Like many others I woke today to find an email from Hattons saying my pre-order of a Farish model had been cancelled as they could no longer provide it.
The issue has been bubbling under the surface for many months with no new releases of Bachman or Graham Farish products finding their way to Hattons since last year.
Although no one has said for sure it is believed to be down to Hattons decision to start manufacturing. Or more specifically to go head to head with Bachman on the OO Gauge class 66.
And how amazing in the same week that this happens, Rails of Sheffield magically ‘find’ sold out stock. Cynical? Me? Yes! I refuse to believe a company the size of Rails magically finds £000’s of sold out stock.
The one good thing to come out of all of this? Hopefully more scope for the smaller independent. Mr Cottingfield has long been a believer in this subject. Both visiting the local shop on Hessle Road, and using a small independant where I can for mail order.
This should be good news for the smaller customer focussed retailers. Personally I wasn’t well treated by Hattons a few years ago. As a consequence I’ve never been back.
You can’t knock their pricing I will admit. However as soon as something goes wrong you can be a bit vulnerable and I ended up being both ‘fobbed off’ for 4 days and then double charged.