DropTheTap

My DMU (see above) finally arrived after about six weeks, a new record!! I do appreciate that this is outside the retailer's control but I often wonder why on earth there's such a disparity sometimes...

I agree. I've been very close to ordering from other online outlets but postage is very expensive and I won't do it unless it's something Hattons or Rails don't have in stock. Hattons (and to a lesser extent, Rails) international postage rates are very reasonable indeed. I always kick myself if I see a good deal at Hattons and procrastinate, only for it to sell out and have to stomach the postage charges elsewhere!

Huh?? I just sent mine back, cost 26.00USD, you got ripped!! Seriously, I had an email from Hornby which said to enclose a receipt and they would refund the postage: we'll see how that goes. I had no idea that they were mailing out new chassis, I was kind of hoping for vouchers to spend on their website...

I'm in the USA. I'm not sure if the "Airsure" option is open to me here but I'll certainly look into it. I'm certainly not trying to have a dig at Hattons with my posts (like I said, their prices are pretty well unmatched) but the one time I foresaw a problem, I wasn't entirely convinced by their response. We may all be forgiven a bad day I suppose. Lord knows I have enough of them for everybody!

Yes, I'm always impressed at how quickly I receive an email telling me everything's been taken care of. I had also considered the vagaries of customs, other carriers, transfers etc. Now admittedly I don't use them as much but Rails seem to be more consistent when it comes to transit times, although I'm sure that's a coincidence based on a less than ideal sampling size. I may go for the tracked option in future but having to sign for a package or missing it and then driving to the nearest depot is not a convenient option for me, unfortunately. Plus this adds a significant cost to the item. It says something when I can buy something from Hattons, shipped and it still be much, much cheaper than buying the same item from ebay or a store in the country which I now live...!

Living outside the UK, I like to use either Hattons or Rails, based purely on price and exchange rate- Hattons bargains are hard to beat. However, in ten years of semi- regular ordering (probably a loco or three a year on average, plus other "bits"), Hattons delivery times have proven to be be quite random: despite always selecting Royal Mail Air it can be anywhere from one to five weeks. The five week item scared me somewhat. I emailed to let them know it hadn't arrived, to which I received a curt and somewhat irritating response. While considering my options, the order arrived a couple of days later. Whew! Currently, I am awaiting a Bachmann DMU which has taken four weeks thus far. I am contemplating sending an email but may wait a few more days. Plus, I don't want to actually *not* receive the item this time; based on the above, I'm not confident in how they would handle that... Can't beat the prices though.

Because we haven't had enough 37/4s from various manufacturers in recent years...

Thanks for the info! Don't suppose you have the returns address offhand, do you? Or do I need to give them advance notice that it's on the way? Sorry, didn't mean to sound so needy!!

Are they still accepting returns on these and if so, do I need to send my receipt? (I don't have it, it has been a while.)

Was it the body or the chassis that caused the problem? I have a cracked body which I wish to replace with a detailed "Railroad" version: will the replacement will also crack??