Mail order

Hi

I noticed that Hattons has put its postage up to £4 per order now. This is more than most others yet I have found parcels from Hattons can take longer to arrive than others. In members opinions whets the quickest and best value for money mail order shop?

Reply to
Mike
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In message , Mike writes

I am exceedingly happy with the excellent service provided by John Turner.

Reply to
John Sullivan

Hi

Hattons have traditionally been the company which takes the lead with setting the prices for shipping. We don't make any money on shipping and I'm fairly certain that other mail-order retailers will follow us and move to around the £4 mark.

I'm confident that we satisfy the majority of customers with regard to fulfilment time of orders - we have despatched over 470 parcels in the last

2 days which goes to show just how we can respond to surges in demand. I've seen, first hand, the packing departments of some of our major competitors and am confident that Hattons has got the best organisational structure.

Another factor which needs to be taken into account, is the type of items which you have ordered from the retailer. Some of our competitors are only interested in selling locos which have higher profit per item, whilst we have a massive range of products (and actually have them in stock!) which means that there is a large variance in the types of parcels which we have to pack. If you are going to compare delivery times, then you need to ensure that you are comparing equivalent orders.

In the new year, Hattons will have a new customer/stock/order management system, which will reduce the time it takes to place orders, make it easier to track their progress and also reduce the time it takes to get it to the customer.

You'd also probably get an answer to this by searching the Google archive. A similar question came up a few weeks ago

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Regards

Richard Hattons

Reply to
Richard Davies

Reply to
jimedvic

"John Sullivan" skrev i meddelandet news:W9tkiCiGcM2$ snipped-for-privacy@yddraiggoch.demon.co.uk...

Me too Beowulf

Reply to
Beowulf

Well, I had not expected to get a reply for the horses mouth :-) and I thank Richard for that.

Hattons may well have a massive stock but its been my experience that while I can fairly confidently order things from you it takes at least a week to arrive. Also, when I order say six wagons, why is the postage not £4 on the parcel, in fact it is second class? So I pay extra for the post and still have to wait longer. I except that things may improve with your new processes in place.

Not trying to get at you directly as indeed I am a happy customer, however its clear that other companies do not charge as much (postage) and can offer a quicker service?

Second point, I know some mail order shops will do postage at cost, but these same shops also give you 'post free' if you order over a given amount. I am sure I probably just don't understand, but £4 is in most cases £2 more than others.

Hi

Hattons have traditionally been the company which takes the lead with setting the prices for shipping. We don't make any money on shipping and I'm fairly certain that other mail-order retailers will follow us and move to around the £4 mark.

I'm confident that we satisfy the majority of customers with regard to fulfilment time of orders - we have despatched over 470 parcels in the last

2 days which goes to show just how we can respond to surges in demand. I've seen, first hand, the packing departments of some of our major competitors and am confident that Hattons has got the best organisational structure.

Another factor which needs to be taken into account, is the type of items which you have ordered from the retailer. Some of our competitors are only interested in selling locos which have higher profit per item, whilst we have a massive range of products (and actually have them in stock!) which means that there is a large variance in the types of parcels which we have to pack. If you are going to compare delivery times, then you need to ensure that you are comparing equivalent orders.

In the new year, Hattons will have a new customer/stock/order management system, which will reduce the time it takes to place orders, make it easier to track their progress and also reduce the time it takes to get it to the customer.

You'd also probably get an answer to this by searching the Google archive. A similar question came up a few weeks ago

formatting link
Regards

Richard Hattons

Reply to
Mike

In message , jimedvic writes

Do Mainly trains do RTR? There's very little of it on their lists.

Reply to
John Sullivan

Do Mainly trains do RTR? There's very little of it on their lists.

Don't think they do any!

Reply to
Mike

He (Dave Cleal/mainlytrains) does do track ... which is a bit pricey ... however for everything else 4mm + tools I can't recommend him enough ... just got some Smiths 3 link couplings from him, some Gibson L&Y sprung buffers and a few other odds and sods, repeat customer and I'll keep repeating!

Also second the motion for JT, he did the biz for me earlier in the year sourcing some out of production Ratio coach kits.

Reply to
Chris Wilson

"Mike"

Yes. Excellent.

-- Cheers Roger T.

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of the Great Eastern Railway

Reply to
Roger T.

I'll add my voice to using JT. Very fast and efficient service.

Let's face it, John posts so often, to so many different places, that if his service was anything less than 100% there would be voices popping up here there and everywhere. But in all the years I've seen his name on usenet I've never once seen a bad word against 53A Models.

If only the man would stock Japanese outline he'd get the lion share of me wages...

Pete

Reply to
mutley

Yep, had crap service off hattons and excellent of John turner (53a models)

Reply to
piemanlarger

Thanks

I'm not going to argue with what you say, but I'm confident that the new system will help the flow of orders through the system, plus give you easy-to-access information on the status of your order.

I understand your point. Firstly the £4 charge is for Post AND Packing so it does not just cover the price of the courier/Royal Mail. Also it is impractical to charge different rates for different items - I've tried developing a solution to dynamically calculate prices in proportion to the size and weight of the parcel, but it's just not practically possible. I don't know of any serious mail-order companies (but I stand to be corrected), including the likes of amazon.co.uk that charge different amounts for different sized orders. Also when you consider that the source of most orders are from people reading adverts in the model railway magazines, to put "UK Shipping at cost" would create uncertainty and result in people not having the confidence to place an order (especially first-time customers). By naming our price we give people the facts they need to make a decision whether they want to order.

Twice a year for the past 2.5 years I have placed orders using friends names and addresses with the biggest Mail Order companies, including Hattons, in order to ascertain how our service levels fare against the competition. The order has always been for Peco and Hornby track which is advertised in their literature/websites. The delivery from Hattons has always arrived first or second and never with any "x to follow/out of stock" notes.

I've often considered trialling a "Free postage with orders over £100" but seeing as these are usually the ones which cost and weigh the most it's probably unfair to ask smaller customers to subsidise the big spenders!

Let me know if you have any further observations - I'm always glad to hear anything to do with the company.

Regards

Richard

Reply to
Richard Davies

I've often considered trailing a "Free postage with orders over £100" but seeing as these are usually the ones which cost and weigh the most it's probably unfair to ask smaller customers to subsidise the big spenders!

Let me know if you have any further observations - I'm always glad to hear anything to do with the company.

Regards

Richard

Hello Richard

Open and honest and we can't ask more than that, thanks for your answers. If, order speed and delivery times improve then ok £4 will be ok, if not I think its too much. I think you should consider the free postage option but then thats only me. One last question, How many people went in for your on line competition to identify the picture of 'Gordon' if I recall to get free postage? Does this tell us anything. You do credit to your company. Well done.

Mike

Reply to
Mike

I've only ordered from Hattons about (I think) three times, but their order has always arrived within three working days, and that's good enough for me.

-- Brian "Let's be grateful for our Fridays and face our Mondays with good humour."

Reply to
Brian Watson

I order 80% of my stuff from Hattons. I dont buy from model shops except for Woodland scenics etc and Digitrax as I am in the USA now. I have found Hattons to be a great service, stuff gets to Atlanta quickly and they answer any questions I have ASAP. When I started in this Hobby (2001), I tried a few other mail order companies, and only Mainly Trains matches their performance IMHO Rob

Reply to
Rob

Hello chaps

Well proof of the pudding etc, I placed and order today with Hattons on line at about 10am. I will advise when it arrives.

Reply to
Mike

In message , mutley writes

Pete, do you know where I can obtain a Shinkansen for 16.5 mm. gauge?

Reply to
John Sullivan

I don't think you can get them to be honest, although Tenshendo are planning on releasing one:

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Hopefully Dave Fossett is reading this and he'll pipe in with a definite answer.

My understanding is that the bullet trains are seriously wider than conventional stock and if you stick them on your OO track it'll smack everything either side, especially platforms and bridges etc.

Pete

Reply to
mutley

In message , mutley writes

That looks seriously nice.

What is 59,800 yen in pounds sterling?

That's all right, then. I haven't got any platforms or bridges on my layout :-)

Reply to
John Sullivan

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