F-16 Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 I noticed at Lucky Models that most (If not all) of there 1/48 Trump/HB aircraft kits have been out of stock (not available, on back-order). It has been like this for more than a year. They have not resupplied Trump/HB kits for a long time. Nothing is in stock. Does anyone have any ideas as to why? Is it a supplier problem? Have they decided to drop the Trump/HB aircraft lines? Scott CNJC-IPMS Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raymond Chung Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 (edited) I noticed at Lucky Models that most (If not all) of there 1/48 Trump/HB aircraft kits have been out of stock (not available, on back-order). It has been like this for more than a year. They have not resupplied Trump/HB kits for a long time. Nothing is in stock. Does anyone have any ideas as to why? Is it a supplier problem? Have they decided to drop the Trump/HB aircraft lines? Scott CNJC-IPMS Dear Scott, With ever increasing no. of kits ready on the market, we are not able to stock every kit that the manufacturer has. Just like many business, with increase # of items, the cost allocated to each item would be lower. Sometimes, we think that the item does not generate result we want (profit vs stock investment) and also the time for stocking (select which item to stock is also an expensive cost). " Nothing is in stock." - In Stock List But we offer the backorder services in case someone need it and restock from the distributor. Especially for old kit, since Trumpeter/HB has huge item stock list. Even you have money, you don't have the warehouse to keep all item in stock. But not in stock does not mean cannot be obtained. Normally, 2-3 weeks for restocking cycle. For HB and Trumpeter product in fact, we do restock more frequent than before. But the restock size has been reduced to cope with the increasing range. Edited April 26, 2015 by Raymond Chung Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fulcrum1 Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 Buying direct from China through lucky or seal I tend to take the long view. Takes a month to three, but the prices are hard to beat. If you need it sooner EBay and Scale Hobbyist are my go to. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SinisterVampire319 Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 If it substantially beats Stevens Intl distribution price I am all for it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Well I am in the middle of a not-so-nice situation here regarding LM kits availability: I placed an order a month ago for a kit which as in stock (">6pcs in stock") along with accessories not in stock. The kit got marked as "fully reserved - waiting for other items", which was perfect. But then when said accessories arrived, for two days all items were marked as "Packing" and when I contacted LuckyModel to ask when they would actually ship the order, the reply I got was "unfortunately we can't locate the kit in our warehouse". Now this kit is marked "2-3 months restock", which does not fit well for a summer holidays build :( My assumption is that they gave "my" kit to somebody else by mistake. I certainly hope they will come through soon though, so that my perfect holiday plan works :) End of rant ;) Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hawkwrench Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I have been waiting over a month for lucky models to get the 1/35 MH-60S photoetch detail sets back in stock! The site says 2-3 weeks, but it's been at least a month and still not back in stock. I'm losing my loyalty to buy from them a little more everyday! Tim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I'm losing my loyalty to buy from them a little more everyday! Tim Same thing here: I'm starting to think a 10$ saving is not worth jeopardizing a project... Still no news from them by the way. I can't understand how they can reserve an item for a month, tell me it will be shipped in 2 days, and then not find it anymore. Some interesting operational model! Arnaud, desperate for his Dragon M1A1 AIM, which seemed a hell of a kit :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
glorystomper Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Going to be ordering an F-15 kit from Lucky Model that is listed as Backordered.. will let you guys know how it goes *fingers crossed* Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 (edited) Now LuckyModel tells me the item will be available in 3.5 months (25th Nov.). Nice for a kit which was marked as available/fully reserved for me a month ago... :bandhead2:/> And they haven't reply to emails in almost a week now. Before that, every time I contacted them to add new items to my order they replied within a few hours. Edited July 11, 2015 by arnobiz Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raymond Chung Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Well I am in the middle of a not-so-nice situation here regarding LM kits availability: I placed an order a month ago for a kit which as in stock (">6pcs in stock") along with accessories not in stock. The kit got marked as "fully reserved - waiting for other items", which was perfect. But then when said accessories arrived, for two days all items were marked as "Packing" and when I contacted LuckyModel to ask when they would actually ship the order, the reply I got was "unfortunately we can't locate the kit in our warehouse". Now this kit is marked "2-3 months restock", which does not fit well for a summer holidays build :(/> My assumption is that they gave "my" kit to somebody else by mistake. I certainly hope they will come through soon though, so that my perfect holiday plan works :)/> End of rant ;)/> Arnaud Dear Araud, We reserved the item to order from the stock and showing "FULL RESERVED". In case of out of stock item, the system will wait the arrival of the item before total release the shipment to packing center. In your case, when your order released to packing center, the staff cannot locate the last pc of the 3535 to your order and reported to CS that the item are being "lost". We have location system to track the item when it arrive, but running 60,000 SKU in stock and the item is the last pc, "lost" happens from time to time. By default, we have notified the usual supplier that the item is temp. out of production. Therefore, the default action to turn it back to 2-3 months possible restock (we never know when the maker reproduce the item except kinetic and other brand under our distribution). We have tried to re-acquire the item from other retail outlet for you. And it would have it arrive within a week from China. Please understand we don't sell your item to other orders. Please understand sometimes error or mistake happens. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raymond Chung Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Going to be ordering an F-15 kit from Lucky Model that is listed as Backordered.. will let you guys know how it goes *fingers crossed* If this is a limited edition from Hasegawa, then it has only 10% chance the factory still have the kit. Therefore, we don't recommend you put up the order or if you really want to see if we can provide, you can send a ticket to our CS to trace through other supply network. In basis, we don't want to backorder the customer order except for pre-order. However, we still need to provide the services to see if we can re-acquire the item by chance. These days, unless those brand are carried by us, most of our supplier would be advise if they have the item restocked. That is the reason why we change our system to real-time inventory while still accepting backorder. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raymond Chung Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 I have been waiting over a month for lucky models to get the 1/35 MH-60S photoetch detail sets back in stock! The site says 2-3 weeks, but it's been at least a month and still not back in stock. I'm losing my loyalty to buy from them a little more everyday! Tim Tim, Our supplier (I assume you talk about Eduard) make restock order every 2-3 weeks. But now maybe summer holiday for Europe, it may a little or 2 weeks more. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 We have tried to re-acquire the item from other retail outlet for you. And it would have it arrive within a week from China. Please understand we don't sell your item to other orders. Please understand sometimes error or mistake happens. Thank you Raymond, I hope we can work something out. I think there were two issues there: An item got lost after being stocked for a month, which seen from the outside seems quite surprising There was no reply whatsoever from customer service once the problem was identified so I had no idea what was done to solve the issue Again, I have always been very happy with Lucky Model so I am sure we will find a good solution :) Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantomdriver Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Tim, Our supplier (I assume you talk about Eduard) make restock order every 2-3 weeks. But now maybe summer holiday for Europe, it may a little or 2 weeks more. In all honesty, Eduard have been getting slack in processing/ despatching to retailers. My retailer didn't get a processing notice until 6 weeks after placing/ paying for his LARGE order.. This is something they are beginning to make the norm. It eventually took 10 weeks before they despatched , despite numerous emails... So in truth, Raymond's words are pretty much a valid statement. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
sharkmouth Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 In all honesty, Eduard have been getting slack in processing/ despatching to retailers. It is something Eduard recognized as they put a job posting up . Regards, Quote Link to post Share on other sites
glorystomper Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 If this is a limited edition from Hasegawa, then it has only 10% chance the factory still have the kit. Therefore, we don't recommend you put up the order or if you really want to see if we can provide, you can send a ticket to our CS to trace through other supply network. In basis, we don't want to backorder the customer order except for pre-order. However, we still need to provide the services to see if we can re-acquire the item by chance. These days, unless those brand are carried by us, most of our supplier would be advise if they have the item restocked. That is the reason why we change our system to real-time inventory while still accepting backorder. Thanks Raymond! No, it's not the Hasegawa kit.. those limited edition kits are hard to get if you don't buy them right when they are released! I ordered one of the Great Wall Hobby ones. They were available (>6+ in stock last week) but dropped to Backordered over the weekend just before I got around to ordering... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Raymond Chung Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Thanks Raymond! No, it's not the Hasegawa kit.. those limited edition kits are hard to get if you don't buy them right when they are released! I ordered one of the Great Wall Hobby ones. They were available (>6+ in stock last week) but dropped to Backordered over the weekend just before I got around to ordering... We are the distributor of Great Wall, most of the F-15 we have. PM me if you want to confirm. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Yeppee, order got finally shipped today. Thanks to the LM team to source the kit and correct the issue. I hope the problem in your packing center operations gets permanently fixed though. I'll let you guys know when it arrives ;) Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
scapilot Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Lucky has always been good to me. As a rule of thumb, if it's something I need now, I make it point to put an ocean between me and the distributor. However, if its something I have some time on, then I'll get it from lm. May as well save a few bucks. Plus, they seem to have a lock on skunkworks products, of which I've been using a lot this past year. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Kit arrived just one week later than expected, perfectly packed as usual. Many thanks to the Lucky Model team for solving the issue so fast Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
glorystomper Posted August 8, 2015 Share Posted August 8, 2015 the GWH kit i ordered from LM arrived.. it was a very reasonable amount of time (since the item was on backorder). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Hum, trouble again... I placed a reasonably big order in early August, with a couple of kits on "backorder". Not an issue, I was not in a hurry and I really wanted to build a Dragon Kingtiger. Except LM is now telling me they cannot get it at all. I told LM a couple of weeks ago that Sealmodel, which is also in Hong Kong, has it in stock so that they could source it from there, to no avail. They instead ask that I change for something else :(/> Please note that the kit is still for sale on the LM site: beware! I told them about that too a week ago, but it's still there (Backorder of course)... Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
glorystomper Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 i've been having a bit of an issue with LM (they were helping me with parts replacement, but they sent the wrong thing). they were quick to offer the correct part though, so i'm waiting on that. sealmodel is probably their competition.. i've ordered from them once before and the transaction was good, but then i had a bad experience with them and now i refuse to deal with them. if i were LM, i wouldn't buy from sealmodel either. i usually don't depend on the "backorder" message on LM.. i always email raymond/elsie and inquire about the item.. usually the kit is on "backorder" because they don't want to stock a bunch of kits that won't get sold, so they order it in when someone is interested enough to pay for it.. but sometimes, those kits aren't available anymore so they can't get them (like most Hasegawa limited editions). did you pay for the backordered item from LM? if not, then just order from sealmodel.. if you did send money to LM, i'm sure they will refund you since they are unable to source it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arnobiz Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Thanks for the input mate, appreciate it. I agree that Sealmodel is their competition, I'm just saying it would have been a good commercial move to go the extra mile and deliver what they promised instead of leaving me no alternative than actually go to the competition. I have never tried Sealmodel but this could be just the occasion to give it a go. Arnaud Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeus60 Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 FYI, sealmodel used to be ericyy. If you search for that, you will find lots of buying experiences. Mine have always been good. Stacey Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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