Pre-orders

[Amanda-1205065]

When preordering items from Hornby is there somewhere that you can specify all items to be shipped together? Last year I ordered several items and was pleased as over free shipping amount. However when they shipped each item was shipped individually and shipping was added to each item! I quickly cancelled and got refunded and then ordered them to come altogether. What’s the point of preorder where you cannot request they all be shipped in same package.

[Rog RJ]

I have had the same thing happen to me when ordering from other suppliers, so it's not just Hornby that do this and it's pretty annoying

[DarkRedCape]

The problem I see on the Hornby website is that there is no shipping options. It just says standard, whatever that is.

I ordered the collections club package and it took almost two weeks to arrive. It was just a magazine and a badge.

As pre-orders are individual orders, it’s possible that warehouse staff just get a ticket for that one item, go grab it, box it up, ship it out, then go grab another ticket.

I have four LNER 6 wheel coaches in the “processing” stage direct from Hornby, so I’ll be interested to see if they ship and arrive as one package.

[Chrissaf]

@Amanda.

As this is your very first post on this forum, it would be really appreciated that should you want to reply to any of the replies that you use the "Reply Text Box" at the bottom of the page, and not by clicking the within post blue button.

If you want to bring your reply to the attention of an individual, start your reply with @username of the member you are replying to. This is because the blue button is flawed and does not indicate the username ID of the quoted post.

[VESPA]

Watch for the other cunning rip off. I ordered a load of coaches from Rails about 10 years ago and all were supposed to be "in stock". They weren't all "in stock" and arrived in 4 seperate parcels with indivual postage charged. I contested it and got a less than sympathetic reply over a call costing me 40 minutes. Eventually I got a refund of the extra. That left a very sour taste with my dealings with them.

[AndyMac1707817969]

Being pre-orders the items may come into stock months apart, you want Hornby then to charge you for an item and then hold onto it for months until the remaining items are available?

[LTSR_NSE]

@ANDYMAC that is exactly how Hattons initially operated their ‘trunk’ service - a most agreeable solution. (They have subsequently altered it to require a twice yearly delivery - but still an improvement over multiple deliveries of single items.)

[mjb1961]

the simplest way to avoid multiple postage charges is to order £50 of goods each time .grinning

[AndyMac1707817969]

Does Hornby not now use a third part company for distribution of products bought online? The additional storage and administration would cost money. Something I doubt the customer would want to fork out for. When would the warranty start when you pay for it or when you receive it? Sounds like a non-starter to me

[sxbiker]

I had this problem with the Beatles wagons last year. They were shipped in 2 lots but with 4 lots of postage. A call to Customer services and the extra postage was refunded.

[DarkRedCape]

4x coaches.

4x boxes.

4x postage costs.

Good work Hornby.

Could have fit them all into one box and charged me once. Item still flapping about inside as well....

[RDS]

@Amanda

Moderator Note:

Could you please select the 'View my Community’ in your Dashboard on the Forum and choose a nickname in the ‘My profile' tab, rather than your First name that has been automatically allocated by the system. Hopefully a Forum change is coming soon to prevent this automatic allocation but a manual change is required at the moment and there will be more than one member with your name.

[ColinB]

@DarkRedCape unfortunately that is what you get when you "outsource" your packing. The firm that does the packing doesn't have the time to work out how to pack them differently, plus they probably get paid on orders they ship and the computer system is not configured to allow them to put more than one in a box. If it was your business you wouldn't want to waste that much packing. The P & P just about covers the cost of the physical shipping, admittedly they will get it cheaper than I do when I ship a loco, but even so bubblewrap and boxes do cost money.

[96RAF]

The matter of collective postage rates for multiple pre-orders and the continuing packing issues has been passed to Hornby for review.

[DarkRedCape]

@ColinB - I agree that any business would save money where they could, but as we saw with the Hush Hush fiasco, trying to save too much money will eventually come back to bite you.

@96RAF - much appreciated. I’d be interested to know what their response was, if you get one of course.

[mjb1961]

Amanda,,lets say you pre order 2 items ,1 comes into stock February and the other 1 comes into stock in November, would you be prepared to wait that long?

[DarkRedCape]

I got an email from Hornby this week asking about how I rated their service. I told them about being charged multiple postage costs for items that all arrived at the same time. Wasn’t really expecting any response.

Just received another email this morning that they are refunding my postage fees. This is an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

[Brew Man]

Yes, for all Hornby's faults, and we hear of them frequently, it has to be said that their customers service is pretty good.

[AndyMac1707817969]

Businesses can never win, one customer wants one thing and another wants something else. Where possible always best for any business just to add the cost of postage onto the advertised price of the item and then call it free postage. Customers love it when they think they are getting something for nothing. Business wins two, customer buys multiple items and you get to pocket the extra postage. Works great for me on eBay. People often must search for items which offer free postage and ignore those which don’t even when they are cheaper.

[DarkRedCape]

I have no problem paying postage, in fact I’m probably the minority that would actually rather pay P&P and ensure my delivery is handled with care. But my delivery already posted in this thread was just unnecessary. All four of my coaches could have fit inside a single box.

[ColinB]

@DarkRedCape yes I don't mind paying postage either. The thing that really annoys me is the tendency for EBay Sellers to always use second class postage. I would quite often pay the difference to get it quicker. Then there is the Seller that charges £10.00 for postage and then sends it by the cheapest means possible. As to the free postage I figured that one out long ago. There is one major supplier that charges a base cost of £5.00 even for something that would cost "large letter" amount to send it. When I sell on EBay I always send "First Class" as I hate waiting for stuff to arrive, so I assume my buyers do as well.

[AndyMac1707817969]

Again you can never win, send it second class and someone wants first class, send it first and someone else thinks you are overcharging them and why could it not be sent second class. No one wants to pay for insurance but if it goes missing they all just want their money back. Don’t want to pay for packaging but want it well packed. Big advantage of second class, same pricing up to 2Kg, first class is different between 1Kg and 2Kg. If you have to estimate the packaged weight of any item upfront, it’s easier to guess it’s definitely going to be under 2Kg than to say it’s definitely under 1Kg and risk under / overcharging.

When I used to charge postage you always got complaints ‘Your postage is really expensive’. How they arrived at that statement I have no idea obviously know the cost of nothing. You had to explain that you did not own your own courier company and had to use Royal Mail just like any other normal person. 

[ColinB]

@ANDYMAC well I have sold quite a few locos on EBay and I always state what the postage will be, admittedly I have a load of loco boxes and bubble wrap from locos I have bought, so packing never costs anything. I have never had one complaint about the postage on any of my items. "First class signed for" on a loco is £4.85, I think second class is about a £1.00 cheaper. If they don't like the postage then they can always not bid. There will always be someone that complains, I just accept that.

[DarkRedCape]

I agree that you’re never going to make everyone happy. This is a universal truth in all aspects of life. But there are ways to make everyone unhappy.

I’ve no doubt there are those out there who have positive things to say about Hornby and the way they post their products. I’m just yet to see any.

I didn’t give any order details in my review, order number, date, etc etc, so someone at Hornby took it upon themselves to find my details based presumably on my email address and then proceed to issue a refund. Companies don’t do this unless they’re aware of an issue.

[Chrissaf]

A mod [not me] brought these postage issues raised recently in this forum to Hornby's attention. I'm not saying that this was definitely why you got an unsolicited refund, but it might have had a bearing on it.