I’m not trying to dispute Your claim. Just trying to give You a little insight as to how their system probably is set up. In stock or out of stock items are not tallied, until the actual product is picked and Your order although received, was not even entered into the system yet! And hiring more people to get it done faster…costs more money for them thereby cutting the profit margin, ultimately slashing the discount given to You. Not to bash Walthers, but I am a Yard Master member and do get a lot of discounts, especially shipping, Hobbylinc distributes a lot of cornerstone kits at a 15 to 20% discount, while Walthers still sells the same kit at the normal price…figure that one out!? Lately I have been purchasing a lot of My supplies and kits, directly from the Manufacturer and I am learning, that shipping is not all that bad, price wise and they most always have what You want in stock.
I mentioned SS Ltd. in My other post…ordered Mon. it was shipped Fri. 16 items half of which Walthers did not have, marked unknown for resupply, over 150.00 worth, cost Me 7.00 to ship, first class mail…took time for them to actually get it all together, then to ship it…but I know they had everything I needed. I could go on about other places, but I won’t…no one makes any money until a product is sold…so most places are basing the in-stock/out of stock functions on that premise.
Let’s not get away from Richhotrain’s complaint… He goes online, sees an item listed as “in stock”, orders said item, and then is told it is out of stock and a backorder will be initiated (and goodness knows if he ever will get the item).
A proper inventory control for online ordering should immediately reflect the status of stock on hand. While their system obviously has shortcomings, their inventory audit process could be at fault (or non existant).
LION has “automatic” inventory contro for the wine warehouse of him. LION never up dates it. Everything is listed as out of stock. And some of it is out of stock. But I do know what is in my cellar (sort of) or rather what is not in the cellar (maybe).
But then I have gotten too old to lift cases of wine, and so someone else pulls the stock. I have a couple of wine truck coming in this month, call it 28 palettes, I’ll update my inventory program after that.
And all of that wine is of course properly blessed sacramental wine, right? [:D]
My reply above was in two parts, one responding to the complaint of Modeltrainstuff taking long to get orders out after a crippling snowstorm, the other part referencing the Hobbylinc inventory or lack thereof. Even Walthers has that problem - at least, the first and last time I ordered from Walthers directly, the items were all listed as in stock, but after I placed the order, i was informed one item was backordered. Honestly, if a dealer can’t keep an accurate inventory for their online store in this day and age, they don’t get my business. A small, specialty shop is one thing, but a company that purports to be a full service shop carrying a wide range of product, hobby shop or otherwise - no real excuse any more. There’s a reason why a place like Klein’s, originally a brick and mortar hobby shop like everyone else, is still around today when so many places aren’t.
Some of shipping delays may have to do with Post Office routing. I order a lot from MicroMark which is about 100 miles away. Sometimes it comes overnight. Sometimes it goes from Jersey, to CT, to Boston, to Albany and then finds it’s way to me in the Catskills. None of that has anything to do with inventory, but does impact how soon I see the stuff.
It gets worse. I placed the order early Tuesday morning, and within minutes, Hobbylinc confirmed my order with no mention of a back order and transferred the entire amount of my purchase from my PayPal account. Three days plus nine hours later, Hobbylinc informed me for the first time that the order had shipped less the back ordered item. But, I have received no credit back to my PayPal account.
Meanwhile, the shipping confirmation indicates that the back ordered item has an unknown due date to be back in stock. So, I may get in a week, or a month, or never. The other thing that ticks me off is that the shipping charge is $15.80 which seems excessive for what I ordered.
I went back in on their web site this morning to learn more about how the ordering process works. On the first page of Buildings is a Woodland Scenics Chicken Coop marked In Stock. So, I added one to my cart. Then, I updated the quantity to two. No problem. So, I updated the quantity to ten, then sixty chicken coops. No problem. And, get this, the shipping charge for the 60 chicken coops was less than the shipping charge for my Evergreen styrene sheets and Grandt Line windows and doors. Go figure.
You mght ask, why don’t I contact Hobbylinc and complain. The answer is, I plan to. But, the shipping confirmation arrived at the end of the business day yeterday, and the delivery date is estimated to be next Wednesday. So, I might as well wait until I get the order and make sure that everything else is there. Maybe by then, they will have
Same here, although I shop at several etail outlets and local brick and mortar, MTS has the best prices and inventory. This includes auction sites where bid fever pushes prices into the ludacrous zone.
I wonder if HobbyInc has its own warehouse, or if it is more of a search engine where it relies upon finding items in stock through various suppliers. That would possibly explain why shipping charges may differ and why they can’t keep up on current inventory…maybe the inventory is scattered around and shared by other vendors.
The web site says that Hobbylinc is family owned and operated from Atlanta, Georgia since 1971. Originally a local hobby shop, Hobbylinc moved exclusively online in 1994.
It goes on to say that this is a warehouse for online sales. Retail sales cannot be made from this location. Hobbylinc.com is an online retailer only and does not have a retail location.
So, it does claim to stock its own merchandise, and I do not challenge that. I have ordered from Hobbylinc in the past, although it was several years ago now. I mostly shop MB Klein nowadays, but MB Klein didn’t have everything that I needed this time around. I wanted to keep shipping costs down that would result from partial orders from more than one supplier, so I was excited to find that Hobbylinc had everything that I needed in stock…or so I thought.
