I have lamented Squadron inventory levels. Speculated that money spent on pre-made metal toys is money not allocated to model inventory for kit builders. Now I tried to get an August Flyer kit expedited for second day delivery and discover they don't do that now. I find I will have to wait an indefinite time: probably a week to ten business days because I can not give them my money to expedite a kit off the shelf. I know they used to do this. What is going on with these people? I can't get them to take my money. If I am going to wait to get discounted kits I might as well pick them up two or three times a year at shows and cut them out of the loop altogether. Couple that with supporting my local hobby store for immediate needs and Squadron has no reason to exist. Can't their management see that? We modelers work with deadlines. As good as their sale prices are bulk purchases at shows are better.
Do they want to be a Franklin Mint / Corgi dealer. I say fine, but it is a different hobby.
As I sad the inability to expedite shipping at cost models to customers is inconceivable to me.
Al, Could it be that not enough people were using it to make it worthwhile for them to offer? Just a guess. Altho, the new owners may have been on a cost-cutting move and decided to cut back there. I never used the expedited service, as a hobby, I couldn't justify the added expense of 2nd day or next day delivery. I just wait my 7-10 days. I agree about the die-cast thing, I just don't see the point.
everything I had marked in my flyer was out of stock. and since you can't order out of stock items, like just about every other online dealer will let you, the Squadron flyer routinely goes to the recycle bin.
they are just about dead last for sites I go to to look for kits.
I was wrong about the shipping a new cleark didn't know the options. There are choices, it is just they are pushing feEx Ground. Which is cheating my state Maryland out of payroll tax and unemployment insurance by using drivers with no flexibility and calling them "contractors." anyway But a lot of us deal with the "service" of a an unmotivated berated "contractor" out of habit. I have had packages left in the rain at the back door without a door bell ring by Fed EX Ground "contractors". I don't like wet merchandise. Also, unfortunately that door bell ring is important as we have generations of package thieves growing up in the area. It must be handed down generation to generation. Why Fed Ex does not ring the doorbell and UPS stil leither has you sign or at least ring the door bell, I don't know? The back door thing hidden behind the trash barrels gets me. Sure it helps hide it from thieves. It also keeps me from seeing the mushy box in the rain
The out of stock thing has driven more than half my budget to the local shops and Roll Models. I guess the thing with local shops is pretty good. Except MMD has a lot of exclusives to hobby stores and they are as bad as their twin company Squadron. I can't believe VLS tied themselves to this "diecast dealer." I bet you those items are in stock. See how many diecast items are in the August flyer. I love the way they pair the Hurricane Corgi toy with the F-18 plastic kit on the back cover.. Then they show referernce books as if you had anything other to do with the metal toy but buy it I was sad it was not a Revell reissue of the Hurricane. This metal mania will go on until they finally realize an on-site hobby shop has the walk in appeal needed to sell metal planes, cars, and armor, et al.
Squadron used to be about hardcore modelers. I hope someone unloads all that metal and puts the money into kits and aftermarket. Let MMD sell metal to hobby and toy stores..
I have tried to make a Fujimi order for six months. They should expuinge the catalog if it is out of production or they are out of the purchasing loop. One thing I like about Roll Models is they try to get something and tell you in three or four weeks if it will be availible or not.
A final thought. You can't order anything from Squadron by saying Tamiya 1/35 Porsche Tiger. You will get do you have a part number sir? I have done computer software warehousing and shipping and academic books in the same manner. You can train the average human being how to find a book in a huge Library of Congress data base. Why they can't find a kit in a limited range of choices I do not know? It is complicated by the fact you can put in what you think is a logical way of stating the kit and only find it when you call up all of the the manufacturers choices.. Which with Revell Germany or Hasegawa can be huge if you count armor, airplanes, ships, and cars. Their staff should be trained in the idenity of their merchandise. Their managers should have an idea of when containers will arrive. Enough from me. I tried to remain loyal to the store of Roy Dyer and others. It has been
35 years since I stepped in a store in Maryland and ordered from Detroit. It seems others are doing a better job with the plastic building inventories and information aspect of the hobby. I do not even see die cast as the same thing. It is like making pottery out of select materials versus buying someone elses pottery from Pier One or Wal Mart Sure some may buy and or make both, However, I think this illustrates the diffrence between building a model to your own standard, and tearing open a box to slap something on a shelf.
I do go to their website, that is how I find out they are out of stock and an item cannot be ordered. I'll order from some who takes backorders rather than checking back daily to see if something is back in stock. Not worth my time.
I don't know, I really don't have many problems with Squadron. I just placed a fairly large order and they had every item I wanted. I don't have "deadlines" with my builds. If it takes a week to get here, that's ok with me. Us modelers (most of us) don't have deadlines. Roll Models was mentioned. Their prices are ok but why does it takes them 3 or 4 weeks to ship in stock items. I don't care about "union driver" issues with Fedex. As far as Franklin Mint or Corgi stuff goes, if you can make a buck selling it, why not. When you have a store you should do whatever is necessary to remain profitable, even if a few people don't think collecting diecast meets their "hobby standards".
I found it almost always took 8 days to get mine from the time the order was surface post mailed to them, so actual shipping time would be 5-6 days, assuming the order went in via telephone or computer. On reason they didn't do back orders is that they always prided themselves on shipping orders within 24 hours of the time they were received. Instead of looking at the monthly sales flier, then going to the website to find kits that were in it, it makes more sense to go directly to the website. There is bound to be a time lag on the sales flier because of the time it takes to compose it, have it printed, and mailed out to the customers. If a new item in the flier is out-of-stock, it's probably because the ones that came in were sold to modelers who were looking at the website and ordered it a day or two after its arrival was noted there.
Albert wrote: : : I was wrong about the shipping a new cleark didn't know the options. : I am not surprised. The owner doesn't seem to know much about models. "New" is a very odd label for kits that have been around the block, unless they are "new" to him. : : Why Fed Ex does not ring the doorbell and : UPS stil leither has you sign or at least ring the door bell, I don't : know? : Interesting. It is the reverse here - you don't need no stinking door tag - OoPS. FedEx - door tag. Unless it is the blue/green type, then it just gets left. Even if it does say "FRESH SEAFOOD". Perhaps the words "PERISHABLE" and "REFRIGERATED" are confusing?
And, now, I note that DHL apparently can/will not tell you when your package will arrive. Gotta love "service" industries! : : I can't believe VLS : tied themselves to this "diecast dealer." : A "large" source tells me that Letterman wanted out, and it was either sell out to "Massive Markup Distributors" or close the doors. : : Squadron used to be about hardcore modelers. I hope someone unloads : all that metal and puts the money into kits and aftermarket. Let MMD : sell metal to hobby and toy stores.. : Squander has long been known for listing things that are/were never in stock. Since I have to pay sales tax and shipping, I do not bother with Squander, unless it is a damn good price. I let the LHS deal with it. :-) : : I have tried to make a Fujimi order for six months. : This may have to do with MRC - if they don't order it, it isn't in the states. : : A final thought. You can't order anything from Squadron by saying : Tamiya 1/35 Porsche Tiger. : I can understand this. Squander has long been famous for making it a point to hire the clueless, at least as it pretains to models. And, when you are talking about Dragon, just which Porsche Tiger is that, sir? So, having drones that only enter numbers makes a kind of sense. Not too big in the customer satisfaction department, granted.
Not Squander related, but I am curious as to the dates Tower Hobbies lists for the R-G Audi R10 (mid September) and the Bismark (late October). My LHS can't get any info on these kits. Who does Tower import from? Or are these dates as much fantasy as my dates with Paris?
I care about who drives my order because Fed Ex Ground cheats the state of Maryland out of payroll and workers compensation contributions by calling their drivers contractors without giving them contractor privileges.That costs me more in taxes and I have less budget to model with when I cover for scam artist companies placing costs on my state. Also if you pay cheap you get cheap with their service with drivers who are second rate is as I mentioned of the type that leaves packages in the rain without ringing the door bell. I prefer my Osprey books without warping and mold! Sure I can pay extra for insurance. But commons sense would help as who wants to be without the contents of a ruined package?
If Squadron buys toys wholesale they tie up capital they do not have it for plastic. Haven't the Squadron supporters noticed a decrease in plastic kits offered.Give me the old black white and red flyer. I have been in retail and wholesale. You can't be all things to all people in terms of customer base. Now the MMD parent company has a better outlet access and probably addresses the hobby store and high end toy store market. I think that is fine. It is like a business having a coin collecting division and a stamp collecting division. Some might even collect both, but keep their operations separate.
I think tracking containers and back orders are the new reality. It would be to Squadron's advantage to have a powerful enough computer an the staff to use it to pinpoint back orders.
Both a friend and myself haven't seen complete orders that in over two years! I had ten orders in a row done incorrectly one way or another.I will only sample a couple: a favorite, which was phoned in, not Internet was being told by a clerk that I had to keep two exact copies of an Osprey title because they didn't do " book returns." I asked him if it occurred to him it might be their mistake as I had no reason to want two copies of the same book and was not in the habit of buying for a library for example, for all my protest I received a rude answer. Later a manager apologized and told me that answer was false and did offer to take it back. I gave it away instead.. Last night I was told they didn't expedite shipments Then this morning I was told they did.
Perhaps there crowning mess up was when I foolishly placed the Gato submarine on a small credit card account instead of using a money order. Thinking it was at least four months away I didn't run up the check card account. Well I did get a back order on two small KP Mig 19 jets as was charged for the Gato submarine instead. Which over drafted the account. It also impacted my credit rating. I had to prove to the bank by faxing the advertisement that the item I was charged for wasn't being sold yet, not for months. It worked out. At the cost of about eight hours of my time. Furthermore, I had to talk to Squadron management. The basic help could see nothing wrong with paying ninety dollars for sixteen dollars worth of airplanes. There are good people there. Several managers have been helpful. That is why the duplicate orders, incorrect orders, not in stock on arrival when I asked them right on the phone about inventory, frustrate me.
By the way I am sensitive to the criticism about why would someone expedite something. A) I almost lost my father few weeks back and had to put every thing on hold, and B)Last year an elevator almost tore my right hand apart, this is my working hand from birth. It will be operated an pinned with steel soon. So it will be all lefty until near Christmas. I have been working in a new realm of "what amount of time does it take to have something ready". I happen to like to support clubs by being a builder, not just one who attends meetings. The same job that wrecked my hand was in the evenings and I couldn't contribute for six years! So I have a lot of expediting to do.It is a new learning curve. My deadlines happen because I want to contribute to clubs again and find all my old calculations from working right handed are wrong. I wasn't trying to solicit sympathy about expediting orders, I guess modelers have many reasons to want things overnight or in two days. However, I thought I might be sounding elitist I would indicate the situation is far from it. I am a beginner again.
You know I have spent at least fifteen thousand dollars through Squadron mail order over the years. I have spent more at the various Maryland stores. How much more of a Squadron supporter can I be when I should at least have a bench outside around the Texas operation.
Finally I did mention I am getting more in touch with two local hobby shops which, because, kids, young adults, veterans, you name it, wonder in,.I am glad to be part of that support. Some good has come of this for me. One of the stores is not as strong with models as the other and I am trying to hint and nudge them into carrying more plastic. I like dealing with models in a store.
Squadron/MMD is one and the same. One side does wholesale the other retail but it is all in one large warehouse in an industrial park in a suburb of Dallas. The switch to diecast products was/is driven by demands for these items. Why spend more for a kit, when you can get it
90% assembled, painted, decaled at a cheaper price if you don't regularly build models as a hobby but want a representation of the subject? Some out there are collectors, not builders.
Hobby shops have become diluted with toy items over the past decade. Some have shifted into toy stores with a modest selection of hobby items to remain viable as a business. Again market driven. Supporting your local hobby shop is commendable it keeps them in business in a time when most are dying off.
Squadron fliers are available on their website, you can read them at your leisure and print just the pages you want plus you can zoom in to read the small print! Having a staff with a knowledge of modeling would be helpful but what company these days finds ready trained individuals who are eager to work and show up on time. Damn few. Its hard enough to find someone who can make change for a dollar without the use of a calculator or read a ruler to measure something accurately.
Shipping, thats a can of worms. Rates vary from state to state, every carrier is after the shipping dollar and find ways to offer cheaper rates. Yes the quality of service suffers as does the way they do business state by state to achieve this. It is up to each state to regulate and police the industry.
Service from various on-line retailers depends on their capacity. Some have huge warehouses and stock nearly all the items in their catalogs. Others serve as stocking brokers. Stocking only a limited supply of certain fast selling items. Consolidate orders from customers then order the majority of the items from manufacturers or distributors on an as needed bases to fill those customers orders. The latter usually means lower overhead, which translates into cheaper prices but means longer waiting periods to receive your order.
FedEx "Ground" came about when they bought Roadway Trucking and their small package division "RPS". Drivers for RPS, actually bought a "franchise" to service a specific piece of geography. They are not contract labor, they are franchise owners. They do in fact have to pay for workman's compensation insurance and all related state taxes. They are subject to the same regulations as any other small business owners and, therefore, cheat your state out of nothing. If you have an ax to grind with small business owners who don't want to support the union movement, call it what it is and don't hide behind a bunch of political bulls*@t.
If you don't like dealing with a company, there are many other options. I would bet for every one or two modelers who don't like Squadron, there are fifty who have no real issues with them. I run a small industrial supply business so I know, only too well, you can't please all of the people all of the time. If I please 97 or 98 out of a hundred, I'm satisfied we are doing a good job. The 2 or 3 discontents are welcome to just move on.
Last Saturday (8/4) I ordered some kits online with Squadron and assumed they would get here sometime this following week (8/12-18). I was quite surprised that my order arrived today (8/10) and everything was in it. They were two Flyer bargain buys and I wasn't sure if both or either would get here. Al, do you really need the items in two days? Mine will probably sit for a spell on the shelves downstairs before I ever get to them. I think regular shipping is doing quite well.
Unless I've got my facts twisted, R-G stuff will be coming through Tower/Great Plains/Hobbico, the same bunch who bought R-M. They will not allow anyone else to buy direct from the factories anymore. They're partly to blame for Hobby Heaven coming to an end.
I guess that ordering R-G stuff from Europe will become more popular here.
I got to agree with you about the flyers. I much preferred the older style. Congratulations on having local shops to walk into. The closest thing we have to that wastes far more money on die-cast, trains, R/C flying models, and outright toys. The plastics that are there are shoved in the far rear corner. I think there's more in stock at Michael's. Sorry about the hand. I don't think anyone here knew. I know I didn't.
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