A whinge about peco's website

Wolf K · 2010-02-12T16:09:36+00:00

OK, OK, I know that you guys won't think this is all that important, but since Peco does solicit trade outside the UK, I think they ought to figure out how to market their stuff beyond the seas.Basically, I find Peco's website practically useless. As a marketing tool it fails abysmally.a) The only pictures are for new products. I go to a manufacturer's website to _see_ what they have on offer. Lists of products don't mean a thing without pictures.b) There are no downloadable catalogs. Print catalogs are offered, but at prices that suggest that Peco sees them as a "profit centre", not a marketing tool.c) And then there's that really, really tedious "small, medium,large" radius. Since there is no agreement between manufacturers what these terms mean, they are worse than useless. In any case, I think of "medium radius" as 30" or thereabouts, which I suspect is not what Peco means by it. (The only thing worse IMO than "medium radius" etc is the Continental "Era II, III" and so on.)I do like the printable diagrams of their track.cheers,wolf k.

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Mike Smith 16 years ago

Personally I like bricks and mortar model shops - I bought a lot of 2/hand stuff from the old Bradford Model place in Manchester, an inexpensive way to experiment with kit bashing. Not many model shops bother with 2nd hand these days but I get the feeling that buying via E-bay is more expensive, not least because of the work required on the part of the seller. I haven't bought anything 2nd hand on-line because I cannot examine it. Recently found a shop (Saturdays ony) in Weveram that does a lot of 2nd hand stuff, they will be getting some business from me even though its a fair trail to get there on public transport. On line retailers tend not to engage in lengthy chats about the pros and cons of individual items, they are (in the main) just box shifters, fine for designer tat but not so good when talking about any kind of equipment. I have been helping a chap build a layout of late and the above shop has given him good service and advice, they could have ripped him off but did not do so. Buying 'blind' on the interweb might be okay for 'collectors' but if the thing actualy has to work then bricks and mortar is the way to go.

Regards

Mike

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Fred X 16 years ago

When I say a proper shop I mean something that a customer can actually walk into.

What, Amazon selling Bachmann items is the same as bricks and mortar model shops selling Bachmann on Amazon????

I think the main reason for Bachmann having this rule is for those Ebay traders who run their businesses from their homes or small locations, rather than the big online retailers like On Tracks.

Fred X

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Fred X 16 years ago

Oh right. I guess that the US Bachmann have a different policy then.

Fred X

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Wolf K 16 years ago

[...]

No, different rules of commerce.

cheers, wolf k.

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MartinS 16 years ago

Or train shows and swap meets; some vendors provide test tracks.

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Mark Goodge 16 years ago

Right. Whereas most people these days think a proper shop is somewhere you can buy something from.

To the customer, yes. They go to the Amazon website, they place the order, money is taken from their card and the item arrives in the post. To Bachmann it's the same; an item has been bought by a customer who never crossed the door of a bricks and mortar shop.

Not that I'm a great fan of eBay traders, but since when has there been anything wrong with a business model that starts out small and then expands? If Bachmann are happy for big companies to sell online, but not for small ones to do so, then that's only going to make it more likely that the only online shops will be the box shifters - which isn't exactly beneficial to the hobby as a whole.

Mark

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simon 16 years ago

Wouldnt have thought so, bet theyve had the rule for longer than ebay has been around. More likely they feel that they are sending goods to an established address so theres a greater chance of getting goods paid for. Accept there are lots of ways of ensuring stuff paid for but could their accounting systems cope with them - dont forget this is the distributer that closes for 2 weeks every year to do a stock take.

Cheers, Simon

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simon 16 years ago

Very much agree and prefer local second hand shop and traders that have gotten to know - visited my favourite on Sunday at the NEC, only stall that bought anything from. However have bought a modest number of kits from ebay where the photo shows what is supposed to be present and the condition. But then I'm mean and only bid a low price, if get it fine if not then never mind as theres nothing I need.

Cheers, Simon

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A whinge about peco's website

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