I reserve purchase some locomotives online and have done so for several years. I made on such reserve purchase on February 21, 2013. Yesterday January 2, 2014, I received a notice that "my order has been shipped." I am thinking 11 months wait may be a record for me. I know I have two other reserve orders at the same location; one for May 18, 2013 and one from July 13, 2013 Just commenting, not criticizing as I wonder how often this happens to others.
I don't mind the wait as long as the company does not charge my credit card until they ship the item. Last month I ordered some items from an online dealer including a loco that had to be preordered. The company did not bill my card for that Loco until yesterday, the day they shipped it. Waiting a year with them already having the money for it is not a good thing. I've had a long wait several times and have forgotten about it until I get a call or email that it is being shipped, but I've never had to pay up front for anything.
I waited over 4 YEARS for my OMI Little Joe and never paid a dime for anything until I picked it up from my LHS.
Ordered my PRR M1 back in 2005. Eight and a half years now and counting. Come to think of it I think I still have something on order from Concor from back in the '80's. But what it is I don't know.
For me it is not when you place the order but how long the delay is from the announced arrival compared to the actual arrival. I have had several occasions where have hard a large number of items that arrived in the same week when they were supposed to be months, even years, apart.
Patience may be a virtue but waiting sucks!! Or as I have been known to say; “Patience isn’t a virtue, Patience is the fifth Halliwell sister.”
I've been waiting patiently for some box cars. Supposedly they will be coming in the next few months, so it will be approaching three years. Not much we can do, with production nonsense in China these days.
Sorry about crossing interests for a moment, but if you want an example of patience when it comes to preorders...
I know that keeping clear records of what is ordered is important. If my other two orders take 11 months, we may be moved to another state before they arrive.
I reserved the Athearn Ethanol tank cars in 2010ish (if I remember correctly) and finally received them a few weeks ago....three moves later (Japan to Leavenworth, KS to Saudi to Germany) I keep those emails in a separate folder and just update the shop with my new address as required. Haven't missed anything yet. I had some pretty old stuff in there and the "current" winner is a reservation for the BLMA Dry-Flo Hoppers that I reserved in March 2012. Cheers, Brian
When it comes to ordering products either online or by mail order, US federal law (and the Uniform Commercial Code, et al) is clear. If you have to wait more than thirty days, the merchant has to either refund your money, or give you the option of continue waiting for it. (Im not 100% clear on how preordering something affects that legal requirement.) Dieter
What I don't understand is why some companies like IM keep announcing new stuff when they can't even get prior items produced and into the market place.
There must be some attorneys in our midst who can clarify if preorder is address by the Uniform Commercial Code. Perhaps the code should address the matter by requiring that tangible goods be produced before preordering can be offered. If preordering is merely a ploy to test the market, that should not be allowed IMHO.
In the 10 plus years of doing the pre order dance, I've never been charged a deposit or paid in full for a reservation. It's always been paid when the items finally arrive and are shipped. If there are stores doing that (outside of brass models maybe), I've never come across them. If a manufacturer can't cancel a project for lack of interest via preorders, I fear that would be a very slippery slope that a small market hobby manufacturer would not want to go down. Imagine if a sure fire hit was a complete flop and they over produced it based on some "market research" telling them its the next best thing since sliced bread. The impact would be substantial and less products would become available due to lost capital. Look at the fire sales that Life-Like went through a few years ago on a few of their offerings to clear the inventory. I'm not sure how Exactrail does their research for picking what freight cars to produce, but they seem to be doing well without pre orders. They have even picked some pretty specific cars like the Conrail CoilShields (HO side of the house). When they announce something, it's usually ready to ship within 30 days and not 30 months... There has been one or two exceptions, but they are following it pretty closely. Cheers, Brian
I'm certain this has been done by at least one manufacturer/importer... which has cancelled some models due to insufficient pre-orders. The problem is that no one likes to get excited about an item... pre-order... and then find out the item will not be produced. Eventually trust in the ability of the manufacturer/importer to produce said items will lead to less pre-ordering and more cancellations. This same manufacturer/importer has a penchant for announcing numerous items... setting an expected delivery... and continually pushes back the delivery date virtually on a monthly basis. I recently (12/30/2013) received an order from this company which I had pre-ordered in early 2012. At that time the original delivery was expected in Fall of 2012. I'm sure this is not the 'complete' fault of the company... since they out-source the production to China... which has been less than timely on their own production schedules. Fortunately for me... I have been at a stable address for years and don't expect to be moving. I've had a stable phone number and email, so I could be contacted by a vendor in the event of a problem. HOWEVER... I have had issues where I've cancelled credit cards or have had expired cards used for pre-orders delay orders on the vendors end (in addition to delays by the manufacturer/importer).
One which came quickly into mind, was OMI. Somehow it seems as though this marketing tool has seen better days.
If manufactures keep basing production on preorder numbers...they are gonna paint themselves into a corner ! People are leary of preordering just to find out the #'s werent high enough so the item gets cancelled. Its why I DONT preorder anything. Fool me once...shame on you...fool me twice...shame on me !!
