Checked for updates on the new New Haven tinplate - don't know about other tinplate, but it now says shipping SEPT 2016. I'm afraid we get to keep our money until the end of summer. I was looking forward to getting them while there is time in the winter to tinker.
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Doesn't seem like much is shipping lately. The 5 freight cars I preordered still have expected delivery dates from Oct and Nov 2015.
I'm ****ed. I paid a substantial deposit to my chosen dealer to preorder the entire yellow/gray/red Milwaukee Road 381/State Car set, which should have arrived in this past December. Now MTH has pushed back the shipping date 9 months! I feel that I'm being taken advantage of by MTH and my dealer, who for several months has been earning the interest I should be earning on my large preorder deposit. That said, with no other competing tinplate manufacturers, I guess I should be happy that MTH didn't cancel my order. Unfortunately, they still might, so I'm now holding my breath and waiting for the next shoe to drop. With luck, I'll have the set in time to run on the SGMA layout at Trainfest 2016.
Bob Nelson
It's not your dealers fault. He can only go by what MTH tells him!
Right, I would never blame a dealer. I preorder with Pat at Pat's Trains - he always treats me right and is on top of things. I am glad I mostly work around Wheeling, WV, so whenever I start getting the itch for Std. Gauge Tinplate I'm there.
No pre-order deposits required here! Never was. When item(s) ship in, we notify the customer their pre-order is ready to be shipped or picked up. Happy customers all around.
Some of the items originally with an overly optimistic nov 2015 delivery date have been reset to feb 2016.
Is this a good thing? 
Nothing from the latest catalog has been delivered yet.
Member in my club ordered a 44 Tonner and it was suppose to ship in August and still hasn't shipped. I am waiting for my Imperial ES44AC demonstrators and I am getting impatient because I want them here now!
My last item that I ordered still says January. There's still hope. No real rush, plenty of other stuff to run and the layout is not runable yet anyway.
Steve
This is why I rarely preorder.
navy.seal posted:I'm ****ed. I paid a substantial deposit to my chosen dealer to preorder the entire yellow/gray/red Milwaukee Road 381/State Car set, which should have arrived in this past December. Now MTH has pushed back the shipping date 9 months! I feel that I'm being taken advantage of by MTH and my dealer, who for several months has been earning the interest I should be earning on my large preorder deposit. That said, with no other competing tinplate manufacturers, I guess I should be happy that MTH didn't cancel my order. Unfortunately, they still might, so I'm now holding my breath and waiting for the next shoe to drop. With luck, I'll have the set in time to run on the SGMA layout at Trainfest 2016.
Bob Nelson
Preorder question. If this dealer closes can you get your money?
Can pre-orders be returned or cancelled? My dealer didn't ask for a deposit.
navy.seal posted:I'm ****ed. I feel that I'm being taken advantage of by MTH and my dealer, who for several months has been earning the interest I should be earning on my large preorder deposit.
Bob, have you checked interest rates lately? Most savings accounts are paying 0.5% or less annually. The interest you "should be earning" amounts to something like 25 cents per $100 of your deposit amount. Relax and don't lose any sleep over it. 
Plenty of grousing about "regular" Lionel deliveries in this space. I've noticed that the LCT stuff has frequently taken the same route. 
Never ceases to amaze (amuse?) me the intolerance and lack-o-slack cut to manufacturers, first, and dealers, second, regarding product deliveries and projected (not promised) delivery dates from off-shore manufacturers.....OK, China, specifically.
Have we not yet learned that this is the 'New Normal' for the global business of toy trains? And it will never change. There are too many variables throughout the supply chain. Among these are sources, over which there is no control...to weather, over which there is no control...to delivery systems/entities, over which there is no control...etc., etc., etc..
And why would any of this be the dealer's responsibility/accountability? He's just one schmuck above ground level (ultimate customer) on the Totem Pole of Supply in this biz.
That said, complaints about down payments, pre-pays, etc. among retailers is simply a matter of choice from retailer to retailer. From the above comments, and regarding our own LHS policy, many dealers do NOT require down payments, pre-pays, etc. for TBD's. Again, dealer's choice. Customers always have the option to shop for a dealer who has better terms....as well as a broader smile....or a hot cup of coffee...or.......
We have customer order cards that are getting raggedy around the edges from waiting so long for product delivery. Every so often we'll check with them to be sure they still want something they ordered long ago. And, they usually smile, chuckle, and....'Sure! Why not? What's another year or two??'
Pragmatic optimists.....we love 'em!
Curmudgeons, curmudgeonettes.....not so much.
Hugs, chill pills, home brews, and fine wines.....they all help us through the delays.
KD
johnstrains posted:Plenty of grousing about "regular" Lionel deliveries in this space. I've noticed that the LCT stuff has frequently taken the same route.
Quite honestly, the "grousing" you here is not so much that the products are delayed... but rather the complete lack of authoritative information when products ARE delayed. At least MTH is putting some semi-realistic dates on their shipping schedules. If something that originally indicated a December 2015 shipment now says September 2016, then that's probably a "believable" 9-month delay. That's better than Lionel's approach, which in the past has typically been to post a 1-month delay for NINE consecutive months -- giving us the impression that nobody has a clue what's going on. 
None of these LCT tinplate "delays" should be all that surprising. The catalog was released very late in 2015, and the initial product ETA's still had Nov/Dec 2015 delivery dates that were always a bit suspect. Those dates were gonna yield MUCH too short a runway between the dealer pre-order deadline and product delivery. Had MTH held to those original ETA's, it would have meant the products were already in production when the catalog was published. And I just don't see today's toy train production/scheduling operating that way.
David
I never started this post to diss any dealers or rile the masses. As others have said in many threads, it allows us to have some extra time to manage the finances now that some pieces can make a huge dent in the pocketbook. I was just looking forward to some run time with the new stuff before spring got here and put more work on our to-do lists. We have become impatient as a society, but considering we are talking about trains, good things will come to us who wait.
The newly tooled 200 series freight cars will be here this month.
Excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses! I am tired of hearing excuses for poor service. Who is accountable? Where does the buck stop? IMHO, poor service should never become the new norm! If we toy train buyers don't complain to our dealers and ask for better service, and in turn if our dealers don't complain to the manufacturers about poor service and demand better, how is the current poor service ever going to improve?
I am not satisfied with the way things are and I don't see why I should resign myself to poor service. If I do, then I must hold myself accountable for the poor service I receive and in part for the continued decline of the hobby I love. But I want the toy train hobby to improve in everything and become more robust. If I was convinced that the current system is the absolute best it can ever be, then I wouldn't complain. But it's not, so I will continue to complain to dealers and request better service in the hope that they in turn will apply whatever pressure they can on manufacturers for better service.
I realize that the supply chain between me and the ultimate source for the toy trains I desire is a long and complex one. Nevertheless, I will continue my role of pointing out where improvements are needed, i.e., complaining, and hope that everyone else does too as it's unlikely things in the toy train hobby will improve if we don't!
Bob Nelson
what you posted...
why not...?
less ambiguous subject lines are appreciated by everyone.
Considering I an posting in Tinplate, and there is only one new New Haven set, I thought it was pretty easy to figure out.
JR Junction posted:The newly tooled 200 series freight cars will be here this month.
Any word on the American Flyer cars and 4696 engines? I didn't order any but I'll probably end up doing so.
Frank Mulligan posted:Any word on the American Flyer cars and 4696 engines? I didn't order any but I'll probably end up doing so.
The American Flyer locomotives and cars are shipping in April.
Pre-orders on the New York Central sets have been the best, followed by the Lehigh Valley and then the Pennsylvania and Great Northern. No worry about pre-orders as we are still taking them while we can and at the same pricing we announced last year. (SEE BELOW)
navy.seal posted:I'm ****ed. I paid a substantial deposit to my chosen dealer to preorder the entire yellow/gray/red Milwaukee Road 381/State Car set, which should have arrived in this past December. Now MTH has pushed back the shipping date 9 months! I feel that I'm being taken advantage of by MTH and my dealer, who for several months has been earning the interest I should be earning on my large preorder deposit. That said, with no other competing tinplate manufacturers, I guess I should be happy that MTH didn't cancel my order. Unfortunately, they still might, so I'm now holding my breath and waiting for the next shoe to drop. With luck, I'll have the set in time to run on the SGMA layout at Trainfest 2016.
Bob Nelson
This is why I no longer order from MTH. I don't need the frustration.
Gentlemen,
It's not just MTH, have you forgotten the wait of over a year for the new 990 Legacy units, remember we are dealing with toys here, that are being manufactured in a 3rd world country. This kind delay is nothing new, I do make the point now when I am pre-ordering, to only give 10% or less of the total cost of the item, my money is till mine.
PCRR/Dave
Here's an idea. If you don't like having to put a deposit down on an order, then find a dealer that doesn't require one (such as JR Junction). I've ordered from several of the sponsors here, and a lhs when I had one, and have never been asked for a deposit.
It's not like these delays are anything new. I remember the same kind of conversation about the monorail. IMO some people just like to complain.
I had to wait two years for a New Haven engine that I pre-ordered and pre-paid for to be delivered. That was ten years ago. I received the engine in fine shape and it is running on my layout today.
I don't believe it is bad service on the manufacturers part but rather the reality of building stuff overseas. I am just glad that we can still can get product. I have stopped pre-ordering because of these delays.
Perhaps I will be able to pick up one of the NH sets after they arrive. It will be the only tinplate train in my collection. I find anything NH hard to resist.
NH Joe
This is the problem; if we don't preorder items, MTH determines there isn't any interest in them so they get cancelled. Good example - I was planning on waiting to buy last year's tinplate subway cars that I thought were super nice. I wanted to see them before I purchased - they get canceled before they come out. Other items I order right away and then see them in abundance on train websites or ebay. Some times you can't win.
I pre ordered the subways ,both colors,,,,p oed they didn't make them,,,,but as you said guess they didn't have enough orders dang
Exactly Terry, I really wanted the red subway set - that was something different. We all know what the standard trains look like - same base model except for paint scheme. Those were really different but I never saw them before. I know those would sell if they ever decided to put out again.
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