My Lendon's Adventure; and The Request

[What About The Bee]

To the moderators: I do hope this post fits within the confines of the Hornby Forum. PART 1 is my Lendon's Adventure. PART 2 is a request for help.

PART 1: The Adventure

I sought to have spares for R3956 Rocket. The entire drive train. The only place that has that in stock is Lendon's of Cardiff. Not at Hornby! Not at Peter's Spares. Rob, at Lendon's, advertises that he now will not sell internationally. I tried, but he said NO! So I set up a Freight Forwarder mailbox. Paid for the spares using PayPal. Informed Rob of the address. He canceled the order, because he states he must ship to the address on the Paypal payment. Paypal will NOT let me set an international address. So no spare parts for me, unless I fly to the UK. That seems wildly cost ineffective.

What this means is that Hornby permits Lendon's to buy up all the spare parts. To be the spare parts go to facility, essentially subcontracting the problem. That's fine, except now Lendon's will only sell to UK customers and therefore cuts out ROW. This policy stinks for me. Hornby cannot let what little spares there are be fenced away from customers.

PART 2: The request

Rob could use a little support from the folks he may know just a little better than me. In the interchange of emails, Rob told me the issue. I think it would be a violation of trust to say what it was, but the man could use a friendly email right about now. [Mods: you have access to my email. I would share the information with a trusted individual such as yourselves. Please contact me privately.]

If you've ever dealt with Lendon's and you liked how it went, please reach out to Rob to express your support. He could use it right about now.

Bee

[ColinB]

I buy virtually all my spare parts off Lendons so I deal with them a lot. Paypal will only reimburse him if the package is delivered to the registered address in Paypal, I can understand that. The reason he seems to have so many spares is not many people go to him. He does not offer next day service as he is a "one man operation", whereas Peters Spares does, although you pay heavily for the priviledge. I also get the opinion that Peters Spares are not so interested about selling spares as the other companies I deal with, virtually always being out of stock, they have lots of 1980s Hornby stock. I suppose the only solution is find a friendly Brit to buy the parts and send them to you. As to Hornby I think they need to decide in the very near future what they actually want to do long term.

[Bulleidboy]

@ ColinB

I'm happy to deal with it - if you are not volunteering - sorry that's not a criticism in any way at all, but we don't want hundreds of people ringing Lendons and ordering the parts. Let me know asap and I'll ring Lendons. BB

PS: I have spoken to Rob at Lendons. He has turned away many international requests for spares, so could not remember this one specifically. I am still happy to deal with it, but I require more details from Bee.

[VESPA]

I can sympathise with your dilema. I recently bought parts from Lendons with no issues other than excellent service. It's rare I need parts and miss the Modelspares of Burnley supplies. That chap knew every part going and I think still sells bits on Ebay under a different name. Lendons are now my "Go to first" shop now as Peter's Spares are usually out of stock or the postage charges are horrendous for small parts. I can assume that Lendons have possibly been on the wrong end of the stick, so to speak, and lost £100's with rogue buyers, hence the no out of the UK sales. I find it a great outlet for my needs when required. Perhaps someone on here will help you get what you want. Hornby are the culprits in the lack of spares to the general public. Fancy buying a Rolls Royce only to find they do not supply spare parts. After all some locos are now over £350 and no spares??? That is a big loss if it goes wrong 2 years on.

[Going Spare]

There is an interesting discussion currently on RMweb regarding the availability of Hornby spares and this contains reassurances obtained by that forum's moderators from Hornby, basically saying get in touch with us if you need a spare rather than rely on our website or the spares retailers.

[atom3624]

It seems they might have finally realised they will have to compete with the comparatively excellent support given by Bachmann. It is rare I've not been able to receive replacement parts from them when requested.

Al.

[ColinB]

There are many post on this forum of phoning/mailing Hornby and getting no joy. I would be interested to know if anyone has contacted them and got success.

[What About The Bee]

@BulliedBoy Thank you, that is a most gracious offer, but it would only solve my tiny individual situation. What of the other Enthusiasts?

÷÷÷÷

My locomotive is running perfectly now. There is no urgent need. The parts I seek are just to sit on my shelf, to provide a security blanket if components were to wear or be damaged. Can motor brushes are a consumable item and will wear out. A can motor is a prudent purchase.

When I decided to obtain these spares, I naturally consulted the forums, and Lendon's has a wonderful reputation. All my conversations with Rob, at Lendon's, have been polite and well meaning. I hold ZERO rancor towards Lendons and/or Rob. The lack of spares for ROW for Hornby kit is not his fault. The dearth of spares for the UK is not his fault.

Cause and Effect. My experience at Lendon's was an effect. Yes, I am stymied, frustrated by the situation. But the root cause of the issue is not at Lendon's. Rob is perfectly permitted to sell spares to whomever he wants, should he have them. The cause of this is a Hornby policy.

I understand the converse of the situation. Hornby must not have millions in capital tied up in spare parts sitting in a stockroom, just waiting for my ridiculously small purchase of spares to tide them over. That is bad business practice. So there must be some balance. I'm not Hornby, nor in a decision making role. Charge us for spares and charge us properly. I am more than happy to pay a premium price for a premium service. Vespa mentioned Rolls Royce parts. RR parts are extraordinarily expensive yet they sell to RR enthusiasts. Hornby, pay attention!

Spare parts are a tremendous boon to the bottom line, if managed properly. Spare parts can be a drain on profits if managed poorly. A component that will wear out (can motors) should be stocked. A decorative component for a 1970s production locomotive may not sell as well.

I do hope that Hornby will resolve this over time. Please!?!?

Bee

[96RAF]

In the RAF we had a standard procurement system whereby when something new was introduced, the range (which ones) and scale (how many) of spares to support that item in service was established by a tried and proven method. This provisioning was calculated based on reliability estimates until firm in service usage data was made available. It is not rocket science to provide adequate spares for any product, just deploy the proper way to do it. I am sure most other manufacturers have a similar system, be it a washing machine, car or hobby item.

[ColinB]

In the car industry, by law I think they have to provid spare parts for 10 years. As someone said earlier just charge a fortune for them, someone would rather pay £30 for a spare than £300 for a new loco. The thing that intrigues me, is I can understand not supplying the parts that don't usually break, but things like buffers, motors, pickups, valve gear are always breaking.

[Brew Man]

In the world of CE Marking, and in particular of medical devices, a product lifetime has to be stated in the technical documentation. That stated lifetime implies availability of spares and accessories. As Rob says, it's not rocket science, it just needs to be thought about.