November Hogtrainz Newsletter

[jonklein611]

Posted as a copy paste directly from their email:

RESERVATIONS

DUE TO DELIVERY DISRUPTIONS AND A GENERAL MISUNDERSTANDING OF RESERVATIONS WE FELT COMPELLED TO SEND OUT THIS NEWSLETTER TO EXPLAIN WHAT MAY NOT BE UNDERSTOOD!

ATLAS - GIVES A DATE WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE DUE. IF YOU RESERVE BY DUE DATE - YOU WILL GET. Current Atlas reservations are due by November 10th. We leave the item in RESERVATION STATUS till the item arrives as we over order what we need and also have the ability to pick up "extras" at last minute. THE ONLY GUARANTEE will be that if you order by due date you will get!!

Broadway ltd "First Come First Serve" means that there is NO guarantee. When Broadway ltd does this they have already set production amounts at time of announcement. We have had a very good fill rate - but remember - NOTHING is guaranteed when they announce items as first come first serve!

Rapdio trains - a disaster!! They set dates - and when numbers are not what they need - they float the dates. GUARANTEED if you order by first due date. We sold over 1500 pcs of comet cars - could have sold hundreds more - but late reservations were NOT filled. If you snooze you lose!!!

If you want the item - order by FIRST date set by Rapido trains - you will get it. We over order on all reserveable items!

Times have changed. Distirubutors would stock quantities of items - now - they order for what they have orders for and no extras. So that means when the item comes in - it is gone the day they are shipped!!

If you seriously want a model - reserve in a timely manner. WE ALWAYS LEAVE items in reserve status when product arrives as we scramble to pick up extras from alternative sources - like Walthers for instance!

As a modeler of all kinds (I used to fly remote control airplanes in competitions in my youth) I can tell you this - CHINA would prefer to make anything other than model trains. We are the lowest on the supply chain for what is coming out of CHINA! Without getting into politics - China is killing us. We should be thankful that we are still getting product from them. With the cost of 40ft containers at around 36000 dollars (vs 4000 this last March) and docking fees doubled - transport of container to manufacturer - doubled - it is amazing that we are still getting any models of any kind!

Bottom line - if you see something you want - RESERVE ASAP!! We post the date the item was announced by Hogtrainz by looking on our What's new page - both HO and N scale!

Case in point - HO scale Atlas Tropicana Reefers - We sold Hundreds - and many with late reservations did not get! If you reserve late - WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO FILL - but do not complain if you do not get WHEN YOU RESERVED AFTER CLOSING DATE!

If manufacturers did what Atlas does - there would never be an issue. Here is the date - order by date - you will get!

First come first serve - floating dates - leaving nothing but headaches - confusion - and bad feelings for consumer and seller!!

We will continue to leave items in reservation status - and will exhaust all of our resources to fill the items. Waiting to reserve and holding off till last minute is NOT a good idea!!

[mdvle]

DUE TO DELIVERY DISRUPTIONS AND A GENERAL MISUNDERSTANDING OF RESERVATIONS WE FELT COMPELLED TO SEND OUT THIS NEWSLETTER TO EXPLAIN WHAT MAY NOT BE UNDERSTOOD!

If your the only ones with misunderstandings, perhaps you should change your business practices?

ATLAS - GIVES A DATE WHEN RESERVATIONS ARE DUE. IF YOU RESERVE BY DUE DATE - YOU WILL GET. Current Atlas reservations are due by November 10th. We leave the item in RESERVATION STATUS till the item arrives as we over order what we need and also have the ability to pick up "extras" at last minute. THE ONLY GUARANTEE will be that if you order by due date you will get!!

Appears that they operate the same way as the airlines - deliberately overselling in the hope there are enough cancellations that they don't get caught...

Saying it is up to the customer to be aware of specific order by dates when they as a seller continue to take orders for product they can't fulfill after that date isn't a good way to get good publicity.

[wmrdgfan]

Yeah... not very happy with this guy right at the moment!

[rounder]

Reads about like one of PWRS/NARC’s long-winded spiels.

[sd40dash2]

This is a hobby, not a necessity and this pre-order method represents way too much drama for me. I'll stick with the Tangent method or just buy my stuff on ebay or from well-stocked retailers as the stuff comes out. No drama, no waiting around.

[mdvle]

Nov 5, 2021 14:58:37 GMT -8 sd40dash2 said:

This is a hobby, not a necessity and this pre-order method represents way too much drama for me. I'll stick with the Tangent method or just buy my stuff on ebay or from well-stocked retailers as the stuff comes out. No drama, no waiting around.

To be fair it appears that it is only this one retailer that is creating drama around pre-order because they continue to take orders after the pre-order deadline has passed (and presumably after they have sold out of any extras they ordered).

Deal with a reputable dealer who doesn't play games and people shouldn't have any problems with pre-orders.

[riogrande]

I tried Hogtrainz and decided they are just too much trouble to deal with. I have one pre-order outstanding but no more after; I quit preordering from them.

[NS4122]

Sounds like an excuse to short customers by falsely blaming the manufacturers. It makes absolutely no sense for Rapido or anyone else to extend the preorder deadline and then only honor preorders made by the original deadline. It seems that Hogtrainz keeps taking preorders after the deadlines and hope that they pad their orders enough to cover the latecomers. When it doesn't work out they cry that they were shorted. And whats's with blaming customers for placing late preorders and not getting their models when he shouldn't be taking orders unless he can be sure they can be covered by the extras that he ordered.

[lvrr325]

Part of being a retailer is being able to anticipate what will be hot, you can probably estimate based on your pre-orders that you can sell say one extra for every five or ten pre-ordered.

My distributor usually gets a few extra of each part number; there were extra of the Atlas Trinity reefers through maybe Monday, but they were gone Tuesday.  I picked up a couple of Trainman CNJ 40' PD boxcars which had been on hand there for maybe a month, instead.  (they're close but not quite for the car they represent, I can live with it).   

I have been shorted a couple times, but it was on Bowser stuff. One piece I had pre-ordered they got zero of. The ballast cars that just came through for some reason was split but just a few days apart - three roads showed Monday, the rest on Thursday (28th IIRC). I got shorted one CSX orange car; it shows in the system, but I don't know if any actually arrived. I'll find out this weekend if they were a good gamble or not, I held off on listing them online for the big Syracuse show. I may just hold off for the shows the following two weekends, too. It seems like on eBay mine start to sell when everyone else is sold out.

I don't recall Rapido needing to float the date on the Comet cars. Were I a player on their level, as I said I would have purposely gotten some extras anticipating late demand and the guys who need to see things before they commit.

I do agree that between the rising shipping costs and inflation in general prices are only going to continue to rise. These companies exist to turn a profit, they can't keep swallowing those costs.

[Deleted]

Bowser now uses more than one factory in China, and the one factory in particular is famous for not shipping all items of a run at the same time. That is why they keep getting some engines but not all the roadnames or paint schemes that were originally pre-ordered together by the same deadlines. Specifically that is why the recent groups of SD40-2's and Alco/MLW engines arrived over multiple months while others are yet to arrive.

[lvrr325]

Atlas is getting that now too, you get half a run in June and the rest 3-6 months later.

But I have to think half the shipment showing up Monday and the other half on Thursday the same week is some kind of issue here with them leaving Bowser, or perhaps getting from the docks to Bowser.

[rails4dmv]

I call BS. I did a preorder with Hogtrainz for the HO Rapido Horizon cars a few days after Hogtrainz loaded them on their website. This was way before the cut off date. I even sent an e-mail 2 days later after placing my preorder to make sure that my order confirmation was received. I got a two worded response back, "No problem".

When Rapido stated on Facebook that the cars arrived and that they were shipping these out to their dealers. I just knew my shipment was going to be arriving soon. I took notice that there were quite a few cars placed on eBay by "MrTrainz99" which I believe is Hogtrainz & so I figured the cars had arrived to his warehouse.

Three weeks later with no charge to my CC & still no notice of shipment, I sent 4 e-mails to Hogtrainz. Within a week of my last e-mail, I got two conflicting responses back. One stated my order was received after the deadline and they couldn't fill my order. The other e-mail stated, "Due to damages by the shipping company, we had to refuse the shipment & and didn't have enough product to fill my order". A couple of weeks later, guess what? MrTrainz99 posted a few more of the Horizon cars up for sale on eBay.

So he could give a lick about his customers. I won't be doing business with him.

[alcoc430]

Nov 6, 2021 6:48:13 GMT -8 rails4dmv said:

I call BS. I did a preorder with Hogtrainz for the HO Rapido Horizon cars a few days after Hogtrainz loaded them on their website. This was way before the cut off date. I even sent an e-mail 2 days later after placing my preorder to make sure that my order confirmation was received. I got a two worded response back, "No problem".

When Rapido stated on Facebook that the cars arrived and that they were shipping these out to their dealers. I just knew my shipment was going to be arriving soon. I took notice that there were quite a few cars placed on eBay by "MrTrainz99" which I believe is Hogtrainz & so I figured the cars had arrived to his warehouse.

Three weeks later with no charge to my CC & still no notice of shipment, I sent 4 e-mails to Hogtrainz. Within a week of my last e-mail, I got two conflicting responses back. One stated my order was received after the deadline and they couldn't fill my order. The other e-mail stated, "Due to damages by the shipping company, we had to refuse the shipment & and didn't have enough product to fill my order". A couple of weeks later, guess what? MrTrainz99 posted a few more of the Horizon cars up for sale on eBay.

So he could give a lick about his customers. I won't be doing business with him.

Those were n scale cars

[valenciajim]

Nov 7, 2021 5:23:37 GMT -8 alcoc430 said:

Nov 6, 2021 6:48:13 GMT -8 rails4dmv said:

I call BS. I did a preorder with Hogtrainz for the HO Rapido Horizon cars a few days after Hogtrainz loaded them on their website. This was way before the cut off date. I even sent an e-mail 2 days later after placing my preorder to make sure that my order confirmation was received. I got a two worded response back, "No problem".

When Rapido stated on Facebook that the cars arrived and that they were shipping these out to their dealers. I just knew my shipment was going to be arriving soon. I took notice that there were quite a few cars placed on eBay by "MrTrainz99" which I believe is Hogtrainz & so I figured the cars had arrived to his warehouse.

Three weeks later with no charge to my CC & still no notice of shipment, I sent 4 e-mails to Hogtrainz. Within a week of my last e-mail, I got two conflicting responses back. One stated my order was received after the deadline and they couldn't fill my order. The other e-mail stated, "Due to damages by the shipping company, we had to refuse the shipment & and didn't have enough product to fill my order". A couple of weeks later, guess what? MrTrainz99 posted a few more of the Horizon cars up for sale on eBay.

So he could give a lick about his customers. I won't be doing business with him.

Those were n scale cars

I went through my email folder of HogTrainz messages. On June 15, 2019, right after the Ski Train items were first posted on the HogTrainz website, I placed an order, which was confirmed by email. I ordered two Ski Train locomotives and several passenger cars. After receiving the November 2021 monthly message and seeing this thread, I decided to send an email to Paul asking about the status of my order. Paul responded by telling me he could "cover the shipment" for one locomotive and asked if I still wanted it. I responded yes and asked about the remainder of the order. He said he "could not cover them." I reminded Paul that I ordered the items well before the due date and according to his November message, I should not have any problems getting my order filled. In his response he stated, "We had extras up on web for a while now. Didn’t you cancel reservations previously?" I told him that I have never cancelled a HogTrainz order. I looked at all of the messages in my HogTrainz email folder and also searched my entire cadre of messages to see if I inadvertently cancelled the order.  I found nothing indicating that my order was cancelled.  It is now a day later and no credit card charge has appeared for the locomotive for which he could cover the shipment. I hope he keeps his word and ships the locomotive to me.

I presume, when he stated he had "extras on the web," he was referring to his eBay site. Furthermore, he admitted he was selling HO scale items, not N scale. According to the post above, Paul told rails4dmv that he didn't have enough product to fill his order, but he told me he had extras.

I found one of the particular locomotive that he could not fill was available on TrainLife and I purchased it. As I was checking out, TrainLife asked me if I wanted insurance on shipping. Since I have never had a problem with them, I declined. Insurance was about $10. After I checked out and my credit card was charged, I got to thinking. I do not recall TrainLife asking whether I wanted insurance before. Then I re-read rails4dmv's post wherein he quoted HogTrainz as saying goods were damaged in shipment. I certainly hope that the locomotive I purchased from TrainLife was not damaged in shipping to them as well. That would be a great reason to ask the customer if they wanted to pay for insurance. Perhaps I am being too paranoid, but in this pandemic, strange stuff happens in the marketplace.

Over the years, I have purchased thousands of dollars of merchandise from HogTrainz and I have recommended HogTrainz to others who have purchased from them.

I am sure that there is more to this story, but the lack of candor is not how a successful business operates.  If he truly received less than his entire order from Rapido in satisfactory condition, he should have honored his commitment to customers and not tried to sell some of the merchandise to other customers on eBay.  I, for one, am a very disappointed customer.  

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know whether Rapido plans on doing another run of these?

[bdhicks]

I recently placed a preorder with Hogtrainz for the first time because there was one model I had kinda slept on ordering and they were the only place I found that still had open orders on them. Sounds like I shouldn't have bothered and just tried my luck to get one when it's released, since I'll probably have to do that anyway except now there's a chance for me to screw up and spend money buying two of something I only want one of.