Hattons!!!

[mark100]

For the UKF fertilizer wagons take a look at

https://www.shapeways.com/product/FGLVBX2CT/pwa-uk-fertiliser-wagon-n-scale

Add bogies, clean and paint. No connection - just a satisfied customer.

Thanks i have book marked that page. 

[jivebunny]

Hattons this week have managed to put me off buying anything from them in future. Shame for them really as I still have a good £10k worth of track, point motors, scenics, DCC kit and accessory / loco chips to buy for my 660sq ft railway room, although their reported attitude at the show suggests they're not particularly bothered about losing customers, or the reputation they make for themselves (they'd have assigned someone else to the job otherwise!)

I bought a Dapol HST from them a few weeks ago that had smudged paintwork on the power car. I asked about returning the power car to them in exchange for one with acceptable paintwork, but as they had sold out of the sets they suggested I send the entire set back and wait for them to get more in as they had them on order. In their defence that's all they could suggest at the time, they can't magic sets out of nowhere. However I didn't really want to do that as past experience with items "on order" from Dapol has shown that they tend to arrive in six months' / two years / five years' time / never. This would have left me with no HST and having to spend an extra £60 or so on one from eBay, so was not really a solution.

Of course sod's law came into play and they did actually receive more HSTs this week, so when I noticed they had four in stock I e-mailed again to ask if I could send the power car back. Their returns policy states that they may ask you just to send back part of your purchase, hence me asking whether they wanted me to send them the whole lot, considering the cost of international postage. They once again replied that I should send the entire set back. Fair enough, I thought, and replied asking if they'd put an acceptable set aside for me to guarantee they'd actually have something to send back to me. The reply was no, due to them having limited stock. By the time I saw their e-mail this morning their stock count was down to 1. This means I'm back to square one, in that I have a £135 purchase that is only partially unsatisfactory, which I'm being asked to return in exchange for the last available set which, for all I know, could be no better / even worse / probably gone by the time they receive mine.

What, apart from greed, would have stopped them from putting a replacement set aside for me for a couple of days? If they didn't receive mine within ten days they could just have put it back on sale.

I'm now resorting to posting the power car back to Dapol for replacement (even though they haven't bothered to reply to my e-mail), and will in future continue to buy from Rails for mail order, and from other suppliers in the north west when I'm back in the country. I was actually going to pop in next time I was up but I'll save myself the trip to Liverpool now, there's a model centre in Widnes that I'd be quite happy to accidentally find myself wandering into!

JB

[MikeDunn]

I too, will now look to other, smaller traders who appreciate the business more and respond in a quick and friendlier manner. The prices are broadly similar these days too....

May I suggest Hereford Models ?

The staff are friendly and happy to help & chat (this is from the owner down to the latest member of staff), they care as much about N as they do OO (indeed, N is right as you go in - OO is at the back of the shop), and I have always found their prices as good as (and sometimes better !) than Hattons & RoS ... you can also find them at the big shows 

Mike

[Newportnobby]

My dealings with Hattons have been at the end of the phone line, and they have always been polite. However, accompanying that is a 'take it or leave it' attitude which is in poor comparison, in my experience, to a certain emporium in Sheffield.

[MalcolmInN]

How many employees do they have and do they send the CEO or MD to the show(s) or was it some erk that got the dibbins on buggins turn !

My dealings with Hattons have been at the end of the phone line, and they have always been polite. However, accompanying that is a 'take it or leave it' attitude which is in poor comparison, in my experience, to a certain emporium in Sheffield.

Yes, me too, most polite but the first two employees had a casual air, "send it back", when my first foray into N (and first use of Hattons) ended with the death of the loco.
Not till the third contact was the offer made of the simple proceedure of emailing a return sticker and take it all down to my local errum I forget what it is called, at McCalls anyway.

So I guess they have good and bad days and good and errr less good employees

oh and a 4th contact was needed to credit the first,outbound, postage !
Thinks, only out of pocket expenditure was 4 phone calls, hmmmm , goes in search of my billing archive lol!

I'd use them again if my local man dont have it.

[DELETED]

I have to say I made a big effort to Get to Hattons while I was down visiting in Garswood late last year (400 miles from my home).  Had a pocketfull of cash saved to view second hand stock before buying -only to find nothing in there and I thought it was pretty sparsely N Gauged stock anyway.  I voiced my disbelief they never publicied second hand items not being held in the shop on the website but was met with apathy in the shop and a complete fob-off on politely suggesting it on E-Mail afterwards.

Must admit I walked out purposefully at the time, it was just the casual approach that you're expected to know it first that put me off.  I don't think they do much to win customers to be honest though I admit their potential stock range is huge.

Mind you I did have a go at RM the other month as I sent another pack back to Hattons "not as described" and not only did postie supposedley rang my bell although I was in (and never left a missed call slip) -nobody was there when I answered the door, they woke my neighbour up on Night shift only to deliver my parcel marked HATTONS, LIVERPOOL etc back to ME In Inverness !!  I got postage back in new stamps but that's been one of the only gripes for years

[guest311]

Hattons service does certainly seem to be dropping badly.

I put an order in for a few items on the 28th, then yesterday found I needed a couple more items.

sent the order off, then a little later checked 'my account' and saw that the order from the 28th was showing as 'picked-awaiting packing' with yesterdays as 'awaiting picking', so I went straight onto their 'chat' and asked if the two orders could be combined.

I've done this before and had no problems.

gave the order nos, invoice nos, and the status that was showing.

was told she'd check, and then that they'd combine the two, and if any problems would get back to me.

just checked 'my account' to see how things are going, the order from 28th has been despatched, and yesterday's is showing 'payment taken - awaiting picking'.

looks like I wasted my time 'chatting'.

it used to be that you sent an order, and it was despatched the next day, sometimes the same day even, now it seems the norm for orders to sit 'awaiting this, that and the other' for several days, and I've noticed that the people you get on their 'chat' these days don't seem to have the knowledge, or interest that used to be shown even a year ago.

just my opinion,

alan

update 02/04/15.
order from 28th arrived on it's own yesterday, then to add insult to injury, the order from 31st arrived today - in a box 8" x 8" x 151/2" - which was over 50% filled with a large folded sheet of white foam plus 6 of those airbag things.

a. plenty of room for the 28th's order to go in the box, as requested and agreed, and

b. 31st's order would have fitted in the normal 6" x 8" x 10" box - I know cause I've just packed it into the box that size that the 28th's order came in. plus it looks like whoever wrapped this parcel decided to use the rest of the roll of cellotape to stick up the bubble wrap. normally a couple of inches to secure the last fold, this time feet of the stuff all over it. 

Hattons, do seem, IMHO, to be losing the plot. rant over, where did I put that bottle of Glenfiddich ?

[Bob Tidbury]

This seems to happen a lot nowadays when the older generation who were probably modellers themselves pass away and the youngsters take over a company and all they think about is MONEY no interest in what they sell or thier customers.
Bob

[keithfre]

This is disquieting to read. I've bought lots of stuff from Hattons and they've always delivered quickly and cheaply to Holland (and surprisingly no packages have got lost, which often happens between the UK and Holland). But I sent them a message asking about the idea of putting Farish goods on one side until the 12-week price-fixing period was over and haven't even had an acknowledgment. If they'd said 'sorry, no we can't do that', I would have accepted that, but not getting any reply does seem to confirm the general picture being painted in this thread.

I may well think twice about placing my next order with them.

[acko22]

While I am by no means what your would call a experienced modeller (only really got back into modelling 2 years ago) I use to hear great things about Hattons and very few would say a bad word.

But the reviews of Hattons seem to be that it's previous high standards are slipping, this sounds like a case of a great business over expanding itself and with that the level of customer care drops which is a real shame.

I have had a number of good experiences including them refunding me the postage when I asked for royal mail delivery not Yodel and them sending it via Yodel and the ensuing nightmare (but that's another story).

Hopefully this is just a blip in what other whys for myself at least has been a good source of items, if not I fear that not only will they lose custom but the way they have grown they could potentially wipe themselves out and we loss another model shop off our streets

[stevieboy]

Whilst you can't fault delivery times from Hattons they fell out of favour with me two years ago for several reasons.

They went from no quibble returns to questioning returns except dead loco's or loco's with lights not working. Quartering and excessive noise issues were always met with 'i can't see/hear anything wrong, so we're returning the loco to you unless you want a refund'

In my opinion, the introduction of 'like new' items confirmed that they had no real modelling interest/expertise working there anymore as some of the descriptions and loco's received were bargain bin fodder. The fact that they don't check for 6 pin plugs not being inserted the right way round on 'non-runner's is just laughable.

[georgehgv]

I recently attempted to order 4 in stock wagons and place 2 pre orders both of which are due in a couple of weeks, no, they would not hold or set aside the system does not allow this so they want to charge and send as available which meant 3 lots of postage, no way Hattons lost yourselves nearly £400 order which when a guy rang couldn't really care less. Their loss.

[Bealman]

Probably not all that relevant, but there was a little bit of discussion about Hattons on my UK adventure thread. The point being that the people working there at the time of my visit were indeed young. In terms of the over-the-counter service I received, the girl who served me was polite enough, though the young guy who served me during my 2013 visit gave the impression that he'd rather be somewhere else.

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=22698.msg254600#msg254600

[DarthBadger]

I've never had any problems with them.

I placed an order with them on Friday afternoon and to my surprise it arrived on Saturday morning!

[Agrippa]

I placed an order with them on Friday and it arrived the previous Thursday

signed

H G Wells