Dapol Dave is leaving

Started by StufromEGDL, July 24, 2013, 04:52:09 PM

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OwL

Some folk would deem him no longer a key person and he doesn't work for a big company anymore! :D If he's got his soap box set up on RmWeb then so be it! He most likely has some deal with the site owner in all likelihood. RmWeb is commercially driven due to being owned by rail model press so this would make sense to me as to why he has adopted it as his speaking platform.
NGF is totally independent and owned by Tank not some Railway Model press company! (and with donations and support from it's members this will continue)


Proud New Owner of Old Warren Traction Maintenance Depot Layout.

http://www.c58lg.co.uk/  http://www.c60pg.co.uk/

Bartercode

Some people, myself included, had problems with Dave when he traded as N'thusiast Resprays - taking money and not delivering the goods. I managed to get my money back eventually, but it was very, very difficult. Several others contacted me who had had the same problem, asking for advice.

I wish him luck with the any venture, but will treat it with great caution.

Tank

Quote from: GrahamB on August 17, 2013, 08:50:14 AM
I think someone needs to invite Dave to post here.

I have invited him and Dapol themselves on here a few times, but they aren't interested surprisingly.  The same with Bachmann who never even bother replying to emails.

I am also another victim of N'thusiast Resprays who lost money from broken promises.

Adam1701D

I wonder if the someone has let the cat out of the bag too early...the DJ Models site is now 100% password protected.  :doh:
Best Regards,
Adam Warr
Peterborough, UK

zwilnik

Quote from: Tank on August 17, 2013, 11:17:13 AM
Quote from: GrahamB on August 17, 2013, 08:50:14 AM
I think someone needs to invite Dave to post here.

I have invited him and Dapol themselves on here a few times, but they aren't interested surprisingly.  The same with Bachmann who never even bother replying to emails.

I am also another victim of N'thusiast Resprays who lost money from broken promises.

Also potentially as a site that's not 100% dependent on major advertisers to keep running, the moderation of criticism on the site is purely down to yourself at the end of the day and not swayed by keeping the big advertisers (i.e. Dapol and Bachmann) on side.

While I don't really see anything on NGF that would damage a big company, I doubt they want to get involved in discussions on forums where *any* negativity towards issues they have isn't able to be redacted with a quick email to the mods. (see Dapol's Facebook posts for instance).
From their point of view, they're bringing new members to a site by making it a resource and way of communicating with them. In return they expect all communications to be positive towards them.

Tank

Yes, when I last spoke to 'Dapol' about it they were worried about previous threads where they were being 'bashed'.  Obviously they would get a few members hounding them if they signed up, but surely that would soon disappear with some good customer service and would encourage others to buy more products if the membership saw for themselves that they are dealing with an approachable company (not that I'm saying that they aren't approachable already)!  :)

njee20

Dave (or an informant) does read here, I got a snarky PM from Dave pretty sharpish after a comment about Dapol here.

zwilnik

Exactly why any manufacturer looking to be successful long term should be engaging forum users. *Especially* when they feel they're being bashed.

Both Dapol and Bachmann have had some very serious quality control issues. (Bachmann's Tornado for instance and pretty much every Dapol steamer that has more than 6 wheels). They do make some great models and a decent number of them do work, but a lot don't and fail on either basic QC issues that shouldn't have got through or some really bad engineering design choices. All these sort of issues are the sort of thing you want to hear detailed feedback from your customers on (even if they're angry and bashing you) so that you can fix the underlying issues and make better products so that fewer customers have issues with the next release (and hopefully you can resolve some of the issues customers have with the current ones).

If, as a manufacturer, you just stick your head in the sand and go "lalala we're not listening" when customers complain about problems, you'll simply lose customers. It might 'only' be 10% of the current set, but next time you've only got 90% of the customers to sell the next product to. If that one is 10% broken, you're down to 81% and so on.


H

All the manufacturers that I speak to are generally aware of much of what is said/posted about them (and their products) on most forums and the individuals who perpetuate it. They certainly seem pretty well informed.

I get the impression that it is not so much the negativity that alarms them but the ferocious unpleasant nastiness that some of the comments are delivered with, or the way any explanatory answer is responded to. I guess they also feel that any dialogue would quickly and easily degenerate in to a slanging match that only makes their company look worse, so it's probably better not to engage in the first place.

However, many 'company men/spokespersons' do contribute occasionally on RMweb; Dennis from Bachmann, Dave formally of Dapol, Chris of Model Rail, Steve from BRM, Ben from the NGS, Phil from Hornby Mag, Chris the photographer for many mags, and so on.

H.

Calnefoxile

Quote from: H on August 17, 2013, 01:05:37 PM
However, many 'company men/spokespersons' do contribute occasionally on RMweb; Dennis from Bachmann, Dave formally of Dapol, Chris of Model Rail, Steve from BRM, Ben from the NGS, Phil from Hornby Mag, Chris the photographer for many mags, and so on.

H.

Grahame,

I agree with this but I think the point being made was, that as an N Gauge manufacturer Dapol & Bachmann have no presence on this, a purely N Gauge, forum.

Regards

Neal.

Geoff

Quote from: H on August 17, 2013, 01:05:37 PM


I get the impression that it is not so much the negativity that alarms them but the ferocious unpleasant nastiness that some of the comments are delivered with, or the way any explanatory answer is responded to. I guess they also feel that any dialogue would quickly and easily degenerate in to a slanging match that only makes their company look worse, so it's probably better not to engage in the first place.



H.

You are bang on there H, there are members on here who are rude to other members observations, at the end of the day we are a hobbyist forum who help each and one another through there quest for a solution to there problems.
Geoff

H

Quote from: Calnefoxile on August 17, 2013, 01:09:24 PM

I agree with this but I think the point being made was, that as an N Gauge manufacturer Dapol & Bachmann have no presence on this, a purely N Gauge, forum.


Yep, but possibly the reason they don't have here is because of as I explained earlier in my post. And, of course, with both Bachmann and Dapol not being just N gauge manufacturers they get a better coverage of all their products (in other scales) on RMweb. No doubt having presence on one forum is more than enough for them.

H.


EtchedPixels

Quote from: weave on August 16, 2013, 11:54:51 PM
Hi all,

Might of been mentioned as this topic on two threads but I think DJ Models is a bad idea for a name. Put ' trains' in there somewhere.

Or get better filters

Quote
If you tried to access LS Models site (who do N gauge Belgian and French stuff) there are WARNINGS as it is also some Romanian under age sex site.

Careful. Your filters may be deluded but the statement you made is highly defamatory to LS Models. More likely your filters are broken or out of date (most filter software is as you will have noticed useless)

UltimaModels is also fun if you go to the .com not the .co.uk site...
"Knowledge has no value or use for the solitary owner: to be enjoyed it must be communicated" -- Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden

EtchedPixels

Quote from: njee20 on August 17, 2013, 12:44:05 PM
Dave (or an informant) does read here, I got a snarky PM from Dave pretty sharpish after a comment about Dapol here.

Dave has always kept his eye on forums and has been a member of the ngauge list for years before he joined Dapol. Any vendor wants to keep their ears to the ground to find out what customers think. What they want may be a different matter. Perfectly reliable models at £25 a throw isn't doable  :beers:

I think a lot of people forget that many of the folks from the big vendors are modellers and railway people. When not at work the ones I know are as likely as the rest of us to be found assembling kits or building layouts (and in at least one case has also written a book on a railway)

Alan
"Knowledge has no value or use for the solitary owner: to be enjoyed it must be communicated" -- Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden

H

Quote from: EtchedPixels on August 17, 2013, 02:49:03 PM

Dave has always kept his eye on forums and has been a member of the ngauge list for years before he joined Dapol.


Yep, he was also the moderator on one group back then, although these days he seems to only post on RMweb (as his preferred stage).

H.

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