After 10 weeks I did contact Hattons and they told me a lot of orders in August have been taking a while to arrive, be patient they said. Well I gave it two weeks and it turned up. Another item ordered from Hattons in September took only 5 days! A couple of other items from different parts of the UK also posted by Air Mail in August took nearly 3 months. I ordered two books from the same source and they were sent in different packages. The first book arrived after 6 days, the other took 3 months. My August Railway Modeller arrived after the September issue. I have noticed that magazine subscriptions used to arrive 6-10 after publication, but can now take 15 to 20 days on average. I would conclude that the issue is not solely related to Hattons, but the UK postal system in general. It has appeared somewhat hit and miss for most of this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium brushman47544 Posted November 18, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 18, 2011 Regarding Hattons - I live in Ireland (Republic of) and I've placed many hundreds of orders over too many years and on the rare occasion there's been a problem Hattons have always responded appropriately. Some time ago I noticed that Hattons website introduced a Royal Mail Air Mail Economy format. Around the same time Royal Mail prices had increased significantly. It's usually £4 to here for a standard Bachmann loco with anything up to 10 days for delivery. That is a reduction in what I used to pay. There's also another Air Mail format that's more expensive but much quicker - I suspect this is what I used to pay. Recently, Hattons sent a parcel on October 24th - it arrived November 14th. I did contact Hattons and they informed me that delivery was taking longer than usual due to a problem with Royal Mail. They explained that many of their overseas customers were experiencing similar problems and at times delivery was taking months rather than weeks or days. Sure enough the parcel arrived with other items ordered a week or more later. Actually I ordered other items after the missing order and they turned up before it! Where the parcel was I don't know! I'm presuming it's a problem with Air Mail Economy format but that's only a presumption. Perhaps you might contact Royal Mail and put a general question about overseas delivery. I've stopped asking for Royal Mail Air Mail Economy because it can be so hit-and-miss. In most cases with Hattons, it's only 50p or £1.00 extra for the more expensive Air Mail and that has always taken the advertised 3-5 days to me here in Portugal. For more valuable packages, Hattons' DPD by Road option (with tracking) has always worked well for me. Of course, not suitable for Australia... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Fisher Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 The Royal Mail moved out of their main Copperas Hill sorting office in Liverpool in the last few years, our post orignates from Warington now I think? From working a few hundred yards away from the main sorting office and main railway station post can come to our building at virtually any time during the day.. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Mc Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 Hi I live in Brisbane and on the odd occasion Perth no issues at all with Hattons always good prompt deliveries. At least the gear is slowly getting to you. I hope you get it all well before Christmas. Cheers Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theakerr Posted November 18, 2011 Share Posted November 18, 2011 On the few recent orders I have placed with Hattons there have been no problems. I dont place many orders with them for reason not appropriate to this thread, However, there is definitely something happening with the mail to Canada (and Australia?). It used to be only a year to 18 months ago that 5 days to 14 was the norm. Now the norm is closer to 14 days with a range of 5 days to 30 days. The type of shipping does not seem to have any impact. Until i read this I was tending to blame Canada Post but in view of the issues in Oz I am now wondering if it is the Royal Mail. I seem to remember there was some serious talk about privatizing it. I wonder if the two are related. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 We're probably going to see more and problems with mail services as time goes on. There are huge liabilities in Canada, UK and USA for DB pension plans and medical costs. As the management of these behemoths wrestle with reducing losses (USPS announced something like a $5 billion loss the other day and this isn't the first time). I can imagine employees working more and more to rule and in future there will be far fewer of them. The CEO of Royal Mail is a Canuck who used to run Canada Post - go figure. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nnich Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I've just seen this topic but I can add to the long list of people who praise both Hattons and RoS. I live in the Eastern USA and as others have said postal service is now a very hit or miss affair. Recently both Hattons and RoS have added a courier service option which I have tried from both vendors with excellent results. Approximately 4 working days in both cases Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 On the few recent orders I have placed with Hattons there have been no problems. I dont place many orders with them for reason not appropriate to this thread, However, there is definitely something happening with the mail to Canada (and Australia?). It used to be only a year to 18 months ago that 5 days to 14 was the norm. Now the norm is closer to 14 days with a range of 5 days to 30 days. The type of shipping does not seem to have any impact. Until i read this I was tending to blame Canada Post but in view of the issues in Oz I am now wondering if it is the Royal Mail. I seem to remember there was some serious talk about privatizing it. I wonder if the two are related. It is definitely both. A lot of my parcels are 'signed for' so they can be tracked. They hang around in England for a while, presumably gathering dust, then they get sent to exotic places like Vancouver - Which is in the extreme West - I live in Halifax which is some 2500 miles East...(Go figure that one, the parcel is now no nearer to where I live than when it was in the UK !) They then hang around Vancouver for a while - and its not even Canada customs getting interested - then they eventually surface/land in Halifax and a day later I have to drive five miles to the post office (after 5 pm ) to pick it up as registered parcels no longer get delivered to the door! - So if a Canadian is running the UK PO - watch out for disappearing services. So nowadays it can take up to a month for a parcel sent airmail to arrive - surface mail can actually be speeedier. So don't blame Hattons - Industrial action combined with a failing postal system is at the root of this - plus a public who are not prepared to pay the actual costs. One of the courier services that Hattons uses actually uses the regular mails - they must get a huge bulk discount as they charge less. So one pays one's money and waits for the postal system to do its modern thing. Now if one uses DHL the strory is quite different - the parcels arrive the same week. However they invariably go through customs where taxes and a customs surcharge gets added to the already higher tariff that is being paid. Plus the DHL delivery driver sometimes rings the bell and flees before you can get to the door - so it's then a ten mile trip to the the DHL office to pick up the parcel! It is all rigged so that no one wins! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 I think I agree with a lot of what you say Bill. I suspect parcels bound for overseas will have to wait for a full container before being despatched - that could take a few days. Check the postmark on your parcels and compare to when Hattons shipped it - should be within a day I reckon. It's all down to the post. Email, tweets, electronic banking and couriers have destroyed the Postal business - they need to reinvent themselves on a private sector model of services, pay and benefits. Courier is one option but it sure is a pain to have to schlep to the depot if you miss the delivery. I have spoken to a small UK trader on the phone a couple of times and each time he bends my ear about how bolshie Canada Post is and how difficult they make it. He claims he has had parcels returned because his address is a PO box. At least one other UK retailer won't ship to Canada for "insurance" reasons - whatever that means. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 Just to add another datum, my parcels have always taken just over a week from Liverpool to NZ, with the exception of a couple sent earlier this year in about the same time-frame as you (Kallaroonian) were having problems. Hattons said that they were wary of sending out a replacement since the parcels were getting through, it was just taking a long time. I said I was happy to wait, and everything turned up in the end - I think one was about two months, and one a bit quicker. When I asked about it (I was polite, they were endlessly apologetic) I was told that "Royal Mail were having capacity problems" and Hattons weren't happy about the service they were getting from RM. I suspect that, as suggested above, some parcels had been bumped from air to sea-mail, or perhaps caught up in the backlog at US airports - I understand there were issues there when new rules meant that everything going through the country had to be X-rayed. In short: don't worry too much, and consider using one of their expensive shipping options if you really need something ASAP. I think Hattons would do well to put a notice on their website about possible shipping delays (unless they have and I haven't found it?) but other than that they seem to have handled things as best they could. HTH, Will Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallaroonian Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Thanks for the ongoing feedback. There's been some progress here. I have some good news and some unchanged news. The original parcel is still missing. This is the one that was sent regular airmail some time in Sept. Consistent with others, Hattons are still very apologetic and helpful. They have now agreed to send a replacement. The later order got spilt into two with both packages sent by registered mail. Both of these packages turned up on Sunday (fantastic since there is no delivery in WA on Sat or Sun). This means the packages both took about 10 actual days or 6 or 7 working days. A great result. It's interesting that RM think one of them is still stuck in the international processing centre in the UK mind you. All of the problems here seem to point to RM unfortunately and the lesson learned is to utilise registered post or possibly courier if it is a larger order Rgds Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brossard Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Just got my 3F at 19:30! Amazed that Canada Post deliver at that time - until 21:00 the man said and then gave me what for for not having the light on. Anyway that was 10 days exactly. In my parcel there was a note from Hattons to say they had been experiencing postal delays and requesting that I send an email indicating when my order arrived - so I did. Seems like the folks at Hattons have read the books on customer relations. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallaroonian Posted November 30, 2011 Author Share Posted November 30, 2011 John Hi. Yes, Hattons told me that they were putting this note in orders lately and it's a good idea. I do wonder whether there's some sort of ongoing "discussion" between them and RM given that they are collecting stats. My situation remains a little bit of a comedy of errors unfortunately. Hattons did agree to send a replacement and have now done so. However, they sent it via regular airmail again rather than via registered post (which we had agreed appeared to be much more reliable and, of course, trackable). This was just simply due to a stuff up in dispatch. A bit unfortunate to say the least Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
amdaley Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I live in South West Ireland & when I buy items from The UK they sometimes can take 7 to 10 days to get to me yet anything I post to the UK gets there in 3 or 4 days ? I suspect the problem is in the UK postal system but you get used to it as there's not a great deal you can do about it. As regards Hattons, anything I've ever ordered from them has turned up no problem with the usual postal delay. Only seems to affect packages though as letter mail is the same in both directions ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverlink Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I suppose we Brits are most of the time lucky with been able to order our models from UK shops with the post taking but a short time to arrive on our doorsteps. Yes from time to time we have delays but on the whole it works well. I can't say I'm really impressed with Royal Mail as when ever anything happens it never ever seems to be their fault! Although not model railways I remember around eight years ago I bought a Fender guitar on Ebay in Japan paid via Paypal and a day and a half later it was in my front room!!! now thats sevice. Cheers silverlink Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallaroonian Posted November 30, 2011 Author Share Posted November 30, 2011 Well good news. I got home from work today and the replacement parcel sent on the 22nd arrived today. So that's just 7 working days by regular airmail. I am still going to request registered post or courier service (if the order is v large) for future orders. I have now twice had major problems with the regular airmail Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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