YesTor

I have often thought this too, although you need to be careful with this as some couriers actually state in their terms and conditions that if 'FRAGILE' items are not labelled as such then any claim for compensation may be refused. This is certainly true for Royal Mail with vinyl LPs, in that the package must be labelled "Records, do not bend", as otherwise any claim will likely be declined. I always find this policy laughable, as surely it should be pretty obvious to even the most brain-dead dinosaur that any solid, hard, flat package measuring 12" x 12" should not be bent in two and unceremoniously shoved through a letterbox. But wait, that would require the deployment of a minimal level of common sense, something that staff are not encouraged to use these days, it seems... After losing the parcel in the first instance it is then not unheard of for Royal Mail to lose the claim as well. So if submitting a claim via post then be sure to retain a copy. I've had many a 'laugh' at this one, as if losing the item itself in the first place isn't enough... In all fairness though I do personally feel that Royal Mail have improved somewhat over the last couple of years, especially since the new measures that are in place with regard to scanning/tracking etc. No system is ever going to be perfect and the odd mishap is always going to occur somewhere, but admittedly it can be very frustrating when things do go wrong.

The Class 20/3 looks promising.

Am I the only one thinking that you appear to be talking about 'something' without actually saying what it is...?! It might help if you could define what "it" actually is...

Yes! I realize that every modeller will have different priorities, and some will perceive to 'need' Class 37s more than others, which is fair enough. However, look at it this way... like most modellers I cannot afford to purchase everything that I would like all at once, so if I am spending £169 on a new locomotive today, or in the very near future, then I'm not going to purchase a Bachmann 37 when for example Accurascale are coming forth with full detail, high-spec models (Class 55, 92) for £160; Hattons with their 66 at a similar price, so too Cavalex in a similar bracket of £179 with their Class 91, while Dapol Class 68s (another superbly finished model) seem to be obtainable for around £130 (if my memory from my last purchase serves correct). Not to mention fabulous DMUs from Realtrack etc etc. The point being, there are already more than enough fantastic models on the current market for me to max out my credit card and beyond, without even considering spending equal sums on, what to my eye, are fairly dated models. Okay, I have the mindset that I would very much like a good handful of Class 37s, but I'm in no hurry, and if I have to wait a year, two or even five years, then I'm fine with that, as I have plenty of other things to be getting on with in the meantime. Of course, if my layout plans depended on having Class 37s then I may well feel otherwise. Another way of answering your question perhaps, is that let's suppose I budget myself £1,000 to spend on Class 37s, which in your scenario would potentially either bag me a fleet of five locomotives of this hypothetical all-singing, all-dancing, super-spec Class 37 that many are insinuating toward , or on the other hand I could equally bag six Bachmann 37s (just one more), from a dated tooling with quite a few inaccuracies. Personally, I'm not the kind of person to settle for a lesser model for the sake of thirty-quid. So in my case it's a no-brainer... but hey, each to his own... I would also add that I am in no way bashing Bachmann, or any other manufacturer for that matter for their respective pricing policies. If a Bachmann 37 needs to be priced at the current level within the market then so be it, I accept that totally and absolutely. And likewise, I am in no way obliged to buy it. Simple. Still, if other modellers are willing to spend £170 on what is arguably a very old model then more power to Bachmann - it makes savvy business sense on their part. Personally, as a customer on a set budget and with more models of interest to me on the current market than I can shake the proverbial stick at, then my money is going to go one-hundred percent to those producing the best spec models at any given time, especially when those new models are apparently priced on a somewhat similar level to many of the older ranges. [Disclaimer: Just my opinion of course as I am certain that others will vary.]

I'd buy a good few.

Another vote for 'Evening Star'!

If your PayPal payment was linked to your credit card then you should be fine claiming via the relevant credit card company. However if the funds came directly from any funds in your PayPal account and the payment is beyond the 180 day limit then I'd imagine you'll have an uphill battle with PayPal, to say the very least.

Shhhhhhhizzle! That really looks the bizz!

If you haven't done so already then be sure that your bank/credit card provider receive a copy of the liquidation notice (obtainable from CG&Co Recovery, email: info@cg-recovery.com) to back up your claim. It is my understanding that under the Chargeback scheme the 540 day period that your bank have highlighted begins from the date of liquidation, ie. 12th June 2019, and not the date of the original deposit/transaction. I too had placed deposits for several Class 92s, all dating back to October 2016, and I have received refunds for all via both MBNA and Barclaycard.

I can smell a couple of GWR 143s...

It sounds as though you might be informing them of the circumstances in writing? Personally, I would recommend a telephone call to your credit card provider. I called both Barclaycard and MBNA and both have dedicated lines for disputes, so I'd imagine that Lloyds must offer similar? In both instances it was a matter of a few questions and details as they request at the time and 15 minutes later, all done! The procedure for Barclaycard was slightly different in that following the telephone conversation they required me to fill out a form and send in any evidence of the purchase etc, and once again after a couple of weeks had elapsed, all done - full credits received from both Barclaycard and MBNA. Both companies have advised that the merchant has 45 days to dispute the chargeback, however in light of the circumstances that would seem unlikely, by which case I can pretty much consider the case closed. Also worth a mention is that the transactions for both Barclaycard and MBNA were made via PayPal (but charged to my card), and no quibbles there either. As a footnote - I found PayPal to be a monumental waste of time. After initiating contact via their 'help' section/email, I received nothing but generic responses (signed-off by their Bangladeshi customer service team judging by the staff names) , which incidentally addressed absolutely nothing to do with my original enquiry, and on further pursuit the responses simply drifted further and further away from the actual issue. Customer service? More akin to Chinese Whispers. Ridiculous. At that point I simply couldn't be bothered with phoning PayPal, as I figured already with some of the payments dating back to 2016 that I would have virtually no hope of recourse anyway. I am only commenting from my own general experiences, but I always feel that more can usually be achieved by a simple phone call, for some reason writing in with issues seems to attract the multitude of generic responses simply advising, "Sorry, can't hep you mate", whereas a phone call allows for that all-important one-to-one 'human' discussion and can save a lot of time and frustrating back-and-forth communication via mail/email. Good luck!

Very nice indeed!

Interesting, and indeed somewhat surprising that the Porterbrook purple example is proving most popular. That said, I'd imagine it is worth considering that sales for Rail Blue and BR Green will be spread across nine and seven variants respectively. Let's suppose for one moment that only one version of each in Rail Blue and BR Green had been made available, then an educated guess might conclude that the Porterbrook chappy might well have been lower down in the popularity stakes? The above assumes of course that buyers decide to buy based on livery alone - without factoring in detail and period variations etc - which of course will not be strictly true.

Fair enough, although despite anyone's experience almost all viewpoints in business are speculative... until after the event of course, when it all becomes hindsight...

I'm sure you do, but why does either party need to do that?

Surely a presumption as opposed to fact? Conversely I have sold all of my Bachmann 66s... and by stating that I'm not suggesting that the majority will do the same, just that there will be modellers who fall into either camp.

I cannot understand the reasoning for cancelling other pre-orders for non-Bachmann items? Sounds a tad childish, to be frank.

And it's not even Halloween... yet...

Is it just my eyes or does the orange lining immediately beneath the windscreens look a bit on the 'fat' side... Flickr photo by: John Cordrey 37710 Didcot 15.08.1999

A new website? They kept that one quiet. Unless I've been living under a rock for the last few months...

...well that hasn't stopped Hornby before.

It was a rather big bell end actually...

Maybe it was the bell?

Agreed, there's no way I'd dig deep for a ridiculously aged model that I can just about remember from childhood.

Anything is possible. If Accurascale can see an 18 coach Caledonian Sleeper set as being viable then I'm fairly sure there would be a market for - what is let's face it - a far more iconic train in the APT-P, even if it meant producing several conveniently-sized coach packs of 3, 4, 5, or 6 for example.