Placed and order on line early last week and did not receive any acknowledgement.
Sent email yesterday morning early - no response so far
Phoned this afternoon - message 'they are not available to answer the phone'
Anyone know if this is the norm for Osborns or do they have a problem at the moment
:thankyousign:
not unusual in my experience, I'm afraid.
tend to use Lendons instead if not from Liverpool.
Quote from: class37025 on March 31, 2015, 05:41:02 PM
not unusual in my experience, I'm afraid.
tend to use Lendons instead if not from Liverpool.
There's a thread for poor service at Hattons around at the moment. The response I've had from Osborns makes Hattons look the Bee's knees...
>:(
The email side of Osborns can be a bit flaky but I have had the occasional helpful reply and always a good delivery service from them.
Saying that, Michael does owe me a reply to my most recent enquiry (10 days or so ago) re their exclusive Schools.
As with most N gauge kit that isn't yet available, patience seems to be the word.
Dave G
Hello there,
I had a chat with Maurice earlier today. They've been attending a trade event, and had no one available to cover in the shop. Should be open again tomorrow as normal.
cheers
Ben A.
Why didn't they just leave a message to that effect with a simple promise to call back the next working day...
I have used Osbornes once about 2 years ago and I shall never use them again, I think it took about 3 weeks to get an order to me, I never had a problem with Hattons.
I have bought stuff from Osbornes from the N Gauge show.
Quote from: sparky on March 31, 2015, 06:35:54 PM
Why didn't they just leave a message to that effect with a simple promise to call back the next working day...
Exactly Sparky - as I said - they seem to make Hattons look like the Beez Kneez.
:thankyousign:
AFAIK Osborn's is always closed on Mondays, there used to be a note somewhere on the site to that effect. ;)
Quote from: Caz on March 31, 2015, 06:54:41 PM
AFAIK Osborn's is always closed on Mondays, there used to be a note somewhere on the site to that effect. ;)
Today is Tuesday!! - no one answering the phone - no message about why! - Not good enough.
>:(
off topic, but I hope it will be forgiven.
my last order from Lendons was for some Kestrel buildings, and some Peco extensions for their MGR hoppers.
placed the order one evening, checked my emails the next lunchtime and there was one from them
they apologised that due to a stock error they could not supply all my hoods till their next delivery from Peco, in about a week or so.
they then asked if I would like them to send the Kestral items and those they had, and then send on the others when in stock or
would I like them to send just the Kestral items, and then send the whole hood order when they had the full order
or would I rather cancel the order and try elsewhere.
I replied to hold the whole order till they had the other hoods, and that was what they did, e-mailing me to let me know the order was in the post.
now that's what I call service.
Personally prefer Kernow or if Peco or Dapol the it is Derails, best prices and courtesy updates. Did use Walton models Saturday and saved a lot on 6 GBRf wagons, way cheaper and if been in today when postie tried to deliver .....
Always helpful to get recommendations of alternative suppliers to the major outlets.
Dave G
Bought 2 colmans trucks last week - excellent service as always
They Are our biggest N shop in UK - use it or lose it!
Quote from: Railwaygun on April 01, 2015, 09:18:57 AM
They Are our biggest N shop in UK - use it or lose it!
That is exactly what I am trying to do to no avail over the past week or so. They do not seem to want to communicate. Maybe it would be best if we did lose them!!
>:(
Well, I have used Osborn's a few times in the recent past, had no problem with communication, or the service. I have gotten replies to a inquiry late in my day (4PM-ish), showing me that Maurice and or Michael are putting in late hours at times. They kept a pre-order item at the original price on one item, unlike Hatton's.
Being in the US, I have used Hatton's, Osborn's and a couple of others, Osborn's wins hands down.
Jim F
Hi
I placed an order just over two weeks ago. I got a PayPal receipt but nothing from Osborns which was unusual as in the past their service has been good. About a week ago I emailed asking for a status on the order but no reply to date. I was going to phone today but when I saw this thread last night I decided to wait but there has still been no communication. Guess I will need to phone tomorrow and hope there is a reply.
If the shop has been shut due to the trade show I think a simple message on the web site would have been most helpful as I can appreciate the problems with having only a few staff. As mentioned above I would like to support our largest n retailer but it is very hard if there is a communication black out. Currently I am not impressed and running out of patience.
Robert.
Quote from: robert06 on April 01, 2015, 07:43:10 PM
Hi
I placed an order just over two weeks ago. I got a PayPal receipt but nothing from Osborns which was unusual as in the past their service has been good. About a week ago I emailed asking for a status on the order but no reply to date. I was going to phone today but when I saw this thread last night I decided to wait but there has still been no communication. Guess I will need to phone tomorrow and hope there is a reply.
If the shop has been shut due to the trade show I think a simple message on the web site would have been most helpful as I can appreciate the problems with having only a few staff. As mentioned above I would like to support our largest n retailer but it is very hard if there is a communication black out. Currently I am not impressed and running out of patience.
Robert.
Pretty much the experience I've had so far although they haven't billed me yet. Cannot get any response from them.
>:(
I tried Osborns for an item as Keith's site said he was out of stock. After 2 weeks, no delivery and no answer to my email chaser from Osborns, so I cancelled the order by phone.
Have now got the item from Keith (Traintrax) after all.
In this day and age, we expect instant response to our emails. My experience is that Michael and Maurice at Osborns are marching to a slower drumbeat with respect to emails. However, I've learned that the best way of communicating with them is on the phone. This has always been congenial and effective service results. I also like Osborns website and as far as I'm concerned I see no reason to exclude them as a supplier to me.
Quote from: Webbo on April 02, 2015, 12:23:50 AM
In this day and age, we expect instant response to our emails. My experience is that Michael and Maurice at Osborns are marching to a slower drumbeat with respect to emails. However, I've learned that the best way of communicating with them is on the phone. This has always been congenial and effective service results. I also like Osborns website and as far as I'm concerned I see no reason to exclude them as a supplier to me.
Well said, Webbo. Perhaps we're just a little too quick to demand everything now, now now, and could take a step back and a deep breath...?
I'd second that - Osborn's is just a little model shop. It's just Maurice and Michael have a such a big N range and expertise everyone assumes its a superstore.
Alan
Whilst I agree that "now, now, now" is unrealistic, to leave correspondence unanswered for more than a week is poor service at best.
And I don't see the relevance of the size of the business; if you tout for it, you should service it.
I see a pattern of people excusing poor service for all sorts of (non) reasons; no wonder we get poor service/products.
Just my two penn'orth.
When business people don't reply to emails possibly
They're ill
They're dead
They don't give a monkeys.
They've gone bust
Quote from: Agrippa on April 02, 2015, 02:09:00 PM
When business people don't reply to emails possibly
They're ill
They're dead
They don't give a monkeys.
They've gone bust
And all of the above can be covered by Auto-reply. :laugh:
I haven't dealt with Osborns for a couple of years and then they replied to
my enquiry within a day,and I had good service from them, but according
to some posts they seem to have lost their mojo.
They may be a small family run business, however they have a
fairly impressive website and it doesn't take long to reply to an email even
if it's just "I'll get back to you asap ".
ps when I worked for Tenon Financial Group if you didn't reply to an
internal email within 3-4 hours it was a hanging offence. Tenon went
bust after falsifying their own annual report !
they used to do a print out for a branch signal box and a bus garage , the recent one is a fire station - single appliance job , click under kids stuff on their site , heard a rumour they may also do the church (as well as the laser kit)
Managed to get hold of them on the phone today and all is now sorted.
:)
Quote from: austinbob on April 02, 2015, 04:28:30 PM
Managed to get hold of them on the phone today and all is now sorted.
:)
Also received very nice personal message from them and will continue to use them. Problem resolved.
:beers:
Hello again,
I have now seen and replied to a personal message from Osborns so hopefully matters will be resolved soon.
I tend to agree with the comments about now, now, now, but when its 20 days since an order was placed, there has been no response from the retailer and your credit card was charged on the date the order was placed, patience begins to run out. I would stress that I have been a satisfied customer in the past and I trust normal service is about to be resumed.
Now back to the enjoyable business of running model trains.
Robert.
Robert.
Hi all,
In the interests of balance I should point out that an order I placed a few days ago arrived this morning well within reasonable deadlines and with no drama, so thank you Michael and Maurice.
Osborne's is a wonderful resource for us N gauge enthusiasts and after the recent demise of CRS I think we should probably value them more than ever!
Cheers
Ben A.
Hi,
Just a quick update that I have had a second personal message and part of the order has already been sent and part is on back order for delivery asap.
I much appreciated that I got a reply tonight which was beyond my expectations.
Robert.
I had cause to e mail Osbornes from their website yesterday morning and got a reply from Michael timed at 10.58pm the same day. That strikes me as 'above and beyond', so things aren't all bad :thumbsup:
Good news all round!
I have only bought online from Osborne's on one occasion, and it was with me the very next day. On a Monday making my way back to Cornwall I decided to make a detour and visit Osborne's...they are closed on Mondays. Totally my fault I should have checked. Others beware as it's a very sinking feeling when this happens!
Great result. Can't help thinking this debate turned out to be a little nudge.
Even negative feedback can have positive results.
As per my comment in the Hattons thread I can't really understand why traders don't have a presence on here if this is supposed to be the N gauge forum as it would serve them well and allot of things could be solved more amicably. I think it would see them allot of benefit ???
Quote from: RST on April 03, 2015, 10:29:42 PM
As per my comment in the Hattons thread I can't really understand why traders don't have a presence on here if this is supposed to be the N gauge forum as it would serve them well and allot of things could be solved more amicably. I think it would see them allot of benefit ???
Michael does come on the forum from time to time but I'm sure, not as often as many of us would like. :)
Dave G