cmtrain

On 03/05/2024 at 23:42, john dew said:

 

I am afraid the bug is still there - I am unable to pre- order two EFE fish vans. It asks for a deposit but doesnt specify an amount nor can I enter an amount (assuming I wish to when the final price is unconfirmed and the deposits are marked non-refundable)

 

I live in Canada but that should not be an issue?

 

Puzzled in Vancouver

 

John Dew

Just had a look at the Fish vans - non have a deposit on now - don't know if this was fixed after you posted or whether there is some misconception over what a deposit is.

For pre-orders it will clearly show on the product page

  or 

if it states no deposit when you go to pre order checkout it will show you

Hope that helps, if you have any issues please post a link to the product and we can take a look.

Kind Regards Chris

Rails of Sheffield Ecommerce 

Don't think that will work? if x manufacturer with a UK warehouse receives a shipment of its latest locomotive, would that be at cost price?

As mentioned above not all are imported to the UK and there are more than just the 2 big players.

You may be better off looking at revenue accounts for the all the big manufacturers.

Ooo another unofficial post coming up (I'm responsible for Rails of Sheffield's ecommerce).

Since I started at Rails 5 years ago and first experienced the model Railway hobby I have seen the industry grow, I have seen new manufacturers come to the industry and I visited shows where I was amazed by the number of people I saw.

While I'm not a Model Railway hobbyist I do like to roll dice and push toy soldiers around a table and did witness our yearly local wargames show close. This was not due to lack of demand for the hobby but more a lack of transition from the old guard of the local wargames club for whom it was an increasing hassle to put the show on to the younger members that could carry the show on and take it forward. Now several years later I'm knee deep in toy soldiers and my wife is getting increasingly annoyed... that industry is stronger than ever and has similar issues with 3d printing and technology.

I see both recent sad news events as being caused by unfortunate 'local' factors specific to them rather than industry wide issues.

Enjoy your hobby.

Regards Chris

On 06/01/2024 at 09:48, Dutch-Traindriver said:

Every day, 3 to 4 emails, 7 days a week, even if there really is nothing to report. Fortunately, not every company does this spam, so I'll unsubscribe....

Hello,

We do try and limit emails, however there are often multiple things going on and often unexpected announcements happen after we have already sent out an email that day. It is something we hope to continue to improve and aim to keep our customers informed of the industry goings on in the least amount of emails possible. 

Having said that you should not be getting that many emails from us - we have sent 12 emails so far in January, averaging under 2 a day and have not sent more than 2 a day? 

We do give our mailing list members a unique special offer every month and have some releases/offers that are available to our mailing list members first so we think being on it is definitely worthwhile and we are always looking to bring more value to our members which we hope to do in the coming year.  

Kind Regards Chris

Ecommerce

Rails Of Sheffield

Hello there!

Sorry its not appearing for you, I don't think we would engage in gambling which requires you to wage something of value rather than a bit of free fun which is the intent behind the spinner.

I set the spinner to appear 4 seconds after page load (on all pages), that it has not loaded and that the mascot side icon is not appearing would suggest something blocking popups or script?

What device and browser are you using? is there another internet capable device you could use to try?

It worked on all our test setups, I know some anti virus can be a bit overly keen sometimes but given the amount of devices, software and software versions there are it is an impossible task.

Kind Regards Chris

Ecommerce

Rails of Sheffield

On 08/08/2022 at 19:20, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Five months later?

 

 

 

https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/rails-connect

Or if you search Rails Connect the products should also appear. I will see if I can sort a redirect.

Kind Regards Chris

Rails Ecommerce

19 hours ago, robmcg said:

 

Hi Chris,

 

Can you explain why the website ignores VAT for customers outside the UK/EU?

 

Cheers, Robbie. 

It does not, the price being displayed in NZ does not include UK tax

First image is from UK, second is from New Zealand.

Where it is saying Tax included it is correct as no more tax is added to price at checkout, we will look in to changing wording or maybe it would be less confusing if we removed the tax included form non UK visitors.

Does that explain your issue Robbie? 

Regards Chris

Ecommerce 

Rails of Sheffield

18 hours ago, robmcg said:

 

Hi Chris,

 

I have a query about the new website.

 

I have bought hundreds maybe thousands of pounds worth of engines off you in years gone by but the new website does not mention VAT  for me, living as I do in New Zealand, I am not liable for this cost.

 

Just yesterday I tried to buy a new V2 and received an Email including postage to NZ, fine, but I was required to pay the full amount including about 40 Pounds VAT.

 

This happened a couple of months ago and I simply gave up.

 

Can you explain why the website ignores VAT for customers outside the UK/EU?

 

Cheers, Robbie. 

I do have notifications turned on  but it may take me a bit of time to respond sometimes.

Hi Robbie,

*EDIT*  I did mention a bug here but I misunderstood and that bug is only applicable for phone orders

Ill explain what is happening below

Kind Regards Chris

Ecommerce 

Rails of Sheffield

On 11/01/2022 at 18:01, Portchullin Tatty said:

Chris

 

Can I add myself to the list of people that has run into this problem too.

 

I have been charged for a pre-order which apparently went to an address which was correct when I made the pre-order but is no longer current.  It has come back to you but you think I should pay a second postage cost to reissue it.  

 

I did attempt to view my pre-orders both before and over the Christmas period but couldn't do either this or change my account details.  I do not think it is in the least bit reasonable to pay for an issue that flows from a failing of your system to migrate data from the old version!

 

 

 

Hi Mark,

Msg me with your email address and I will take a look at your pre-orders and try and see what's wrong. There's no migration issues that I know off, just a very rare bug that stops a hand full of people from viewing their pre-orders.

Kind Regards Chris

Ecommerce

Rails of Sheffield

Everyone should be able to see there pre-orders on the new website.

Please contact us if not and we will take a look and deal with any issues.

We are constantly aiming to improve the website and pre-order experience and hope to publish a range of improvements soon. 

Kind Regards Chris

Ecommerce

Rails of Sheffield

7 hours ago, 90rob said:

5%....not exactly overwhelming....

I think I would have preferred a few targetted items with a bigger discount - or perhaps just free postage...

I believe this is the first time we have done a sitewide discount and we wanted to make sure there's something for all our customers. If you want to double dip on discount check out our bargains section.

Also spend over £80 and the discount covers the £4 standard postage (on items that are not postage free).

Happy Shopping!

Chris

Ecommerce

Rails Of Sheffield

Apologies I missed replies to this thread, must not have notifications turned on, so sorry for my silence.

On 05/09/2021 at 04:17, Jupiter said:

Well I've tried everything that I can think of with no luck.

Different shipping and billing, same shipping and billing.

Put info in the lines that were blank, changing spaces to hyphen and underlines, added in extra space between before and after words but no luck.

Different browsers.

 

I also hope there are some more updates for the site as I find there to be a couple of things that are lacking that I used to use on the old site.

 

 

Hello,

Worldwide payments have always been an issue and have become more so in the last couple of years. We are limited in what levers we can pull in regards to banks and our payment gateways rejecting payments, we have been looking in to this and are trying to make transactions with our customers outside the UK less problematic. 

We are constantly working on new updates some of which should come to fruition soon...

On 08/09/2021 at 11:53, Wear Valley Wanderer said:

A problem with pre-ordering on the new site:

 

On 16th August I pre-ordered one of the new A5's. As a regular rails customer, I went onto the new website on the 19th and was met with a screen showing that the deposit for my already pre-ordered A5 hadn't been completed. Upon doing so I was taken to the summary screen only to discover that I now had TWO ordered! (One paid for on the 16th, and one of the 19th).

 

I rang up to cancel the second one and instead of being offered a refund, was told the extra amount would be added to the first. A week later there was no sign of any increased deposit (It still showed £30) so I rang up and was told the manager would have to deal with it, but they would chase it up for me. By the 2nd September, with still no reply, I emailed asking for a refund. Come the 8th September and still nothing. I've now had to go through Paypal to get my money back. Goodness knows how long that will take!

 

Come on Rails, I know there may be some teething problems with the new website, but if a customer has made an accidental payment due to a problem with said site, I don't think it should be an issue to give them their money back.   

Hello,

Sorry to hear about that, was the duplicate order your error or was there something we could have done differently to help stop that happening?

Kind Regards Chris

Ecommerce

Rails of Sheffield

8 hours ago, leavesontheline said:

 

I think the same has happened to my account Chris.

 

Won't let me log in and when I use the 'forgot password' option it just tells me that my email address is not recognised!

Hello,

If your account was not auto copied over then creating a new account with the same email is exactly the same. As I previously mentioned unfortunately not all accounts could be copied over though we did manage 90% of accounts chosen.

Kind Regards

Chris

Ecommerce

Rails Of Sheffield

23 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

No, that definitely doesn't work!

 

So, I now have access to an account, but no order history, so all my pre-orders are beyond reach!

It links up using Email, could you pm me you email address and name, ill take a look.

Kind Regards

Chris

Ecommerce

Rails Of Sheffield

On 01/08/2021 at 08:33, Edwardian said:

 

Hello Chris,

 

I confess I have not read through the whole thread, but I am one for whom the activation email lead nowhere. 

 

The new website did not recognise my login details, or, even, my emails (there's been more than one) for the purpose of a password re-set.

 

So the question is, should I be asking to have the account recovered, or do I have to set up a new one?

 

The latter I have avoided so far because, of course, there is a considerable pre-order history on the existing account.

 

Thanks

Hello,

Sorry to hear about your problems, not all accounts could be transferred automatically (more than 90% were done). If it's one of those accounts that could not be transferred, you just need to sign up with the same email that you used for the old account and it will be fine. 

Chris

Ecommerce

Rails Of Sheffield

42 minutes ago, rembrow said:

Another couple of questions if possible Chris.

1. Credit cards used for pre orders. The old system had these accessible on the users account, so they could be updated when the credit card was reissued or replaced, but in my account I cannot see any credit card stored info.

2. I currently have a pre order being processed. My credit card account is showing the value is being processed by the credit card company to the credit of Rails however on your site, no change is showing on the pre order. The old system would have shown "payment taken". Does the system show a pre order being processed I.e. payment taken, in process, despatched, and when does it move to an 'Order.

Hello

1. Currently not, though we plan to add more features to enable similar functionality to the old system in this regard. Currently If a card needs to be changed you can call up our customer service team and they can sort that for you.

2. When an order line on the pre-order screen is fulfilled it will disappear and be dispatched by the old system. The aim is to get all pre-orders being dispatched by the new system so they benefit from tracking and would appear in your orders. We are working towards this.

Apologies for any inconveniences caused while we transition to get everything working optimally, none of this should effect delivery of your pre-orders and as I always stress we have not lost or changed any of your pre-order data.

Chris

Ecommerce

Rails Of Sheffield

Hello,

Not a silly question, while that information is not part of the new website, we still have it for potential future use.

Kind Regards

Chris

Ecommerce

Rails Of Sheffield

In what has been a few weeks of great change we wanted to give everyone an update on how things are going with the switch over and outstanding issues.

We have not just upgraded to a new website but a new warehousing and dispatch system. Previously the customer service team had been performing heroics manually typing in every address from our system into our shipping partners system and printing off the labels. As our growth has continued the last few years this was becoming increasingly untenable and with covid limiting our options to hire more staff due to space restrictions this change was much needed.

We thank you for all your kind emails and for the help in pointing out the odd wrinkle in the new system. We have already fixed several minor issues and will continue to work hard to try and provide the best website experience in the hobby. 

Pre-Orders

Outstanding Pre-orders are shown in the Pre-Orders tab in the Pre-Order section. Going forward any open orders from the old website not shipped out will now also appear in this section.

Wish lists

The data is almost complete and hopefully will be imported before the end of this week.

Customer credit

We are now using gifts vouchers for customer credit. If you would like to use a gift voucher for a pre-order you will need to do this over the phone.

If you have customer credit you can still use this on pre-orders. If you would like to transfer your customer credit to a gift voucher please get in touch with our customer service team.

Chris

Ecommerce

Rails Of Sheffield

8 minutes ago, Ian J. said:

@cmtrain Any news on orders placed but not yet fulfilled (so not a pre-order)?

Hi Ian,

The team are working hard to ship out existing open orders on the old system as fast as they can when items come into stock, as you can imagine we are keen to send them out as soon as possible.

If you want any information about a specific order please contact our customer service team and they should be able to help you out with any queries.

Regards Chris

Ecommerce 

Rails of Sheffield

12 hours ago, G-BOAF said:

Sorry Andy.

I should have phrased the question better. I.e. is this something that sorts itself out a day after re-activating, or do I need to chase up with Rails.

TBH its pretty poor showing from whoever rails employed to design a new site to not incorporate existing orders, and furthermore to expect customers to chase up those orders. I guess the blame ultimately lies in rails for not ensuring data was transferred over (either through sloppy contracting, or not ensuring the web designers delivered).

Not an impressive start to a shiny new website... :-(

Hello, you have no need to be worried, no data has been changed or lost. Any issues with the Pre-order Tab not showing some pre-orders is visual only. Having said that we are currently not aware of any issues with this after we fixed an issue earlier in the week.

The pre-order Tab only shows open orders for products that were purchased when in a pre-order state. It does not show shipped or non pre-orders.

We do not expect you to have to chase up orders, but with many thousands of pre-orders we did anticipate we may have the odd minor issue and advice to contact customer service is for your piece of mind.

We are sorry we have not met your expectations, we have had to make lots of difficult decisions and such things are never straight forward.

Finally, I should stress this is just the beginning of our plans to improve our website offering and not the end. 

Regards Chris

Ecommerce 

Rails of Sheffield

1 hour ago, Bishdurham said:

I still haven't seen an activate your account email.  But I am in the Colonies and we only got electricity last week! 

If you create an account with the same email address as your existing rails account that should show you any existing open pre-orders in the pre-order tab. 

The activate account email isn't necessary and some accounts were difficult to directly copy in, so not everyone got an activation email.

Regards Chris

Ecommerce 

Rails of Sheffield

Currently new  pre-order purchase confirmations are not being sent, this is an issue high on the priority list. you can check your order has gone through alright by looking on the pre-orders tab.

Issues with pre-order tab not showing all pre orders has been fixed. (contact us if not)

It would have been preferable to transfer orders from old to new but with two very different data structures and a fair amount of part complete orders it was not practical. 

We will endeavour to fix any bugs quickly and hopefully any issues will not hamper your enjoyment of the hobby.

Nothing has been changed or deleted, your old orders are still exactly the same in the old system which is still operating to ship existing orders and pre-orders out. Any queries regarding outstanding orders please contact our customer service team.

Regards Chris

Ecommerce 

Rails of Sheffield

46 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Again supposition, although likely correct, but not my main point. They should have been working their way through orders to let people know and they really shouldn’t have put them on open sale until they had reserved enough or informed those that had pre ordered their one. 
I posted to make them think, they’ve not communicated anything direct about the delays on pre orders with the latest Terrier delays either. I think they need to rethink their communications on delays and cancellations as there are no doubt people who only check their emails once or twice a week, like my parents, may still be unaware and find they are sold out by the time they realise assuming Rails do eventually email out the orders are cancelled? 

I have a few friends that work in a few different sectors of online retail, cancelling potentially hundreds of orders is a massive pain... to then manually allocate stock of another product would be even more so. They are not going to make big money on the low price and limited run of the Hornby coaches, I imagine they have already lost money on designing their coach!

Still its sad people have missed out :( Doesn't seem like Rails want to compete with Hornby or any manufacturer, just produce the more niche products or fill gaps in the market that would not otherwise get produced.