Ordering from a LHS

What Skipgear is saying is true. I prefer shopping at my LHS's more than mailorder or etailers because I enjoy the entire hobby experience. I occasionally buy eBay or mailorder, but my regular hobby shops consider me a regular, and a good customer because just about every time I visit I make a buy. Plus, I BS a lot there, and sometimes people buy something more as owners occasionally tell me. Not my purpose because I am a natural BS'er.

As or non-stock orders, each of my hobby shops vary, some are very reliable and some are not, some have good attitudes and order freely, while others who have been burned, tend to not repsond to customer demands as willingly.

When I first got back into the hobby back in the early eighties, I befriended an owner who I graduated high school with, and one weekday lunch when I was there, a guy came in (right after Christmas) ¤¤¤¤¤ing about this lousy locomotive he bought there. It was quite obvious of the fraud, because the Athearn box which was from the hobby shop had a Lifelike engine in it. When it was brought to his attention, he pitched a fit after his exposure, and almost had to have the police extract him. The owner remained calm and told me later this wasn't an unusual attempt.

From that point, I lost my secret daytime aspiration to become a hobby shop owner and stuck to my day job as Purchasing Director. Even recently selling some of my excess on eBay I encountered some of the worst scum rats on earth posing as buyers, and glad I am out of business.

I never blame hobby shop owners in bad moods especially in these times. Heck, even my kids who worked as waiters in restaurants through college, brought home tales of rude customers, each trying to outdo the other.

My suggestion is to discuss the ordering process with the hobby shop owner before embarking on it, and ask a million questions, like price, est time of delivery, availability, resources, how to be notified, etc etc etc . It may relieve both sides of any potential anxiety and end up a successful purchase on both sides.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

 

Ive run a business. But I have to say this. The problem is the entire system currently in place starting with the manufacturers. They used over seas labor to make a product for the lowest possible price..... Then explain to me why a turnout should cost $17.00?

Please... please dont say something stupid such as they have to recover the cost of R&D. These have been out for about 10 years now. The rail is stamped, cut to size and inserted into premolded plastic ties. These things can be run off in no time flat. The largest cost to Atlas is the price in re-setting up the tooling when they do another run.

Last year we had the great track depression, flex track and turnouts couldnt be found. I firmly believe it was done on purpose to generate higher demand and increase profit margins.

Atlas has been charging near brass prices for their engines, and yeah the detail is nice. But common. When the Trainman line was introduced, I was excited because here I thought they were going to have a line of products with less detail that could be marketed to kids, something that would be considerably cheaper.

NOPE

Instead they raised their prices on everything else out of the gate, while the Trainman line was introduced at the previous price range we were used to. You know when the last time was I bought a brand new engine??? Probably 6 years ago.

Dont get me wrong, I understand overhead, distribution, labor charges. NOT TO MENTION TAXES.... But If It costs $100 for a single engine and $17 for a turnout, somewhere they are doing it wrong. It would be a different story if they were using American labor, I could justify it. But they are not.

The real problem isnt even Atlas, they are business men, and are adjusting their prices so that they have to produce the least to make the most money.... This is a Hobby Atlas, if you are in this business doing that practice then you have lost touch.

The real problem is the Hobbiest willing to pay the ever higher prices. Skiing used to be like this, something only the rich could afford to do on a regular basis, then resorts got wise that the real money wasnt to be made on lift tickets, it was being made on rentals, concession stands, video games at the arcade.... Then they got inventive and started doing things like adding a bowling alley, spa packages, a movie theater.... They learned that the more they treated their skii lodge as a family get-a-way instead of as a skii lodge the more money they made. Families that taught their kids to skii were developing they next consumer for the skii lodges, and all they had to do was keep the sugar content high. Then those kids brought their kids to the mountains.

Here we have a disconnect, it costs $100 and over for an engine. We carefully put it on the track after maybe spending another $30 on a decoder for it. Carefully test it out, watch it go around the track.... Then little Johnny comes down stairs to the train room and says "ohhhh DAD a new Engine, Let me Seeeee." To which the father replies "OVER YOUR DEAD BODY" Knowing that one little mishap and that $130+ beloved model is now in pieces on the floor. The next generation of model rail enthusiasts dont exist at the levels of prior generations.

Want to stop the cycle of ridiculous prices? Maybe you dont because you have deep pockets and dont want to be a modeller, you want a piece of plastic and metal that looks amazing out of the box and are too lazy to do the detail work yourself. Fine for you, but what about the rest of us?

If people stop pre-ordering and stop paying the ridiculous higher and higher prices the industry is changing, then things will change. The market price is determined by the market.... HEY MARKET, STOP PAYING THOSE PRICES!

 

Hi all,

Again, I appreciate everyone's responses. They come from both sides of the fence and I 'get' both of them. I cancelled my order last night with the LHS because I was frustrated with the time delay and lack of communication. We may have been able to come to some agreement about the 40% price increase on the turnouts, but they lost their chance.

I am a pretty even tempered guy. I don't like jerking people around, and I don't like getting jerked around. When I called, they weren't even sure where the order was at or why the parts weren't in. Don't get me wrong, I will likely go back. But if ever I need to order something, it will be from an e-tailer.

Anyhow, it is sunny outside this morning, so on too happier thingscool:cool:

 

And you know the guy at Wal-Mart was defective how? I don't believe Wal Mart sells bikes in the box anymore, at least not any that I have seen in for the last few years. Typically they are assembled and adjusted when they roll out the door.

I don't think a retailer should take a loss.....unless they screwed up. The guy was quoted a price and placed an order based on that. Odds are he could have bought it cheaper online, but he gave the shop a chance. Not only did he pay more for the initial batch, but he is now going for a ride on the back-order. I would have left them with the order if they were unwilling to work with me. They should have offered them at cost since the customer had already committed.

 

That is why I was standing in line, waiting for a bike in a box for my son. They charge extra to assemble them, at least at the store I was at. Believe me, this hilljack was very defective. He didn't even have command of the english language. He was in his 40's and I doubt he graduated high school by the way he talked, and talked down to the poor girl behind the counter. Yet another person who thinks a loud mouth solves problems. If you want respect from the person you are dealing with, you should treat them with respect.

 

I don't use our LHS because, one charges more then MSRP, and the other has been in business for 75 years owns the shop, it's been paid for six times, and he still charges a arm
and a leg for trains.

 

Yes, respect is very important. Unfortunately, too many people never learned manners when they were young, and many have poor language skills even though they graduated high school.

I am surprised to hear that Wally World still sells in the box. The ones back home where I am from (Tulsa area) and out here in the valley (California) are all assembled an on the racks. No mention is made of a cheaper price in the box or an assembly charge. Of course I will confess it has been a couple of years since I actually purchased a bicycycle (about 4 to be exact) and time marches on. I guess I need to look closer next time I walk down that aisle (grandkids will need bikes someday soon).

The hobby shop closest to me has finally started having sales on N scale items. I have frequented the shop since I moved out here three years ago, but N scale here in the valley takes a back door to HO. To their credit, they had a sale last Saturday on IM cab forwards and were priced lower than M.B. ¤¤¤¤¤s and BLWNscale. If they continue this trend, I may soon be broke.LOL! Today they are offering all Athearn cars in the blue and yellow boxes for 40% off. I guess I know where I need to go today. Now if I could get them to make it more than a one day sale......

 

That would be my take on it.

 

See the bolded part of the above quote. That's the part that has amazed me since I returned to the hobby a couple years ago. Or more to the point, we kind of expect to have to test these things out and then fiddle with them until they are right (which for the prices we pay, shouldn't they already be right?)
There as a person who posted on the board a few weeks ago - he had received a BRAND NEW locomotive, fresh out of the box - and the couplers were the wrong height. This wasn't a new old stock Bachmann - not that they would have an excuse either - but a Kato. The poster was given plenty of excellent advice on making a Kadee conversion on the NEW loco - but it was apparent that this situation wasn't out of the ordinary. REALLY?
I see the merit in converting any loco or piece of rolling stock to Kadees, out of the desire for reliability and performance, but a brand-new loco from a highline manufacturer should at least get the couplers on at the right height.

As for the original poster and that situation: If you make an order from a LHS at a certain price, that is the price you should pay when it comes in. No argument.

 

Read most of the thread, but mot all. It may have already gone here, but here's my take.
Cancel the order, based on wait and order elsewhere (assuming you aren't up against a universal shortage).
It's track the LHS will sell it.
Prices go up, that's fine.
A new release gets delayed, thats fine.
You can't play without track, it's not a new item. 6 weeks is too long to wait.
You want to play now ( I mean model )
Don't burn the bridge, you probably want to do future business locally, but they can't meet your need on this order.
It's not a situation where you ordered a specialty item, so there shouldn't be hard feelings.