Hattons Model Railways of Widnes (formerly Liverpool).

[irishmail]

You'll have none left, Toy's / Models or otherwise, if you keep tossing them out of your pram with your mock outrage at not being able to get your new ones the next day.

 

Cheer up Brother !

I don't think it is all just about the next day delivery.  My recent experience was I ordered an item which at the time there was supposedly 10 or more in stock and Hatton's customer care team saying item was on a pallet when in fact the product was not in stock at all!   

[irishmail]

Perhaps one persons toy is another persons model or the other way around 

To me a toy is something which bears no real resemblance to a prototype item while a model is a scale replica of a prototype item.

That is it looks like a small version of the real thing.

 

in other news I ordered two locos from Hattons in the early hours of this morning to be delivered by DPD couriers two day delivery to ireland.

So far I've had an Order Confirmation email, an Order Processed email & an Order Packed into one parcel email with a tracking number.

All within seven hours.

Looking good so far. The test will be when the tracking number shows up on DPD's tracking system 

Be interesting to see how you get on with this.  I have used DPD in the past (non Hatton's) and found them to be ok.

Regards, John

[The Blue Streak]

I don't think it is all just about the next day delivery.  My recent experience was I ordered an item which at the time there was supposedly 10 or more in stock and Hatton's customer care team saying item was on a pallet when in fact the product was not in stock at all!   

 

Yep fair Call Mate. But My initial observation was about the dummy spit in post 1457, about a subject which had already been addressed and reasons explained by Hatton's in a previous post.

 

Anyway moving on. I am pleased to say that My most recent order arrived safe and sound Yesterday, which was within the usual time frame taken for Hattons parcels to arrive to Country WA. So it seems most things are slowly getting back to normal and the sun will come up Tomorrow after all.

Edited November 1, 2017 by The Blue Streak

[Stevelewis]

You'll have none left, Toy's / Models or otherwise, if you keep tossing them out of your pram with your mock outrage at not being able to get your new ones the next day.

 

Cheer up Brother !

 

I am  not  unhappy   although  I did not  know I had  a brother in Oz  although  I do  have  other  relations  there!!

 

The point  I am  making   re   Next  Day  deliveries  is as  follows,  I personally  do  not  have  any  desperate  desire  to  get my  hands on  Hobby items  next  day  BUT  as  I  have stated  I order items  for  delivery  to  my address  on  behalf  of  not  just  myself  but  a group of  modelling  friends,  who  tend  to have problems  with  their  home  deliveries  due  to  wives  etc  also  being   at  work,  one of  them  spends  a  lot  of time workwise  in China and  actually is  building  a  model  Railway  in his apartment  there!

 

So the  desire is  to  synchronise  deliveries to my  address  to be  suitable  for  their  ability to collect  from me, to that  end  I place  next  day delivery orders with  suppliers to  synchronise with their  availability,  which  for  many  years  now  has  worked  perfectly  until recently,  so  until  things  return  to  normal orders  are  directed  elsewhere.

[davefromacrossthepond]

Here's the story of my latest Hattons order.  I placed my order online on 21 October.  I selected Royal Mail (cheapest method other than surface mail).  As I live in the U.S. the site states average transit time 5 days.  On 23 October I received an email that my items had been picked and were placed in a box addressed to me.  The box was on my doorstep today when I got home from work (1 November).  That makes it 11 days from time ordered.  Transit time 7 or 8 days.  Considering most of the area (Rhode Island and other parts of New England) was without electricity Monday with half still out yesterday, I consider this pretty timely (remember 5 days is average).  While I haven't kept track of the time taken on previous orders, in my mind less than two weeks across the Atlantic using the most inexpensive shipping method next to surface mail (I think the quote is 2 years average transit time lol) is ok by me.  Hattons has done right by me since I first started playing with "British stuff" several years ago and hopefully they're back on track. 

[adb968008]

The  GPO  caught on to  that  one  quite  quickly,  I saw  a  couple  of  instances  in  the  Manchester  area, when  waiting to  use   a  call box  when  the  user  was  tapping  out  the  number on the  receiver  rest,  and in  a  very  short  time   a police  mini van  raced  up  and  apprehended  the  person.

 

Notes:  GPO = General Post  Office   the  then  name  for the  Telephone company, Mini Van  was  usually  the transport  for the police  for  a  while, in the  Manchester  suburbs!

I remember my mate calling me once to ask if I was in, I said yes, when he turned up his ear was black.

Kids had put boot polish on the ear piece.

[Chamby]

It is amazing how much our own views are affected by personal experience with a single order! Clearly, some of us have found things OK more recently and others less so.

 

I have full respect for Hattons being honest with us that things are improving but they are not quite back to 100% (Hattons Dave #1462), now four weeks on from their stocktake. Last month’s meltdown and the lingering after effects must be hurting them financially as well as their reputation, but it does help us to make informed purchasing decisions. Top marks to Hattons for being straight with us, it shows respect for their customers and it can’t have been easy for them this last month.

 

Personal circumstance dictates my own need for guaranteed next day delivery before 1am... that and the recent memory of October’s unhappy experience means that I am still shopping elsewhere for now. But when Hatton’s Dave gives us the 100% all clear and their delivery services are back to normal, I look forward to bringing them back into my preferred suppliers list!

[royaloak]

The point  I am  trying to make is  why change  something  that was working 

The point you are missing is with the current issues they are having they cannot guarantee the next day delivery option so they have done the decent thing and temporarily suspended the next day option until they are sure they can guarantee it so people are not paying for a service they might not receive.

 

It worked in the past and it will work in the future, give them a bloomin chance to sort things out!

[Stevelewis]

It is amazing how much our own views are affected by personal experience with a single order! Clearly, some of us have found things OK more recently and others less so.

 

I have full respect for Hattons being honest with us that things are improving but they are not quite back to 100% (Hattons Dave #1462), now four weeks on from their stocktake. Last month’s meltdown and the lingering after effects must be hurting them financially as well as their reputation, but it does help us to make informed purchasing decisions. Top marks to Hattons for being straight with us, it shows respect for their customers and it can’t have been easy for them this last month.

 

Personal circumstance dictates my own need for guaranteed next day delivery before 1am... that and the recent memory of October’s unhappy experience means that I am still shopping elsewhere for now. But when Hatton’s Dave gives us the 100% all clear and their delivery services are back to normal, I look forward to bringing them back into my preferred suppliers list!

 

My  views  exactly  as  I  have  tried  to  make  clear in  my  previous posts  I note  another  member is  asking  me  to  give  them a ******* chance to  sort things  out,  which  is  exactly  what  I am  doing,  I have only  been pointing  out  that  the  lack  of  ND  Delivery  is losing  them  business,  ( and  I do  do  quite  a lot  of  it  with  Hattons!)

[robertcwp]

Lack of Special Delivery is a pain but I somewhat grudgingly ordered a W14 today with normal delivery as I my other frequently used supplier didn't seem to have the item in stock (their website is poor too). My last two orders have gone elsewhere.

 

I liked SD as I live near the sorting office and the delivery is usually really early so before I need to leave for work. Knowing which day something is coming is handy too.

 

Let's see how long W14 takes to turn up.

[Porcy Mane]

Put an order in at 15:30 on the 31st. Chose DPD £4:00 delivery. That was followed by the usual Email traffic informing  of order & delivery progress.

All turned up at 11:10 this morning.

 

Thats OK in my book.

 

I can understand the frustration of those where things don't move along so smoothley.

 

P

[woodenhead]

Same with me, ordered on the 31st, watched it track and it arrived this morning to the sound of a hard rap at the door.

[amdaley]

Perhaps one persons toy is another persons model or the other way around 

To me a toy is something which bears no real resemblance to a prototype item while a model is a scale replica of a prototype item.

That is it looks like a small version of the real thing.

 

in other news I ordered two locos from Hattons in the early hours of this morning to be delivered by DPD couriers two day delivery to ireland.

So far I've had an Order Confirmation email, an Order Processed email & an Order Packed into one parcel email with a tracking number.

All within seven hours.

Looking good so far. The test will be when the tracking number shows up on DPD's tracking system 

 

Update.

 

My parcel with two locos arrived by DPD 10.30am. Two day delivery to Ireland as purchased.

I did order with some trepidation considering the problems that have been experienced by some including myself.

But I need not have worried as everything was as it should be.

I never had any worry about DPD as I use them frequently & they're top notch but its good to see that Hattons are on the up again & that hopefully all their problems are behind them.

 

We rightly complain when we have problems with a retailer so I feel its only fair to praise them when things go as they should.

So well done Hattons & DPD.

[dpgibbons]

Hatton's pre-owned still seems to be operating in fits and starts.

[robertcwp]

Lack of Special Delivery is a pain but I somewhat grudgingly ordered a W14 today with normal delivery as I my other frequently used supplier didn't seem to have the item in stock (their website is poor too). My last two orders have gone elsewhere.

 

I liked SD as I live near the sorting office and the delivery is usually really early so before I need to leave for work. Knowing which day something is coming is handy too.

 

Let's see how long W14 takes to turn up.

Arrived at 07:20 today, so on schedule.

[BWsTrains]

Some "after the event" comments from the safety of distance. Hatton's weren't the first and won't be the last to suffer a major disruption due to technology and it is testament to the quality of their people and systems that they are back up and running relatively quickly.

 

It is not that long ago that a technology melt down was effectively a death sentence. We have come to expect / demand excellence and when things go off the rails are rightly miffed, ask a few million bank customers when their Bank went down how they felt or what about BA??

 

"Just two months after more than 670 flights were canceled due to a power failure, British Airways hit another embarrassing glitch Wednesday morning when its systems crashed across London airports".

 

How quickly we forget how dependent we all are on technology when it lets us down. I'm not an apologist for Hatton's, just a realist suggesting some tolerance is warranted when things do go wrong, they take time to fix as I believe Hattons have proven. They need to learn from this incident.

[Stevelewis]

I notice  Hattons  are  offering  Next   Day  delivery  service   once  again

[woodenhead]

I notice  Hattons  are  offering  Next   Day  delivery  service   once  again

But all their stock is now zero - you can order anything for delivery tomorrow but they just don't have it in stock    

 

note to all readers, this is clearly a joke.

[Stevelewis]

But all their stock is now zero - you can order anything for delivery tomorrow but they just don't have it in stock    

 

note to all readers, this is clearly a joke.

 

Well that's  OK  Cos' I aint  go  no money at  the  mo until  someone  buys  something  off   Ebay  

[Coryton]

The Railway Modeller double page spread on Hattons does turned out to have been somewhat unfortunately timed.

 

I hope that Hattons is now back to being "a stellar example of how modern web-based retailing can work" but for some people it's clear that it hasn't been recently.

 

And I do find it interesting that they don't seem to prioritise same-day dispatch in the way that many on-line companies now do. I appreciate that we've never had it so good, most of us don't need things to arrive the next day (I rarely do) and that we used to have to "wait up to 28 days for delivery". However, many companies do now compete on how quickly they can get stuff out of the door (e.g. order by 12 and it's in that day's post) and Hattons now seems to sit somewhere between such companies and the small model shops that send things out when they can find the time.

 

Also an interesting comment that customer orders are tracked through the order process on paper not electronically.

 

The article also mentions how great the new site is for those with cars but (perhaps not surprisingly) doesn't mention the near inaccessibility by anyone not so blessed.

 

 

 

[woodenhead]

The article also mentions how great the new site is for those with cars but (perhaps not surprisingly) doesn't mention the near inaccessibility by anyone not so blessed.

 

I went the other week as I happened to be at a loose end in Liverpool - it wouldn't be somewhere I would make a special visit to - the shop has some stock in cabinets but really it is probably more a tilt towards having a shop front because they have to rather than they want to - that said it was quite busy in there but more akin to Argos than say Arcadia.

 

I was similarly disappointed with Rails who like Hattons must mainly sell via the web now although I think Rails are doing something about that looking at pictures from their thread of the new showroom.

[Stevelewis]

After  what  has  been  a   2 month  ordering  gap  for  me  I have  just  placed a  Next Day  delivery,  we  shall see how  it  works  out!

 

I order   for myself  and  a group of  friends who find it  convenient to pick up  things from my address  due to  their  work commitments,  so  this is  my  18th order  this  year  ,  which  is  well down  on  2016  when 43 orders  were placed,

 

  The  cost  of  living  is beginning  to  bite   I  think, and  the  recent mortgage rate  increase  will no doubt  have  a  further  effect,  I am  pleased  to  be  Mortgage  free now,  but  remember  well  when we  had  a  Mortgage. In the  80/90s  the   mortgage interest  rate  was sometimes  in  double  figures  and  rate  increases  had  a  dramatic  effect  on  our  standard  of  living  sorry  to  digress

Edited November 9, 2017 by Stevelewis

[Stevelewis]

My Next  day  delivery order  received on time around  0830,   ( not  had  a  chance  to  open  the  package yet)

[Scottish-Exile]

 so  this is  my  18th order  this  year,

 

 

 

What's the law of averages that says the postman will get it wrong one day and deliver to my house instead

[Stevelewis]

What's the law of averages that says the postman will get it wrong one day and deliver to my house instead

 

Totally off topic  but  I have  had misdelivery problems......  I live in  xxxx drive  which  has been in  existence  for  50 years,  about 15 yrs  ago a small development was  built   about 1/4 mile  away,  Just a  single   cul-de-sac  the  namer of  roads in the  council named  it   xxxx  mews, so we  have  2  roads  with similar  names, ( different  post codes but  that   doesn't make  much difference).

we  get  post  delivered  regularly  for the  mews address along  with  late  night  take  away  deliveries and  Yodel or  Hermes  calling  to collect  parcels!!

There was  no need to name  the  Mews the  same  name as  ours, it  could  easily have been named  after the  farm  which once stood  there which is totally different  !