Hornby's 2021 catalogue pre-orders with retailers

[sxbiker]

I placed pre-orders within a few hours of announcement of the 2021 range with a well known retailer, more than 20 items.

Everyone has now been cancelled due to stock shortages. What is going wrong?

[Steven-782704]

Same here just received an e mail this afternoon cancelling all seven of my pre orders and the same as you ordered as soon as 2021 catalogue came out. all are still available to pre order from Hornby Website, which I have just done

[sxbiker]

@Steven

 

 

Yes I have placed orders direct with Hornby as well. It does make me wonder if it is worth pre-ordering with any retailers, perhaps Hornby wish us to buy direct.

[ellocoloco]

Was this well known retailer Hattons?

If so, you should ask them what has happened to your order as it does not appear many other retailers are having to cancel large amounts of orders.

[Bulleidboy]

I think in some cases, retailers will take as many pre-orders as they can, before they know what their allocation of a particular model is. This will of course lead to some orders being cancelled. I, like many others, place my pre-orders within minutes of "whatever" being announced. Hopefully, I am near the top of the list, along with very many others who pre-order immediately - one would assume that pre-orders are dealt with in the order in which they were received - even so, some will be disappointed. If you really want a particular model - order directly from Hornby.

[atom3624]

I'm one of the 'old and cynical' and proof of the pudding Hornby's making many eat!

Understood costs escalate year-on-year, supplier-change-on supplier-change, etc., so prices will inevitably escalate ... given ... but, I'll always look for 'the best deal', to ensure a healthier balance sheet.

I could always stem my enthusiasm and cancel ideas of new locomotives altogether, or even leave the hobby, but ... can't help it.

I'm sure I'm not alone either!

Al.

[BJT91]

I have had three of my Pre orders cancelled at Hatton's as well today (19/05/2021). They apparently aren't the only other retailers having issues as others have had orders cancelled from other retailers. I wouldn't mind but Hornby should give all the retailers the production run and allocation amounts before people decide to pre order. Issue is now other retailers are either showing out of stock on pre order or they haven't got a direct answer on their website to the models I am after being available to pre order or not.

Maybe its Hornby's plan to phase out dealers and only allow buy direct from Hornby at full retail.

[ColinB]

Oh dear, I wonder how long before this thread gets shutdown. Something really weird is going on. When Hattons cancelled a lot of my orders I started ordering from other places expecting them to be cancelled. So far I have received everything I ordered, in fact in two cases I received double, where I assumed (wrongly) that at least one of them would cancel. I even received one preorder from Hattons, but perhaps it was a A2/2 and Hornby were beginning to worry about shifting them given their initial quality issues. You could think it is Hornby trying to grab the market selling direct, I mean Dyson seems to be pushing that at the moment. Trouble is from my experience, I don't think Hornby are that geared up for all those after sale issues (generally a week to answer a technical question, if or course they answer at all). Last couple of weekends I have purchased some really cheap current models off Amazon, at least 20% off. I am led to believe that these are actually sourced by Hornby, so selling a Duchess at about £40.00 below Dealer price doesn't make sense.

[sxbiker]

@BJT91

 

 

It's certainly beginning to look that way, however I have read elsewhere that Hattons appear to be cancelling hundreds of orders, is it possible there has been a big falling out?

It has to be remembered that Hattons are also "manufacturers" and some of their models are direct competitors with Hornby, though that is not an excuse.

[HarveyLNER]

Ive just had all my Hornby pre orders cancel by hattons also, i suspect hattons no longer want to deal with Hornby

[atom3624]

Something is definitely happening anyway.

It's obvious more cancellations relate to Hattons than any other well known dealer.

It is unfortunate if there is a 'parting of the ways'.

Al.

[ColinB]

Hattons are probably cancelling more orders because as now they are the only "big box shifter" they probably had the biggest amount of orders. As I said in my previous post they did send me the Thompson A2, Chamossaire, which was a big surprise as they had already cancelled my order for the BR version, along with about 3 other preorders. So either Hornby didn't have many orders for Chamossaire, or I was higher up the list. I cancelled my blue Merchant Navy off them, so I will never know if that would have got supplied. It will be interesting to see how many of the special diecast Hornby Dublo models get cancelled. Trouble is I preorder the locos I like, probably like many other people, if this continues you might as well take your chances when the model gets released, at least by then there are probably a couple of reviews on them. So Hornby need to be very careful that eventually they are not left with a warehouse full of models, because people can't be bothered to preorder.

[Bulleidboy]

At least with the Hornby Dublo diecast models, you know they are limited to 500 for each model. In the overall scheme of things that is not a lot, when that number has to be spread world-wide.

[96RAF]

Look at cuts as a percentage of their pre-orders.

Say Hattons order up 1000 of something and your local model shop orders up 10. Cut all pre orders by 10% and the maths tells the sad story of disappointed customers - Hattons are 100 short, local model shop is only 1.

[ellocoloco]

@ColinB

'Oh dear, I wonder how long before this thread gets shutdown.'

Why would you worry about this thread being shut down after all a similar thread about L&M Flat wagons to which you were a contributor remains open!

The real surprise is that the 32 pages of speculation on RMWeb hasn't been locked.

[ColinB]

It would be interesting to know which pre-orders have got cancelled, although I must admit I am having difficulty remembering which ones of mine got cancelled. I had R3835 Sun Castle cancelled, R3843 W1 and I am sure one other, but I cannot remember which one that was.

[Matthew-763196]

I too have had all my pre-orders with Hattons cancelled, some in February and the rest yesterday. When I called them today to ask what's going on, i was told that they were sorry but their allocation was less than expected. When I mentioned that I had ordered these items on the day they were announced, and some almost 18 months ago, I was also told that in certain cases they had cancelled all pre-orders for certain items.

In every case, I have been able to pre-order the same items from other online retailers, and whilst I've not received any of the 2021 items yet, I'm pretty confident that they will arrive - certainly nothing has been cancelled on me.

The same thing happened last year with certain of the Hornby 2020 items, and again I had to order elsewhere.

Makes me feel that there is no longer any point in pre-ordering Hornby from Hattons - fairly poor show that they have so far made no attempt to explain to their loyal customers what's really going on.

Shades of Rails I suspect...... When they cancelled all their Hornby pre-orders last year, they immediately advised that they had ceased to be a Hornby retailer.

[Bulleidboy]

The real surprise is that the 32 pages of speculation on RMWeb hasn't been locked.

 

 

@ellocoloco

Only 32 pages - they must be slippingjoy

[atom3624]

I stirred it up a little so may be good for a few more!

Al.

[The son of Triangman]

It's interesting, it shows how few use their local model shops. Very much a case of wait and has happened.

[ColinB]

@ellocoloco

Only 32 pages - they must be slippingjoy

 

 

They don't tend to lock them on that site. Mind you I got a warning today when one of the administrators misread my post. I was actually saying that on this site it probably would have got locked. Fortunately when I pointed out what I had actually said it was revoked.

I must admit, unusually for me, that really this subject has been flogged to death. What might be interesting is what that particular firm is going to do about it. They must have lost tons of pre-orders and probably next year it will be even worse as people drift to other model shops that do get an allocation. I find that once a model has been released that particular company is not doing the best price, plus I tend to like to use Bure Valley a lot as I know the profits go to keep that line going. So basically I only tend to buy their "own" products.

[Bulleidboy]

The downside with using your local model shop (if you have one), is that you will pre-order a loco - he will not get what he asked for, by which time everywhere else has then sold out.

I'm all in favour of using your local shop (we actually have two), and the prices are competitive, but you need to know you will actually get what you ordered. I buy a number of loco's from Model Railway Direct in Bristol (Portishead) and have never ever had a problem.

[BJT91]

I have managed to pre order one of the models that got cancelled with Hattons from another model shop which is actually quite local to where I live in travelling terms. I will be pre ordering items from them from now on as they actually show the items as sold out when their pre order allocations are full filled on their website. Issue is all suppliers of Hornby products should add their allocation amounts for each model so customer have a idea on how many are actually available to order.

[atom3624]

I suppose even something simple like Ebay '15 available' or '15 in stock' .... down to 'Sold out'.

This whole situation was an absolute pain. I for one regret I won't be considering any pre-orders from Hattons for the foreseeable future. Pity. I've used them off and on for over 50 years.

Al.

[ColinB]

I have managed to pre order one of the models that got cancelled with Hattons from another model shop which is actually quite local to where I live in travelling terms. I will be pre ordering items from them from now on as they actually show the items as sold out when their pre order allocations are full filled on their website. Issue is all suppliers of Hornby products should add their allocation amounts for each model so customer have a idea on how many are actually available to order.

 

 

I am pretty sure Hattons actually did this, as if you had looked at their site shortly after the catalogue got released they had "sold out on preorder" banners. So there must be a difference in the allocation promised and the actual number available, As someone said before, I suspect that there were production issues.