The first week of Jan 2007, I received a sales flyer from Walthers, as most of us did. In the flyer, Walthers had reduced their Proto 2000 0-8-0 from $250.00 to $89.99. As soon as I saw that, I jumped on my computer and placed an order for an Undecorated one. Two weeks go by and yesterday I received a post card in the mail from Walthers. Can you guess what it said…
“We regret to inform you that your backorder has not arrived to date. This item has been discontinued by the manufacturer and deleted from your backorder.”
So…Why the heck does Walthers put something in a sales flyer that they don’t have to sell, and have no intention to produce any more to fill backorders? What happened to “truth in advertising”? It is the law, isn’t it?
Have you considered the possibility that they simply sold out before you placed your order? I look at their web page almost everyday looking for items they have placed on sale. By the way; they still have some 0-8-0 road names in stock at the advertised price. Maybe you should consider buying one and repainting it to match your needs. You could also contact the 2 dealers that received shipment of that item in December 2006 and January 2007 to see if they still have some available.
Your question is a legitimate one, but we can’t answer it. Pose it to Walthers staff and find out what went off the rails. You may have been the source of a typo error, or maybe they made one, who knows? But I think you owe it to yourself, and perhaps to the rest of us since you raise the issue, to tackle it with determination and find out what happened. Who knows, you may come out smelling (like) a 0-8-0!
Check out DiscountHobbyWarehouse as of two minutes ago they had P2K sound 0-8-0’s from $145.00-$199.00. Obviously with these prices you may have to compromise on road name. Units w/o sound were listed at $139.00.
I have not personally dealt with them but may be there is a reference to them in forum archives. Might also try Trainworld-I have dealt with them and they’re very good. They also have several satisfied customers on this forum.
I got the flyer. Inside the front cover it says, in not very fine print:
“All products featured in this catalog were in stock at press time. Because of increased demand for sale-priced items and limited quantities available, some may be out of stock following the printing of this catalog…”
With this disclaimer, there is no issue with “truth in advertising” as it is there for you to read.
Generally, keep in mind when you see this kind of price-cutting on a product, they want to move out what is left of the stock. Some roadnames, even “undecorated,” will be in very short supply, while the least popular roadnames will constitute the majority of the remaining stock. It’s always been and still is a rule of thumb in model railroad purchasing that, if you want or need a specific version of an item, be sure to either pre-order or look for it as soon as it hits the shelf. You pay a bit more, but you get exactly what you want. The longer you wait, the cheaper it will likely be, but the trade-off is that some versions will no longer be available.
Keep in mind that specifying a second and third choice if the first isn’t available is a good strategy. Repainting and/or relettering is not too big a deal, if you get a good deal on the hardware.
Walthers can be interesting, I’ve seen it once or twice where I’ve looked up a product on their website which has the item highlighted saying “this item is on sale today!” and then in the listing it also says “this item is currently out of stock”.[%-)]
A bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the fraudster lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute good is. The goal of the bait-and-switch is to convince some buyers to purchase the substitute good as a means of avoiding disappointment over not getting the bait, or as a way to recover sunk costs expended to try to obtain the bait. It suggests that the seller will not show the original product or product advertised but instead will demonstrate a more expensive product.
That’s the classic definition of bait and switch but in this instance there is nothing in the January sale flyer that is remotely close to being a “switch” for someone who wants a USRA 0-8-0. Speaking of which they do have CNW bi-level cab cars on sale for about $14 and somehow I suspect they are sold out of those too at those prices. The sale flyers seem to have three catagories of sale prices: so small a discount as to hardly make it worth while; a decent discount but often about the same as a hobby dealer offers regular customers anyway (10% to 20%), and real deals which suggest the item is truly being closed out and is in limited supply.
A couple of points. First, the January sale flyer is prepared probably in November or earlier. Second, they often carry items over from one sale flyer to the next (sometimes all they change is the cover!) and I do not know when that great deal on 0-8-0s first appeared. And third, sorry to tell you this but those of us in Milwaukee who can go to Walthers retail operation often snap up this stuff before the phone, mail, or internet orders can be filled, since they have the sale flyer on the order desk even before they are mailed out. You stand at the desk and the guy goes back into the same warehouse that all the other or
Yep they were sold out of the really cheap C&NW bi level commuter cab coaches. Darn, waited too long. But the guys at the sales desk DID confirm that they had them – and sold 'em.
Something very close to this happened to me. A couple of weeks ago I ordered the Golden West Service Airslide Hopper 2 pack, online. They were in stock. When I received the e-mail stating what will be shipped this item was on included. Appearently Walthers’s computers do have the amount of merchandise in stock in the system and automatically deduct the quantity ordered when someone orders something.
Walther’s dealers receive an advance copy several weeks before the consumer issue comes out.
if there’s a really good deal, the dealers will snap them all up, and in the case of a really super buy, the sales reps will call their best accounts to give them a heads up, so by the time the flyer arrives in your mailbox, the supplies may allready be exhausted.
the upside to this, is that alot of the same dealers will honor walthers flyer sale prices in their stores.
FWIW: I just picked up a Proto 2000 0-8-0 switcher off of eBay tonight for the same price that Walthers is offering it. There aren’t too many but they are there.