I placed an order on Tuesday. Today is Friday and it has yet to ship. I thought this was a large Internet hobby shop. Now I find out that part of my order will not ship because it is on “backorder”, although on Tuesday it was marked “In Stock”.
On the web site when I log in, it reads,
We are pulling your order from our warehouse and preparing it for shipment. In the case where we encounter availability issues on an item, we will contact you on how to proceed (remove item, place on backorder, etc.).
Well, that is simply not the case. I received no such notification and I still wouldn’t know that except for the fact that I checked the status of the order. I am bummed out because the back order is for one of a quantity of three that I ordered for a scratch build project, and it will be crucial to my progress.
End of rant. But just be aware of this if and when you place an order with Hobbylinc. I am not happy.
I had similar experience from both Hobbylinc and Blue Ridge Hobbies several times and I haven’t done business with either in 4 years. Hobbylink had an item listed in stock that wasn’t in stock as well as no longer available. After my inquire the item listed was changed to Discontinued.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
The’ve been quite fast and reliable earlier. My go-to is modeltrainstuff (formerly mbklein). I don’t know if living 2 hrs away makes the shipping go faster, but I get in-stock items in two days. There’s no rush for me to get stuff with a full-time job and a young family. It seems that modeltrainstuff is also cheaper than most other places, has fast delivery, and frequently updated webpage.
I’ve never purchased anything from Hobbylinc.com. If a particular item is difficult to track down online but I find it for sale on a website, I usually inquire first to find out if they actually do have the item in stock. Although it may be listed as “available” for purchase and I could submit an order for it online, most of the time - in reality - the item is out-of-stock, with no indication as to if or when they will get it back in.
That’s why I like M.B. Klein. The inventory on their website is “live” and up-to-date. If they say they have 3; they have 3. Purchase one, refresh the page, and the inventory is now down to 2.
And, AFAIK, M.B. Klein is still the brick 'n mortar name for their business. Modeltrainstuff is their online moniker.
Placed order 1/25/16, shipped 2/2/16, delivered 2/4/16. Two days to deliver, but 9 days to ship an item supposedly in stock. Shorthanded in the warehouse? I’ve ordered a lot and will continue, but I hope the turnaround is better.
Yeah, I agree. I have had the same experience with MB Klein’s web site. It operates in real time. In fact, a lot of model railroading web sites operate that way. If there are only 2 in stock, it says so. Even for web sites that merely say, “In Stock”, if they only have 2 and you add 3 or more to your cart, you are cautioned that only 2 are available. Unfortunately, that is not so at Hobbylinc.
Actually, MB Klein is my go-to supplier, but in this case, not all of my required items were available, so I went with Hobbylinc.
There was 20+ inches of snow on the ground on the 25th and most schools didn’t open until Feb 1. Most of its melted by now but the mail is all messed up. Yesterday was the first time I had anything in the box in almost two weeks.
That is not at all unusual for a large distributor, which Hobbylinc. is. They probably did not even start on Your order until Wed. At the time You ordered it was in stock…completing the order’s prior to Yours depleted what they had in stock. You are not the only one ordering from them for the same product. I have been dealing with them for at least 3yrs. now and only once had I ordered something and it said in-stock when I ordered it and by the time they filled orders prior to mine, they were out of stock…it happens. They sent Me a E-mail telling Me so and gave Me an option of changing it, cancel or they will ship when in stock. I chose the latter. They shipped the rest of the order and I got it, Priority mail in two days.
I have ordered from them about 15 times,not only Train products.
I’m satisfied.
Put a large order in to SS LTD. Mon, My order status say’s ‘‘awaiting fufullment’’…I didn’t check it yet today…maybe it says ‘‘Shipped’’
I won’t lose any sleep over it though…I have a lot of patience! Plus I have a lot of other things to keep Me busy…The joy’s of internet shopping. LOL.
MTS long shipping times has nothing to do with the winter storm. It has been happening for a few months now.
If your order doesn’t ship until 10 days after your order, you can’t claim bad weather. More like they can’t keep up with their orders. Hire more people.
I have bought stuff from hobbylinc and had no problems. However like others posted they may not have the up-to-date information for every item in stock.
That said, I have ordered stuff from China that got here faster than US distributors.
“You pays your money and you takes your chance” - or something like that.
Here in Mississippi we have little or no access to Hobby shops so all of my stuff comes via USPS, UPS or FEDEX. Im just happy to get them - when they arrive.
I have bought locos from hobby shops in Michigan that got here in two days - go figure?
Frank, that is my exact point. They are a large distributor, but their web site does not accurately reflect their inventory.
If you read what Tom Stage and I had to say about the MB Klein web site, that is how it should work. As soon as the Order button is hit, the In Stock quantity should be reduced accordingly. And, as you say, if they don’t even begin to gather the order until 36 hours later, that is a way too long delay. Ten more guys have ordered the same thing only to find out that it was no longer in stock. Even our local hobby store, Lombard Hobbies, has a real time ordering protocol on its web site.
My sister lives in MD and couldn’t even get out of her house for a week - they never plowed the street she lives on. They dug part by hand, and someone came by with a snowblower to clear the rest. I got close to 3 feet in my area, no mail delivery Saturday when it was actively snowing hard and no mail delivery Monday after the storm. My mail is delivered on foot, mailboxes are up at the houses, not down by the street.
So I can see Klein having problems both with mail trucks getting in to take orders away as well as with employees even getting to work in the first place. With the volume a place like that does, missing a day or two sets them back significantly more because there is still the normal volume of orders PLUS all the ones that were missed to get packed and shipped. Absolutely no bad reflection on them for this one.
As for the primary topic of this thread - sounds like they are another one of those places that has very little inventory and just orders from Walthers as needed. That would be “their warehouse”.
Let’s not overlook the fact that this thread is about Hobbylinc, which is located in Georgia, and was unaffected by the East Coast storm. My complaint is less about the 3 days that it took to process the order than it is about their web site which is not updated in real time to reflect purchases as they occur.
A city has no place to put snow. Cars are parked on both sides of the street and people actually do need sidewalks to walk to school or get to the store. Things are so overbuilt, we need every left turn lane and exit lane. Those were full of snow till midweek and 6 lane roads were 3 1/2 - 4 lanes at random spots.
No complaints about MB Klein nor trainworld. The few times I’ve ordered from trainworld, I find them to ship faster and have greater old stock, but are more expensive. My go-to is mb klein, I’m a patient person.
Never used hobbyline before, but I dispise their website so I probably won’t.
Worth