TMC ramping up it's Secondhand department

[Oldddudders]

4 minutes ago, Bigskybirds said:

There are a few items I would be interested in, the product photos are good but when 

I click on description it just states preowned, no mention of if a Locomotive runs okay, does it have a decoder socket, or any documentation. I find the description using one word preowned not very informative or helpful to me, so I would not purchase.

Are they really likely to offer products for sale that don't work?

[spamcan61]

6 minutes ago, Bigskybirds said:

There are a few items I would be interested in, the product photos are good but when 

I click on description it just states preowned, no mention of if a Locomotive runs okay, does it have a decoder socket, or any documentation. I find the description using one word preowned not very informative or helpful to me, so I would not purchase.

All of that info takes time (=money) to produce though.

[Bigskybirds]

It would not be the first time that has happened to me. Not from TMC but Hattons sold me a Locomotive with no motor, but failed to mention that in the description. They did make a full refund but it was a hassle.

[big jim]

3 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Are they really likely to offer products for sale that don't work?

Hattons did including a class 66 described as DCC ready only for the buyer to discover that the loco had no internals at all, no motor, circuit board, drive shafts etc! 

 

 

Edited July 18 by big jim

[Bigskybirds]

1 minute ago, spamcan61 said:

All of that info takes time (=money) to produce though.

Clarkrailworks manages to do  it.

[spamcan61]

5 minutes ago, Bigskybirds said:

Clarkrailworks manages to do  it.

Indeed they do, along with a 6 month mechanical warranty, hence I've used them a fair bit in the past. Doesn't alter the fact it's a cost that a business needs to take iinto account., particularly when companies are advertising literally thousands of used items.

Edited July 18 by spamcan61

[Bigskybirds]

2 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

Indeed they do, along with a 6 month mechanical warranty, hence I've used them a fair bit in the past. Doesn't alter the fact it's a cost that a business needs to take iinto account.

That's fine, I will just purchase from those businesses that do make the effort.

[GordonC]

18 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

But some secondhand items remain unsold for long periods of time. There's no profit if it isn't sold!

 

everything will sell at the right price. If its unsold for a long time then maybe the price was too high to start with

[tmc]

On 16/07/2024 at 10:30, woodenhead said:

Just one point to note @tmc I know the people west of Manchester sound alike but Golborne isn't Widnes it's in the borough of Wigan .

We were never very good at Geography! We have everything we need in Yorkshire so we try not to leave 🤣

[tmc]

On 16/07/2024 at 11:52, stewartingram said:

As I've said on the Hattons thread; I do miss the daily update on the added secondhand items. Much better that having to trawl through a much longer list! I usually don't bother with that.

Hi Stewart - we have many product filters to refine it down so you're not looking through hundreds of items. You can select your scale, your preferred category whether that be steam locomotives or plastic kits, then you only see what you want to! All of our listings are default sorted by the newest items. Hope this helps. 

[tmc]

2 hours ago, Bigskybirds said:

There are a few items I would be interested in, the product photos are good but when 

I click on description it just states preowned, no mention of if a Locomotive runs okay, does it have a decoder socket, or any documentation. I find the description using one word preowned not very informative or helpful to me, so I would not purchase.

Hi Big

If there are and faults or things worth noting we do write a description, if it only states Pre-Owned then please assume it is like new :) Also the pictures are there to study, if you save the image the resolution is very high and you should be able to zoom in. 

Everything is tested, we've just set up a full layout to test so it's not just run on a straight piece of track. 

If something is broken we fix it, we service them, and we guarantee them for up to 6 months should any problems arise. 

Hope this helps! 

[Bigskybirds]

2 minutes ago, tmc said:

Hi Big

If there are and faults or things worth noting we do write a description, if it only states Pre-Owned then please assume it is like new :) Also the pictures are there to study, if you save the image the resolution is very high and you should be able to zoom in. 

Everything is tested, we've just set up a full layout to test so it's not just run on a straight piece of track. 

If something is broken we fix it, we service them, and we guarantee them for up to 6 months should any problems arise. 

Hope this helps! 

Thank you for the clarification of using just preowned. To be fair I did send you an email regarding a Locomotive and Chris replied promptly this morning giving further details, after which I purchased it.

[tmc]

2 hours ago, spamcan61 said:

Indeed they do, along with a 6 month mechanical warranty, hence I've used them a fair bit in the past. Doesn't alter the fact it's a cost that a business needs to take iinto account., particularly when companies are advertising literally thousands of used items.

We offer 6 months warranty too, we don't shout about this as it's just basic customer service. We're all about providing a great customer service and buying experience. So although it's run by Hattons staff members we're doing things very differently. 

 

Everything is tested, we've just set up a full layout to test so it's not just run on a straight piece of track. 

If something is broken we fix it, we service them, and we guarantee them for up to 6 months should any problems arise. 
 

All the best

TMC

[Michael Hodgson]

3 hours ago, big jim said:

Hattons did including a class 66 described as DCC ready only for the buyer to discover that the loco had no internals at all, no motor, circuit board, drive shafts etc! 
 

 

It would be cheaper for a "box shifter" to list whatever it says on the box, as long as the contents look plausibly consistent with the end of the box than to take it out, test and repack.  So it makes business sense just to accept that when some of them come back as "faulty" you have to pick up the tab.

 

If you do the job properly, then you need a higher profit margin to cover the extra work.

[Pint of Adnams]

On 16/07/2024 at 10:43, AY Mod said:

 

I probably wouldn't describe it as either but 'just off the East Lancs to the east of the M6' isn't probably helpful to many either.

BD to Z Victor 1 territory?

[GrumpyPenguin]

If a business is turning over a high amount of stock their business model may be to "turn it round quickly" & just apply a basic listing & having a small percentage returned because of small**/major faults.

Another business may go the other way & invest time/money into testing & detailed listing.

The buyers will make their choice.

 

About 10 years ago I bought regular models from RoS but they started to get greedy (IMHO) so I stopped. Having said that their descriptions were very accurate.

 

** same really as people are prepared to recify faults with new stock from you know who.

 

Edited July 19 by GrumpyPenguin

[melmoth]

32 minutes ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

If a business is turning over a high amount of stock their business model may be to "turn it round quickly" & just apply a basic listing & having a small percentage returned because of small**/major faults.

Another business may go the other way & invest time/money into testing & detailed listing.

The buyers will make their choice.

 

 

A quick example from the retail side of the fence. I occasionally sell books to overseas customers. I have a fixed rate for postage to each global postage zone, so a customer can see exactly how much they'll be spending. Sometimes my postage charge is insufficient, sometimes it is more than required, but these things tend to balance out over time. A fellow bookseller using the same platform decided he was going to charge all overseas postage at cost. This meant adding an extra stage in the process, as he had to email his customer after they'd ordered a book to provide the postage charge. Cue cancellations of orders because of postage charges. Needless to say, I prefer my approach.

 

[Bigskybirds]

My Locomotive from TMC arrived today, sadly despite previous confirmation it had a DCC socket, that was not the case. On the plus side, I spoke with Tom who was very apologetic and he sent me a returns label.

[MikeParkin65]

It would be really useful if the website stated what type of 'DCC Sound' is fitted to loco's. There is a huge difference between Hornby TTS, TXS  and a 'full fat' project on a Zimo or Loksound. Puts me off buying as it is. 

[tmc]

17 hours ago, MikeParkin65 said:

It would be really useful if the website stated what type of 'DCC Sound' is fitted to loco's. There is a huge difference between Hornby TTS, TXS  and a 'full fat' project on a Zimo or Loksound. Puts me off buying as it is. 

I’ll feed that back to the team :)

 

All the best 

[MattR]

I keep getting emails about newly added preowned items, but nothing new seems to show up on the website when you go to the preowned section and select the "Newest First" option. The most recent items are the same as they were 3-4 weeks ago, leading with that Hornby GWR 61xx mislabeled as a Bachmann Deltic.

 

 

 

Edited August 19 by MattR