Having hung out in the dark recesses of the 3-rail O Gauge world, I can verify that Lionel and MTH pretty much seem to base their "better stuff" on preorders. Naturally, they're not going to come out and say it directly.
It's not unsual for something to get cancelled from either company. Heck, Lionel's even cancelled a couple of things before the ink was dry on the catalogs. Likewise, they can also thow a curve at the customer and produce something unexpected. Their production logic can be perplexing sometimes. It pretty obvious that neither company is from the planet Vulcan. :-) Unfortunatly, neither MTH or Lionel is a shining beacon of customer communication. MTH seems to rely mostly on one-way communication with their email newsletter. Lionel's a little better with some direct communication in the hinterlands of the OGR board than MTH, but even there, contradictory information occurs. I suppose there's always FaceBook, but I'm not on FB (and won't be on general principle,), so I can't speak to the accuracy of responses over there. The wost offenders are the "Talk to Us" departments at both companies. Sometimes it seems their people are given a computer and a dart board to supply information to the customer. You're not living on another planet, Ed. Catalogs from Lionel and MTH nowadays pretty much indicate a future model, not one that's in stock and available in the present. And shipping schedules can be some of the finest fiction written these days. Rivch G(ajnak) --- In [email protected], "Ed" wrote: > > > MTH also uses the preorder business model. > > It's nothing new. > > Rich G(ajnak) > > > My two cents worth is: It is fine to do business anyway you want. No > problem there. But neither Lionel or MTH has yet told the S scale guys (us) > that is the way it works. Where in the catalog does it say: "If we get > enough pre-orders, this product will actually be made." How are we supposed > to know that if the catalog does not tell us? The basic purpose of catalogs > is to show what is available and to illustrate it and describe it. Perhaps I > am living on another planet these days? > > With regard to SCALE equipment from Lionel, it is not the sort of thing > anyone would logically expect. Sort of like buying an automobile from IBM. > It might be a great car, but would you pre-order something like that? Or > would it be such a change from the norm that you'd want to see it first > before plunking down your money? > > While none of this may be new to the classic AF enthusiast, it sure is new to > me -- a typical scale guy. Communication between the manufacturer and > potential customers could be improved for the benefit of everyone. Not to > mention whether or not scale wheels will really be available. > > Just having a gripe day. Forgive me......... > > "S"incerely....Ed Loizeaux > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
