I have just read a few more threads where people have ordered items from uk shops to be told they have nil in stock. im more amazed that they take payment. How can this happen. How can you sell something you dont have. Is not this fraud? Same old story, "just sold the last one and have not updated the website BUT i have a ......."
Im a little annoyed as i placed an order yesterday with on tracks to receive email order received but there was fine print something to the like,"all items may or may not be in held in stock but will come from supplier and so on". At least they only charged when items shipped
Still annoying though!
BArt
i only really shop using 2 places now, as one is updated everyday and 1 has live updates.
am always abit worried when i see something on sale, cause you dont really know how many they have at that price or when the add was placed.
i did see a bargin on one site and emailed them to see how many they had in stock about amonth ago, am still waiting on a reply, although they still have it on there website at that sale price but wont buy it due to poor customer service.
matt
:NGaugeForum:
Hi matt,
i really only by from hattons but do a little with sig box because of the reasons you state. Got an email from on tracks re their sale and thought i give them a go, i guess time will tell if it was worth it or not.
BArt
They should not be charging you if you are using a card. They may be taking payment and getting an approval but the cash itself shouldn't be taken until the goods is shipped. Those are the rules the credit card companies lay down. Paypal is annoying not like that, and doubly so as a vendor because you can't make it work that way.
The credit card model is basically one when the merchant gets an "authorisation", meaning they've been given the power to charge you up to the amount specified within a certain time.
Alan
That's all very well but as i have recently found i have sat waiting delivery for an item that didn't exist to arrive other bargains or offers pass by then when finding out there is no stock i have to wait for the re-fund before having the money available and starting the process again
My in-laws sell from a website and as an order is made the item is taken from the stock count and if an item is sold in the shop the item is re-moved from the stock count it's not complicated.
Dave
I hate it when companies take my money and then use it to actually buy the stock I want,whenever I get that happen I cancel the order and ask for a refund and don't deal with them again.
If they want to borrow money they can use a bank and pay interest on the loan like everyone else.
Allan
Hi,
Just as a warning re: paying for 'out of stock' by debit card. This is probably the norm but bought some fleischmann stuff last year from Gaugemaster, who deliver free (great), but it means they have to wait til enough people order to justify their delivery payment to fleischmann. They said usually 1 month. Fine.
Went to bank (beginning with B) the next week and uestioned balance. They said that although the money was still in the account that it doesn't show up as could be taken out at any time by Gaugemaster. Fine as long as you know, because if they'd said 3 months, say, direct debits etc. might have not been paid.
Not slagging off Gaugemaster or the bank but beware. I didn't know and probably can't be the only one.
Happy 'air hunting'.
P.S. I'm assuming of course that due to the expense of our hobby and that we'd rather buy a new loco than feed the kids, that we are down to the bare bones moneywise! I know I am! :)
Quote from: bbdave on June 03, 2012, 06:43:59 AM
My in-laws sell from a website and as an order is made the item is taken from the stock count and if an item is sold in the shop the item is re-moved from the stock count it's not complicated.
With my Ultima hat on I'd have to disagree with that. It's a pretty major undertaking in many cases: especially as I keep actual stock and customer related data on a machine that is not in any way connected to the web server. All for very good security reasons.
In addition a kit consists of lots of items each of which may be in stock or not and may consist of multiple items. All of them might be produced on demand or ordered on demand within a short time window. If you sell the last of a part then all the kits using it go out of stock and so on. Where stuff is cut from lengths of material (eg metal roofs) its even more complicated as you don't have units but have to work out if you have a remaining piece of suitable size. Rectangular sheet is even more exciting for that.
Now try that with several hundred different line items, and people regularly emailing and saying "I need these bits of kit X only"
if you cant keep ontop of things then your business will always be introuble.
unless it said something when i brought it saying your have to wait, or we need to check that we actually have this instock.. then i would not be happy.
on another note - have never used gaugemaster shop before...when i checked there prices where crazy expensive!
I think most people would be prepared to cut a sole trader a bit of slack, especially someone like EP who deals in a wide range of bits and pieces. Many of this type of outfit make it clear on their websites that they can't always supply straight away for whatever reason. I think the gripe is with (what appear to be) large and sophisticated outlets with extensive websites that appear to show exact stock levels but sometimes the reality doesn't match what is promised. Anyone remember Totally Trains?.
Hi
Do not understand how these bigger companies can have websites that do not auto update, when a products is purchased.
I am a one man band and have a website. I put on how many items I have for sale. When someone purchases something and pays for it, it is deducted form the total I have in stock until it reaches zero. Then it comes unavailable until I add more stock.
All they have to do is change there system setting to do not sell if no stock.
It would improve customer satisfaction greatly.
I once ordered 60 peco wagon chassis from an online shop ( I wont name it), they took my money and I waited and waited and waited, sent an email, got no reply, so i waited. 6 months later it arrived. by the end I had forgotten that I had ordered them.
I wonder how many of us have ordered things, that we have forgotten about, that have never arrived.
Let's create our own feedback scoring between ourselves. We could start by including say the top 10 online shops and see what happens.
We must include all purchase comments positive and negative.
If the same problems keep happening they might act.
Just a thought.
It's been aired before on other forums without much evidence that retailers have made any improvements, though it may have been successful in putting a few people off buying from certain places.
As with Bart I now buy almost always from Hattons since they seem to have this problem licked. Did have it happen to me once but they rang up and apologised and asked if I wanted the item in question to go on back order or cancel it. I guess if someone trades face-to-face as well as online it's always possible for an item to be bought while the online transaction is going through - even more so if stuff is taken to exhibitions when presumably what is sold doesn't go onto the system until they get back.
i asked on tracks via an email if all items were in stock as i did not to be double hit with postage to australia but have yet to receive a reply. having said that, there website states they will email if something is to source from supplier. I ordered on friday and i think you guys had some sort of holiday this weekend so maybe they have not been opened to reply. Maybe im to quick off the mark
bart
Last year I ordered a couple of items from a firm around the Welsh borders and sat back and waited. They 'promised' about a months delivery (not a problem for me)
Eventually I mailed to ask what was happening and was told the item was on order from their supplier. By now I knew who their supplier was so checked their stock because they also supplied direct to the public. They were out of stock and a £1 or 3 more expensive than where my order was placed but the item was on order from the manufacturer and would be (another :thumbsdown:) month till it was delivered....soooooooooooo............I checked the German manufacturers site and found that they would sell to me directly......woooopeeee :thumbsup:
Then came the crunch........the item was not even in production.it was still in the development stage.come back in approximately 2 years time and recheck please.
What a waste of time all round
I no longer deal with anybody but the manufacturer and pay any import vat etc....its worth it
My threas from last year sounds familiar with another topic. I too am annoyed when shops show items for sale even if they don't have it in stock. I was wanting some things from Cheltenham model centre and their site shows heaps of items but shows 0 in stock.a quick email to them got a reply that those items can be ordered so at least they show what's available and what's in stock.
Living in oz placing an order can be fun if then you order a few items and only one is in stock so they send that and then the others later, you end up paying double postage .
The other day I placed an order with rails( thanks ollie) and a quick email asking if they would hold items until all in stock as I'm after those mk3's, and I got a great reply saying they will hold each coach as they come in and then send as one parcel. How good is that.
At least with hattons you can see what is actually there, McCain now do the same too. Re assuring for us who can't get to a model shop
Bart