Check it out, they gave their site a facelift. I think i like it better, its a little easier on the eyes http://www.walthers.com/
It may be a new face lift but it is the same old website. Look at it carefully. Although it has appeared to change....nothing has changed. My compliments for dropping the black background the white certainly brightens up the home page. Look closely that's the only thing that has changed. The one thing I do like is the boxes or windows on the right they will steer you to the latest updates, new products and sales items. I'm glad that hasn't changed. To the left is the same list of options. I would of preferred they change that list. For example a list of scale trains Ie., G Scale, HO, N and etc. When you click on your choice of scale, up pops a window that lists the various product lines Ie., Kato, Atlas, MTH, MTL and etc. Click on the product line Ie., Kato and up comes a window with Passenger Trains, Unitrack, Locomotives....if you get my drift. If you are looking for something specific you all but have to go to the Search Mode and that leaves much to be desired. You must use Walther's exact description to find anything. How do you do that, when you don't know it in the first place? At first glance it looks good.
No, that wasn't a typo... see BarstowRick's post... I've never been a fan of Walther's website. They could do Soooooo much better.
Its at the top lol I agree, the search function needs to be re-worked, but i like the new color, who knows, maybe with this change will come a new search function
I just tried it and it's at the top, in one of the yellow boxes. The Monthly Flyer is there, too. I tried the Search and it seems to be a bit better. At least I didn't get 2 pages of books at the top, like it used to.
I don't have much difficulty with the search. I use their advanced search and there I can specify scale (if applicable) and put in my keywords. The color scheme is easier on the eyes.
Glad to see the black background is gone. I only use the Advanced Search option. I usually find what I want using this search option. They kind of hide the Advanced Search Hyper Link with the blue lettering, at least on my PC's. Rich
Well, I don't have a dog in this fight, but I will say their site sucks. It doesn't even have scale specific buttons. In fact just to find Z or N I had to make at least 3 clicks and then I still wasn't sure. You can't put lipstick on pig, and make it look nice. You have to want to kiss it as well. Sorry, I'm thinking 19th Century here. Jim
Well, in all fairness, the internet didn't even exist in the first half of the 20th Century, and the WWW and online e-commerce sites have only been active for a few decades... So they're not really any farther behind on current commercial technology than DCC is... OK, sorry... I'm feeling snarky today...
TwinDad, Of course you are right on all counts. I was just giving my interpretation of their website based on the current state of the art. Jim
I know a couple webdesigners in Milwaukee I could steer their way...They'd want to be paid of course.
Yes, and I suspect it would need a bit more than just the 10 lines of code required for a DCC system - apparently. The problems with sorting the website (ie. the front end we see) may well actually lie in the database behind it, which is probably their company stock database which will be hard to change on a whim. As TD suggests it was probably built about the same time as DCC began . Persuading the boardroom to shell out for that kind of rebuild at any time would be a tough sell, never mind now when the industry is in such an interesting situation.
From the Walthers website "If you have any comments or concerns, please feel free to contact one of our Customer Service professionals at 1-800-4-TRAINS or custserv@walthers.com " :tb-err:
While I feel it's an improvement but as others have said it's still a bit clunky. I can understand that a total upgrade prohibitive.
Until the website functions like their paper catalog...it's not there yet... But they make too much selling that catalog!!!
I just use their catalog ( catalogue ) and when I find something I want, ( which is usually everything ) I look for someplace cheaper to buy it. Candy.. as if you didn't know
