And the answer is "Yes, they do" ;-)

Bob the builder does model railways! ;-)

Hello there,

I bought a lot of stuff from them. But at this moment the shipping service seems to work very very slowly (I live in France) since they moved to a new place. Am I wrong…or not ?

You're right Chris they have had a bit of a problem, but tell me it's now fixed.

I ordered some track last Thursday (18th) and only got it Wednesday after chasing the order via email.

Quote from Ben Ashwin at Hattons "the delays are being treated as a matter of urgency by everyone here".

Don't think you'll have to wait much longer.


Ed

Problem solved: I cancelled my last order. And now, I'm waiting for my refund. :twisted:

Hattons MD, Richard Davies, has in the past five days posted on RMweb to personally acknowledge the delays and customer frustrations currently occurring.  Richard has not previously posted there before.

The shift from High Street retailer (OK, Smithdown Road retailer if you insist) to eCommerce warehouse business has it seems not been without some problems.  Some comments have been made to the effect of a sharp and unexpected upturn in overseas orders following the Brexit vote and currency value adjustments around the world.

Something called Operation MacGyver has been taking place to rearrange the (only recently arranged) warehouse and to install new automated packing lines.

Notwithstanding this there have been a fair number of adverse comments citing unusually long delivery times, absence of the usual emailed information, conflicting information and mistakes being made at the picking stage requiring incorrect orders to be returned by customers.

I myself have one overdue order and one which I am assured by email has been picked, packed and despatched despite the manufacturer in question stating the product will not be released until December this year …..

Further to those issues a few users ave reported technical problems with the Hattons website which have been carried over from the now-closed eHattons.com to the revamped httons.co.uk which has basically assumed the identity of the previous .com site with its own previous content and style now vanished.

Graeme Hogg of their IT department is in email contact with those he knows to be affected.

I am left with the feeling that while Hattons is trying hard to make amends for some recent poor service that they might have jumped a bit too far and are struggling to keep things going.  I do hope they resolve their issues swiftly.

Can't understand why there is no notification on their website that they are experiencing difficulties and dispatch may be delayed, however the thing that got me miffed is that they processed my order and took the payment on Friday 19th, even though the goods had not been picked or packed.

If I hadn't contacted them initially via their website on Tuesday 23rd, I might still be waiting.

(Rick, to be fair not everyone has access to RMweb or would know about that particular thread. I knew there was a general one, but it was only after I'd had a problem that I saw the latest posts regarding deliveries and realised it wasn't just me).


Ed

[user=1338]Ed[/user] wrote:

(Rick, to be fair not everyone has access to RMweb or would know about that particular thread. I knew there was a general one, but it was only after I'd had a problem that I saw the latest posts regarding deliveries and realised it wasn't just me).

Quite so.  And one reason why I made mention of it here knowing that we don't all see every modelling site there is.

A little additional information here didn't seem to be out of place.

I've been using Hattons now for years but if you're trying to order Peco points and trackwork forget it  coz you'll end up talking to a very friendly young lady who hasn't a clue as to what you're talking about in respect of what rail code, insulfrog, elctro frog, set track, crazy track, rail joiners and radii  and if you can't quote the product serial number then an hour later you'll end up with a large telephone bill and no track .

So, phone up Gaugemaster instead where you'll be talking to someone who knows what you're talking about but not much about nail polish and gloss lipstick !

Allan 

I'm sorry to hear of this.  It won't be the first time "automation" and a move to "e-commerce"  has fouled up an otherwise exceptional business so I'd tend to go along with them for the time being to give them the oportunity to get things sorted out.  It is sad that, apparently, machines are to blame for what should be a "personal" shopping experience………..

What is more upsetting is that they have gone to the bother of posting something on RMWeb when probably the majority of their customers don't go there ………………….:roll::roll:

Do the rest of us take it that, unless we belong to RMWeb, we're not important !!!!  :twisted:

This opens the door even wider to their competitors ……………

It was RMweb users who also happened to be Hattons customers complaining about deliveries Peter, not specifically Hattons MD explaining about delivery problems. I think he was posting before this happened about other matters.

I'm sure this is just a temporary glitch, otherwise I would have posted about it before. As it is, I was really just answering Chris's query about slow delivery.

I may be wrong, but I'll continue to use them.


Ed

Oh, I'll certainly continue to use them Ed.  When ordering stuff from UK for delivery here, a few days delay is no problem at all.

I was merely saying that, just because you're King of the Castle, doesn't mean you automatically stay there.  You have to work harder to stay at the top than you do to get there in the first place because everyone else is shooting at just you.

I really can't complain about Hattons delivery service because whatever I order arrives before I put the phone down - well nearly……

And they've ALWAYS got what they advertise in stock - plus they're not just all about a choo choo in a red box but also the materials with which to build one. Anyway, what I said about ordering Peco track … well. You should try Peco's own website then you'll really know what confusion's all about - they've got it down to a fine art ! 


Allan

I'm waiting for the end of all their problems. Then I can order anything I want.

Can anybody make sense of Hattons' website?  It is now abysmal.  If you want to buy a new item, you have to wade through pages of secondhand models, trying to pick out the new stuff.  If you click on the 'new stock' heading at the top of the page, it all comes up as weekly lists of new releases.  One of the most 'user unfriendly' sites I have ever come across.  In fact I have given up on a few occasions and looked elsewhere.

Terry

When you view a page of products there is a check box top right of the view. Uncheck the box to remove second-hand items. I agree that some sections gave become swamped by second-hand stuff but not all. Some of those listings are also offering long-discontinued but sought-after items.