Outlet Sale

[Yeldarb]

I decided to add to my collection of locomotives after a lay-off of a few years. I was attracted by the price of the P2/2 Thane of Fife as a club offering. The 15% point award for each purchase took the sting out of the interesting prices that models are going for nowadays. My last purchases were of locomotives of the Gresley Collection and at the time I thought that £124 was quite steep.

Anyway, I joined the club and I am stockpiling hobby points so that later this year I will be able to pick up a loco for effectively half price, so making up for having paid full price for all the others.

The reason for this post is disappointment over the reduced price of the W1 currently on offer in the Outlet Sale. I paid full price for the loco just a few weeks ago on 6 July, with a potential hobby point credit of £37.50. The very same model is now on sale at £169 - a discount of just over £70.

I appreciate that Hornby is in the business of making profits, but still and all, given the very recent launch of this model, I do feel that selling this model so soon with effectively double the collector's club discount is a bit of a kick in the teeth. I imagine a number of retailers will also feel aggrieved that they too have been undercut on pricing.

Consequently, once I have the received the points when the East Anglian arrives and have spent them on another loco, I will let the club membership lapse. Going forward I will be placing my business with a retailer and giving buying directly from Hornby a miss.

[96RAF]

@bradley

I think a lot of club memberships will fall by the wayside as accumulated loyalty points are burnt off, in favour of supporting local retailers, who often offer as good discount pricing.

Unfortunately TT:120 retailers are in short supply for now., until more shop-keepers hassle Hornby to be in on the TT loop.

[Ighten 1707822464]

Wasn't there a mention in the new financial report on last year that going forward the whole club system was an area to be looked at.

Currently I am like RAF.. it's pointless at the moment with little benefit other than 2 or 3 if your lucky exclusives..

Saying that the current sale does give you an extra 10% off the price as a club member and you still get your 15% in points. But then again there's little in there of interest for me though I suspect we may see more this year.

I tend to focus on buying chips as the discount in my store is little difference and I can eventually just put accumulated points to that 2MT but I suspect this will be the last year unless the whole thing is rethought.

[Yeldarb]

The fact that the current sale also generates loyalty points only makes the situation worse. The £169 price for the model on sale in my original post would generate an additional £25 loyalty point discount on top of the £70 already mentioned, taking the total discount to £95. Whilst this represents a (relative) bargain for someone, it makes the £37.50 loyalty bonus discount for pre ordering at the full price seem rather paltry.

[Moccasin]

Hornby are keen to drive more online sales, so if revenue from the website starts falling significantly, they'll no doubt change the offer.

@Yeldarb - no harm in asking for something in compensation - nothing ventured, nothing gained. When they cancelled a TT120 sound-fitted model a couple of months back, we were offered a 10% discount code, which was upped to 20% when it was pointed out that this was less than the 15% discount that the original TT club offers!

When that original TT club 15% discount offer presumably reverts to enhanced rewards on renewal, I wonder if Hornby will offer occasional double point accrual offers or repeat the double value reward offer they ran over Easter. As @96RAF says, there will be many who will decide not to renew if they're too measly.

A side effect of that Easter offer has been, I think, that many customers are hoarding their points in expectation of that offer being repeated.